NYWIFT Blog

By Jade Dressler

Welcome to NYWIFT, Eli Zavala!

Eli is focused on bringing better representation, and fighting misrepresentations, of minorities on the screen. She founded La Filmadora (NY) and Numina (Mx), is part of the shorts team at Tribeca & AFI Fest, is the Festivals Commissioner & Producers Liaison of The Independent Film Industry Convergence of Mexico and Latin America, and is the Executive Programming Director at Latitudes Cinema, a NY microcinema.

NYWIFT Member Eli Zavala (image courtesy of Eli Zavala)

What came first in your awareness, desires, and dreams when you were young growing up and what comes first these days… Programming Director, Actor, Distributor, Producer in sequence or all four always?

My first storytelling love was acting. Through acting I first approached filmmaking. To this day I have so much respect for it that I only dare to be in front of the camera when the story, the character, and the team really speak to my creative soul.

Now, the way I put it is: my bread & butter is pushing films forward as a programmer/distributor, I moonlight as a producer, and  — once in a blue moon — I dare to be in front of the camera as a performer (I prefer this term).

Let’s put the programming director hat on. What are some of your latest projects and what do you love about this role, this expression?

Latitudes Cinema has me fully immersed in “programming world.” I function as its Executive Programming Director (merging the programming director and executive director roles). What I love the most, beside watching films and engaging with its collaborators, is providing a space for overlooked talent to connect and foster new audiences.

Producer hat. Your productions have been screened in Latin America, North America, Europe and Asia, that’s impressive. What is the secret behind that wide reach?

There’ no secret: just a ton of hard/smart work. No “formulas,” no doing it “right,” but doing it as honest, authentic, and creative as possible.

Eli Zavala in El Carrito (2021). The short film screened at NYWIFT’s Women Calling the Shots Short Film Showcase at the 2022 Hamptons International Film Festival. (Photo courtesy of IMDB).

How has your work as an actor influenced your programming and producer roles?

It provides me a sensibility and understanding of the story that goes beyond “the cold part” of filmmaking: numbers and getting eyes on a screen. This allows me to be more creative and effective when planning how to pitch a film or how to reach certain audiences.

Your work aims for better representation and to fight misrepresentations of minorities on the screen. Any advice for industry folks who might want to understand how they can best be a part of this cause?

I would say that the first steps could be to be sincere, open, respectful, and understanding. Sincere to acknowledge when there’s a privilege that not everyone else has. Open to learn about how a situation can be more equitable (personally, professionally and systemically). Open to be an agent of fairness. Respectful of different experiences and POV’s. And to understand that being inclusive doesn’t mean “losing space,” quite the contrary, [it] is broadening the options as the table gets bigger, and therefore, having the chance of a richer professional and personal experience.

At the end, life is just a moment in time, so we might as well try to make the best of it and enjoy the ride (and share that joy and ride). Maybe I’m getting a bit philosophical, but not really, this is also practical, since fairness and joy are as great for life as they are good for business. In any case, I’m always open to building new bridges rather than fences. So if there’s anyone that would like to connect, I’m always one email away!

Eli Zavala at the 2024 Tribeca Rising Voices event (Photo credit: eli__zavala on Instagram)

Can you share your passion for how entertainment/cultural/art industries shaped by emerging and disruptive technologies? Examples? 

I’d love to! I mean, we’re truly living revolutionary times for our industry (and life at large). Since 2015, but seriously since 2018, I’ve immersed into how AI, VR, AR, Web 3 are opening possibilities. These technologies are certainly disrupting our industry. For good but, if not used/regulated properly, they can cause irreparable damage to the most essential creatives of the industry: performers, writers, animators, designers, crews… We just witnessed how the use of some of these techs, particularly AI, were addressed at the WGA, SAG-AFTRA, IATSE, Teamsters strikes.

Right now, what I can see is that, as with any new tech tool, they are still going through a slow adoption stage, a constant optimization stage, and now is the perfect time where a code of ethics and regulations must be strengthened to ensure that they stay as a tool to support/enhance human creativity, not to replace it (we’re nowhere near that point, though)… nor replace human participation in the creative process, but to make it more efficient and prolific.

Another side that also excites me is the possibility for these techs to allow better accessibility and keep supporting matching films with their best — and more diverse — audiences.

Eli Zavala on the 2022 SxSW red carpet (Photo courtesy of IMDB)

Tell us the inspiration behind the Latitudes Cinema series; Lafilmadora, a movie/television studio platform showcasing storytellers of underrepresented or misrepresented backgrounds and Numina, a production house based in Monterrey (Mexico) dedicated to producing auteur films with bold, innovative artistic voices and authentic narratives. What is your role with each and what are the future goals for these three incubators, producers and champions for Hispanic & Latin talent?

They were born out of necessity. I live by the phrase “be the change you want to see.” That plus my entrepreneurial spirit (when I was a kid, I was called “the business girl”) is how they exist and are thriving today.

Latitudes Cinema was born when I moved to NYC and saw the need for a space where local filmmakers from the diaspora and underserved audiences could come together. La Filmadora was born as an idea when I started working in distribution in 2009, and saw the need for Spanish-speaking content. At the time I didn’t have the pockets to get it off the ground, but with the resources collected and relationships forged since then, La Filmadora opened its doors in Manhattan’s Midtown a few years ago.

On the other hand, or on the other side of the river, Numina was born in 2012 in Monterrey (México) because at the time there were only 1-2 production companies there that mainly did commercials, so I founded Numina and started producing films. One of them, Still the Earth Moves, is considered by the BFI Sight&Sound as one of the best films of the year!

My role helming them is to be a driving force behind culturally authentic films with universal values and sharing this creative path with extraordinary talent that are also extraordinary people. The goals for each of them are different: For La Filmadora [it] is to keep welcoming diverse talent. For Latitudes Cinema, [it] is to deploy its next stage and settle in Northern/Lower Manhattan (any interests, leads, tips are welcomed!). For Numina, [it] is to keep producing films, primarily from first-time female filmmakers. 

What is your NYC story?

I came to New York because it is truly the most eclectic and electric city in the world. I arrived with some suitcases filled with my stuff, a heart filled with hope, and a mind filled with visions. Little by little, step by step (and some stumbles), I’m still here. Trying every day to keep forging my own path, marching to the beat of my own drum, and building spaces that can nurture human connections through the thing that I love the most: films.

So, I’d say that my NYC story is still in the making and there’s a lot to do and to be written about it.

What connections are you looking forward to with your NYWIFT membership?

Collaborators, partnerships, alliances, but most of all: to connect with like-minded people that are as passionate as I am about films and filmmaking.

Connect with Eli Zavala via LinkedIn, on Instagram at @eli__zavala and @latitudes_cinema, and learn more about her work at e-zavala.com and www.latitudescinema.com