Alumnus Pablo Durana was honored with the production team for the short documentary, Inocente, which won the Oscar for the Best Documentary Short.
Durana, communications ’06, was a sound recordist and assistant cameraman on the film.
Inocente, directed by Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine, tells the story of a homeless, undocumented immigrant who dreams to become an artist. The 40-minute documentary shows her journey to continue her dreams, balancing the significance of art, and the challenges of homeless children in America.
It also won at various film festivals, including the San Antonio Film Festival, and as an official selection at the Hot Docs International Film Festival. The documentary was broadcasted on EPIX and MTV.
Durana is a sound recordist and camera operator for Reel Water Productions, which promotes itself as “bringing cinema to the world’s toughest locations.”
His production talents take him around the world, with past credits including director of photography for the film Cocaine Hippos with National Geographic, and covering drug wars in Mexico to the first open-heart surgery in Uganda. He has worked for major media companies, including Discovery, Smithsonian, HBO, MTV, NBC and PBS.
Durana was also an Honors student and Carolina Burch Fellow. In the summer of 2004 for his Fellowship, he biked across China with his sister, where he filmed the 2,700 mile trek, showing the cultures of 55 ethnic minority groups. He later produced a short documentary, China by the Mile, for National Geographic Television.
