crew
Dylan Stirewalt
Co-Director
Co-Director Dylan is non-binary femme filmmaker and wildland firefighter, who studied Film Production at the University of British Columbia. Their thesis film, SAVAGE, premiered in TIFF Student Showcase in 2013. In 2011, their first narrative films, Sbear Some Love, aired on OPB’s Oregon Lens. Over the years, they have worked on a number of films as an Assistant Director and Cinematographer. Dylan was also accepted as a key speaker at TEDxTerry 2013, an independent TED event held at University of British Columbia.
Solange Yépez
Field Director
Solange studied Environmental Communication at Universidad San Francisco de Quito. Her career has been broadly interdisciplinary, including a foundation in communication, journalism, cinematography, editing, photography, digital animation, social networking, and biological sciences. Solange has created journalistic documentaries and participated in a wildlife filmmaking course with a National Geographic instructor. At university, Solange wrote and produced radio reports that were aired on a local radio station in Quito, Ecuador; her final project was the pilot of a radio program on environmental issues. Solange was a volunteer in the environmental project “Recupera”. In addition, she is a volunteer in Plasti.Co Project organization, where they seek to raise awareness about plastics contamination through cleanups and environmental education. She currently works as Administrative Coordinator and Community Manager at Huella Verde, where she has worked in the area of communication, producing videos and photography.
Antonella Carrasco
Co-Director
Antonella is an Ecuadorian born filmmaker. She received a BA in Environmental Communication and photography in Quito at USFQ. In 2013, she was awarded a full scholarship from the Ecuadorian government to begin her Master’s studies in the MFA Social Documentary program at the School of Visual Arts in New York. In 2014, she was awarded a scholarship grant from the Master of SOCDOC at SVA for the production of her short documentary “Pele, My Paradise”. This film has been screened at festivals around the world, in France, Colombia, Ecuador, Portugal, Poland, and the USA. She has been an editor and cinematographer on documentaries for the past 8 years.
Roo Vandegrift
FIELD PRODUCER
Roo is a queer scientist and illustrator. He received his doctorate in mycology (the study of mushrooms and fungi) from the University of Oregon’s Institute of Ecology and Evolution, doing much of his dissertation work on the ecology of fungi at Los Cedros, in Ecuador. He has published peer-reviewed research in internationally acclaimed journals such as Microbiome, Biotropica, and the Journal of Tropical Conservation Science. Most recently, he was awarded a National Geographic Explorer grant to coordinate a multi-disciplinary, international expedition to expand knowledge of the biodiversity at the Los Cedros Biological Reserve.
Esteban Coloma Gudiño
PRODUCER
Esteban Coloma is an Ecuadorian documentary filmmaker and producer dedicated to telling stories centered on human rights, social justice, and environmental issues.
In 2014, he moved to New York City to pursue an MFA in Social Documentary Film at the School of Visual Arts. There, he directed and produced several short documentaries while also working as a sound mixer on numerous projects. After returning to Ecuador in 2017, he co-founded the Audiovisual Cooperative CoopDocs, fostering a collaborative space for social documentary production.
His documentary projects have participated in several international labs and markets such as IDFAcademy, Meet Market of Sheffield DocFest, Doculab of FICGl, Ventana Sur, Conecta, DocsMX, among others.
In 2024, he launched Plural Docs, a production company dedicated to incubating documentary film projects with social impact. His latest feature documentary, Carmela and the Walkers, was awarded at Sheffield DocFest 2025, and he’s currently co-directing and co-producing his second feature, Fabián. Esteban believes in the power of film to spark conversation and drive change, continually seeking ways to bring underrepresented stories to the forefront.