For our Inaugural Short Film Festival in August 2020 we were blown away by Gabriela Ortega’s short documentary “Papi”, based on a day out and at the beach with her father in the Dominican Republic. Through our festival Gabriela won a 6-month mentorship with filmmaker Laura Moss (“Fry Day”).
Her words about Gabriela:
“Gabriela is a passionate artist whose work is sensitive and deeply personal. Her unique vision needed no shaping from me, but I was happy to be able to reflect back to her the resonance of her material. As a mentor, it was my honor to help her with feedback, advice at times on differing projects, but more than that to begin to foster a personal connection — even through zoom — as we travel down our respective paths as artists.”
Gabriela was selected as one of the ten writer/directors of the 2021 Rising Voices fellowship created in partnership by Lena Waithe’s Hillman Grad productions and Indeed. The companies produced Gabriela’s short film HUELLA with an allocated budget of 100k. You can watch her film below.
We look forward to seeing what’s next for Gabriela, and we hope you enjoy her film. Follow Gabriela and her work here at gabrielaortega.com.
Synopsis: Following the death of her grandmother, a disenchanted flamenco dancer resigned to a desk job is forced to rekindle her passion by confronting a family curse.
