Guenny K. Pires

He is a Cape Verdean award-winning filmmaker, cinematographer, and film/digital media professor. He is the first native-born Cape Verdean to write, direct, and produce documentary and narrative films about Cape Verde and African Diaspora. In 2005, he moved to Los Angeles and founded Txan Film Productions & Visual Arts. For 26 years, Guenny has made films that relentlessly echo identity and social justice questions. Guenny holds a Master's in Audiovisual and Communication Arts from Porto University in Portugal and a master's in Fine Arts in Film, Television, and Photography from Mount Saint Mary's University (MSMU). Currently, he works as an instructor for MSMU's Hollywood Studio; as a Filmmaker, Cinematographer, and Video Editor at Los Angeles Valley College; as an instructor on Post-Colonial Cinema and Television Production at Los Angeles City College. In 2019 he founded the annual DjarFogo International Film Festival, which brings hundreds of films and filmmakers to Cabo Verde annually. The program includes Africa Film Lab/Filmmaking Mentorship, competition film screenings, workshops, and filmmaking classes for Cabo Verdean students and filmmakers to give them a voice and means to express themselves creatively through film.