NYU Production Lab – Producing the Next Generation of Creatives

In Development.

Winner, NYU Purple List 2021

SYNOPSIS: After Chucho, a down-on-his-luck fisherman, nets a humpback whale, he works to cement his newfound popularity by storing the enormous skeleton inside his remote town’s tiny museum, but a fast-approaching hurricane threatens the preservation of this rare event and challenges his place within his community.

DIRECTED by Adrian Cardenas (Tisch Grad Film ’19)

Adrian Cardenas is a Cuban-American writer and director, and former Major League Baseball player for the Chicago Cubs who was born and raised in Miami, Florida. In 2015, he graduated Summa Cum Laude from New York University with degrees in creative writing and philosophy. He has written articles for the New Yorker and CNN and received his M.F.A. in film at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. He has written, directed, edited, and shot films that have screened in top festivals and online platforms, such as SXSW, Miami, Palm Springs, HollyShorts, and Vimeo Staff Pick. Adrian’s thesis short, The Artisan, was the first Cuban film featured on the Short of The Week platform. Most recently, he was selected as a Marcie Bloom Fellow—a Sony Pictures Classics mentoring program designed to introduce up-and-coming filmmakers to the film industry.

PRODUCED by Maria Altamirano (Tisch Grad Film ’18)

Maria Altamirano is a Peruvian-American producer with a passion for films that explore the complexity of the human experience while bringing underrepresented voices to the forefront. Her work has been featured at festivals worldwide, including Cannes, SXSW, and San Sebastián. A Film Independent Producing Lab Fellow and Rotterdam Lab Fellow, her credits include Alexis Gambis’ feature Son of Monarchs (Sundance 2021), and Raven Jackson’s award-winning short Nettles (Criterion Channel). She is in development for Jackson’s debut feature, all dirt roads taste of salt, in partnership with A24 and Barry Jenkins’ PASTEL, as well as Adrian Cardenas’ debut, The Story of the Whale, to be set in Cuba. Prior to filmmaking, Maria was Market Research Manager at Paramount Pictures. She holds an M.B.A. and M.F.A from New York University.

PRODUCED by Juan Pablo Daranas Molina (Tisch Grad Film)

Juan Pablo (Juampa) Daranas Molina is a Cuban producer and the founder of FILA20, a film collective based in New York City. FILA20’s work has been screened at hundreds of festivals worldwide, including Sundance, Warsaw, New Orleans, and Rooftop Films, and are available on Amazon, Short of the Week, ShortsTV, etc. Curiosity and happenstance have led Juampa into a wide variety of experiences, like operating large artillery during his mandatory military service, being part of Cuba’s National Teams of Maths and Physics, teaching film history, composing music, emigrating, and now dog parenting. Juampa holds an MFA from New York University’s Graduate Film Program.