Team

CURRENT COMMITE

Harriet Cook |
Harriet graduated from the University of Cambridge in 2013 with a degree in Modern and Medieval Languages. In the four years she was there, she specialised in medieval literature, specifically Read More
Harriet Cook |

Harriet graduated from the University of Cambridge in 2013 with a degree in Modern and Medieval Languages. In the four years she was there, she specialised in medieval literature, specifically in representations of the body in medieval French narratives of metamorphosis and the ambiguities present in Diego de San Pedro’s Cárcel de amor. In her third year she went to Galicia for the first time. As an Erasmus student at the University of Santiago de Compostela, she fell in love with Galician literature, language and culture. Thanks to the Galician language courses organised by the RAG, the ILG and the USC, she started to learn Galician and use it in her work. She did an MA in medieval studies at the USC and is now studying for a PhD at King’s College London, working on the medieval Galician-Portuguese cantigas. She is also working for a startup in Cambridge that makes online language courses.

She discovered the Galician Film Forum randomly one day reading a Galician newspaper online and she joined the committee after their first event. She loves being part of the GFF, helping to promote Galician culture in the country where she was born. But this doesn’t mean she’s any closer to curing her morriña and she still thinks about Santiago every day!

Adriana Páramo |
Born in Vigo in 1985, Adriana studied audiovisual communication at the University of Santiago de Compostela. In 2010 she graduated with an MA in cinema direction from the London Film Read More
Adriana Páramo |

Born in Vigo in 1985, Adriana studied audiovisual communication at the University of Santiago de Compostela. In 2010 she graduated with an MA in cinema direction from the London Film School with her first short film Illa Pedra which won two prizes at the International Film Festival in Ourense (2010). She then worked on film sets in Italy and Morocoo and in 2012 she worked in Poland as cultural programme manager in an artistic organisation. Back in London, she works in production at marketing agencies working on projects for HSBC and Unilever. Her most recent short film is Galicia. Portobello Road: it was filmed in London and presented at several festivals across Galicia, France, the UK and the United States.

She is one of the founding members of the GFF and believes in projects that use audiovisual creativity to foster a sense of community.

Bea Pérez |
Bea holds a degree in Organic Chemistry. She started a PhD, but dropped it, telling her supervisor ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ and dedicating herself to journalism instead. Her training Read More
Bea Pérez |

Bea holds a degree in Organic Chemistry. She started a PhD, but dropped it, telling her supervisor ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ and dedicating herself to journalism instead. Her training in both spheres means that she can work in scientific journalism and so she has been working with the Astrophysic Institute on the Canary Islands and is in charge of the scientific section on the Creativa Canaria website and the health platform PyDeSalud.

In 2012 she moved to Santiago de Compostela where she continued to work as a freelance journalist at the same time as integrating herself with Galicia. In 2015, like many Galicians, she moved to London. She will be in London for a while now and being part of the GFF gives her a way to keep her morriña for stone-walled bars and friends who drink Estrella Galicia at bay.

Laura Rodríguez Ares |
Laura, from Coruña, is a journalist who makes her life about making others happy. She started her career in finance at the Axencia EFE. Then she moved to Santiago where Read More
Laura Rodríguez Ares |

Laura, from Coruña, is a journalist who makes her life about making others happy. She started her career in finance at the Axencia EFE. Then she moved to Santiago where she worked on the radio and in a press office.

She created the fanzine Humanoide as a space for new cultural currents in the city she was born in. Although the experience didn’t last long, she is still connected to the world of culture, writing music reviews for the national music magazine Mondo Sonoro.

In 2012 she decided to move to the British capital where she reinvented herself as a Spanish teacher and teaching assistant in a primary school. Laura started to go along to events she found out about on the Galego en Londres Faceboook page and that’s when she started to think about creating a forum where Galician culture, language and identity could be exhibited.

Duarte Romero Varela |
Born in Narón in 1988, Duarte holds a degree in journalism from the University of Santiago de Compostela and an MA in Online Journalism from Birmingham City University. He specialises Read More
Duarte Romero Varela |

Born in Narón in 1988, Duarte holds a degree in journalism from the University of Santiago de Compostela and an MA in Online Journalism from Birmingham City University. He specialises in data visualisation and has been working in this since 2013, holding a brief role at the Daily Telegraph. He has also worked at Infogr8 and is now working at Totally Communications. In his spare time he writes for crispdata.co.uk, a blog on football data.

He has been living in the UK since 2010 and has lived in London and Birmingham. He founded the website Galiza no UK, now no longer in use, with the aim of creating a place where the Galician community living in the UK could meet. He has been a member of the Galician Film Forum since the beginning.

María Sabucedo |
When she finished her studies at the Escola de Imaxe e Son in A Coruña, Maria started to work on Galician audiovisual products, working on the first series of Libro Read More
María Sabucedo |

When she finished her studies at the Escola de Imaxe e Son in A Coruña, Maria started to work on Galician audiovisual products, working on the first series of Libro de Familia. In 2009 she moved to Barcelona where she studied a postgraduate course in Line-producing at the ESCAC and worked on a number of short films. She also worked in marketing, cinema and television fiction while in Barcelona.

When she returned to Galicia, she worked in production at Cinemar Films and then worked at TVG. Between 2012 and 2016 she combined her professional career with further studies in Audiovisual Communication at the University of Santiago de Compostela. After graduating from the USC, she moved to London in pursuit of new experiences. She started working with the GFF before moving to the UK as she has always been concerned by the lack of visibility of Galician audiovisual culture and wanted to do something to change this.

Ana Branca |
Born in Lugo in 1992, Ana holds a degree in art history from the University of Santiago de Compostela. When she graduated, her interest in cinema and photography led her Read More
Ana Branca |

Born in Lugo in 1992, Ana holds a degree in art history from the University of Santiago de Compostela. When she graduated, her interest in cinema and photography led her to the Escola de Arte e Superior de Deseño Ramón Falcón in Lugo where she started to study Artistic Photography.
Not satisfied with her studies or the methodologies they used and with a thirst for new experiences, Ana decided it was time for a change. She left the school and Galicia to try her luck in the British capital.
After two years living in London, she joins the GFF to reconnect with Galician artistic creativity and to collaborate on a project that celebrates Galician culture outside Galicia.

Daniel Caparrós |
Daniel Caparrós holds a degree in journalism from the Rey Juan Carlos University in Madrid. He has an MA in Cultural & Creative Industries from King’s College London and is Read More
Daniel Caparrós |

Daniel Caparrós holds a degree in journalism from the Rey Juan Carlos University in Madrid. He has an MA in Cultural & Creative Industries from King’s College London and is currently writing a PhD on ‘Regeneration and Gentrification in Madrid’s Public Markets’ at the School of Geography in Leeds. He is one of the founding members of the GFF.

Iris Domato |
Born in Vigo in 1990, Iris holds a degree in Journalism from the University of Santiago de Compostela and an MA in Creative Documentary Theory and Practice from the Autonomous Read More
Iris Domato |

Born in Vigo in 1990, Iris holds a degree in Journalism from the University of Santiago de Compostela and an MA in Creative Documentary Theory and Practice from the Autonomous University of Barcelona. Her MA resulted in a short documentary film Joventut, solitud which was inspired by the Catalan writer Josep Pla. Since her MA she has participated in a range of audiovisual projects and has worked in journalism in Galicia. She is currently studying for a degree in Art History from Spain’s National Distance Education University and has been living and working in London since April 2018.

Cuca Fernández |
Cuca holds a degree in Sociology from the University of A Coruña. After battling against the economic crisis and working on a range of different projects in Galicia and Barcelona, Read More
Cuca Fernández |

Cuca holds a degree in Sociology from the University of A Coruña. After battling against the economic crisis and working on a range of different projects in Galicia and Barcelona, she is now in London finding ways to build her knowledge base and experiences to help make this world a better place.

GFF AMBASSADORS

Álvaro Gago |
Álvaro graduated with a degree in Audiovisual Communication and Piano before moving to Chicago where he studied acting and theatre direction in North Park University. In 2009 he moved to Read More
Álvaro Gago |

Álvaro graduated with a degree in Audiovisual Communication and Piano before moving to Chicago where he studied acting and theatre direction in North Park University. In 2009 he moved to London and began to work with cinema at the Met Film School’s Ealing Studios. Two years later he become an MA Filmmaking student at London Film School.

While at London Film School, Álvaro edited the documentary Skin and the fictional short film Lipstick. Both films have won various awards at different cinema festivals across Europe and in South America. In 2013 he graduated from LFS with his short film Curricán which won the prize for Best Direction at the Curtocircuito International Short Film Festival and the award for Best Film at the Festival de Cans and the Spring Festival held by Cine de Vigo. Curricán has also been screened at festivals like Málaga and IBAFF. Currently, as well as working as a freelance editor in London and Barcelona, he is preparing production for his next short film Matria which will be filmed in Galicia in February 2017.

Back to Who we are

Xabier Mera |
Xabier’s profile is constantly evolving, but he principally works as a musician, a creator and a project facilitator. Born in Santiago de Compostela in 1977, he holds a degree in Read More
Xabier Mera |

Xabier’s profile is constantly evolving, but he principally works as a musician, a creator and a project facilitator. Born in Santiago de Compostela in 1977, he holds a degree in Galician Philology from the University of Santiago de Compostela and his musical and theatrical training has taken place in Galicia, Italy, the Taller de Músics in Barcelona and Morley College in London.

He has been involved in cultural and artistic creation since 2000. He directed the theatre festival Rúa D’Gorra in Santiago de Compostela from 2004 to 2006. He is the founder of the company Pistacatro where he works as cultural manager, composer, event and festival producer. Pistacatro is one of the only places in Spain to offer circus training through its Escola Circonove. As a freelance composer and musician, he has been playing, recording and composing for audiovisual pieces and theatre for over a decade, both in Spain and in the UK. He has founded, amongst other projects, one of the pioneering manouche jazz bands in Galicia, Aló Django.

He moved to London in 2013 to continue his musical journey, collaborating with jazz bands, big bands and choirs. Here he pursued training in film scoring and orchestra direction. In London he founded the GFF with other Galician emigrants, inspired by the need to create cultural initiatives in the UK related to Galician and to give Galician audiovisual creation visibility here in the UK.

Back in Galicia, he now directs the choir at Estudio, a music school in Santiago, and he is involved in multiple social projects focused on cultural self-management. He remains involved with the GFF and is our contact in Galicia!

Beatriz Romero Rodríguez |
Born in Baio (A Coruña), Beatriz has a degree in Audiovisual Communication from the University of Santiago de Compostela and an MA in Audiovisual Production and Management from the University Read More
Beatriz Romero Rodríguez |

Born in Baio (A Coruña), Beatriz has a degree in Audiovisual Communication from the University of Santiago de Compostela and an MA in Audiovisual Production and Management from the University of Coruña. She was an intern at the Centro Galego de Artes da Imaxe-Filmoteca de Galicia- and on the series Matalobos. With four other colleagues she founded Compás da Costa in 2012, a culture magazine for the Costa da Morte. She wrote for the magazine until it closed in 2015. She has also spent time in Poland working with a communication team in Wroclaw, the European Capital for Culture.

She arrived in London in January 2015 to carry out an internship at no.w.here, a collective of artists who work with experimental films. She joined the Galician Film Forum when she arrived in London to share her interest in Galician cinema and help to promote the project.

PAST MEMBERS

Carlos Camba | Nati Juncal | Uxío Meis | Gonzalo Pais | Lucía García | Borja Santomé | Samanta Vázquez | Sara Samaín