Mija 2022

Isabel Castro is a Mexican-American filmmaker who aims to shine a light on civil rights injustice and into the hidden corners of the immigrant experience in America.

Isabel directed, produced, and lensed the documentary short USA v Scott (Tribeca 2020, The New Yorker) a film that explores the legality and ethics of humanitarian aid for migrants, Emmy-nominated Darlin (Tribeca 2019, NYT OpDocs), which follows a Honduran family in the months after their separation under the zero tolerance policy; and the Netflix docu-series Pandemic. Her directorial debut Crossing Over (Univison/Participant Media), about transgender asylum seekers, won a 2015 GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Documentary. Castro has worked as a multimedia journalist for The New York Times, as a producer at The Marshall Project, on two seasons of the Emmy-award winning series VICE on HBO, and as a producer covering civil rights and policy at VICE News Tonight on HBO, where her work was nominated for an Emmy in 2017. She is an Artist-in-Residence at Concordia Studio and an SFFILM/Catapult Fund Fellow. Mija is her first feature film.

Tabs Breese is a Los Angeles-based producer originally from London. She began her career working in development for production companies Portobello Studios, Pulse Films, Passion Pictures, and Concordia Studio. Over that decade, Tabs worked on a range of films in various capacities, including as Field Producer on SECOND COMING about the artist D’Angelo (Tribeca 2019); as Development Producer on the Netflix Original BIKRAM: YOGI, GURU, PREDATOR (TIFF 2019); and as Development Associate Producer on BOYS STATE (Sundance 2020). In addition to Mija, Tabs’ current slate includes the latest feature documentary from director Dan Sickles, whose previous film DINA won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize in 2017. Tabs is a Sheffield Documentary Festival Future Producer (2017), a Refinery29 x Google News Initiative Fellow (2019), and an IDFAcademy Producer School Alumna (2019).

Yesenia Tlahuel is a South Central L.A native born to Mexican parents. Her most recent work as an Associate Producer includes includes VP Biden’s 2020 Campaign films by Academy Award Winning Director Davis Guggenheim (AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH), New York Times OpDocs Emmy nominated series, “From Here to Home: American Stories about Immigration and Belonging,” Academy-nominated short film Walk Run Cha-cha and Apple’s first digital WWDC  as a story producer. Tlahuel is currently working with Directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris (LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE) on their Netflix documentary series.