CalArtians Javier Barboza (Film/Video BFA 08) and Rui Xu (Theater MFA 20) are among the 30 filmmakers selected for Project Involve 2022, Film Independent’s free nine-month program mentorship and workshop.
Now in its 29th year, Project Involve aims to foster the talents of filmmakers from communities historically underrepresented in the film and entertainment industries. Fellows are granted opportunities to meet one-on-one with filmmaking mentors, attend master workshops with industry professionals, and create short films. Participants are placed within the following tracks, per their artistic disciplines: animators, cinematographers, directors, editors, executives, producers, writers, and writer directors.
Barboza was selected as the sole fellow in this year’s Animators track. A creative director, animator, and educator, he is the recipient of a 2019 Princess Grace Award for his animated short “El Coyote,” as well as a 2012 Annenberg Scholar Fellowship. Barboza is also the founder of Kaleidoscope Media Studio, a media production company focused on 2D/3D animation, stop motion animation, live action and puppetry.
Xu is an interdisciplinary creative producer, and sound engineer, and one of the six fellows in the Producers track. She and fellow CalArtian Betty Hu (Theater MFA 18) served as co-producers on Tommaso Frangini’s (Film/Video MFA 20) thesis film Finis Terrae, which competed at the 77th Venice International Film Festival. Xu also served as a producer on Richard Van’s (Film/Video MFA 18) thesis film HIẾU, which won second place in the 72nd Cannes Film Festival’s Cinéfondation section.
“Project Involve continues to be in the vanguard of building year after year a community of immensely talented and inclusive visual storytellers within the industry,” said Project Involve Associate Director Francisco Velasquez. “We’re thrilled to welcome the 2022 Project Involve Fellows to this community and can’t wait to see what we’ll create together.”
