A family, 100,000 chickens with a death sentence, a secret that will unveil all family secrets, and a star 2,500 million light years away that will make them understand that we all are metaphorically ExtraTerrestrials.
Carla Cavina is a Bori-Italian interdisciplinary artist, cultural manager and queer filmmaker born in the archipelago of Puerto Rico. She obtained a Major in Visual Arts at the University of Puerto Rico in 2000. In 2002, co-founded the ONG “El Taller Cinemático”, becoming its Executive Director until 2021. At this non-profit organization she worked with different communities, teens and international filmmakers to help develop Puerto Rico’s film industry. From 2003 to 2008, she worked for “ProCom”, led by the island’s public broadcasting network, aimed at teaching socially marginalized communities the uses of film, mentoring and directing over 20 community short films. In 2012, she co-founded "Puerto Rico’s Documentalist Association” and, from 2014 to 2020, directed the “Iberoameric Film Workshop: ISLAB”.
She wrote and directed three (3) shorts films before making “Extra Terrestrials”, her first feature film. The film was realized in co-production Venezuela and in 2016 premiered at the “Puerto Rico Queer Film Festival” and in 2017, had its commercial release in Venezuela and Puerto Rico. The film had been shown in more than 40 international film festivals, winning the “Audience Award" in Puerto Rico, Miami, Milan and Paris.
In 2020, due to the lockdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, she returns to photography and deepens her exploration of identity through self-portrait and the study of the concept of the 'Shadow' and archetypes in Tarot and Astrology. This exploration culminates in 2022 in her first solo show, Juego de Sombras (Shadow Play), at El Bastión, Old San Juan, PR. The exhibition consists of 12 self-portraits that explore various archetypes of the masculine and its shadow within her. Three pieces from this series have been exhibited in galleries in Italy and England (2024); and as part of the collective exhibition Scatenate (2025) of the Sorelle Festival in Brisighella, Italy.
In 2024 she realeased the documentary Golpe de Agua (Water Strike), wich she writed, directed and partly photographed. The film have been shown in film festivals, winning Best Documentary at the 15th Puerto Rico Film Festival (2024) and a Honoric Mention at the MUMA Fest in Partagonia, having its theatrical release in August 2025. She is currently living in Italy were she is researching, writing, and developing various artistic and film projects.
