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Karla Paulina Sanchez

Karla Paulina Sanchez

Paulina Sánchez (1979), grew up in Mexicali, Mexico, a border city with California. She is a documentary photographer, filmmaker and author. She is completing her PhD in Social Cultural Studies in UABC and has a Master’s Degree in Communication from ITESO. She attended the IV International Diploma in Creative Documentary from Valley University at Cali, Colombia.

Her first feature length film, Hotel de Paso (Shelter), won the award for Best Mexican Documentary of the year in 2015 at Zanate, a documentary film festival in Colima, and recieved Best Documentary on Frontier, exiles and migration category in 2016 at Contra el Silencio Todas las Voces Documentary Film Festival (Against the Silence, All the Voices). It was also awarded “A la sombra del maguey” an editorial French prize for making a DVD book about Hotel de Paso. In addition, Hotel de Paso won several grants and selections in different national and international festivals during the different stages of its production like Cuauhtemoc Moctezuma Fund from Ambulante Festival in Mexico (2014); grant for development projects from DOCSDF (2011) and Bordocs Tijuana scholarship (2011).

She is the producer and coordinator of Border Cinema, an artistic and social project that exhibits documentary films for homeless deportees and migrants living in public parks in Mexicali’s downtown. Currently, she is preparing her second documentary film Yo no quería hacer la revolución aquí (I didn’t want to make the revolution here) [tentative title] and is awaiting the publication of her second book, Rock in Mexican Cinema.