about cecilia aldarondo

photo by Flora Hanitijo

Cecilia Aldarondo is an award-winning director, producer and writer from the Puerto Rican diaspora who works at the intersection of poetics and politics. Her films have screened internationally at festivals such as Tribeca, South by Southwest, IDFA, and many others, and been distributed on major platforms such as HBO / Max and POV / PBS.

Aldarondo’s films have received support from funders such as The Sundance Institute, ITVS, Cinereach, Tribeca Film Institute, Chicken and Egg, and the International Documentary Association, and won awards at top film festivals such as DOC NYC, Indie Memphis, New Orleans, Florida, Milwaukee, and others. Among her fellowships and honors are the Guggenheim, a three-time MacDowell Colony Fellowship, a 2023 Yaddo residency, the 2022 IDA Emerging Filmmaker Award, the 2021 New America Fellowship, and Women at Sundance 2017. In 2019 she was named to DOC NYC's 40 Under 40 list and is one of 2015’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film.

Her third feature YOU WERE MY FIRST BOYFRIEND (2023) was co-produced in partnership with HBO Documentary Films, had its World Premiere at the 2023 South by Southwest Film Festival, and is now streaming internationally on Max. Her second feature LANDFALL (2020) was executive produced by Field of Vision, co-produced by the award-winning PBS series POV, premiered at the 2020 Tribeca Film Festival, and received many awards including the 2020 DOC NYC Film Festival Viewfinders Grand Jury Award for Best Documentary, as well as Cinema Eye and Film Independent Spirit Award nominations. Her first feature MEMORIES OF A PENITENT HEART (2016) also aired on POV and premiered at Tribeca, and was called ‘exceptional… the best of Tribeca’ by the Village Voice.

Aldarondo has a PhD in Cultural Studies from the University of Minnesota, an MA in Contemporary Art Theory from Goldsmiths College, an MA in Gender Studies from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, and a BA in English from the University of Florida. She is based in Catskill, NY and teaches at Williams College.