Lázaro J. González
Lázaro J. González is a Cuban award winning filmmaker and PhD Student of Film & Media at UC Berkeley. Independent director, audiovisual producer, and writer. He also holds a M.A in Literatures, Cultures, and Languages by the University of Connecticut and B. A in Journalism from the School of Communications at the University of Havana, and graduated from International Workshops in the International School of Cinema, in San Antonio de los Baños, and the Sundance Documentary Lab. His full-length documentary film Villa Rosa (2016) was distinguished recently by a grant from the Sparring Partners Fund, based in Italy, for the development of audiovisual projects in the Caribbean, the Norwegian Fund for Cuban Cinema, and AMI’s Closing Distances Award. Villa Rosa also won the Best Documentary Award in Latino and Iberian Film Festival at Yale, and Audience Award in Barcelona International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. He also directed the short film Padre nuestro (Our Father), 2011; Margot (2013); Del fango a la fe (From Filth to Faith) (2013); Tatá (2014). His documentary Máscaras (Masks) was distributed by Icarus Films and Americas Media Initiative in several universities and film festivals in the United States. Together with the audiovisual production, Lázaro J. González has been working as a freelance film critic for publications such as Enfoco, Bisiesto, and Cine Cubano. He was also the co-founder of Encuadre, the Cuban Audiovisual Production Network, and Confluencias del lente, initiatives created to promote the independent Cuban cinema.