Clio and Telly Award Wins : Celebrating Culture with Stories that Challenge the Status Quo

Today we raise our glass to our talented partners - Third Bridge Creative, Hammer and Nail Productions and Pinatubo Films. Together we created solid work in 2020.

Being part of these three wins and one nomination acknowledges the combined efforts of our talented friends and their trust in our time in the field.

The best feeling is knowing the importance each of the main characters played in challenging the status quo, celebrating diversity and capturing a moment of time in the cultural tapestry of our community.

CLIO Music Award II Bronze II Amazon Music: Sylvester, Love Me Like You Should

TELLY Award II Silver II ESPN Films : The All-American Cuban Comet

Television General Documentary

Television General Sports

EMMY Nomination for Lifestyle Programs II PBS : LUCKY CHOW Season IV

Outstanding Culinary Series

CLIO Bronze : Amazon Music: Sylvester, Love Me Like You Should

This is our first CLIO win at Four Bent Corners. Shoutout to our killer team;

Creative Director, Sarina Di Mento

Colorist, Richard Patterson

Animator, Jeff Goodett

We are proud to be part of meaningful project like Sylvester, a legendary LGBTQ icon. Love Me Like You Should was released in June 2019 to celebrate Pride and recaps the life and career of a very influential person in music and culture. This project was lead by Director, Lauren Tabak and Producer, Garrett Kamps of Third Bridge Creative.

A global pandemic could not stop sway our team of filmmakers from getting a project completed.

Our documentary was a mix of archival footage, modern cinema cameras and cell phones. As the colorist and editor for the documentary cutdowns I learned the dynamic range and color limitations of the iPhone and Android. The project finishing was determined by finding a balance with the contrast, exposure, and saturation among the various formats.

TELLY AWARD : ESPN Films, The All-American Cuban Comet

Meeting up with old friends and creating good work is really one of the best parts of this job. This marks the 7th documentary project I have been on as the Director of Photography for Gaspar Gonzalez. My other friends Castor Fernandez, Jorge Rubiera and Joel Hernandez are some of my oldest colleagues as well. On this adventure we entered the Florida Gator stadium located in Gainsville, Florida, USA, to tell the story of Carlos Alvarez, historically known the Cuban Comet.

The story was straightforward and inspiring just like Carlos’s personalty. We shot most of the documentary over 10 days which included a three day weekend at the Florida Gators' homecoming game of 2019. Gaspar and Castor carefully planned our schedules to accommodate the various interviews and college weekend football highlights we need to capture.

Our AirBnb served as the interview backdrop for five of the 10 interviews we shot. I’m proud of our crew for our creative approach and squeezing 10 unique angles (A+B Camera) out of one modest living room. When I step off documentary projects like this I feel my commercial approach is sharp and less cluttered. We move fast and make decisions on the fly in documentary filmmaking and the trust in your crew is vital.

Moments I will never forget from this project: The roaring sound of 90,000 Gainsville college football fans, the cold Mexican beer after the game at a family restaurant located on the edge of a swamp, and the laughs that didn’t stop.

EMMY Nomination PBS (fingers crossed - Judging - July 17 2021) :

Outstanding Culinary Series

We traveled across the east and west coasts of the U.S. to tell the modern story of Chinese cuisine with the tastemakers and innovators working today for LUCKY CHOW : SEASON IV. Our hosts Danielle Chang and William Lee guided us through each experience with laughter and cultural insights. We discussed what are the perspectives of the Asian American story of tomorrow. Director Francisco Aliwalis and Producer Kathryn Sheldon curated a 23 day shoot that will be hard to forget.

Each of these projects represents relationships built on trust and respect. It was a honour for me and the FBC team to be involved with each of them.