Film Forum

NOTE: This screening will play with Spanish subtitles. 

The Action Lab (TAL) sparks bold ideas and turns them into action, bringing together organizations and leaders working for racial and economic justice. We center culture, strengthen capacity, and build collective power to win.We create space for leaders and organizers to gather, learn, and sharpen their strategy together, and we build power through coordination, campaigns, and organizing innovation. Storytelling and culture are core to how we organize. We integrate culture and art into our practice and connect artists, organizers, and community to inspire change.

David Alvarado, a Chicano documentary filmmaker, is passionate about human rights, science, and technology. His latest film, AMERICAN PACHUCO: THE LEGEND OF LUIS VALDEZ, won both the Festival Favorite Award and the Audience Award for U.S. Documentary at Sundance. Alvarado’s other notable works include We Are As Gods (adapted into an eight-part Audible Originals podcast), Bill Nye: Science Guy, Blood Sugar Rising, and the BFI-nominated THE IMMORTALISTS. He also produced and shot TRUE CONVICTION. A graduate of Stanford University’s MFA in Documentary Filmmaking, Alvarado co-founded Structure Films, focusing on science and tech stories. In 2022, he was named one of DOC NYC and HBO’s 40 under 40 documentary filmmakers to watch.

Lemon Andersen is a legendary actor, playwright, and Tony award-winning poet. The honorary people’s Poet Laureate of Kings County, Lemon has spent more than two decades as a creative force representing BK to the fullest—from writing Netflix shows, to brand-advising LeBron James, to leading poetry workshops at universities across the world. He has been interviewed and profiled by National Public Radio, The New York Times, NBC TV, and The Wall Street Journal and published in The Nation. Anderson is the author of the poetry collection Straightrazor (County of Kings Publishing, 2013), which was excerpted by actor and activist Hill Harper for his bestselling book Letters to an Incarcerated Brother, and the memoir County of Kings (County of Kings Publishing, 2009), which was adapted for the stage and produced by Spike Lee. Andersen was also featured as a regular on Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry and was an original cast member and writer of the Tony Award-winning Russell Simmons Def Poetry Jam on Broadway. A native New Yorker, Andersen proudly represents Brooklyn.

Amalia Oliva Rojas is a Mexican immigrant poet, performer, and theatre artivist raised in Nueva York. Her work centers and archives the stories, myths, and legends told by her family and the New York immigrant community. Notable work includes: How to Melt ICE (or How the Coyote Fell in Love with the Lizard Who Was Really a Butterfly) (New York Women’s Fund Grant, New Perspectives Theatre Company and Boundless Theater Company, Latin American Theater Award for Outstanding Playwriting, Broadway Advocacy/ Working Theater), I Hope This Letter Reaches Mictlān (INTAR & Orchard Project, Arthur J. Harris Memorial Prize), and In The Bronx Brown Girls Can See Stars Too (Egg & Spoon Incubate NYC, KCACTF Paula Vogel Playwriting Award and the Darrell Ayers National Playwriting Award, 2025 Leah Ryan Award, 2026 Landford Wilson Finalist). Fellowships: Culture and Narrative Fellows for The Opportunity Agenda, Inaugural The Lily’s Lorraine Hansberry Fellow and CUNY Mexican Studies Institute Lydia Mendoza Fellow. MFA, Columbia University.

Catherine Almonte Da Costa is the chief of staff at The Action Lab where she helps shape and implement the organization’s development and communications strategy while building the internal systems that let TAL grow with intention. She is a key liaison for the organization; working closely with funders, partners, and advisors to expand its reach and impact. A seasoned impact strategist and organizational change leader, Cat has guided organizations through complex transformations across government, the arts, and the nonprofit sector. She most recently founded RAIZ, an organizational development consultancy. Before that, as Head of Culture at Orchestra, she led efforts to build a cohesive, inclusive, high-performing culture across a newly integrated organization of eight merged firms, and as Global Head of Equity and Impact at Sotheby’s, she steered a global initiative to embed equity and community engagement into the art market. She has also held leadership roles at the City of New York and the Brooklyn Museum, among others, advising institutions at moments of inflection.

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