Check Out #HighlandPark Season 2

Gabriela López de Dennis

Gabriela López de Dennis is an award-winning storyteller—writer, producer, director, video editor, actor, content creator—and as visual artist has specialized in the arts, entertainment and music industry for 20 years. As co-founder and C.E.O. of Lone Stars Entertainment, she co-wrote the screenplay and was producer on the short film version of B.O.O.S.T., an Official Selection of the 2016 Official Latino Short Film Festival (New York), 2016 Los Angeles CineFest, 2016 CineFestival (San Antonio) and 2015 Big Latino Cinema Festival (Los Angeles); and a producer on the award-winning #HighlandPark which is now a part of the LatinHeatCinema.com roster of content producers, and took home the Best Webisode and Best Actress in a Web Series awards at the 2017 Official Latino Short Film Festival (New York). 

In September of 2015, PBS/WORLD Channel began airing Episode One: Jasmine of her award-winning documentary short Overcomers, and Episode Two: Myles has also been released. Overcomers is a docu-series for the American Graduate initiative that she co-created and produced, made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and NALIP. Gabriela was included in Remezcla’s 2015 list of “10 Latino Filmmakers You Should Know.” 

Jeremiah Ocañas

Jeremiah Ocañas is an award-winning multi-talented performer and entrepreneur.He has played the lead role in the award-winning films Drive By Chronicles: Ghostown, Choosing Signs shot in Cork, Ireland, and Homebound, which he produced in El Campo. Most recently, as co-founder and C.O.O. of Lone Stars Entertainment, he wrote, directed, and acted in B.O.O.S.T., a film which he invested his time and money into for over a year to see the production through. He writes and shoots music videos for the hip-hop group The Lone Stars with the most recent being Algodón y V.I.N.O. Jeremiah was included in Remezcla’s 2015 list of “10 Latino Filmmakers You Should Know.” Season 1 of his award-winning digital comedy series #HighlandPark was released in December of 2016 and is now a part of the LatinHeatCinema.com roster of content producers, and took home the Best Webisode and Best Actress in a Web Series awards at the 2017 Official Latino Short Film Festival (New York).

Evette Vargas Immersiveplay for Final Draft PodCast Interview

NALIP is honored to share Evette Vargas's interview with Final Draft for their Write On: A Screenwriting Podcast about the new Immersiveplay scriptwriting format she has created for Immersive Storytelling—VR, AR, MR! 

http://podcasts.finaldraft.com 

Evette Vargas is an award-winning writer, director, producer and immersive storyteller. Named by the New York Times as an “Artist to Watch,” Vargas’ work includes series for Amazon, MTV, Bravo, DirectTV; and interactive content for Fast And Furious, Lord Of The Rings trilogy and Madonna. Vargas exec produced, wrote and directed her digital series Dark Prophet, starring Henry Rollins, which was in contention for two Emmys and premiered at Sundance. Vargas is currently penning the Mix Master Mike feature biopic and the drama series Tinacious, with Marc Guggenheim and Rosario Dawson serving as EPs. Vargas wrote and is set to direct The Current War VR Experience, as a companion piece for the film, starring Benedict Cumberbatch. Vargas created the Immersiveplay, the industry standard for immersive scriptwriting for Final Draft and spoke at the Cannes Film Festival on VR Storytelling. A member of the Writers Guild of America, Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and Producers Guild of America, Vargas was born in the Bronx and learned to tell stories at the dinner table where the imagination ruled. Vargas kick boxes; collects action figures, typewriters and shoes; has past lives as a DJ, a fashion designer, and is a recovering New York City advertising Art Director.

Follow Evette @ insta vargasgirl23 | @VargasGirl | fb evette.vargas.5

Elda Bravo and Kristina Kite Gallery presented the LA premiere of Gray House

A film by Austin Lynch and Matthew Booth

Monday, July 23, 8:00pm

Vista Theater, 4473 Sunset Dr, Los Angeles

Free admission, first come first serve basis

Starring Denis Lavant, Dianna Molzan, and Aurore Clement, Gray House looks at places and ways of life across the United States, considering the spatial and metaphysical relationships between individuals and their environments.

Constructed sequences filmed at a fisherman's bait camp on the Gulf Coast of Texas, an international  community in rural Virginia, and a modern house in Los Angeles are intercut with documentary passages from an Oregon women's prison and a North Dakota oil field. Through sustained images of these politically and socially charged locations, observations of actors inhabiting their roles and their environments, and direct address interviews with oil field works pursuing opportunity and inmates serving long-term sentences, Gray House advances a conversation about nature, identity and the American landscape.

Boise brothers keep their filmmaking all in the family

Photo Courtesy of Ice Cream Entertainment

The brothers are a lot more experienced in the art of filmmaking now and are, in fact, fresh off winning a number of prizes at this year's i48 short film competition. It was their third time competing and their third time taking home the first-place trophy (this year, they also scored a special Boise Weekly trophy for best in show, presented by BW film critic George Prentice). The brothers said they viewed the i48 competition, where amateur filmmakers have 48 hours to write, shoot and edit a film, as a "return home" to their Treasure Valley roots.

In June, the Garcia brothers traveled to Los Angeles to attend the National Association of Latino Independent Producers Media Summit, where they were invited to join the association and screen one of their films. They chose Hero, a short film based on their very first i48 submission, expanded from its initial three minutes to a total of 15.

The screening brought the brothers to the attention of NALIP Executive Director Ben Lopez who, according to the brothers, has taken them under his professional wing. That includes helping them get into all-important pitch meetings in and around Hollywood, as well as facilitating their search for funding and distribution for what they hope will be their feature film debut.

Read more at BoiseWeekly.com