Eli Jacobs-Fantauzzi is graduate of UC Berkeley, he received his MA degree from NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Eli is an award winning filmmaker and currently directs FistUp.TV. His work has circulated through the National Broadcast: Free Speech TV, Teaching Channel and PBS . He is the co-founder of Defend Puerto Rico a multimedia project designed to document and celebrate Puerto Rican creativity, resilience, and resistance. Eli is curating his ninth Annual Fist Up Film Festival in the Bay Area, California. His dedication to his craft is deeply connected to his commitment to social justice and the belief in the transformative power of film.
For years I’ve been producing documentaries that shine light on communities across the globe, including in Ghana, where I spent ten years traveling to make the film, “HomeGrown: HipLife in Ghana”. That film explored the first inklings of what has now become the AfroBeats explosion. This new project is important because it’s a fresh take on a global music trend from the Cuban perspective. Bakosó explores how that same music, by way of African medical students, emerged as a new culture in Cuba.