Amy Serrano

Award-Winning filmmaker and humanitarian Amy Serrano is the Chief Creative Officer and Director of Siren Films. At Siren Films, she writes, directs, shoots, and produces her own films, and along with her team, manages, produces and consults on the works of others. To date, Amy's most important work involved shooting, producing, writing and directing the feature-length and critically acclaimed documentary, The Sugar Babies: The Plight of the Children of Agricultural Workers in the Sugar Industry of the Dominican Republic Narrated by renowned Author Edwidge Danticat and composed of field recordings coupled with outside testimony, the film explores the lives of the descendants of the first Africans delivered to the island of Hispaniola for the bittersweet commodity that once ruled the world. Up until recently, these very same people continued to be trafficked from Haiti to the Dominican Republic to work on sugar plantations under circumstances that can only be considered modern day slavery. Besides the awareness created on issues leading to nearly eliminating human trafficking and child labor, the screenings and advocacy surrounding this film led the U.S. Department of Labor to finally place sugar imported from the Dominican Republic on the list of products to be made with forced or child labor. Amy also wrote, produced, and directed the U.S. co-production for the feature length film MOVE! Produced in Rome, Italy and distributed throughout Film Festivals in Europe, MOVE! is a globally collaborative film composed by 11 filmmakers in 6 continents exploring the dispassionate state of humanity through varied human emotions. Her body of work includes directing and producing the PBS broadcast A Woman's Place: Voices of Contemporary Hispanic-American Women featuring Isabel Allende, Dr. Antonia Novello, Bianca Jagger, Maria Hinojosa, Esmeralda Santiago, Marjorie Agosin and other barrier breaking Hispanic-American Women. The film features the music of Tori Amos. Amy also produced the award-winning Adios Patria: The Cuban Exodus narrated by Andy Garcia (Berlin Film Festival, Best Documentary New York Independent Film and Video Festival, PBS). She executive produced the PBS broadcast and Emmy-Award nominated Cafe con Leche: Voices of Exiles' Children and associate produced the Emmy-Award nominated Havana: Portrait of Yesteryear narrated by Gloria Estefan for PBS. Amy also spent time with the Garifuna people of Honduras and created a multidisciplinary installation and essay titled, "From Punta to Chumba" which is recently traveling the state museum system in Louisiana. The multidisciplinary installation and essay were commissioned and published by the Louisiana Division of the Arts. Amy has been honored by the City of Miami with a proclamation making October 27 "Amy Serrano Day." Twice, she's been named a Woman of Today in Glamour Magazine. Glamour Magazine has also named Ms. Serrano a Woman of the Year. During Women's History Month, she was presented a Mentor Award by the Public School System and named a Distinguished Female Role Model by the Public Library System. She was also one of 8 women profiled in a women's empowerment documentary produced by Clinique/ MAC/ Estee Lauder entitled Evolution of Woman. This national exhibit was first unveiled at New York City's Metropolitan Pavilion and shot by award-winning fine art photographer, Sandi Fellman. Amy is a recipient of the Tesoro Award in Art and Culture. She's been awarded a prestigious Fellowship with the National Hispana Leadership Institute [NHLI] in D.C. which involved Leadership Studies at Harvard University's JFK School of Government, the Center for Creative Leadership, on Capitol Hill, and with various recognized leaders in social and civic change. She was named a Latina of Excellence in Hispanic Magazine. She was selected as 1 of 15 top Hispanic Leaders in the United States by the Spanish Embassy in Washington D.C. and participated in a Diplomatic Exchange in Spain with their top leaders in the social, political, economic and cultural arenas. Following this diplomatic mission, Amy was profiled in a book on Young Hispanic-American leaders in the United States published by the Spain-U.S. Council. She was later selected to be profiled in the Florida Hispanic Yearbook, and was then named a Mujer Vanidades in Vanidades Magazine. MEGA TV has named Amy "one of the most influential and recognized Hispanics in the United States." She was also recently chosen as a subject of an upcoming documentary on female leadership in the United States. Amy is finalizing shooting and directing a film on the last 3 years of the life of the man who was the last living Tuskegee Airman in Louisiana. The film is titled "AIRMAN: The Extraordinary Life of Calvin G. Moret." "AIRMAN" is a film about aviation, history, country, humanity and most of all "AIRMAN" is a film about love. She's developing other projects including, Louisiana Stories, Citizens, and is now going into production on "The Humanity Project." "The Humanity Project" is perhaps the most important subject she will ever tackle with a story that will take her from locations in Latin America, Africa, Europe, the Caribbean, and the United States. She's also recently released a book of poems entitled, "Of Fiery Places and Sacred Spaces." The tome is based on the geography and cartography of people and places. A published poet, writer, essayist and speaker of 4 languages, she remains a committed Senior Fellow of the Human Rights Foundation in New York; a Fellow of the National Hispana Leadership Institute in D.C.; a Board Member of Voz de Mujer, a women's empowerment and leadership organization based in Texas; an Advisory Council Member of the Faulkner Society' in New Orleans; a Member of the Spanish Embassy's Hispanic Leader's Association in Washington D.C.; and was appointed a founding Board Member to United Nations Ambassador Armando Valladares' non-governmental organization, Human Rights for All. She also enjoys being a featured guest lecturer at colleges, universities, and cultural centers giving talks on the intersection of arts and activism; women and children's rights; hope during times of injustice; the ability to impact public policy through the communication arts; and many other inspiring themes. Her most important mission is to finish writing the manuscript for "In the Field of the Invisible Children;" a novel based on the adventures of a globetrotting, documentary filmmaker, and champion of seemingly lost causes.