A NYS Writers Institute event

About the film
A Nuyorican coming-of-age story set in 1980s Brownsville, Brooklyn, this new film follows Elaine, a girl on the cusp of becoming a teenager, as she navigates the challenges of a chaotic family and a tough and unpredictable neighborhood. "Brownsville Bred" was the only U.S. Latina-directed live-action narrative to earn Oscar eligibility in 2025.

About the director
Elaine Del Valle, multifaceted writer and filmmaker, transmutes her Brooklyn Puerto Rican girlhood into an astonishing variety of works of art: a one-woman show, award-winning short, TV show, YA novel, and now a feature film.

“From Girlhood Trials to Onstage Triumph” proclaimed the New York Times in its 2010 review of her same-titled play. The YA novel, Brownsville Bred, was a finalist for Publishers Weekly’s 2020 BookLife Prize.

Free and open to the public.

Cosponsored by the University at Albany’s Department of Africana, Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies in honor of National Hispanic Heritage Month.