“The vision I have of my work is one in which craftsmanship and poetry meet. Artistically, my mission is to celebrate the deep humanity we all share as individuals.”
BIO
Pascui Rivas is an award-winning film and commercial Director, Producer and Editor, and is a member of the Directors Guild of America (DGA) and #FreeTheWork.
He has been shaping the U.S. Hispanic landscape directing and editing over 200 national broadcast commercials, award-winning documentaries and music videos, working with Latin artists like Natalia Lafourcade, Estados Alterados, Goyo/ChocQuibtown, Soledad Pastorutti and Wisin.
Pascui helped create the Soccer documentary series Phenoms, and Directed the global feature documentary Ordinary Gods, spoken in 9 languages and shot in 8 countries — both projects for Disney/Fox. (link)
His work has been recognized in Tribeca, Santa Barbara (SBIFF), Mar del Plata, Shanghai International Film Festivals, among others, as well as in most Latino Film festivals in the US (LAILFF, NYILFF/HBO).
Most Recently, Pascui’s documentary Normal Sucks, based on the book by neurodiverse author Jonathan Mooney was showcased at the UCLA Friends of Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior. (link)
INTERESTING FACTS
Before directing professionally, he worked for a plumbing company; sold ice-cream on a bicycle; and paid for his studies teaching English as a Second Language, in Argentina. He grew up between two contrasting worlds: in Manhattan his father was an upper east side superintendent. In Argentina, his mother was a classical ballerina in a small town in the province of Córdoba. Understanding from an early age that moving images have the power to provide audiences with blueprints for behavior, Pascui found in cinema an art-form that encouraged him to shape and reframe the experiences of uprootedness, change and loss lived as a child.
Driven by his undeviating fascination to explore the truth beneath everyday life and “ordinary” people, Pascui directed the feature documentary Ordinary Gods (Fox/Disney). This film offers a compassionate observation of the lives of six young professional soccer players and their journey leading up to the FIFA World Cup. For the same studio, Pascui helped create two other soccer documentary series: Phenoms, and a UEFA Champion’s League show currently in development.
His awards include Winning the first Cannes “Lion” in the history of ad agency Conill Saatchi & Saatchi, a “Gold Medal” at the New York Festivals, and a “Best of Show” at the AdAge Awards for a film he directed for UNICEF.
Pascui studied screenwriting with Academy Award Nominee Guillermo Arriaga in Los Angeles.
He graduated from an intensive six-year film directing program at Cordoba’s National University, where he was the Winner of the “Kodak Film School Competition Award,” granted by legendary cinematographer, Laszlo Kovacs.
He was selected by the Director’s Guild of America as a protégé in their inaugural Episodic Mentorship Program, mentored by pilot director David Semel (Star Trek Discovery) and Producer/Director Tom Verica (Bridgerton).
Pascui is a regular contributor to the Commercial Diversity Director’s Program (CDDP) and has taught Audiovisual Storytelling Techniques to the students at UCLA’s School of Architecture, while also serving as a Guest Juror for their annual “Rumble” exhibit.
As a writer-director, he has adapted three books for the screen, and is the creator of his own dramatic series, The Angles.
He has recently finished adapting the book The Sea That Brought Us (El Mar que nos Trajo) based on the acclaimed novel by renowned Argentine author Griselda Gambaro, and which narrates the story of the Italian immigration to Argentina through the lens of the women —in both sides of the world— who made it possible.
