MISSION
FYFI provides the tools, education, professional and emotional support, and group accountability to empower fellows to complete their features from inception through final delivery, and eliminate the “first feature completed” barrier to entry in the episodic space. FYFI empowers fellows to take control of their careers and level up by creating a fellowship driven, lower stakes, safe, fun and risk-encouraging environment of filmmakers focused on improving their craft, leaning into its challenges, and helping one another rise together.
GOAL
To ensure all fellows complete their features within 12 months of the program; our intent is that all fellows are on their sets, filming, within 6 months, then complete filming within 3 months, and post production within 3-6 months after that.
Meet the 2021-2022 Film Your Feature Initiative Fellows
Benjamin-Shalom Rodriguez
But before outing himself as an artist, Ben assisted the producers of DJANGO UNCHAINED, was a talent manager in Miami for telenovela stars, and a features exec for the Lionsgate-backed, 3Pas Studios.
And on the juicier personal side, before coming out as gay, Ben edged dangerously close to becoming another closeted statistic: he (accidentally, he swears!) stumbled into a meth addiction, struggled with bulimia, and was a serial monogamist – all before 18! He was basically fat ‘Rue’ before it was HBO cool. But he got clean by simultaneously taking up surfing and becoming captain of his high school’s boys’ dance team. (Naturally.)
Now, Ben’s an out and proud filmmaker mentor and educator with Youth Cinema Project, where he teaches film to students in Title I schools, and charter member of the queer Latinx writers collective, The Clubhouse.
Benjamin-Shalom Rodriguez
Erin Li
Erin’s narrative films have been praised by Upworthy, Gizmodo, Vimeo (Staff Pick), SciFi Now, Mitú, Angry Asian Man, and curated by LACMA Young Directors Night, Killer Films, Comic-Con, Slamdance, Refinery 29, and SITGES. She won the Mary Shelley Award at Other Worlds Austin for directing Kepler X-47 and her original vision and world-building.
Her latest project, The Beginning and the End of Everything, is a surreal fable about love and loss told through dance – a film within the feature film AVIVA — and was selected to premiere at SXSW 2020.
For commercials, Erin is on the director roster of Invisible Collective, and she recently directed a #StopAsianHate spot for Citigroup that has garnered 6.8MM+ views and counting. During the pandemic, she also directed campaigns for UCLA, Google and P&G. Additional clients include (RED), Omaze, Call of Duty, and GE.
Erin has held directing fellowships with the FOX Filmmakers Lab, AFI Directing Workshop for Women, Film Independent Project Involve, and Visual Communications Armed with a Camera.
In TV, she shadowed producing director James Bamford on the last season of the CW series, ARROW. Erin also sold a TV pilot to Super Deluxe, and is developing two original shows – a drama set in Koreatown, and a black anime series set in Los Angeles.
When not on set, Erin teaches directing at Chapman University and mentors with the Latino Film Institute’s Youth Cinema Project. Erin is also bilingual (English and Mandarin Chinese).
Erin Li
Jeannette Godoy
She is currently directing her first episode of television. The Garcias, a family comedy for HBO Max, is shooting in Puerto Aventuras, Mexico, with Executive Producer, Jeff Valdez.
Jeannette recently created and directed a short docuseries for Bumble. Pure Corazón follows 3 Latinx daters from different cultural backgrounds as they courageously navigate dating, life, and identity.
She also directed the cold open for the HBO Max Ha Comedy Festival. Starring Latino legend, Danny Trejo, and rising Latinx actress, Isabella Alvarez.
Jeannette is a 2018/2019 Fellow of the Sony Pictures TV Diverse Directors Program as well as the Black Magic Collective Breakthrough Initiative.
She currently has a narrative pilot in development with Campanario Entertainment. Varsity Moves, is a YA, dance drama about Latinx teenagers and how they navigate coming of age as a person of color in today’s competitive high school dance world.
For over ten years, Jeannette has directed commercials for numerous brands including Nike, Bumble, PetSmart and more. She’s received several prestigious nominations including the Young Director Award, as well as SHOOT Magazine’s New Director’s Showcase.
She lives in Los Angeles and is represented by David Saunders and Halle Mariner at APA.
Jeannette Godoy
Natalie Simpkins
Originally from London, Natalie is a graduate from the University of Cambridge and moved to Los Angeles to continue her career in film making.
Working for the largest music programming network, headed by Madonna, Natalie was part of the team that won the Streamy Award for “Most Viral Video Content on YouTube” in 2015.
In addition to working on music videos, she has worked on commercials for international brands, web series, tv, and films.
Natalie Simpkins is a fellow of the Blackmagic Collective Future Directors of Studio Features Initiative.
Natalie Simpkins
Sergio Monserrate
A UCLA alumnus, Monserrate majored in Sociology and currently serves as Director of Operations for the Latino Film Institute, where he heads the Youth Cinema Project. He has produced the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival (LALIFF) and other major live events in Los Angeles landmarks like the TCL Chinese Theater, The American Cinematheque’s Egyptian Theater, El Capitan, and The Orpheum Theater.
Monserrate is an accomplished public speaker and winner at the 2003 Phi Rho Pi National Speech and Debate Tournament. He is currently developing his first feature film and looking for distribution for his series “LA 143”.
Sergio Monserrate
Soma Helmi
She worked frequently with Catherine Hardwicke as a creative consultant. Soma consulted for Ms. Hardwicke on her feature Miss Bala (2019) for Columbia Pictures and Misher Films, worked as a script coordinator on Hardwicke’s short film Life Sentence for Quibi, and as a creative assistant on her upcoming Quibi Series Don’t Look Deeper. Soma’s work has screened at Sundance, Outfest and Amazon’s New Voices Film Festival among many others.
Soma began her career working as an Art Director for J. Walter Thompson in Jakarta, where her clients were Unilever and Pfizer. She would go on to direct commercial spots for Google, Klondike, Nike, Chevrolet, and Campbell’s.
She was named one of the “8 directors to watch” by Alliance of Women Directors and was a participant in Blackmagic Collective’s Future Women of TV 2020 initiative. Soma then went on to create and become the Program Director for Blackmagic Collective’s Breakthrough Initiative for BIPOC TV writers and directors.
Soma Helmi