It Takes a Village
TheyDream Team
William D. Caballero is a Puerto Rican-American, queer filmmaker whose work blends animation, audio interviews, and live action to uplift underrepresented voices. Born in the Brooklyn housing projects and raised in a trailer in his grandparent’s backyard in Fayetteville, North Carolina, Caballero has debuted animated documentary shorts at the 2017 and 2022 Sundance Film Festivals. A 2001 Gates Millennium Scholar, 2017 Sundance New Voices Lab Fellow, 2018 Guggenheim Fellow, 2022 Creative Capital Awardee, 2022 Sundance Documentary Humanities Fellow, and 2024 Webby Award winner for Best Art Direction, Caballero is recognized for formal innovation and deeply human storytelling. Follow @WilliamDCaballero
Erin Ploss-Campoamor is a filmmaker with over two decades of experience in documentary and narrative storytelling. She produced Las Marthas (PBS/Independent Lens), praised by The New York Times as “a striking alternative portrait of border-town life,” and Dark Mirror (IFC Films), called a “tour-de-force” by Variety. Her award-winning short La Americanita (The American Girl) examines identity, belonging, and personal history through a Cuban American lens. Follow @Eriniosa
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Brad is a Rochester-based filmmaker, producer, CG generalist, and animator whose work amplifies the stories of often-overlooked communities, sparking dialogue around vital social issues. His collaborative approach and multi-disciplinary skill set have contributed to projects recognized with a 2022 Sundance Film Festival premiere and a 2024 Webby Award for Best Art Direction. Committed to storytelling that brings diverse voices to the forefront, Brad pairs his artistic practice with service to his community, volunteering as both a firefighter and EMT.
Elaine Del Valle is an award-winning director, writer, producer, and casting director. THEYDREAM marks her latest collaboration with William D. Caballero in a partnership spanning more than a decade and including the HBO series Gran’pa Knows Best and the Sundance shorts Victor & Isolina and Chilly & Milly. She wrote and directed the acclaimed narrative feature Brownsville Bred, which maintains a 100% Rotten Tomatoes rating. Her pilot The System was purchased by CBS, and she earned an Artios Award nomination for casting Alma’s Way. Del Valle is a WarnerMedia 150 Artist, Alliance of Women Directors Fellow, and HBO Latinx Director Award recipient. Follow @ElaineDelValleDirector More at www.elainedelvalledirector.com
Carrie Lozano joined Sundance as the Director of the Documentary Film Program in 2020 where she works to elevate and support nonfiction filmmakers worldwide at all stages of creating and distributing new cinematic work. Lozano is an award-winning documentary filmmaker, journalist, and a lecturer at the University of California at Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism. She joins the Institute from the International Documentary Association's Enterprise Documentary Fund; where she co-founded and oversaw the program, which supported dozens of filmmakers over the last four years, with an emphasis on journalistic rigor, diversity and inclusion. Prior to the IDA, Lozano led the Bay Area Video Coalition's National MediaMaker Fellowship and was an executive and senior producer at Al Jazeera America. Films that she has directed or produced have premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and the Berlin International Film Festival; her most recent film is 2016's The Ballad of Fred Hersch. Lozano serves on the boards of the nonprofit production companies Kartemquin Films, Swell Cinema and The Free History Project.
Sandie Viquez Pedlow is the Executive Director of Latino Public Broadcasting, public media’s largest Latino content developer and funder which provides programming to PBS and its multi-media platforms. She brings to this position over 30 years of experience in program development, production, and the development of international public media initiatives. Most recently she was Director, Station Relations for PBS Education where she led the implementation and marketing of PBS online and digital media products and services. Prior to PBS, Pedlow was Director of Programming Strategies, Associate Director of Cultural, Drama and Arts Programming, and Senior Program Officer with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for 10 years. She managed the development and funding of national public broadcasting programs which addressed social issues, history, the arts and many aspects of American culture. Prior to this work, Pedlow developed and produced documentaries, cultural/arts television programs for SCETV and was the U.S. National Coordinator for INPUT, an international public television conference with more than 35 participating countries. She has served on the boards of CINE, The American Documentary, American Playhouse Artistic Committee, INPUT and LPB.
Grace Lay is one of the two Asian-American women co-founders of LinLay Productions, along with actress Sumalee Montano. Together, they support multicultural, intergenerational stories that generate conversations to lead us toward collective healing. The slate encompasses narratives and documentaries including VOICE OF HIND RAJAB by Kaouther Ben Hania (2025 Venice Film Festival Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize), SUGARCANE by Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie (2025 Oscar nominated for Best Documentary; Nat Geo), BLACK BARBIE: A DOCUMENTARY by Lagueria Davis (2025 NAACP award for Best Documentary, two-time 2025 Emmy awarded; Netflix); and NANNY by Nikyatu Jusu (2022 Sundance Grand Jury Prize Winner; Amazon).
Ina Fichman is a Canadian film producer and president of Intuitive Pictures, based in Montreal. She is best known as a producer of the Oscar-nominated and Peabody award-winning 2022 film Fire of Love. She won the Gemini Award for Best History Documentary Program for Undying Love in 2003. She has been nominated for the 34th Producers Guild of America Awards, British Academy Film Awards, Emmy, Critics Choice Awards and Canadian Screen Awards. Credits include: the Sundance award-winning documentary Coexistence, My Ass, Adrianne & The Castle, The Wanted 18 and The Oslo Diaries, amongst others. Fichman was the recipient of the Don Haig Award at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival in 2018. She is the co-president of the board International Documentary Association and a member of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
The Executive Producers
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Julisse Tinoco
2D Animation
Frank Martinez
2D Animation
Erica Perez
2D Animation
Ashley Stephens
2D Animation
Cheryl Okonkwo
2D Animation
TheyDream Animation, Miniatures & Additional Team
Jordin Goff
3D Animation
Credits
Directed by
William D. Caballero
Written & Produced by
William D. Caballero
Brad Jones
Erin Ploss-Campoamor
Elaine Del Valle
Executive Producers
Carrie Lozano
Sandie Viquez Pedlow
Grace Lay
Ina Fichman
Co-Executive Producers
Megan Gelstein
Jamie Wolf
Nathalie Seaver
Supervising Producers
Jun Stinson Yamagishi
Luis Ortiz
Featuring
Migdalia “Milly” Caballero
Guillermo "Chilly" Caballero
Isolina Aponte
Victor Muriel
William D. Caballero
Creative Advisor
Dr. Jillian Báez (Hunter College)
Consulting Producers
Louis E. Perego-Moreno
Jannet Nuñez
Animators
William D. Caballero
Brad Jones
Jordin Goff
Frank Martinez
Julisse Tinoco
Erica Perez
Ashley Stephens
Cheryl Okonkwo
Composer
René G. Boscio
Sound Design & Mix
Ruy Garcia
Miniature Props and Set Designers
Gregory Pinsoneault
William D. Caballero
Cinematographers
William D. Caballero
Brad Jones
Ben Premeaux
Antonio Cisneros
Story Consultant
Viridiana Lieberman
Actors
Diana Alvort
Vic Rico
Editor
William D. Caballero
Assistant Editors
Sebastian Enamorado
Roberto Campos
Animation Production Manager
Andrea Bajadas
TheyDream is a co-production of Colibri Creative Media, Latino Public Broadcasting and ITVS.
Original Production Funding Provided By ITVS, Latino Public Broadcasting, Catapult Film Fund, Catapult Momentum Grant, Southern Documentary Fund, Epic MegaGrants.
TheyDream is a Creative Capital Project.
TheyDream was made with the support of Rough Cut Retreat, a project of Catapult Film Fund and True/False Film Fest; Joshua Tree Highlands Artist Residency; McColl Center Artist-in-Residence Program; Visual Studies Workshop - Rochester; Borderlands Cinematic Arts.