TED Community » Erika Bagnarello

About Me

Born and raised in Costa Rica, Bagnarello obtained her MFA in Film Production at Florida State University where she attended as a Fulbright International Fellow in 2006. In 2007 she was selected as one of the recipients of the “Opening Doors Grant” for Emerging Latina Filmmakers established by General Motors and the New York Women in Film and Television Association.

A year after that, she was invited by the Japanese Non-Profit Organization PEACE BOAT, to direct a documentary entitled “Flashes of Hope: Hibakusha Traveling the World”. The film showed a voyage where 102 atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki literally traveled around the world to promote nuclear disarmament. Shot in over 22 countries, the one-hour documentary premiered in 2009 at the United Nations in New York City and was theatrically distributed in August of 2010 in Costa Rica. It has also been used an educational tool to teach about nuclear disarmament in cities all over the world.

Later that year, she finished a short fiction film that she wrote, produced and directed, entitled "El Hijo de la 40". The short was a huge success, screening in many festivals and receiving many awards. Among them the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival, Icaro Film Festival in Guatemala and winning Second place at the AXN Latin America cable network and being selected as one of the top ten short films of Latin America for 2010.