Rubén Abruña has extensive experience in the entertainment industry, working in film, television, and radio. He has written, produced, directed, and edited numerous documentaries, corporate videos, promos, and commercials in New York, San Juan, and Miami. His credits include work for The Discovery Channel Latin America, PBS, and ABC News, among others.
His love for documentaries began early on, when he studied under the tutelage of pioneers Jean Rouch and George Stoney. He has garnered the Wolfson Media Award for South of Brooklyn, the Aurora Film Festival Gold Award for What About Coral?, and the Blue Ribbon Award at the American Film Festival for The Battle of Vieques.
For 9 years, as an Assistant Professor at Miami Dade College, he taught film and video production and post-production. He is a Certified Professional for Avid Media Composer, an Apple Certified Trainer for FCPX, and an Adobe Certified Instructor for Premiere Pro CC.
He is currently working on a new film about how we can start treating our excreta as a resource and not as waste, titled Shit Happens.
Since 1985 Joseph Villalobos has worked as a camera operator in all television channels in Puerto Rico. His experience spans various genres such as soap operas, documentaries, baseball, interviews, boxing, commercial, educational programs, corporate videos, conventions and live remote. He currently divides his work between San Juan and Mexico City.
Roberto Perera designed, built and operated the Palocam which allowed us to shoot over the 17-feet high walls of La Casa Ausente / The Absent House.
Roberto is a world-renowned harpist. He composed and performed the theme song for the end credits, titled “A Walk of Joy”.
Roberto Perera’s romance with the Paraguayan harp began in 1964 when as a 12-year old boy he began studies at the Conservatory of Modern Music in his hometown, Montevideo.
Roberto has transformed the sound of the 36 string Paraguayan harp by incorporating the influences of Jazz, Bossa Nova, Pop, Latin and Afro-Cuban rhythms.
Perera has also pioneered the electro-acoustic harp. In 1994 he was awarded the prize for best Contemporary Latin Jazz Album of the Year by Billboard. In 2003, Perera was nominated for a Latin Grammy. Roberto Perera has shared the stage with Spyro Gyra, Yellow Jackets and Tito Puente. He has recorded with Paquito de Rivera, Raul Di Blasio and Jorge Alfano, and has performed for Presidents Clinton and Obama, and Pope John Paul II.
Steve Roitstein is a producer, songwriter, composer, arranger, musician, educator, and music industry consultant. He has a diploma from the Interlochen Arts Academy, a Bachelor’s Degree in Studio Music and Jazz and a Master’s Degree in Media Writing And Production from the University of Miami.
Steve has contributed to many Grammy-winning and chart-topping records, including work with artists including Celia Cruz and Willy Chirino. As a songwriter, he co-wrote “Castillo Azul” with singer Ricardo Montaner. The song was number one on Billboard’s Hot Latin charts for a record 10 weeks.
Steve’s music production company, Riot Music, has received numerous awards for innovative advertising music. His composing work spans many styles, including Latin, pop, jazz, and various urban and electronic music genres.
As former president and electronic media representative of the American Federation of Musicians’ Local 655, Steve represented the area’s finest professional musicians, and worked nationally with the AFM in negotiations with the film, television, advertising, and recording industries.
An Associate Professor of Music Business at College since 2003, Steve teaches all aspects of the music industry, and helps to develop curriculum to meet the needs of students in a changing marketplace.
In 2003, Steve formed PALO!, a Miami-based band that combines Afro-Cuban sounds, funk and jazz. PALO! has appeared throughout South Florida and recently released its first album “This Is Afro-Cuban Funk”.
Allan Tépper has been working with professional video since the early eighties, since he first learned to edit video using the open-reel 1/2” EIAJ-1 format with a Sony VO-3650 editing deck in his high school in Connecticut. Since 1994, Tépper has been consulting both end-users and manufacturers via his Florida company. Via TecnoTur, Tépper has been giving video technology seminars in several South Florida’s universities and training centers, and in a half dozen Latin American countries, in their native language. Tépper has been a frequent radio/TV guest on several South Florida Latino stations, and on a couple of Venezuelan stations too. As a certified ATA (American Translators Association) translator, Tépper has also translated and localized dozens of advertisements, catalogs, software, and technical manuals for the Spanish and Latin American markets.
Over the past decades, Tépper’s articles have been published in more than a dozen magazines, newspapers, and electronic media in Latin America, mainly in Producción & Distribución and TTV. More recently, his articles have appeared in English in ProVideo Coalition magazine.
