About Us

The Urbanite Arts & Film Festival was founded in 2021 by Alex Armando Torres, a self-taught filmmaker and photographer. As an Afro-Latin Gay male who did not see himself represented either in front of or behind the camera, he started producing works that focused on diverse under represented voices. Voices that have unique stories to tell. With that in hand, Alex decided to create this festival to give those voices a chance to tell their stories, one unique voice at a time.

Mission

The Urbanite Arts & Film Festival’s mission is to foster the next generation of filmmakers that are underrepresented in the film industry. Launching its inaugural festival in August 2025, Urbanite Arts & Film Festival will highlight underrepresented voices including, but not limited to, young women, BIPOC, LatinX, LGBTQIA, people with disabilities, and the neuro-diverse communities. Through exhibition of their art, we create a platform for a diverse range of young artists to express themselves creatively and launch creative careers.

Vision

The festival’s vision is to feature short films, photographs, short films and show case spoken word over the course of one weekend in August 2025. As the festival grows from year to year, the vision is to grow the festival to be international and more inclusive. Our vision is to offer avenues and classes to those under-served to help young adults on their journey. Its success will be measured by the number of submissions, the demographic, geographic location of submitting artists, the number of featured works, and ticket sales. Urbanite Arts & Film Festival will follow up with filmmakers and artists after 1, 3, and 5 years to see how they have progressed in their craft and what their educational paths have been. They will be surveyed on if they have continued filmmaking, and if so what impact the Urbanite Arts & Film Festival had towards the development of their craft. Repeat submissions and selections by the same filmmakers and artists (for example, submitting films in their sophomore and senior years of high school) will be measured as a sign of success.

Board of Directors

Our board of directors is made up of a diverse group of members from the film industry, and non-profit sector as well as a host of other areas in business that make this board very well-rounded and unique in its ability to bring about a wonderful event every year.