Ben Lopez

Benjamin Lopez is a Tucson-based producer and filmmaker. As a director, Lopez recently completed Belladonna, a short film about young man's reckless pursuit of love and passion. Belladonna was screened in December of 2005 at the Loft Cinema in Tucson as part of a short film contest exhibition. He is currently in production of Cristos, a short film about an African refugee torn between loyalty and redemption. On the production realm, Lopez served as Executive Producer for two short films: Jon Proudstar's Dude Vision and Tuesday directed by James Grip. Dude Vision's recent awards include Best Comedy at the 2005 Arizona International Film Festival and Best Short Subject at the 2005 Native Voice Film Festival. His feature film production experience includes, How the Garcia Girls Spent Their Summer directed by Georgina Garcia Reidel and Border Warz directed by Rob Walker. Lopez has also helped the talent hosting coordination of at the 2004 San Diego and Orange County Latino Film Festivals. In 2005, he served as a media liaison at the Telluride Film Festival. Since 2004, he has served on the steering committee as the vice-chair of the Puro Mexicano Tucson Film Festival. He has played a key-supporting role in the support and coordination of the National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NALIP), Latino Producers Academy in Tucson, Arizona. The Latino Producers Academy is an advanced training for Latino feature and documentary producer/director teams in advanced states of development and packaging. Through practicums and mentoring with industry professionals, the LPA acts as an immersion program that provides each project team with the support needed to bring their film or documentary to production. In 2004, Lopez launched the Tucson chapter of NALIP and became its first president. As NALIP president, he supports independent filmmakers by hosting industry networking events, professional development seminars, and screenings.