Consuelo Alba | WFF Executive Director & Co Founder

Consuelo is a cultural leader currently serving as the Board Chair of Arts Council Santa Cruz County. She is an award-winning bilingual documentary filmmaker, film producer, journalist and inaugural member of Rise Together, a coalition of BIPOC leaders working for racial equity.  Under her leadership, WFF developed from a grassroots collective into a non-profit arts organization offering year-round multimedia programming. For 11 years, Consuelo has led an amazing team presenting hundreds of programs, leveraging the power of film, and redefining what a film festival is and the transformative impact it can have in a community. Her work has been featured in festivals around the world and broadcast on Mexican public television.



Joanne Sanchez

Former Watsonville Community reporter at the Santa Cruz Sentinel before moving on to focus her energy in the non-profit sector. She was the Public Relations manager at CASA of Santa Cruz County, Board of the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History, and is a founding member of the Watsonville Campesino Appreciation Caravan. Joanne was instrumental in the development of the Digital NEST. She has volunteered with WFF from its inception.



Hector Aguila  | Program Manager and Educational Outreach 

Hector holds a bachelor’s degree in education and film from UCSC.  With his background in curriculum development, instruction, and youth engagement, he helps coordinate Festival events and opportunities to bring the festival into educational spaces. Hector also works as mentor at the Youth Cinema Project teaching film in local schools and fostering a community of students to appreciate the process of filmmaking. In 2023 Hector was recognized as a WFF Cine Se Puede Fellow and is currently producing his film series “916". 


Marisa Marquez | Admin and Operations 

Marisa was born and raised in Watsonville. She has an Arts and Cultural Management degree and loves to use her skills and passion for the arts to make a lasting impact in her community. Marisa also works with Arte del Corazón and is a grant equity ambassador for the Arts Council Santa Cruz County. In her own words: "Working towards a more equitable arts sector that is accessible for people who have been historically marginalized is the heart of my pursuits.” 



Edwardo Rojas | Live event production coordinator for WFF.

Owner of XXIII HRS music promotion company, co-owner of Watsonville Music, and founding member & bassist of the Watsonville-based band Pop Bottle Bombers. As a local promotor, Buffalo has presented dozens of live acts & DJ’s in Watsonville, including Celso Piña, Sonora Dinamita, Adán Jodorowsky, La Plebe, Gabriela Penka, Buyepongo, and others.


John Speyer John is a Watsonville Film Festival Co-Founder, and has been leading the production team since year one. A former bilingual high school history teacher and small­-business owner, John was also an award-winning documentary film producer at Veremos Productions, a film production company based in Watsonville, which focused on sharing the stories of the Latinx community.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS


Yazmin Herrera | Board President

Problem solver and project management extraordinaire. Yazmin is the creative force behind the People Projects and Leadership Program at Digital NEST. She has been involved with the Watsonville Film Festival since it began in 2012.






Ron Sandidge | Board Vice President

A retired educator and committed community volunteer, Ron served in the Peace Corps in Venezuela and worked for PVUSD from 1979 to 2010. He is past-president of the Rotary Club of Freedom, Coordinator for the Watsonville Ivy League Project, and board member of MAIA Foundation (Migration and Adaptation In the Americas) in the Pájaro Valley. Ron helps run Snazzy Productions music promotion with his brother John.






Christina Cuevas | Board Member

Longtime Latinx media advocate and community activist. Current Board Trustee at Cabrillo College. Retired Program Director at the Community Foundation Santa Cruz County. Formerly served as Executive Director of Latino USA and as a Program Officer at Ford Foundation's Rightsand Social Justice Program, 1989-95. Former Board Member of National Latino Communications Center (Producer of Chicano! TV series), and Women Make Movies.





Joann Godoy | Board Member

A dedicated community volunteer, Joann is the WFF Treasurer/Bookkeeper. She served as Fox Theater Project Manager for the WFF in 2016, and is the Board President of Pájaro Valley Loaves & Fishes Kitchen & Pantry. She retired after a 32-year career in Public Health & Community Nutrition program administration and grants management. She lives in Aptos with her husband Marc.





Huve Rivas | Board Member

Photography and Video Production instructor for 35 years, and former director of the Watsonville High School Video Academy. Huve is currently a realtor at Monterey Bay Properties.





Dr. Pedro Castillo | Board Member

Retired university professor specializing in Chicano and Mexican-American history. Pedro has served the community in multiple capacities for nearly 50 years. He has published several books, including The American Nation and Las Nuevas Fronteras del Siglo XXI/New Frontiers of the 21st Century. He has been a member of the California Council for the Humanities, the California Historical Society, the National Council of the Humanities (appointed by President Bill Clinton), City of Watsonville Parks and Recreation Commission, Board Member of the Public Library, Board Member of Planning Commission of Santa Cruz County and Board Member of Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History.




Paula Smith Arrigoni | Board Member

BAVC Media’s Executive Director. BAVC Media is an accessible hub for media makers in the Bay Area and nationally. Paula and BAVC are co-founders of the Bay Area Media Maker Summit, an initiative to build a healthy and connected film and media ecosystem in the Bay Area. Paula also co-founded a grantmaking and mentorship program for emerging, diverse narrative filmmakers in the Bay Area, and served as executive producer on a slate of narrative films, including two premiering at Sundance in 2019. Previously, she was COO at Youth Speaks, a national leader in arts education and youth development.



Jacob Martinez | Co-Founder & Past Board President

Community leader, and co-founder of the Watsonville Film Festival. Jacob is the founder and Executive Director of the Digital NEST, a 21st Century workforce development center for youth ages 15­-24 located in Watsonville.





Brenda Avila-Hanna

Mexican, award-winning filmmaker and educator. Her films mostly focus on transnational stories, spaces and identities. Brenda's work also involves initiatives that promote sustainability and support for diverse filmmakers and audiences. Her work has been showcased at HotDocs, Lakino Berlin, Frameline, HBO and Fusion Network among others. She is also in the Steering Committee of the film distribution cooperative New Day Films as the team lead for Equity & Representation. Brenda is on the inaugural cohort of DOC NYC’s “Documentary Industry New Leaders”, and a current Rockwood/Just Films Fellow.

Dr. Rebecca Hernandez 

Rebecca, Mescalero/Warm Springs Apache and Mexican American, believes that when we commit to truth-telling, we are all liberated. She earned her PhD in American studies, specializing in the scholarship of the convoluted and biased practices of collecting, archiving, and exhibiting American Indian history and art in museums and archives. For seven years, Rebecca served as director of the American Indian Resource Center at UC-Santa Cruz. Under her leadership, the center thrived and, together with the student interns, hosted over 100 events that centered American Indian voices. Rebecca is now the community archivist at the UC-Santa Cruz University Library, where she partners with local stakeholders to promote the acquisition, preservation, and use of archival materials that document the diverse communities of Santa Cruz County.


PROGRAMMING

Consuelo Alba, Brenda Avila-Hanna, Huve Rivas, Alex Santana, Jr., John Speyer, Christina Cuevas, Dr. Pedro Castillo and Diego Lopez.

FESTIVAL ADVISORS
George Ow Jr. and Alan Hicks
Nina Simon is the Spacemaker/CEO of the OF/BY/FOR ALL movement, a global initiative to make civic and cultural organizations of, by, and for all people. OF/BY/FOR ALL provides tools, coaching, and community to help organizations become more relevant, inclusive, and resilient. Prior to founding OF/BY/FOR ALL, Nina was the executive director of the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History, where she led a dramatic turnaround and growth rooted in community involvement. Nina is the best-selling author of The Participatory Museum (2010), The Art of Relevance (2016) and the popular Museum 2.0 blog. She has been called a “museum visionary” by Smithsonian Magazine, a Silicon Valley Business Journal “40 under 40,” and Santa Cruz County Woman of the Year for her innovative community leadership. 

Community leader, and co-founder of the Watsonville Film Festival. Jacob is the founder and Executive Director of the Digital NEST, a 21st Century workforce development center for youth ages 15­-24 located in Watsonville.