Key Personnel

Producer/Writer Mark Eisner is a writer, editor and scholar of Latin American literature and history. He is Red Poppy's President and acting Executive Director. In 2004, he edited The Essential Neruda, a collection of Pablo Neruda’s poetry that was published by City Lights. The bi-lingual edition features translations by Eisner and others, including Robert Hass, Alastair Reid and Jack Hirschman. It is the bestselling edition of Neruda translations. Eisner received his Master’s degree in Latin American Studies from Stanford University, and his Bachelor of Arts with High Honors in English/Creative Writing and Political Science from the University of Michigan. He spent several years backpacking and working throughout Latin America, and later received a fellowship to study at Stanford’s Center for Latin American Studies. In 2002, he was awarded a grant by Stanford’s Oversees Studies Program to conduct research in Chile, and continued his work as a Visiting Scholar at Stanford’s Center for Latin American Studies. Eisner’s translations were included in Farrar, Strauss & Giroux’s The Poetry of Pablo Neruda. On July 12, 2004, on what would have been Neruda’s 100th birthday, Eisner was interviewed by NPR’s Morning Edition and read Neruda’s poetry to millions. Mark has written a new biography on Neruda, also entitled Pablo Neruda: The Poet's Calling, which is forthcoming from W.W. Norton. He has not taken any pay for all his Red Poppy work.

Co-Director Carlos Bolado brings the ideal passion, creativity, and expertise to make our film the lyrical, compelling, powerful, and important art for which we are striving. Starting in high school, Neruda’s poetry and political commitment have been a key influence on the development of Carlos’ creativity and drive. He holds an ardent love for the bard.

Carlos directed and edited Promises, a documentary about Israeli and Palestinian children. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for best feature documentary of 2002, and won twelve other awards, including two Emmys and the Audience Awards for Best Documentary at the San Francisco, São Paulo, and Rotterdam International Film Festival. Carlos has been a vital talent in the new Mexican film movement. He edited Like Water for Chocolate, and was an advising editor on Amores Perros (Love’s a Bitch), starring Gael García Bernal.

In 1998, first feature he directed,  Bajo California, won 2 Ariels, Mexico’s highest cinematic award, including Best First Work and Best Editing; Bolado was nominated for Best Director.

Carlos was born in Veracruz, Mexico in 1964.  He grew up in Mexico City listening to his grandmother’s stories and was fascinated by cliff-hanging cinema, watching the old black & white Mexican movies and US serials. Carlos then began to dream of making his own films.  He studied at Mexico’s National Film School (CUEC). In 1993, he won a young artist scholarship from the National Council for Culture and the Arts. 

His Solo Dios Sabe was selected for the 2006 Sundance Film Festival's Grand Jury Prize for World Drama. His next feature has Alec Baldwin signed for a lead role.

Carlos has also served on many international juries, including the 2007 Sundance Festival, the 2006 Miami Film Festial, and for the Rockefeller Foundation in 2007. He was a creative advisor for the Sundance Institute’s 2006 Storytelling Lab.

Producer Lily Gálvez is a Chilean documentary filmmaker. Fleeing her country after Augusto Pinochet’s 1973 coup, Gálvez began her career in exile in Eastern Europe. From 1974-76, she worked in the legendary state film studios of East Germany, and later as an editor and producer at Breme Studios, Bulgaria. She returned to Chile in 1987 when the dictatorship ended, and has produced numerous documentaries, including a biography of Neruda’s second wife, Delia del Carril, and the Discovery Channel program “Identidades.” Many of her projects focus on the role of women today in Chile’s social and political life. She is currently the head of the Film Department at Universidad ARCIS in Santiago. Gálvez handled most of the production for our month of shooting in Chile, arranging most of the interviews through her personal friendships and contacts.

At Isla Negra, Neruda told Narrator Isabel Allende, the niece of Chilean President Salvador Allende, that her journalism was all full of lies, and she should write fiction instead. She is now a renowned bestselling author of numerous novels, including The House of the Spirits, Paula, and Ines of My Soul. Shortly after the 1973 coup, Ms. Allende fled into exile carrying only two books: Eduardo Galeano’s Open Veins of Latin America and a book of Neruda’s odes.

Composer/Performer Claudio Durán (aka Quique Cruz) has performed, taught and recorded Latin American music since the age of fourteen. A native of Chile, Durán grew up near Isla Negra and remembers Pablo Neruda’s frequent visits to read poetry at his school. In 2003 he was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts grant to compose a suite After the Fire, Water. In 2002, Quique received the Oshita Composer Fellowship from the Djerassi Foundation. In 1999-2000, he was a Social Science Research Council Fellow working on issues of memory, violence and exile, and in 2001 he received a fellowship from the Ford Foundation to research and write about aesthetics and political violence. Durán’s memoir The Autobiography of an Ex-Chess Player was recently published in Chile, and his forthcoming book Villa Grimaldi: Archeology of Memory was awarded the Book Prize by FONDART, the Chilean National Endowment for the Arts. A documentary film based on the book is currently being made co-directed and produced by Oscar nominee Marilyn Mulford. Funded by Latino Public Broadcasting and ITVS. Durán earned a Master’s degree in Latin American Studies from Stanford University where he is presently a Ph.D. candidate in Modern Thought and Literature. On stage, Durán has joined Jackson Browne, Mimi Fariña, Pete Seeger, Jorge Strunz, and Sting, among others.

Consulting Producer Gail Silva was the primary force behind Film Arts Foundation for over twenty-five years, first as co-director, then executive director and finally president. In 2002, her years of dedication to artistic excellence and advocacy were recognized by the presentation of the California Arts Council’s “Directors Award.” Gail has assisted hundreds of independent filmmakers develop and complete their projects, by advising them on conceptual project development, effective fundraising strategies and then connecting them with potential donors and granting institutions and foundations. She continues to consult on financial strategies and on the marketing and distribution side: analysis of target markets, including selecting the most appropriate festivals and recommending effective distributors for the educational, broadcast and cable networks.

Creative Consultant/Scholar Tina Escaja, Ph.D. is a creative writer and scholar from Zamora, Spain. She has published extensively on gender and 20th/21st Century Spanish and Latin American poetry and fiction. She has just finished editing a major volume, Poesía Hispánica Contemporánea Escrita por Mujeres, forthcoming from Universitas Castellae. Her last book of poetry, Caida Libre (2004), won the Premio Hispanoamericano Dulce María Loynaz. Escaja also works with experimental and multimedia works, including hypertext, and has displayed her art internationally. She is working on her first theatrical piece. Escaja is currently Professor of Spanish Literature and Director of Latin American Studies at the University of Vermont, where she is also a member of the Film Studies Faculty. For more on Tina, visit her website.