A Latina immigrant must face her abusive American boyfriend when she wakes up bound in a garage about to be sold to an underground body trafficking ring.

WATCH On HBOMAX

Filmmaker:

Born and raised in Caracas, Venezuela, Juan Avella is a screenwriter, producer and director. As a filmmaker, his work has played in film festivals from around the world, gathered millions of views online and been broadcasted in primetime television in over 25 countries in South America.
Even though Avella earned his Bachelor degree in Business Administration, storytelling was always his true passion. In 2011, Avella relocated to Los Angeles to pursue a MFA in Screenwriting from the AFI Conservatory. During the study at there, his crime-thriller feature script ALEJO was awarded the prestigious 2014 William J. Fadiman award for best screenplay and top achievement in screenwriting.

In Avella’s career, “NALIP has helped me a lot.” Initially, the main reason he joined NALIP is because he saw other friends and collaborators benefiting from the community, specifically producer Diego Najera who successfully sold his short film Spark to HBO through NALIP. Inspired by Najera’s success, he became a member of NALIP six months later and luckily sold his own film to HBO as well. In Avella’s opinion, it is very difficult to find people who share similar ideas and beliefs, but NALIP has been that place for him to look for them.

Juan was a Finalist and directed Her Body under NALIP’s Latino Lens: Shorts Narrative Incubator in 2018.The project was licensed to HBO and Avella was signed to Gersh.

Connect with Juan

Instagram:@jiavella

Twitter:@jiavella

Vimeo:https://vimeo.com/juanavella

Website: http://www.juanavella.com/