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BITTERSWEET
AGRIDULCE
Director Frank Pavich specializes in films about the creative spirit. His last feature film, Jodorowsky’s Dune (2013), tells the story of the avant-garde filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky’s most ambitious project. It premiered at the 2013 Cannes Quinzaine Des Réalisateurs, was short-listed for the 88th Academy Awards for Best Documentary Feature, and gained worldwide acclaim.
Producer Benjamin de Menil is the founder of Academia de Bachata, a free music school that is at the heart of this tale. The Academia, the only one of its kind, champions traditional music that has long been disparaged as an expression of the backwardness of Dominican slums. Through his long-standing relationships with the students and bachata musicians, the film crew has had unique access to their stories.
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In addition to running the Academia, Benjamin has also produced recordings and tours of traditional Dominican musical artists for 25 years under the label iASO Records.
Producer Laura Amelia Guzmán produces films and documentaries by Latin American directors. She co-founded the production company Aurora Dominicana with her husband Israel Cárdenas as a platform for Dominican films that are honest and refreshing in form and content. Their film Sand Dollars (2014) was selected as the Dominican entry to the 88th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film.
Co-Producer Mónica de Moya has been working with Aurora Dominicana since 2014. She is experienced in the full life cycle of film production from development to distribution. Among her recent film credits are: Carmencita, directed by Nayibe Abel; Noeli in the Countries, a feature-length documentary directed by Laura Amelia Guzmán and Israel Cárdenas; and Mirian Miente, a film by Oriol Estrada and Natalia Cabral.
Executive Producer Donald Rosenfeld has produced award-winning, critically acclaimed motion pictures for the past three decades. He served as the President of Merchant Ivory Productions from 1987 through 1998, making Mr. & Mrs. Bridge, Howards End, The Remains of the Day, and other noteworthy projects. Recent films include Tree of Life (Winner of the Palme D’Or) and Voyage of Time, both written & directed by Terrence Malick; Effie Gray, written by Emma Thompson; and Jodorowsky’s Dune.
Fabián Caballero is a documentary film editor based in New York City. From 2013 to 2017, he worked with Capital K Pictures the feature documentaries, Gaucho del Norte and The Interpreters. Fabián was an editor on Barbara Kopple’s project, Desert One, a film about the U.S.’s failed mission to rescue the American hostages held at the U.S. Embassy in Iran. His latest film, El Equipo (2023), about the forensics of mass killings, won the Bergen International Festival Gullugan award and was nominated for an Emmy.
Director of Photography Nicolás Ordóñez Carrillo is a Colombian filmmaker who has produced, photographed and written films that have premiered at Rotterdam, Toronto and Cannes. He shot and directed the documentary feature The Woman of the 7 Names, and was DP on Time Window, filmed in Antarctica aboard a US warship and also from a NASA plane. He is a professor of Escuela Internacional de Cine, San Antonio de los Baños, Cuba, where he taught the Seminar “How to Tell a Story” with the Nobel Prize Laureate Gabriel García Márquez. His latest film, Una película sobre parejas (2021), won best picture at Biaritz Film Festival, Best Screenplay at Havana Film Festival NY, Best Film at Gijon, and was nominated for Open Doors at Locarno.
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Supervisor and Subject Mártires de León is the Academic Director of the Academia de Bachata. Mártires de León helped to design its curriculum and has been a mentor to many of its students. He advised on the film and is one of its primary subjects.
Martires’ career has taken him to the pinnacle of the world of professional music. He is the premier bachata session guitarist and as arranger for megastar Romeo Santos, the guitar maestro has toured the globe, performing on iconic stages such as Madison Square Garden. His collaborative partnership with Santos proved instrumental in crafting chart-topping hits and celebrated tracks with industry heavyweights like Bad Bunny, Prince Royce, and Julio Iglesias.