“The JP2Crew”

The Directors:
Laura Alvarado – laura.alvarado@jp2filmfestival.com
Frank Brennan – frank.brennan@jp2filmfestival.com
Rafael Anrrich – rafael.anrrich@jp2filmfestival.com

The Assistant to the Directors:
Isabella Lopez – isabella.lopez@jp2filmfestival.com

The Crew: info@jp2filmfestival.com
Lillie Villa
Jim Eimmerman
Roberto Sandoval
Diane Klimoski

Here’s a few fun-bits you may wanna know about us:

Laura Alvarado -

Laura was called on board with the enormous task of initiating the festival from the ground up. Laura grew up in the Catholic faith and found her artistic calling in acting. She began her stage-training at 9 years old and studied the craft in conservatories all the way through college. She graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts from the prestigious New World School of the Arts. After a year teaching acting to girls ages 4 through 12 in the beautiful Carrollton School of the Sacred Heart, Laura moved to New York City to pursue her career. After a quick visit back home to Miami during the holidays, she felt a strong pull back home and adopted Rafael’s idea for the festival. With public relations in her family background, as well as her background in acting and directing, Laura joined the core team and got down to business right away to turn Rafael’s dream to reality.

Frank William Brennan -

Frank always knew he had a deep tie to film-making, for it was this media that inspired him to pursue his writing career. During his first year of college, Frank began writing, directing, and producing independent films with his now fiancé Laura, hoping to someday have the opportunity to turn his art into his profession. Upon entering a Catholic retreat one year, Frank rekindled his faith and finally understood his call: to work for God by creating films that could express the same love God had shown him. After much prayer and devotion, Frank finally began writing a feature length screenplay to incorporate that emotional vortex stirring inside him. He knew he didn’t have the means to make the film, but he trusted that what is for God’s glory will always persevere. A few months later, God listened to his prayers and sent Ralph Annrich and Ralph’s idea of building a home for Christian filmmakers like himself.

Rafael Anrrich-

Ralph, a devoted Christian, has always been a lover of film, particularly films about the faith. Ralph knows first hand about the powerful role film can play in evangelizing—He still recalls the one movie that inspired him to attend daily mass while attending Belen High School in Miami, Florida. The life-changing film was “The Ten Commandments” with Charlton Heston. He watched in awe as Moses descended from the mountain with the stone tablets in his hands and a face glowing in the glory of God. Ralph was awoken spiritually and yearned to share that feeling with everyone.
After watching religious films on EWTN television and at rental stores he noticed a wide variety of Christian films that had been produced that he had never heard of. He also noticed a demand for positive films that reflected and represented human dignity for every person. Ralph came up with the idea of starting a religious film festival that would be able to showcase these films to the entire community. That’s how the John Paul II International Film Festival was born; the name John Paul II because of Ralph’s re-conversion to Catholicism after the late Pope’s death in 2005, and because of his admiration for the Pope’s views on human dignity, freedom, and responsibility. Three years after thinking up this idea, he decided to contact a young couple, Frank and Laura, who were also deeply involved with the Church as well as with film and the arts. After that, the rest became, well, our history.

Isabella Lopez-

Isabella is a Miami-born actress and singer, madly in love with her religion and thrilled to have an opportunity to combine both of her passions for art and God in helping coordinate the JP2IFF. Currently in her first year of college, Isabella has appeared in over fifteen plays/musicals and has won various acting competitions.