My name is Sebastian Manuel Del Valle Alfonzo Manzo. I’m an organizer and a filmmaker. I’m interested in fostering community through conversation and documentation.

In 2004, I immigrated from Puerto la Cruz, Venezuela to Saint Paul, Minnesota with my parents. I grew up in the Hamline-Midway neighborhood and graduated from Saint Paul Public Schools. I received my BA in Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature and Studies in Cinema and Media Culture from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities in 2021.

After graduating, I worked as a freelance filmmaker. I’m proud of my work on the PBS Frontline film Police on Trial, where I was responsible for recording a historic trial in its entirety, and assisting with everything from filming interviews to building the film’s archive to editing scripts. Parallel to my freelancing, I also worked to develop my artistic practice and build connections throughout the Twin Cities arts world. My efforts catalyzed most notably into receiving an artist residency at NE Sculpture, organizing a film festival at the Parkway Theater, and joining Serpentina Arts.

Serpentina Arts (SA) is a collective that fosters creativity and professional development for MN Latinx visual artists. As SA’s program manager, I work closely with our director Maria Cristina Tavera to create opportunities and structures that support our community’s diverse needs. My work with SA is funded thanks to Minnesota Transform (MNT), an organization which I now work with as a media specialist. Thanks to MNT, I have the privilege of supporting transformative community initiatives with media consulting and assistance.

My work with MNT and SA, in alignment with my passion for community and art, has led me to my current Hub residency project, Photography Narratives of MN Latinx Immigrants. For this project, I will be creating a collection of oral history interviews with SA photographers about their artwork. In addition to bringing into conversation the artwork of the incredible, talented Latinx photographers MN houses, I hope to broaden folks perspectives of what photography is and what it has the power to do.

In my own lens-based artistic practice, I am interested in exploring both digital and analog means of both still and moving image making.Cameras make us talk to new people in new places, and look at things closer than we otherwise might. By using different cameras, and alternating between documenting the world in still and extended moments, I’m able to push the boundaries of how I experience myself and the world around me.

Thank you for coming and learning about me. If you would like to connect, feel free to email me at sebastianalfonzomanzo@gmail.com, or send me a message on instagram: @alfonzomanzo.

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