The Carmelita Tropicana Story

Ela Troyano is an award-winning Cuban-born filmmaker. As a 2008 United Artists Rockefeller Fellow she is developing a feature based on her Alma Award nominated PBS documentary La Lupe Queen of Latin Soul. She is also co-editing a book of essays on La Lupe with Alexandra Vazquez for Duke University Press (2010). Her half-hour short, Carmelita Tropicana,… Show more won the coveted Teddy Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival as well as the Audience and Critics Award at the San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival. Her debut feature film, Latin Boys Go To Hell, remains a cult hit on the Web and was recently shown on Showtime. Both of these films were screened theatrically in the U.S. and at festivals in Europe, Australia, and Japan. Troyano has also directed episodic action television on the drama series Reyes y Rey and the comedy Angeles, produced by Stu Segall for Telemundo/Sony, and the documentary Urban Youth in the 21st Century for Canal Plus in Spain. As a theater director, Troyano has a longstanding collaboration with her sister, performance artist Carmelita Tropicana, directing her in the highly anthologized play Milk of Amnesia, and with playwright Ricardo Bracho, including directing the critically acclaimed Off-Broadway production A to B. Show less