Kristal Sotomayor

Kristal Sotomayor is an acclaimed director, producer, journalist and curator based in Philadelphia. They have been distinguished as a 2023 DOC NYC Documentary New Leader Honoree and received the prestigious Rockwood Documentary Leadership Fellowship. Kristal’s short documentary “Expanding Sanctuary” premiered at the 2023 St. Louis International Film Festival. Their upcoming short documentary “Don’t Cry For Me All You Drag Queens” is supported by Outfest and TRAVERSE32. They are in-development on a number of directorial projects through their production company Sotomayor Productions: the animated short film “Labyrinth of Flowers,” short music documentary the “Untitled Las Cafeteras Documentary,” and the feature documentaries "Untitled PARS Documentary" and "Untitled Rural High School." They are producing the feature documentaries “Untitled Celina Project” directed by Ruolin Luyo and “Immigrant Mothers Documentary” directed by Gabriela Watson-Burket. Kristal’s work has been supported by the If/Then North Shorts Residency, MDOCS Storytellers’ Institute Visiting Fellowship, DCTV Docu Work-In-Progress Lab, and NeXtDoc Fellowship. They have curated acclaimed programming across the country at True/False Film Fest, SFFILM, Frameline, Philadelphia Latino Film Festival and the PBS documentary film series POV|American Documentary. They are the Editor-in-Chief of the cinéSPEAK Journal and serve as Treasurer on the Board of Directors for GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics.

Kristal Sotomayor (MAR ’21, ACG ’19) has served as a Festival Programmer for the San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFILM) throughout 2021-2022. SFFILM is an extraordinary showcase of cinematic discovery and a major cultural event in the Bay Area. Kristal’s role, focused on curating feature films as well as the Cine Latino program, aligns with their continued work in filmmaking and festival programming for social change and the centering of Latindad films, creators, and the promotion of more accurate representations of Latinx communities.

This grant will support Kristal’s travel and housing to attend the SFFILM Festival in person, April 21st through May 1st 2022.

Kristal Sotomayor, Daniel DeJesus, and Gabe Loredo will be working in collaboration with Juntos to document and develop an online community oral history archive of video interviews of intergenerational Latinx COVID-19 stories. The interviews and collaboration with Juntos community members and youth will shape the storytelling and impact of the docu-animation film Alx Through The Labyrinth about the effects of COVID-19 on Latinx in Philadelphia. In addition, Kristal, Daniel, and Gabe will engage students in the Juntos Youth Program with hands-on film production experience as they aim to archive untold pandemic stories from Latinx neighborhoods, amplify the need for increased COVID resources in communities of color, and disrupt the monolithic portrayals of Latinidad by popular media.

Juntos is a community-led, Latinx immigrant organization in South Philadelphia fighting for our human rights as workers, parents, youth, and immigrants. We believe that every human being has the right to a quality education and the freedom to live with dignity regardless of immigration status. Juntos combines leadership development, community organizing, and focused collaborations with other community-based and advocacy organizations to build the power of our community members so they may be active agents of change and work against oppressive systems.vamosjuntos.org

Kristal’s short bilingual documentary film aims to tell the story of the historic campaign, led by the Latinx immigrant community in South Philadelphia and Juntos, an immigrant rights organization, to disrupt police database sharing. The film outlines the entire span of the movement including the community meetings, social media archives, protests, and the press conference at City Hall where Mayor Jim Kenney ended the Preliminary Arraignment Reporting System (PARS) contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).