Francisco Núñez Capriles is a Chilean filmmaker and cultural worker based in the Bay Area since 2016. With a filmmaker´s eye and a historian´s awareness, Francisco´s work acutely explores memory, cultural heritage, human rights, and environmental struggles in marginalized communities.
His most recent documentary feature film, Fantastic Negrito: Have You Lost Your Mind Yet?, about the acclaimed Oakland-based musician, premiered at the Mill Valley Film Festival in October 2022 and received the PAFF Executives' Best Documentary Feature award at the 31st Pan African Film Festival in February 2023. His first feature length documentary, Underground Rumblings (Diálogos Subterráneos), which follows an influential collective of young political hip hop artists in Chile during the 2011-2012 student protests, premiered in December 2021.
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EDUCATION
2019 | MA in Latin American History, University of Santiago, Chile | Thesis: "Representations of Political Crisis through the Lens of Teleanálisis, Chile 1984-1989"
2008 | BA in Film, University of Valparaíso, Chile
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FILMOGRAPHY
Have You Lost Your Mind Yet? // documentary feature in post-production // Oakland, CA
Director
Xavier Dphrepaulezz is a 51-year-old survivor living his “third rebirth” as Fantastic
Negrito, a two-time Grammy winning bluesman making an album about the mental
health crisis devastating his family and community in Oakland, CA.
Negrito, a two-time Grammy winning bluesman making an album about the mental
health crisis devastating his family and community in Oakland, CA.
Awards: 2023 Pan African Film Festival Executives' Award for Best Documentary Feature Award; 2022 Denver Film Festival Music on Film – Film on Music Documentary Grant Awards (MOFFOM); 2020 Berkeley Film Foundation Grant winner; 2020 SFFILM Documentary Film Fund Finalist
World Premiere: Mill Valley Film Festival, October 2022
Producer | Director | Cinematographer
A group of young hip hop artists from Santiago de Chile organize themselves into a collective called Lumpen Crew. During the 2012 student protests, they lead an artistic and political movement that will mark an entire generation of young rebels.
Diez días de invierno // 2011 // Santiago, Chile
Director | Writer
Jorge fumbles to make the best of a bad situation when a winter storm traps him at his family's holiday home in this coming-of-age short set in the Chilean foothills. Funded with a grant from the Chilean Ministry of Culture.
Tiempos malos (trailer) // 2009 // Santiago, Chile
Assistant Director
This feature length gangster film blends magical realism and dark comedy to explore the underbelly of Santiago. Directed by Cristián Sánchez Garfías.
La fiesta es para los demás // 2008 // Valparaíso, Chile
Director | Writer
Disappointment and misfortune plague Carlos, the down-and-out protagonist of this comedy of errors set in the gritty working class port town of Valparaíso.
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COMMERCIAL MEDIA PRODUCTION
Producer // Director // Editor
Bay Area and Chile, 2008-present
Clients include: CERC Migration and Migration Matters; People Over Plastic Podcast; West Marin Fund; International Documentary Film Festival of Santiago; city governments of Richmond, CA and Calera de Tango and Rengo, Chile; La Peña Cultural Center; University of Santiago Economics and History Departments; International Documentary Film Festival of Chiloe; and the Chilean Ministry of Education, among others
Production Sound Recordist
Bay Area, 2017-present
Clients include: American Heart Association, Specialized, StubHub, Offsides Productions, Storefront Records, b8ta, and Tidepool
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Representaciones de la crisis a través del lente de Teleanálisis: Chile,1984–1989 (forthcoming book). Anticipated publish date Summer 2023.
"De pobladores a pobres. Representaciones documentales del colectivo Teleanálisis, durante la última fase de la dictadura militar en Chile." (co-authored with Hernán Venegas). Amérique Latine Histoire et Mémoire. Les Cahiers ALHIM, July 2022.
"Stephanie." Part of Migrant Lives in Pandemic Times, a digital storytelling project produced by CERC Migration and Migration Matters, 2021.
"Fractured Communities, Invisible Bridges." SFMOMA´s Open Space, March 2019.
"The Chilean Student Movement and the Crisis of Neoliberal Democracy." (co-authored with Katy Fox-Hodess). Universities in Crisis, a blog of the International Sociological Association (ISA), September 2012.
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TEACHING
Instructor // Universidad de Santiago
Santiago, Chile, 2021-2022
Co-teaching undergraduate course on cinema and cultural history
Workshop Instructor and Teaching Assistant // Universidad de Santiago
Santiago, Chile, 2013-2016
Curriculum development and classroom instruction for theoretical and technical film courses for history students
Lead Instructor // Verse Project
Rengo, Chile, 2015
Curriculum development, classroom teaching, editing and post-production for documentary filmmaking workshops for incarcerated students
Co-Founder and Project Lead // Murales Para Mi Barrio (Murals for My Neighborhood)
Paine, Chile, 2010-15
Founded and coordinated a weekly community arts workshop for adolescents. Responsibilities included grant writing, extensive community outreach, and teaching