Maru Buendia-Senties

Award winning Mexican writer/director, Maru Buendia-Senties, graduated with an MFA from UT-Austin in Film Production. She worked for three years in the Visual Effects Department for Director Robert Rodriguez at Troublemaker Studios and currently works at Mirada Studios.

Over the years, Maru, has premiered five award-winning films, directed Mexican Ariel winning actors, received the Visionary Award by the Sor Juana Festival: A tribute to Mexican Women and the Cary Grant Film Award by The Princess Grace Foundation. Her latest sci-fi short, Windows, has been chosen as one of four projects of NALIP: Latino Lens Narrative Short Incubator program 2016. She was also been honored to attend this year's Film Society of Lincoln Center's Artist Academy.

Living on the Mexican/American border exposed Maru to two different cultures that created a desire to share that unique perspective through her storytelling. As a female Mexican filmmaker, Maru sees a great opportunity in utilizing genre films to explore our deepest fears, push boundaries and challenge the audience by approaching universal themes like identity, belonging, and solitude.

San Francisco Latino Film Festival