The Filmakers

Juan S. Betancor – Director

Born in 1973 in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain, Juan S. Betancor graduated in 1996 at the Tisch School of the Arts, New York University. During his college years he directed several short films, most notably The Incredible Story of the Man Who Became a Statue.

After graduating, he directed the documentary Hijos de la Montaña de Plata (2006) which was selected and awarded at different international film festivals. Since then he focused his career on producing and directing institutional videos on development aid, having worked in different African countries for the United Nations, the European Commission and the Spanish Agency for International Development.

One of these assignments took him to Guinea-Bissau, where he became familiar with the human stories surrounding The Vanished Dream.

At this moment he is at the pre-production stage of his next documentary that will take place in Mongolia.

Victor Giner – Scriptwriter

Born in 1977 in Valencia, Spain, after graduating in Law, Victor Giner coursed development studies in Spain, Germany and Belgium. He has worked in the field of development cooperation in Cuba, Morocco, Guinea-Bissau and China, combining his tasks as international development worker with collaborations as film critic and lecturer.

At this moment, he is writing the script of Siddhartha Films’ first feature fiction film, “Smoke and Mirrors”.