Gabriela Gonzalez, a South Florida native and daughter of Cuban exiles, received her MFA in Producing from the American Film Institute. Her thesis film, Silencio Fuerte premiered at Cinequest and screened at HBO/BET’s Urbanworld & Guanajuato International Film Festival. It was Jury-selected as one of six films out of 28 thesis films to represent the 2010 AFI class at the Directors Guild of America. It won the Richard P. Rogers Spirit of Excellence Award. Gonzalez recently produced Black Irish, an AFI Directing Women’s Workshop award-winning film that will have it festival premiere at the Bend Film Festival. She is currently working on producing various feature length films.