by Sanjeev Chatterjee
Born in Santa Clara, Cuba, Patricia Diaz moved to Havana to study art history. She admits to being completely enchanted by the city and later engaged with a close-knit community of young filmmakers.
In 2015, Patricia and Marcos Louit, a digital artist and graduate of New York Film Academy, created NEWMEN Studio. The name of the studio derives from ideas ascribed to Che Guevara who posited the notion of creating a new man for revolutionary Cuba. For the new generation however, the meaning is different. It relates to possessing a vibrant independent artistic vision. NEWMEN Studio specializes in immersive content with social purpose.
The main purpose of the studio’s work has been to bridge the divides in our world. This work is multi-faceted; from figuring out how to help communities get better access to digital futures to sharing the stories from her native Cuba with the rest of the world. Patricia is a fellow of the US State Department sponsored Young Leaders of the Americas Initiative (YLAI) initiative that brought her to the US for an internship with Austin, TX based Part Time Evil that provided exposure to immersive gamification. While in the US, she earned a master’s degree in non-profit management from University of Colorado, Denver.
At the WITH Festival, NEWMEN Studio will present the VR short Bembé that was part of the Sundance Film Festival in 2020 and is part of a larger initiative lead by Marcos Louit titled Cuba the Enchanted Island.
