This post was updated March 3 at 10:05 p.m.

Cinema Libertá blends professional-level film training with a philosophy of access.

Peruvian filmmaker Cristian García Zelada has launched Cinema Libertá, a free film school in Peru focused on making film education more accessible in his home country. García Zelada founded the non-profit, free-of-cost film program in collaboration with the BienAventurados Cultural Association. The organization, according to Digital Cinema Report, is dedicated to promoting arts education and cultural education in Peru. The school is designed to eliminate financial and academic barriers that often prevent aspiring filmmakers from pursuing formal training.

Cinema Libertá offers both in-person and online courses, built around what García Zelada said are “horizontal teaching methods.” Rather than reinforcing traditional hierarchies between instructors and students that can often make learning feel unattainable, García Zelada said the school emphasizes collaboration and shared learning.

“I’ve never felt like a gatekeeper of knowledge,” García Zelada said. “But now, after experience with UCLA, I feel it more as a moral obligation to be able to be open with students.”

García Zelada said Cinema Libertá organizes learning circles focused on screenwriting, acting and short film production and brings in working industry professionals – including Emmy and Goya Award winners – to teach. Interest in the program has been strong, he added. According to García Zelada, Cinema Libertá receives between 200 and 300 applications per cycle. While in-person classes are limited to about 10 to 20 students, he added that the online sessions can reach more people from all over the world.

Born in Trujillo, Peru, García Zelada is a filmmaker, screenwriter, director and producer known for his films “One-to-One” (2018), “Imparfecto” (2019) and “Claustrofobia” (2020). In 2018, he received the Il Pesce d’Argento award at Mirabile Dictu International Catholic Film Festival held under the patronage of the Pontifical Council for Culture. García Zelada said despite having written and directed 15 short films and attending many film festivals worldwide, his career has only just begun.

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Before launching Cinema Libertá, García Zelada said he studied in UCLA’s Professional Program in Screenwriting and the Professional Program in Directing, and said the experience was foundational and empowering.

“UCLA was the most defining thing that made me able to start this school,” García Zelada said.

Peru’s film industry is still developing, García Zelada added, producing approximately 70 films per year and offering limited formal education pathways. Before attending UCLA, he said he spent over a decade piecing together filmmaking knowledge independently. At UCLA, García Zelada encountered structured instruction from working professionals, which accelerated his learning. He added that seeing how an expert approaches their work firsthand can be especially eye-opening and now he seeks to recreate that mentorship-driven model in Peru.

García Zelada said he shared his original idea for Cinema Libertá with Marco Fargnoli, his mentor and a professor in UCLA’s Theater, Film and Television Professional Programs. Fargnoli supported his idea, García Zelada said, and offered to teach classes once the school launched. He added that at the time, Cinema Libertá seemed many years down the line, but the encouragement from his mentor motivated him to make it a reality. Fargnoli has since taught online classes at Cinema Libertá, García Zelada said, and has hopes of traveling to teach in-person classes in Peru. García Zelada added that being able to connect with experts like Fargnoli in the online sessions is very impactful for his students, passing down knowledge from his own UCLA mentor to emerging filmmakers in Peru.

Bryerly Long – an international actress, director, writer and UCLA Professional Programs alumnus – served as the teaching assistant in the screenwriting course García Zelada completed. Film’s value largely comes from its ability to represent diverse perspectives. Long added that the restrictive, privileged nature of access is a large loss for the filmmaking community. García Zelada’s  work with Cinema Libertá is important for the industry because it gives access to people who might have otherwise been excluded, Long said, allowing them to share their unique perspective through filmmaking.

García Zelada’s wife, Lucero Ramirez, studied Business Administration and works in technology. Though in a different field, she said she supports her husband by assisting in the production of short films like “Host Hijacked” and the strategic development of Cinema Libertá. Ramirez said film education opportunities in Peru and across Latin America are limited compared to those at UCLA and other major international programs. She added that she admires García Zelada’s willingness to give back and share knowledge after gaining that unique experience.

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It takes a very passionate person to build a project like Cinema Libertá from the ground up and García Zelada is dedicated to making an impact in the industry, Ramirez said. She hopes that people from different fields can adopt this mindset to make a change across Peruvian industries.

“​​I think he’s (García Zelada’s) the star behind all this. … He has the ability to grow things from zero, from nothing, to become something great, and I think it’s because of his resilience and his energy to be better, not only in the filmmaking field, but in the human being field,” Ramirez said. “I think we all need to have that energy.”

Looking ahead, García Zelada said he hopes Cinema Libertá will expand to include longer two-to-three-month programs. Ramirez added that she envisions further expansion across Peru and into other parts of Latin America.

García Zelada said encouragement and passion cultivated during his time in the UCLA Professional Program allowed him to achieve goals he had envisioned for himself in his 60s or 70s – all before the age of 35. These include creating Cinema Libertá and winning a prestigious award at Mirabile Dictu, which he describes as the “Catholic Oscars,” for his very first short film.

“You don’t have to be that prepared to start doing stuff,” García Zelada said. “You don’t have to get to that high … unreachable level to start making some big projects or dreams come true.”