Julia Iriarte
Filmmaker. Julia studied film at UCINE University in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She soon began working as an assistant director in international feature films and commercials.
When she moved to Canada she earned a Multimedia diploma at UBC and started working as an assistant editor while directing and editing her independent projects.
Based in Vancouver, Julia currently teaches documentary and film editing at VFS (Vancouver Film School) while producing video content for companies and non-profit organizations. In 2019 Julia co-directed and co-produced the documentary Sadika's Garden, winning several local and international awards.
Natacha Monestel Mora
Ph.D. c and lecturer at the Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Social Justice (GRSJ) at the University of British Columbia (UBC).
Born and raised in Costa Rica, she first completed her studies in art, psychology and human rights in that country. During that time, she worked for the Costa Rican Ministry of Education for several years, focusing on training teachers in human rights education. She also served as a consultant for international organizations such as UNICEF and the Inter-American Institute on Human Rights, specializing in human rights and social justice education.
Throughout her career, she has collaborated with local governments, such as the City of Vancouver, to conduct research and engage with grassroots community organizations. Given her expertise, Natacha's inquiry lies in working with young people from BIPOC communities and exploring how they imagine socially just futures through participatory methods in informal learning contexts.
Her teaching and research are centred around the development and understanding of art-based, anti-racist, decolonial, queer, feminist, and Indigenous methodologies for enacting social change.
Adri Mora
Originally from Latin America, Adri M. is a transgender refugee who lives with her family in Vancouver, BC, Canada.
During her career, which spans more than 25 years, she has been a journalist, singer, multimedia artist, and technology entrepreneur. She has worked with UNICEF and several art groups in Costa Rica, including the Danza Universitaria dance troupe, and has also led many eLearning initiatives with organizations worldwide.
These days, she also volunteers with the Rainbow Refugee Society and QMunity organizations in BC and is a co-facilitator for the TransGathering gender-diverse peer support group.
She strongly believes in gender equality and social justice and looks forward to the day when oppression of any kind will be a thing of the past.