Carmen Vidal Balanzati (2nd row, far right) was born in Ibiza, Spain 27 years ago. She studied Audiovisual Communication in the UPF (Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona) and Cinema Studies in FAMU (Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague.

In both Spain and the Czech Republic she directed and participated in the production of several short films. Two of them, Rostres (Faces, 2002) and Nines (Dolls, 2003) have been exhibited in international festivals and screened in Spanish Television. During that time, she also worked in feature films and learned first hand how professional shooting worked. She also worked on advertisements shoots and television projects.

While studying in Prague, a professor urged her to attend graduate school in the US. She had been teaching at CCNY some years earlier and felt that the MFA, CCNY’s in Media Arts Production would be a good fit, complementing the strong background in film theory she acquired in Europe. The MFA program has a more "hands-on" approach and what appealed about the program was that she could choose different specializations, such as directing, screen writing and production.

 In the program she started to shoot documentaries, which is a genre that she had not tried previously and indeed a short documentary she wrote and produced (6 a.m.) about sunrise in New York was awarded with a Student Academy Award in 2006.
 
She currently works at CUNY TV in the development of a new project about immigrants in the city and working free-lance as a cinematographer.
 
She loves telling stories through image and sound and the process of developing and shooting a film. She embraces both fiction and documentary forms in her film work and her dream is to keep doing this for as long as she enjoys it.