John Ortiz is a Cinematographer and Video Editor from San José, Costa Rica.

John’s directorial debut, On the Stone (2022) has screened at 10 film festivals across the United States, Argentina, Bolivia, and Panamá. John’s career and education as a filmmaker has been supported by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, the UC Santa Cruz Arts Research Institute, and the Blum Center on Poverty, Social Enterprise, Participatory Governance. He has worked as an editor on ethnographic films such as PastPresentFuture: Archaeology and Tourism in the Yucatán (2022), and on narrative short films like Few and Far Between (2022). John’s upcoming documentary, Jerhy (2024), is a collective portrait of the Indigenous Landback movement in Térraba, Costa Rica, interweaved with John’s own reflexive journey seeking to piece together the life and death of Térraba’s indigenous activist Jerhy Rivera. John’s work examines barriers in cross-cultural communication, the everyday trials and tribulations of immigration, and Indigenous Agency in Latin America. Through his work in film, John seeks to support racialized and marginalized communities in both the United States and Costa Rica.