The CUNY Dominican Studies Institute, the Undergraduate Program in Film and Television at NYU,
and the Media & Communication Arts Department at City College present

In Celebration of Dominican Cinema!

A multi-day cultural and academic event celebrating recent achievements in contemporary Dominican arthouse and docu-fiction cinema, featuring guests Victoria Linares Villegas and Nelson Carlo de Los Santos Arias, two of the most internationally successful Dominican film directors.

Program (all events are free but registration is required)

Tuesday, April 2 – King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center at NYU, 53 Washington Square S., New York, NY

12:00 pm: Screening of Ramona (2023), by Victoria Linares Villegas
2:00 pm: Masterclass with director Victoria Linares Villegas

This event is sold out.

Thursday, April 4 – King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center at NYU, 53 Washington Square S., New York, NY

10:00 am: Screening of Cocote (2017) by Nelson Carlo de Los Santos Arias
12:00 pm: Masterclass with Nelson Carlo de Los Santos Arias

This event is sold out.

Production Lab, 16 Washington Place, New York, NY

2:00pm: Reception with Dominican food
3:00pm: Roundtable with directors Victoria Linares Villegas and Nelson Carlo de Los Santos Arias, moderated by Dominican singer-songwriter and writer Rita Indiana

Click here to register

Friday, April 5 - The City College of New York, Sheppard Hall, 259 Convent Avenue (room 292), New York, NY

3:00 pm: Screening of Ramona (2023), followed by a Q&A with director Victoria Linares Villegas

This event is sold out.

6:00 pm: Screening of Cocote (2017), followed by a Q&A with director Nelson Carlo de Los Santos Arias, moderated by Prof. Jerry Carlson

This event is sold out.

About the film directors

Victoria Linares Villegas made her feature-length film debut with the documentary Lo Que Se Hereda [It Runs in the Family], which screened at various film festivals, including the True/False Film Fest, BFI Flare and the Buenos Aires International Independent Film Festival and won her the Youth Jury AwardCenter for Media, Culture, and History for Best New Director at the Vancouver Latin American Film Festival. Her most recent films include Cállate Niña [Stay Quiet], Mi Madre Me Tiene Rabia [My Mother Resents Me], and Ramona, which premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival.

Nelson Carlo de los Santos Arias studied creative writing and media art at the Universidad Iberoamericana (UNIBE) then moved to Buenos Aires to study film in 2006. He turned to experimental cinema at the Edinburgh College of Art from 2008–9. In 2009, his first film, She Said He Walks, was awarded a BAFTA Award. He continued his art education at CalArts in Los Angeles, graduating with an MFA in Film / Video (2011–14). His film Cocote won the Special Jury prize at Locarno in 2017 and was a part of New Directors/New Films in New York. His latest film, Pepe, premiered at the 74th edition of the Berlin Film Festival, the first Dominican film ever to ever form part of the official competition at the Berlinale. The jury awarded Nelson Carlo de los Santos Arias the Silver Bear for Best Director. Blending genres and styles, Pepe was the most “unclassifiable” film in the selection, according to the Berlinale’s Artistic Director Carlo Chatrian. The film tells the story of a young hippopotamus who was killed years after being taken from his homeland in Africa to reside in the private zoo of drug lord Pablo Escobar in Colombia but returned in the form of a ghost.

Event co-sponsors

NYU Center for Latin American & Caribbean Studies (CLACS); Office of Global Inclusion (OGI); Tisch Initiative for Creative Research; Cinema Tropical.