Department of Film & Media UC Berkeley

Lázaro J. González González is P.h.D candidate in Film & Media and an award-winning filmmaker. His areas of interest include queer cinema, non-fiction storytelling, and Latin American film and media production. His movies Masks (2014) and  Villa Rosa (2016) has been screened in several international film festivals and distinguished with grants such as  Sparring Partners Fund, the Norwegian Fund for Cuban Cinema, and AMI’s Closing Distances Award. Villa Rosa also won the Best Documentary Award in Latino and Iberian Film Festival at Yale, and the Audience Award at Barcelona International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, among other awards.

He also holds a Master of Arts in Literatures, Cultures, and Languages from the University of Connecticut,  another M.A in Film and Media Studies from UC Berkeley; and he has been an alumnus of the International School of Cinema, in Cuba, and the Sundance Documentary Lab.

His recent films Pandemos (2022) and  Sexile, (work in progress) reflect on the task of archiving queer diasporas. As a living counter-archive, Sexile uses cinematographic devices to represent the oblivion of thousands of queer Cubans who were expelled from their country in 1980 and forced to resettle in the United States. This hybrid research endeavor also highlights the extent to which the desired freedom of Marielitos was vexed by racism, homophobia, resettlement issues, and the AIDS epidemic.

During the fall of 2022, González was also an artist in residency at Queen’s University Vulnerable Media Lab, Concordia University, and Universitè du Montreal.

Personal website: www.lazarogonzalezfilms.com

Publications:

González, L. (2021). Memoirs of Sexile: Mariel Boatlift and the Cuban Queer Archives: Documentary-in-progress and artist statement. Anthurium, 17(2), 11. DOI: http://doi.org/10.33596/anth.453