Join us for a film screening of Consuela Alba's short film El Andalón / The Healer and a conversation with the filmmaker about the "Power of Storytelling." Consuelo is an award winning documentary filmmaker and Executive Director of the Watsonville Film Festival.

 
Consuelo Alba is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Watsonville Film Festival (WFF). Under her leadership, WFF developed from a grassroots collective into a non-profit arts organization offering year-round programming. The WFF mission is to showcase primarily Latinx stories that illuminate our shared humanity and promote positive change. 
 
For years, Consuelo has leveraged the power of film to inspire, connect and shift disempowering narratives and harmful stereotypes of the Latinx community. She is an award winning-documentary filmmaker and executive producer of local films. Her short El Andalón / The Healer screened in more than 30 film festivals worldwide, received seven awards and was broadcast on Mexican public television. 

In her role as a film festival director, she is a community organizer, multimedia producer and programmer whose work is grounded in equity, creativity and joy. Working with an incredible Board, and a small but mighty staff and volunteers, Consuelo puts together film programs that spark powerful conversations and inspire action. 
 
Consuelo was born and raised in Mexico City. Her parents instilled in her a deep appreciation for her culture. Since moving to California 25 years ago, she made it her mission to honor her cultural legacy through her work as a translator, reporter, editor, business owner, documentary filmmaker and cultural activist.
 
Consuelo graduated with honors with a BA in Communication Sciences & Journalism from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. She worked as a translator for El Andar, an iconic bilingual magazine in Santa Cruz, and as an editor and reporter with Nuevo Mundo, the Spanish language publication of the San Jose Mercury News.
 
Currently, Consuelo is the Board Chair of the Arts Council Santa Cruz County and inaugural member of Rise Together. 
 

 
Speak for Change was founded with the mission of creating positive and lasting social change in our local and global communities. From a studio at the Tannery Arts Center in Santa Cruz, Thomas Sage Pedersen has hosted over 100 podcast episodes – and now, Speak for Change and Indexical bring you a series of live events! Each event features an interview and a musical guest, with new and custom sets tailored to the topic of conversation.
 

 
Thomas Sage Pedersen’s mission and purpose has shifted throughout the years, but has always revolved around: to explore and implement innovative ways to inspire and create communities that are rooted in health, self-awareness, communication, creativity, accountability, courage and nonviolence. He continues to explore these principles in his personal life as well as in organizations he has created, helped create or are a part of.

 

Thomas is currently an executive, coach, consultant and co-founder of Ignite Nexus a consulting and coaching firm whose mission is to aid in creating a world where people can liv as authentically as themselves. Thomas was formally the CEO and now Executive Consultant & Founder of the award winning music school Everyone’s Music School. 

He is popularly known as the founder and main host of the podcast Speak For Change Podcast. He has been part of numerous projects such as co-Founding the Black Kings of Santa Cruz County which is a black men’s group here in Santa Cruz County rooted in brotherhood and connection.

 

He is a former member of the Santa Cruz Equity Collaborative who are popularly known for holding responsibility for the BLM mural here in Santa Cruz. When not working in the community Thomas likes to write, paint and create music. He lives in the Redwoods of Santa Cruz County with his amazing artist wife Lauren Ringelman.