19 Jul Heny L. Cuesta

Heny is an Afro-Colombian filmmaker, activist, and content creator. She is part of the team of mentors for Skylight’s SolidariLabs program, a creative space where filmmakers, artists and storytellers come together with movement leaders and human rights activists, to shift cultural perceptions through new and impactful narratives for social change. She was the Co-Creator of Skylight’s first SolidariLabs Afro-Colombia gathering with the support of the Centro de Estudios Afrodiaspóricos.

She is Director and Founder of Cimarrón Producciones, a high impact social enterprise that produces both documentary and fiction content for film and television. Heny participated in the Nobel Women’s Initiative’s “Claiming Our Space: Emerging Feminist Voices for Peace” in Monrovia, Liberia. She is the Co-Director and Creative Director of the transmedia documentary Ese Pelo Tuyo which addresses the violence experienced by Black women through conversations about their hair as a space of expression and respect.

Heny is a workshop leader and teacher of Afro-Colombian history with a focus on the strengthening of identity through visual arts expressions. She has been recognized worldwide for her contributions to Afro-Colombian women’s leadership and artistry. In 2019 she received an Afrodescendants in the Americas Photography Prize given by the Instituto de Políticas Públicas en Derechos Humanos del MERCOSUR (IPPDH) and the Organization of American States.