Brownsville Bred

Elaine Del Valle is an award winning playwright, director, producer, screenwriter and casting director. She first garnered critical acclaim with her autobiographical, Off-Broadway stage play, Brownsville Bred for which she won the 2011 HOLA award for excellence in playwriting, and was named Trendsetter at the Multi-Cultural Media Forum. The play chronicles Elaine's true Nuyorican (New York-Puert Rican) coming-of-age amidst the deteriorating backdrop of her 1980's Brownsville Brooklyn welfare projects. Brownsville Bred was subsequently published as a Young Adult Memoir and became a quarter-finalist in Publisher's Weekly BookLife Prize (2020). The novel is now a part of Creative Writing and American Latino Cultural studies in NYC public schools. Her books are featured globally on the shelves of the Latinx House libraries at major film festivals.¿ Elaine has won numerous Best Director and Best Short Film awards. Her short, Me 3.769, has screened in competition at top tier film festivals and was licensed by HBO. ¿ As the owner and operator of Del Valle Productions & Casting, Elaine has become the go-to person for up-and-coming diverse talent and rising stars for many high profile brands, studios and agencies. Elaine was featured in the PBS documentary Beating The Odds, alongside luminaries such as Michelle Obama. Ebby Magazine called her a Tour De Force.¿ She is a Sundance Institute grant recipient, and her scripts have been amongst Cinequest's TOP 50 (2019 & 2020) . In 2019 Miami News Times named her as One of 5 Filmmakers to Watch. Elaine was named Madrina ("Godmother" by Prime Latino Media-2017) and as Vanguard (by Official Latino 2019). Both awards reflect her leadership in and support of the Latinx, independent filmmaking community.