Tiara Delgado

Filmmaker/Producer/Writer Founder of Global Vision Video

Quick Facts: Name: Tiara Delgado

Documentary Credits:

* Tear Gas and Bean Bags: A WTO Protester Remembers

* Berber Rugs of Monaco: The Story Within The Weave

* Bloodshed for Vanity: Animal Activists Speak Out

For inquires, please email at: tiaradelgado@hotmail.com

The road to one's dreams is almost always paved with twists and turns, hand in hand with the peaks and valleys of everyday life. This month's column could have easily been about Tiara Delgado, an up-and-coming actress/model/dancer, trying to draw her own luck in the entertainment industry. Instead, it's about a budding documentary filmmaker, a founder of a non-profit organization and a woman simply designing her own destination.

Delgado grew up in Eugene, Oregon and moved to Los Angeles at the age of 18 to pursue acting and modeling. Although her career was blossoming and she was constantly working, she decided to attend UCLA, graduating with an Anthropology degree. Her field of study, coupled with her interest in travel, brought her back to her father's hometown of Ciudad Chihuahua, Chihuahua, Mexico, in the summer of 2000. It was there where she came across a part of her history and roots that changed the course of her life. Discovering the one-bedroom house where her father was born and where four generations of family still lived together, Delgado saw a whole new perspective. During the trip she was fascinated by the colorful stories her grandmother shared about her father and the side of the family that, until then, she wasn't familiar with. She came to appreciate the immense opportunities available in the United States.

"My grandmother was a strong woman who worked hard for her family, even though she didn't have the opportunities that we sometimes take for granted here." She decided to go back one year later to document on film her grandmother's tales of family life in Chihuahua. Her grandmother has since passed, and Delgado is grateful for the time she spent with her. Her trips to Mexico planted the seeds in her head; she wanted to make documentaries and films that dealt with cultural understanding and humanity.

Tiara Delgado is currently working on a historical piece about the Khmer Rouge-inflicted genocide in Cambodia during the late 1970s. The interesting subject matter came about after she and her best friend (who is Cambodian) toured Vietnam and Cambodia. As her grandmother did in Mexico, Delgado's best friend shared her own tales of hardship as a Cambodian refugee. Without outside funding, Delgado set out to make "Fragile Hopes At The Killing Fields" with her own money. With training from NYU's Documentary Program, Tiara is doing everything herself, from directing and lighting, to sound and editing. "I don't expect to make a lot of money doing this, but I hope this will reach a global audience because it's just one example of what type of atrocities are out there and how we can learn from history." Completed in February, Delgado hopes to showcase "Fragile Hopes At The Killing Fields" in various film festivals.

As if working on her own films weren't enough, Delgado decided to start Global Vision Video in 2002. Global Vision is a non-profit that provides free production services to activist and nonprofit groups from Los Angeles and New York who need video and film work to promote their causes. She hopes to continue making more feature documentaries and films in the future, while running Global Vision. Nowadays, acting and modeling have simply become hobbies; she is on a path she would never have guessed would be hers. "When I was a little girl, I wanted to be a professional dancer and actress. I never would have guessed that I would be doing documentaries about social issues, but things change and I guess this is what I was meant to do."

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