Our Filmmakers

Dr. Janet Alvarez Gonzalez

Writer, Director, and Executive Producer of The Portrait’s Secret  / El Secreto del Retrato

Dr. Janet Alvarez González is an Award winning marketer, investigative reporter, scriptwriter, director and projducer, television and radio personality in United States, Latin America and the Caribbean. Born in Bayamon Puerto Rico, she began her career in the late 1980s as a director and producer, and political reporter for US television and radio networks PBS, NPR, FOX and Jay Sears News Services working with personalities such as Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev, Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, Vice President Al Gore, Senator George Allen, Governor Douglas Wilder. 

Later she worked as executive producer, scriptwriter supervisor, and hosted several top television shows transmitted at  Teletica, Telemundo, and Univision.  In 2003 she wrote, produced and starred with her brother Samuel the full length film, Latin Comedy a social satire about how Hispanics were manipulated by the media with the legendary Cuban comedian, Leopoldo “Pucho” Fernandez known as “Tres Patines.”

From 2003 to 2008 she founded and hosted in prime time the number one investigative daily live radio show “Quejate”. In this show the microphones were opened to the audience to denounce acts of injustice, corruption, and poor services of the government and state agencies. After receiving each complaint, Alvarez called the offenders directly and confronted them on-air. In this radio show Dr. Janet Alvarez Gonzalez “l

La Fiscal del Pueblo”, (known as The Peoples Attorney) demonstrated out­standing community service involvement, helping to resolve cases for the underserved populations.

Dr. Janet Alvarez Gonzalez was appointed with the Rank of Major and was attached as Public Affairs Officer of the Adjutant General Staff.  In 2010 Major Alvarez Gonzalez received the second most important medal the Texas Merit Award for Outstanding Service in the Military Forces of Texas. 

She reopened Planet Films LLC in Rowlett, Texas, receiving The Aspen Award in the Motion Picture & Video Production for Exceptional Marketing Success in 2013. In 2015 Dr. Alvarez Gonzalez received the Latin Golden Award for Life Time Achievement by the Foreign Press Association in Show Business (Asociación de Periodistas Internacionales de Espectáculo).

In 2019 Dr. Janet Álvarez González received the Latin MAYA Award – Premios MAYA Academy Award from Bolivia for Lifetime Achievement in Cinematography, Media and Literature Awarded.

She received a Bachelor in Psychology from the Virginia Commonwealth University, a Master in Educational Media from Virginia State University, a Ph.D. in Business Administration in Marketing and a Post Graduate Certificate in International Business from Argosy University. Dr. Alvarez has taught Mass Communications and Marketing in many universities around the world including Argosy University, University of Quebec in Montreal, University of Puerto Rico, Virginia State University, Universidad Catolica Boliviana in La Paz, Bolivia. In addition she was the Dean of the MBA Center at Columbia University in Puerto Rico.

She is currently producing several documentaries, films and shows including El Secreto del Retrato, The Portrait’s Secret, Making the Portrait’s Secret and the show Buenos Dias Mi Amor www.buenosdiasmiamor.com

Stuart Cooper

Stuart Cooper: Producer of The Portrait’s Secret  / El Secreto del Retrato

Stuart W. Cooper (born 1942 in Hoboken, New Jersey) is an American filmmaker, actor and writer from Birmingham, England.  Cooper was a resident in the United Kingdom in the 1960s and 1970s where his most notable film appearance was as one of The Dirty Dozen, Roscoe Lever.   He also starred alongside Russell Brand in Cinco! set in the Costa Del Sol.  His 1974 film Little Malcolm was entered into the 24th Berlin International Film Festival, where it won the Silver Bear.  The following year, his film Overlord won the Silver Bear – Special Jury Prize at the 25th Berlin Festival and was credited as the reason for at least one suicidal man to choose life.

Tamara Marini

Production Designer of  The Portrait’s Secret  / El Secreto del Retrato

Tamara Marini has over 20 years of experience in the film and TV industries. Tamara holds a Masters degree in Movie Art Direction from Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia of Rome www.snc.it.a Bachelors of Science Degree (with Honors) in Scenography and Costume in Film from the Fine Arts Academy of Venice www.accademiavenezia.it. and also “A” levels in Architecture and Interior Design from Art Institute of Trieste –Italy.   Several of Tamara’s career highlights include working as Art Director of the full lengths films Two Lives directed by Georg Maas; The American with George Clooney Directed by Anton Corbijn; Duplicity with Julia Roberts directed by Tony Gilroy; The Merchant Of Venice with Al Pacino directed by Michael Radford and The Hills Have Eyes directed by Alex Aja.

Greg Cannom

Special makeup designer The Portrait’s Secret  / El Secreto del Retrato

Greg Cannom has been nominated for nine OSCAR : Academy Awards and has won three times for Mrs. Doubtfire; Bram Stoker’s Dracula; and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.  He has also been nominated seven times for a Saturn Award and received one.

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Pablo Blanco

Editor of  El Secreto del Retrato / The Portrait’s Secret 

Pablo Blanco was born in Spain.  In 1993 he was nominated for a Goya for best editing film Acción Mutante. In 1994 he was nominated for a Goya  for best Editing film La Madre Muerta a film by Juanma Bajo Ulloa . In 1997 he was nominated for a Goya  for best editing film:  Storm the Skies. In 1998 he won a Goya for best editing film Airbag.  In 2012 he won a Goya and the CEC (Cinema Writers Circle) Award for best editing film No Rest for the Wicked.

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Ricardo Jacques Galé

Cinematographer of  The Portrait’s Secret  /  El Secreto del Retrato

Ricardo began his career as a production assistant in Miami before moving to Los Angeles to attend the prestigious USC Film School. Working as a lab technician, dolly grip, key grip and chief lighting technician were a few of the steps toward learning his craft and his ultimate goal of becoming a Cinematographer. When Garrett Brown taught Ricardo how to operate his invention the Steadicam, Ricardo’s career blossomed. Ten years of work for directors such as John Schlesinger, Nicolas Roeg, Julian Temple and Joseph Sargent followed. Roger Corman gave Ricardo his first shot as a DP and he hasn’t looked back with over 30 features on his resume.  He has worked in Beirut, Greece, Macedonia, Panama, Belize, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and the Philippines. Ricardo has shot numerous music videos including the ground-breaking video for N.W.A, “Straight Out of Compton” with legendary hip-hop artists Dr. Dre, Ice Cube and Eazy E. He was also nominated for an MTV Video Award for his work on the classic one hit wonder “Rico Suave” by Geraldo.

Javier Enrique Perez

Academy Award composer Marco Werba born in Spain, and lived in Rome, Italy since 1966. He is a versatile composer and has an extensive background in the music field, earning a Degree in Composition and Choral Conducting. He also studied at the Mannes College of Music in New York attending workshops in composition, orchestration and Film music. In addition, he studied conducting at the Academie de Guerande in France.
For the film music magazines Soundtrack and Cinemascore he interviewed a range of notables in the field including Jerry Goldsmith, Stanley Meyers, John Scott, Gabriel Yared and Philippe Sarde. He has served on the jury of the International Film Festival of Messina, and he created the film music workshop “Music for Images” and the international film music competition, the “Mario Nascimbene Award.”
His first musical score, in 1989, for director Cristina Comencini’s film Zoo won the prestigious Italian “Colonna Sonora” Award, when Ennio Morricone and Francis Lai, received “Colonna Sonora – Lifetime Achievement Awards”. Marco Werba has gone on to score a range of historical dramas including Anita–Una Vita per Garibaldi (Anita, a life for Garibaldi), and, in collaboration with Academy-Award winning composer Francis Lai, Amore e Libertà, Masaniello (Love of Freedom).
He often works in the Horror and Thriller genres, most recently composing the soundtrack of Giallo, the pulp thriller by cult horror director Dario Argento, starring Adrien Brody. This score won the “Fantasy & Horror Award”, the “Fantafestival Award 2010 ” and the “Fantasy Horror Cine Festival Award 2011 ”.
He is noted for his work as a film score composer but has also written a number of classical concert pieces including Adagio for the victims of Auschwitz, Dark Symphony and Symphonic Tango.
In 2011 Marco Werba received the “Globo d’Oro” Award (“Golden Globes” of the Foreign Press Association in Italy) for the music of the thriller Native, directed by John Real.