Meet Our Team
Founder &
Executive Director
Tahiel Jimenez Medina
He / Him
Tahiel Jimenez Medina is the founder of Mamá Papaya and a first-generation Colombian / Croatian Queer immigrant filmmaker rooted in Minnesota, the unceded lands of the Dakota peoples.
Through Mamá Papaya, Tahiel is building the nurturing, equitable, and safe creative home he wishes had existed for his mother and younger filmmaker— and for every storyteller who dreams of telling their story.
His films have premiered at Palm Springs International Short Film Festival, FICCI, and Provincetown International Film Festival. His short film LENGUA received the Jury Award for Best Short Film at MSPIFF. Recognitions include The Apichatpong Weerasethakul Playlab, The UFO Film Lab supported by BAM, The Jerome Fellowship, Yaddo Residency, and The McKnight Fellowship among others. He has been a guest lecturer at the University of Minnesota and St. Olaf College.
Director of Culture & Operations
Nicole Donoso
She / Her
Nicole Donoso Sánchez is a filmmaker and Policy Organizer at Voices for Racial Justice. Originally from Bogotá, Colombia, and now based in Minnesota, she moves between the worlds of policy and storytelling, using both as tools for collective liberation.
As Director of Culture & Operations of Mamá Papaya, Nicole seeks to amplify silenced voices and invest in the talent of QBIPOC emergent film makers in MN. She believes filmmaking is not just about the final product, but about creating a transformational process, one rooted in care, community, and equity at every step. She graduated from the University of Minnesota with a degree in Policy and Global Studies with a concentration of Human Rights in Latin America.
Recent Program Mentors & Visiting Guests
Raven Johnson
Writer Director, UMN Faculty
Saidah Russel
Sundance Film Festival Programmer
Raven Jackson
Writer Director, Filmmaker
Kevin Yu
Writer Director, Filmmaker
Arielle Knight
Writer Director, Producer, Filmmaker
Patricia Ledesma Villon
Assistant Curator of Moving Image, Walker
Nel Augustin
Head of Explore MN Film
Martín Blanco
Writer Director, Filmmaker
Andrew Peterson
Executive Director of FilmNorth
M. Jamison
Composer & Sound Designer
Reyna Rios-Starr
Actress, Producer, Filmmaker
Serena Hodges
Cinematographer, Producer, Filmmaker
Board of Directors
Nicole Donoso Sanchez
Chair
Reyna Rios Starr
Co-Treasurer
Mary Anne Quiroz
Co-Treasurer
Tahiel Jimenez Medina
Secretary
Partners & Collaborators
