Latino Film Festival of the San Francisco Bay Area
Sylvia Perel is the founder and executive director of the Latino Film Festival of the San Francisco Bay Area. Originally from Argentina, Sylvia has worked to provide an opportunity for all Latinos in the Bay Areas to share their stories. In 1997, Sylvia established the Latino Film Festival to provide a venue for Latino cultural expression using the powerful medium of film. Created to honor the contributions of Latinos, the festival celebrates the beauty and diversity of Latino culture. Since its creation, the Latino Film Festival has quickly grown in scale due to Sylvia's tireless perseverance and dedication. Now entering its sixth season, the festival now runs in Marin, San Francisco, Sonoma, San Jose, and Berkeley. Over the years thousands of festival-goers have enjoyed feature length films from the United States, Latin America and Spain.
Due to its incredible growth, the festival office came to reside at Dominican University in 2001. As a result, the festival's collection of 400 Latino videos is now an invaluable resource for both Bay Area communities and the university. As a former professor of art history in Buenos Aires, Sylvia remains committed to education. The festival also establishes ties with many other Bay Area colleges and universities, bringing in Latino directors and showing their films to students of the College of Marin, Sonoma State University, San Jose State University, San Francisco State University and the University of San Francisco.
With her firm belief in the inspirational power of film, Sylvia has worked to create crucial outreach programs as part of the festival. With the Youth in Video project, disadvantaged Latino youth in San Rafael and San Francisco learn about the art of filmmaking from respected Latino directors. Other projects include high school-to-college advocacy programs with the College of Marin and Dominican University. Sylvia has been a champion of women's voices, programming the Women in Film Conference. A video program at the Mission Cultural Center and a yearlong program for the festival at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts have also been established.
With passionate dedication to the advancement of the Latino presence in the art of filmmaking, Sylvia has transformed the lives of many in the Bay Area with her extraordinary work and vision.
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