About
Talcual Films is an independent production company founded and managed by Gemma Cubero del Barrio, based in the United States and Spain since 2006. Talcual, meaning “as it is,” seeks to document personal, compelling stories that shed light on universal themes of human struggle and hope. Ella es el Matador (She is the Matador) was the award winning directorial debut of Gemma Cubero del Barrio and Celeste Carrasco and is the first film produced by Talcual Films. The second feature documentary produced by Talcual Films and directed and shot by Gemma Cubero del Barrio premiered at the 37th Hawaii International Film Festival in the “Made in Hawaii” screened at the Doris Duke Theater in Honolulu, Hawai’i and the Roxie Theater in San Francisco in 2018. This film is currently showing on PBS Hawai’i. Our Atoll Speaks, the third documentary directed and produced by Gemma Cubero del Barrio as well through Talcual Films opened at the New Zealand International Film Festival in 2019, won the Special Jury Award for Best Documentary Short Film at the Guam International Film Festival and awarded the Coastal Culture Award at the 17th International Ocean Film Festival in San Francisco in 2020. The film continues to travel around the world. The Island In Me is the fourth feature documentary directed and produced also by Gemma Cubero del Barrio. The documentary premiered at the 41 Hawai’i International Film Festival within the Made in Hawai’i Competition and won the Special Jury Prize in Tahiti at FIFO 2022: 19th Festival International Du Film Documentaire Océanien. That same year at DocEdge in New Zealand, the film had sold-out screening events in Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington. In 2023 the film premiered at Cinequest and the Roxie Theater at the Green Film Festival of San Francisco. The documentary film Ottomaticake is now showing on PBS Hawai’i. At the moment Talcual Films is developing its fifth documentary titled Emotions Revealed: the life and work of Dr. Paul Ekman.
The production company is available for collaborations.
Gemma Cubero del Barrio
Gemma Cubero del Barrio is a Spanish/American documentary director and producer. For the last 24 years she has gained a breath of experience producing non-fiction documentary films and original programming. In 2006, she founded Talcual Films. Gemma has produced and directed films in Spain, United States, Mexico, Cuba, Germany, Argentina, Hawai’i, New Zealand, and the Cook Islands from development through distribution.
Her documentaries include: Ella Es El Matador (She Is The Matador), Ottomaticake, Our Atoll Speaks, and The Island In Me. Her films have been supported by institutions such as the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, PBS, Pacific Islanders in Communications, Point of View (P.O.V.), Latino Public Broadcasting, Women Make Movies, Kickstarter, The San Francisco Foundation, Tribeca Film Institute, the United Nations Global Environment Fund, and The Redford Center.
Gemma’s film and TV career started as Associate Producer and Researcher on the Sundance Special Jury Prize documentary Señorita Extraviada by Lourdes Portillo. In Spain, she produced for Julio Medem’s company two feature length documentaries, What’s Under Your Hat? and One Percent: Schizophrenia, both with theatrical, TV, and DVD release in Spain.
Gemma received the 2008 Tribeca All Access Creative Promise Award for Documentaryfrom the Tribeca Film Institute. She has been nominated for the United States Artists Fellowship, the American Latino Media Arts (ALMA) Award, and the 2022 Chicken and Egg Award. In 2011, she received the Annenberg Fellowship to obtain her MA in Specialized Journalism in the Arts at the University of Southern California. Her thesis “Give Up Tomorrow: Documentary as a Tool for Change” was published by Lambert Academic Publishing. Her consulting producer clients include Latino Public Broadcasting, A Moment In Time Productions, Ambulante California, and TUTU Company. She is a member of the Independent Documentary Association, Board Member of NETPAC (Network for the Promotion of Asia Pacifica Cinema) and for the last 10 years has served as a judge for the Emmy® Awards. Gemma will serve as the chair of the NETPAC Jury at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival. The NETPAC Award recognizes films specifically from the Asian and Pacific regions. The jury awards the prize to the best Asian film by a first- or second-time feature director.
Most recently Gemma celebrated the premiere of her new feature length documentary The Island In Me at the 2021 Hawai’i International Film Festival in the Made in Hawai’i Competition and received the Special Jury Prize at the 2022 FIFO – International Documentary Film Festival in Tahiti. That same year at DocEdge, an Academy Award qualifying film festival in New Zealand, the film had sold-out screening events in Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington. In 2023 the film premiered at Cinequest and the Roxie Theater at the Green Film Festival of San Francisco. Gemma is now developing her next documentary Emotions Revealed about the life and work of Dr. Paul Ekman.
For more information visit gemmacuberofilms.com.
Celeste Carrasco
Celeste Carrasco is a native of Barcelona, living in Madrid, Spain. Celeste was the director, producer, cinematographer and co-editor Ella Es El Matador (She Is The Matador). For El Abrazo (The Embrace) Celeste works with Gemma as cinematographer and editor and for The Island in Me (Aka Homecoming) Celeste served as Consulting Editor. Celeste worked with Gemma in Lourdes Portillo’s Señorita Extraviada and What’s Under Your Hat? Her additional film credits include First Assistant Director on Marta Balletbó’s narrative film, Honey, I’ve Sent the Men to the Moon, and Producer on Lisset Barcello’s narrative film Both. Celeste collaborated with Spanish performing artist Paloma Calle on her short doc Hello Myself which premiered at the Reina Sofía Modern Art Museum in Madrid. For the last 20 years Celeste has worked as video artist for theatre and opera productions such as Vanitas by Salvatore Sciarrino with premieres at the Teatro Real in Madrid, the Contemporary Music Festival in Alicante y the Arriaga Theater in Bilbao. Celeste was also the video artist for Java Suite by Agustí Charles with premieres at Peralada Festival, La Seca in Barcelona and the Basilea Opera House in Switzerland. Both productions were directed by Rita Cosentino. Most recently Celeste has created audiovisual production for Mozart and Salieri by Rimski-Kórsakov for FundaciónJuan March in Madrid in coproduction with Teatro de La Zarzuela and Doña Francisquita directed by Lluís Pasqual for Teatro de la Zarzuela in Madrid, Spain.
Kyung Lee
Kyung Lee is a filmmaker/editor based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is a Japanese native of Korean descent. She recently completed editing Tokyo Hula, directed by Lisette Marie Flanary (Yamagata Int’l Documentary FF, Hawai’i Intl FF, 2019) and Our Atoll Speaks by Gemma Cubero del Barrio ( New Zealand International Film Festival, Hawai’I Int FF, Guam International Best Documentary 2020 etc) and The Island In Me ( 2021 Hawai’i International Film Festival and 2022 FIFO). Her previous editing work includes co-editing BIG JOY: the Adventures of James Broughton (SXSW, Tribeca, Frameline, Mill Valley Film Festivals, 2013) and OTTOMATICAKE (Hawai’i International Film Festival, 2017). She made her directorial debut with TELOS: the Fantastic World of Eugene Tssui (Newport Beach FF, Arizona Int’l FF, San Diego Asian FF, 2014), a portrait of a visionary Bay Area architect. The film has been screened at film festivals worldwide and is currently being broadcast nationally on PBS. She is in the pre-production stage of her next documentary film, My Landlord (working title), concerning the housing crisis in the Bay Area. She is also producing a short film series on homelessness, We Are Here. Kyung is also currently editing multiple documentary films for other filmmakers. These films include: The Island In Me, two women return home to Pukapuka, a remote island in the South Pacific (directed by Gemma Cubero del Barrio); ¡Quba!, Cuba’s LGBTQ community fight for equality in the post-Fidel era (directed by Kim Anno); “Blurring the Color Line,” a Chinese American filmmaker visits the south to uncover the little known relationship between Southern Chinese Americans and their black neighbors, pitted against one another through a system of white supremacy (directed by Crystal Kwok); and Mr. Immortal Jellyfish Man, a Japanese scientist seeks immortality through the secrets of a rejuvenating jellyfish (directed by Dicky Dahl).
Todd Sickafoose
Todd Sickafoose is a Tony and Grammy award-winning composer, producer, arranger, orchestrator, bandleader and double bassist. He makes richly moving, imaginative music which has been called “thoroughly original, endlessly creative” by JazzTimes and “stunningly brilliant” by Bassplayer. He has performed on hundreds of recordings, toured internationally, appeared at music venues and festivals from Carnegie Hall to New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, and played on national television and radio programs including the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Show with Conan O’Brien, The Artists Den, and NPR’s Mountain Stage. Known as a musical cross-breeder who stretches across genres, Sickafoose has been described by the San Francisco Chronicle as “a captivating improviser, imaginative composer, and master of collaboration”. In 2004, Sickafoose began performing and recording in a duo format with folk poet, activist and cultural icon Ani DiFranco. Their relationship has developed for two decades – together they have made 8 albums, two concert DVDs, and performed over 1000 shows. Sickafoose’s work on Anaïs Mitchell’s folk opera, Hadestown, involved wearing many hats, including arranger/orchestrator and music producer. After years of development and regional productions, the show opened at the Walter Kerr Theater on Broadway in 2019 and won 8 Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Orchestrations for Sickafoose and collaborator Michael Chorney. Sickafoose produced the Hadestown Original Broadway Cast Recording which won a 2020 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Recording.Straddling the worlds of folk, indie rock, jazz and chamber music, Sickafoose’s own band Tiny Resistors has performed at the North Sea Jazz Festival, Stern Grove Festival, Angel City Jazz Festival and been featured on many “Best-Of” lists including the Village Voice, DownBeat, and JazzTimes. Todd is a long standing friend of Gemma. He composed the music for her latest documentary feature film The Island In Me. Together, they produced the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack available everywhere. Emotions Revealed is their second collaboration.
Makena Duffy
Makena Duffy is a Hawai‘i-based filmmaker. She studied at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa and completed her degree with a dual major in Digital Cinema through the Academy for Creative Media (now the School for Cinematic Arts) and Communicology. In the past, she served as a video editor and production assistant for the Better Tomorrow Speaker Series and interned for Talcual Films as a post-production assistant on The Island in Me. She recently completed her feature documentary directorial debut, The Finger of God: The Life & Times of Bill Carrigan. Makena first met Gemma as a high school junior through Hawaii Women in Filmmaking, during a program Gemma was teaching, leading to a decade of mentoring and friendship.