2021 SFFILM New American Fellowship Winner: Get to know Gerardo del Valle

SFFILM has announced the winner of its New American Fellowship, a program started in 2017 to support international artists who have made the United States their home and want to tell their stories through film. The first of its kind in the US film industry, the New American Fellowship is made possible thanks to SFFILM’s collaboration with the Flora Family Foundation, and provides a $25,000 cash grant and a FilmHouse artist residency in San Francisco to an independent director or producer who has recently moved to the United States. Designed to amplify the voices of international filmmakers and to champion their work in the US, the New American Fellowship seeks to support films by new American artists, ultimately providing meaningful and challenging experiences to public audiences. Previous recipients of the New American Fellowship include Kirsten Tan, Siyi Chen, and Carlo Velayo.

The 2021 New American Fellow is Gerardo del Valle, a video producer from Guatemala currently based in New York City. He is currently in the early production stages for his project The Past is Waiting Up Ahead, about a poet who revisits his past in attempt to understand how his journey across the US-Mexico border shaped his life.

“I am beyond thrilled and honored to have been chosen for the 2021 SFFILM New American Fellowship. Emigrating is a challenging experience filled with uncertainty, discovery, and growth facing the great unknown. Receiving support at this early stage of production for “The Past is Waiting Up Ahead”, my first feature film, is an invaluable opportunity that I look forward to taking full advantage, and a reminder of the importance of transnational voices and stories.”

Gerardo studied Communications and Media at Universidad Rafael Landivar in Guatemala and has a Master’s degree in Journalism from the City University of New York. He was a New Media Narrative Director Fellow at the International Center for Photography (2020) a UnionDocs’ Summer Documentary Lab Fellow (2020) and is an IDA Enterprise Development and a Sundance Institute’s Documentary Film Program grantee.

Starting his career working as a video journalist in Plaza Pública, the first online newspaper in Guatemala, he’s gone on to work on long-form documentaries and web-based projects. He has collaborated with Vice, Univision, the BBC, Agencia Efe, and NBC’s Left Field. His work has been recognized by the Inter-American Press Association (2014) the Fundación Gabo (2019) and the National Press Photographers of America (2019).

Congratulations to Gerardo!

For more information, visit sffilm.org/makers.