Les Rivera

A person looking down at a camera pointed at a miniature film set

A winner of the Philadelphia Film Festival's Philly Pitch and a Sundance Screenwriter's Lab semi-finalist, Les Rivera has made myriad short films and documentaries. He is an avid educator of low budget filmmaking techniques, believing it is through hard work, mistakes, repetition, failures and self reflection that a filmmaker learns and gets better at their craft. He has taught multiple master workshops for various organizations including the Philadelphia Latino Film Festival. His youtube channel, Blatino Cineninja, is full of video tutorials that teach movie magic. It is there that Les developed and produced his award winning feature debut “Papi Ramirez vs Giant Scorpions”, which was shot in a rental storage unit using green-screen, miniature props and sets, and stock footage to create a quirky, campy, retro cinematic look for an entertaining story about the lengths a soon-to-be-father will go for his child.

Website
https://papiramirezvsgiantscorpions.com
Grantee type
Filmmaker

Grants Awarded to Les Rivera

$20,000 - Awarded December 2020

Grantees
Les Rivera
Project
Esperanza Ramirez Fights Zombies!
Description

The 2020 film grant will support "Esperanza Ramirez Fights Zombies!" the sequel to Papi Ramirez vs Giant Scorpions. Still dealing with the pain of her brother's death at the hands of the police, new mom and karate expert Esperanza “Mami” Ramirez will have her moral compass and karate skills put to the test against a computer hacker who has developed a phone app that turns white people into anti-racist zombies. While the app could secure the safety of her Afro Latino newborn son in a white supremacist world, it may come at a greater expense.

Related Projects

Film poster for the movie "Papi Ramirez vs Giant Scorpions"
Les Rivera

Esperanza Ramirez Fights Zombies!

Film

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