Eliot Galán

Eliot Galán is a filmmaker from Austin, Texas, of Mexican and Jewish descent. In high school, he began documenting his social life with a B&W film camera, which laid the foundation for a life of storytelling. Working as a Videographer, he immigrated to Canada in his early 20s, where he went to film school and became a Film Editor, learning the ropes alongside numerous accomplished directors. After a stint in Reality TV, he found himself craving more fulfillment, so he forged a new path as a multi-hyphenate Writer/Director/DP, and began producing documentaries, music videos and commercials.

Eliot’s films often center on subjects impacted by injustice. In "Hot Earth," he documented community resistance against gentrification in Chinatown. In "When the Tide Goes Out," he followed an Indigenous community in their efforts to restore the habitats of their
ancestral lands. In "Holding Ground," he worked with a group of low income residents who support each other with mutual aid, through the daily grind of overlapping crises. The constant of Eliot’s approach is presenting characters that are fundamentally human, relatable, and unforgettable.

Now 20 years into his career, and living in Los Angeles, Eliot is trying his hand at writing fiction. Naturally he returned to his unique upbringing, which was fertile ground for inspiration. Children are often dealt an unfair hand, then not given the support they need, instead cast
aside by authority figures who deem them problematic, setting them up for failure. This mechanism is one that Eliot hopes to explore with his work in the coming years, aligning with his mandate to participate in the ever-evolving conversation of social change.