Biography

Award-winning director raised among generals and storytellers, I craft films like campaigns - precise, emotional, and unforgettable. Rooted in the rhythms of the Dominican Republic and shaped by global perspectives, my work blends poetic realism with strategic execution.

In 2006, my debut feature Ruido (Noise) broke new ground, becoming the first Puerto Rican film to win at a Class "A" festival, receiving the Innovation Award at the 30th Montreal Film Festival. It continued to echo across borders, earning the Ciguapa de Oro at the Muestra Internacional de Cine de Santo Domingo, the CyberVote Award at the Havana Film Festival, and garnering multiple nominations across Europe and Latin America.

My 2015 feature La Extraña (She, the Strange) was selected by the Canadian Film Institute to represent the Dominican Republic - a work that drifts between mystery and memory, and was officially selected at Chicago Latino Film Festival and nominated in the New Vision category at Bahamas International Film Festival.

My provocative El Fondillo Maravilloso (Marvelous Buns) embraced satire with poetic absurdity, garnering the Award of Distinction at the Canada Short Film Festival and earning over 20 nominations internationally, including at NewFilmmakers LA, Film Miami Fest, and Rome CinemaDoc.

With my documentary series pilot Ingredientes Nuestros (Our Ingredients), a Wheelhouse Media original, I turned my lens toward the overlooked rituals of USA Latino life - its food, its people, its pulse - earning selections from the Chicago Latino Film Festival, Charlotte Film Festival, and NC Latin American Film Festival.

In 2023, during the silence of a global pandemic, I completed Chief Tendoy a historical pilot for a series produced by Washington State University. Shot under full union biosafety protocols, it became a quiet triumph of coordination and care-a film where not a single person among cast, crew, or 90 gathered extras fell ill, and which was later selected by BogoCine, and nominated at the Austin Lift-Off Film Festival.

Currently, I'm immersed in the post-production of my most experimental, intimate, and poignant work to date - the Dominican feature film A Veces Grito (Sometimes I Scream), a confessional carved from the marrow of existence- based on the acclaimed Dominican writer Freddy Ginebra's namesake play.

I do not merely direct scenes. I orchestrate attention, emotion, and momentum - both within the frame and beyond its borders. My work seeks the elusive flicker - that rare, radiant moment - when the human condition becomes cinematic truth.

- IMDb mini biography by: César Rodríguez