Akiva Peñaloza Writer/Director

Akiva Peñaloza is a writer/director from New York City. After a long and distinguished career in publishing, she attended the American Film Institute (AFI) where she studied screenwriting and acting under the tutelage of writers Daryl Nickens and Anna Thomas (FRIDA, EL NORTE) and director Gloria Gifford (LAW & ORDER). At AFI, she won the prestigious Target Foundation Award selected by Academy Award Winner Diane Keaton. In 2006, she won funding to direct her short film, LA CHIVA, from the Latino Lens Film Challenge sponsored by the National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NALIP). LA CHIVA screened in many film festivals nationwide and was broadcast on nationwide television on WNET Channel 13. The film won Best Short in the Long Island Latino Film Festival in Southampton, New York. She is a 2007 selectee of Tribeca Film Festival’s All Access program representing her award-winning screenplay, HANNAH HENRI, and a 2008 fellowship recipient of the Urban Artist Initiative/New York City.

Joan E. Deraval Executive Producer

Like Barbra and Woody, Joan is a true Brooklyn native. Growing up in the richly diverse neighborhood of East Flatbush, she developed early a curiosity about what inspires people. Profound images of abuse at the Willowbrook State School exposé in the 1970’s inspired Joan toward a career working with children and adults with learning and cognitive differences.

Joan holds a MSW from Hunter College School of Social Work and established her career as a leader in not for profit positions overseeing fiscal and program management. Joan made her filmmaking debut as the Executive Producer of LA CHIVA, and is now a creative and business partner in ScorpyoFilms, working as a marketing guru and turbo-charged detail oriented producer.