RAFAEL
SAMANEZ

RAFAEL SAMANEZ is a filmaker, and the Founder of Elevate Media Films, which focuses on social justice films and news. Samanez shares, “Film has played a central role in my understanding of our political and social realities. It is a crucial medium that has inspired my life’s work for social change. As a community organizer and a director of a grassroots non-profit, I came to understand the power of storytelling and fell in love with the artistic aspect of film to create engaging pieces. I recognized that there was a need to not only educate others about the community we were helping, but to also educate the community itself. As a migrant of color, with Native American and Latinx roots, from a working class family that settled in Cleveland, Ohio, I am eager to use my artistry to show the beauty, the contradictions, the power and relationships of our culture that adds to the global human family.”