Juan C. Dávila

Born in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, Juan C. Dávila is an award-winning documentary filmmaker, news producer, and activist. He is the director of the feature-length documentary film Simulacros de Liberación (2021), which was released in movie theaters around Puerto Rico. Previously he directed two mid-length documentary films: Compañeros de lucha (2012) and Vieques: una batalla inconclusa (2016). His filmography also includes the award-winning short film, La generación del estanbai (2016), Aftershocks of Disaster (2020), Networked Education (2020), Rayito de sol (2021), and a TV pilot for the documentary series The Response (2019). In 2023, he won two New York Emmys for the TV series Puerto Rican Voices where he worked as a director and executive producer.

Dávila is a former senior producer at "When We Fight, We Win! The Podcast!", and news producer fellow for the newscast Democracy Now! where he continues to contribute as Puerto Rico’s correspondent and producer. His journalistic work has been featured in TeleSur, The Huffington Post, The Washington Post, PBS, and The Indypendent in New York. He holds a BA in Communication from Universidad del Sagrado Corazón in Puerto Rico (2011) and two Masters in Social Documentation (2015) and Latin American and Latinx Studies (2020) from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Dávila is currently directing a documentary about the life of community leader Carlos “Taso” Zenón and just finished a short about the decline of fish populations in Vieques for PBS.

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About Zenón

This documentary is about the life of Vieques (Puerto Rico) fisherman and revolutionary Carlos “Taso” Zenón. For decades, Taso fought against the military occupation of his native land, fighting the U.S. Navy both on land and sea – it was the fisherman’s slingshot against the military’s cannons.

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