Posted by Elena del Valle on November 18, 2024
This article and interview were created without AI-assisted technologies.
Sarah Schoellkopf, producer, Norita
Melissa Daniels, producer, Norita
Photos: Sarah Schoellkopf, Melissa Daniels, Norita Film
A podcast interview with Sarah Schoellkopf and Melissa Daniels, producers, Norita is available in the Podcast Section of Hispanic Marketing and Public Relations, HispanicMPR.com. During the podcast, they discuss Norita with Elena del Valle, host of the HispanicMPR.com podcast.
In addition to her work as a producer Sarah is an academic whose research focuses on human rights and gender. Her doctorate investigated the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo and included field research with the group in the 1990s and 2000s. Sarah co-produced the 2021 documentary Ferguson Rising, which premiered at Tribeca. She founded DoctoraStories in 2022 to connect with creative voices and give voice to marginalized stories. She is a champion of Spanish language education in California and president of the Eileen & Fred Family Schoellkopf Foundation.
Melissa, with over 15 years in journalism and film production, is the founder and executive producer of Tidetivity Studios. According to her bio she is passionate about diverse narratives and creates commercial and original films merging social justice and authentic community representations. Notable projects include NatGeo’s 2023 release The Mission, Hulu’s Venus as a Boy (2021), winner of a Tribeca International Film Festival audience award, and AppleMusic’s 2018 documentary Rainbow: The Film on pop music superstar Kesha.
To listen to the interview, scroll down and click on the play button below. It is also possible to listen by looking for “Podcast” then select “HMPR Sarah Schoellkopf, Melissa Daniels” and download the MP3 file to your audio player. You can also find it on the RSS feed. To download it, click on the arrow of the recording you wish to copy and save it to disk. The podcast will remain listed in the November 2024 section of the podcast archive.
Posted by Elena del Valle on November 13, 2024
This article was created without AI-assisted technologies.
Tito, Margot and Me
Image: IndiePix Films
Tito, Margot and Me, a 92-minute 2021 documentary, in Spanish and English with English subtitles (the screener version provided was in Spanish and English without subtitles), is Panama’s official Oscar Submission for Best International Film. It attempts to paint a picture behind the romance between Margot Fonteyn, a well known ballerina, and Roberto “Tito” Arias, a Panamanian diplomat, who was married and had three children at the time he approached her to propose marriage. According to a public relations spokesperson no one was available to be interviewed. The film “will be available exclusively on IndiePix Unlimited on Amazon Channels” starting November 15, 2024.
Narrated by Mercedes Arias, the couple’s niece who only met them once, the film is made up of family album photos, archival and current videos, interviews and current day images as well as ballet segments performed for the film. While Fonteyn continued to dance until her retirement a shooter left Arias quadriplegic. The film interviews appear to have taken place in Panama, United Kingdom and United States. Two of the interviewees have passed away since they were interviewed. Tito, Margot and Me was winner of the Ibermedia Fund 2019 and the Panama Film Fund.
The documentary was co-directed by Arias and Delfina Vidal, the founder of Betesda Films who works as a director and producer of independent documentaries. She has received two grants from the Panamanian Film Authority to carry out these projects. An example is Case in point: Box 25, a documentary about the construction of the Panama Canal, told through first-person accounts from the men who excavated the Canal in the early 20th century.
Vidal is a director and screenwriter with more than 20 years of experience in film and television production specialized in documentary filmmaking. She directed and produced, with her partner Arias, the documentaries Case in point: Box 25, A Different Day, and Out, la salida está en tu mente. As a university professor, she has taught at the University of Panama, Santa Maria La Antigua University, and the University of the Isthmus.
Posted by Elena del Valle on November 4, 2024
This article and interview were created without AI-assisted technologies.
Mario D’Aquila, MBA, COO, Assisted Living Services, Inc.
Photo: Assisted Living Services, Inc.
A podcast interview with Mario D’Aquila, M.B.A., chief operating officer, Assisted Living Services, Inc., is available in the Podcast Section of Hispanic Marketing and Public Relations, HispanicMPR.com. During the podcast, he discusses navigating care options for seniors with Elena del Valle, host of the HispanicMPR.com podcast.
Mario is also co-owner of Assisted Living Services, Inc. in Connecticut, senior vice president of subsidiary Assisted Living Technologies, Inc., and managing member of My Guardian Angel PRS, LLC. He also serves as Chairman of the DSS Medicaid Committee for Home Care Association of America, Connecticut Chapter as well as serves on the Board of Directors for the Connecticut Association for Healthcare at Home.
Mario is responsible for helping Assisted Living Services, Inc. and all affiliated companies look for new ways to grow and to have a positive impact on each company’s long-term future. He has experience with business strategy, mergers and acquisitions, as well as company formation and is responsible for spearheading growth initiatives that placed ALS on the 2020 Inc. 5000 list of fastest growing companies. Mario has previous experience working in project management for mid and large construction companies in Connecticut.
To listen to the interview, scroll down and click on the play button below. It is also possible to listen by looking for “Podcast” then select “HMPR Mario DAquila, MBA” and download the MP3 file to your audio player. You can also find it on the RSS feed. To download it, click on the arrow of the recording you wish to copy and save it to disk. The podcast will remain listed in the November 2024 section of the podcast archive.
Posted by Elena del Valle on October 21, 2024
This article and interview were created without AI-assisted technologies.
Paul Hargreaves, CEO, Cotswold Fayre
Photo: Cotswold Fayre
A podcast interview with Paul Hargreaves, CEO, Cotswold Fayre, is available in the Podcast Section of Hispanic Marketing and Public Relations, HispanicMPR.com. During the podcast, he discusses beyond B Corp with Elena del Valle, host of the HispanicMPR.com podcast.
Paul is a speaker, author, and B Corp ambassador. He is one of the leading voices in the UK encouraging and inspiring businesses to make a positive impact on the world, strongly believing that businesses should be a Force for Good, which is the title of his first book.
Paul believes that to bring the radical and systemic change required to reverse climate change and the growing inequality in the world a new compassionate, loving and servant-hearted leadership is required. This is what he calls The Fourth Bottom Line, the title of his second book.
To listen to the interview, scroll down and click on the play button below. It is also possible to listen by looking for “Podcast” then selecting “HMPR Paul Hargreaves” and downloading the MP3 file to your audio player. You can also find it on the RSS feed. To download it, click on the arrow of the recording you wish to copy and save it to disk. The podcast will remain listed in the October 2024 section of the podcast archive.
Posted by Elena del Valle on October 7, 2024
This article and interview were created without AI-assisted technologies.
Maria Alejandra Requena, news anchor, Canela News
Photo: Canela Media
A podcast interview with Maria Alejandra Requena, news anchor, Canela News, is available in the Podcast Section of Hispanic Marketing and Public Relations, HispanicMPR.com. During the podcast, she discusses Canela News with Elena del Valle, host of the HispanicMPR.com podcast.
Maria Alejandra is also known as Mariale. She is a communicator with more than 25 years of experience in television, 10 of them on CNN en Español. She was a news anchor for Cafe CNN, the morning show, and Panorama Mundial in Prime Time for an estimated audience of more than 35.1 million people from Argentina to the United States. She received two National Emmy Awards.
Mariale was widowed after 26 years with her first husband. She authored I Choose to Be Happy and Learn to Live Despite Grief hoping to inspire people through her story.
To listen to the interview, scroll down and click on the play button below. It is also possible to listen by looking for “Podcast,” selecting “HMPR Mariale Requena” and downloading the MP3 file to your audio player. You can also find it on the RSS feed. To download it, click on the arrow of the recording you wish to copy and save it to disk. The podcast will remain listed in the October 2024 section of the podcast archive.
Posted by Elena del Valle on September 25, 2024
We have not used AI-assisted technologies in creating this article.
Dusty and Stones
Photo: First Run Features
Thanks to funding from HBO New True Stories Funding Initiative, the Gotham Documentary Feature Lab, Film Independent’s Fast Track, Durban FilmMart, and the XTR Film Society filmmakers followed two struggling country singers from the African Kingdom of Swaziland (now the Kingdom of Eswatini) on a journey from their home country to the United States. The result is Dusty & Stones, an 84-minute First Run Features 2023 documentary release, scheduled to open in theaters in Los Angeles October 11 and Atlanta October 18.
The film centers on cousins Gazi “Dusty” Simelane and Linda “Stones” Msibi in Swaziland and their 10-day road journey to a recording studio in Nashville and a small town in Texas for a country music event. According to the film website Dusty is a high school English teacher at Swaziland’s National High School, and Stones is a construction project manager.
Dusty and Stones was directed and produced by Jesse Rudoy, produced by Melissa Adeyemo, executive produced by Sam Bisbee and Cody Ryder of Ominira Film in association with Park Pictures.
Per his biography Rudoy is a filmmaker, musician, and born-again country fan based in New York City. He was most recently an editor on Season 2 of HBO’s The Jinx. Per her biography Adeyemo is a Nigerian-American producer and the founder of Ominira Studios, a New York-based production company. Her first feature, Eyimofe, premiered at the 2020 Berlinale and was acquired by Janus Films.
Posted by Elena del Valle on September 11, 2024
We have not used AI-assisted technologies in creating this article.
Like Happiness
Photos: Celadon Books, Levi Travieso
For readers hungering for something a bit out of the ordinary Ursula Villarreal-Moura wrote Like Happiness (Celadon Books, $28), her first novel. The book explores the complexities of gender and power by examining a young woman’s destructive relationship with a well known writer. Set in 2015 in Chile, where Tatum Vega and her partner Vera lived, the story is narrated in the present and a past 10 years earlier, which Vega would rather forget. Accusations against the author with whom she had a relationship in the past force her to examine her history with the author and its lingering impact on her life.
The author answered questions by email via her publisher Celadon Books.
HMPR: What would you say is the primary target audience for the book?
UVM: I don’t know if there is one set target audience. The people who have reacted most positively describe themselves as 1) fans of thrillers, 2) readers of sad girl books, or 3) people fascinated with intersectionality and power dynamics.
HMPR: What did you mean by the title?
UVM: The protagonist of Like Happiness is infatuated with a book titled Happiness, so it’s a riff off that as well as an ode to her involvement with the book’s author.
HMPR: What made you choose the topic?
UVM: I was absolutely obsessed with the literary world and with power dynamics. I married those themes in Like Happiness and soon got sucked into that world.
HMPR: What do you think distinguishes your book from other titles?
UVM: I’ve been told it’s the nuance that makes it a different read. The main relationship lives in morally grey territory for quite some time. It’s also a Latinx book that doesn’t deal at all with immigration, or anything stereotypically considered “Mexican” or Latino. The main characters do ordinary things and just so happen to be Chicana and Puerto Rican.
HMPR: How will you measure success?
UVM: I’ve seen the book in multiple libraries, which means it’s available to people who might not be able to afford a hardcover. Like Happiness also has served as a bridge linking me with readers and other writers all over the globe. I consider those metrics of success.
HMPR: What is your next book project?
UVM: I’m working on another novel, a memoir, and possibly an essay collection. I never know which project I’ll complete next. It’s always a surprise. If readers enjoy Like Happiness, I also have a collection out titled Math for the Self-Crippling to hold them off until the next book.
Ursula Villarreal-Moura, author, Like Happiness
Villarreal-Moura was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas. She is the author of Math for the Self-Crippling, a flash fiction collection.
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