YPA Venezuelan Documentary Screening and Q&A

Join Young Professionals of the Americas for an in-person screening of the 90-minute documentary ‘A Dangerous Assignment: Uncovering Corruption in Venezuela' with director Juan Ravell, Armando.info reporter Roberto Deniz, and producer Jeff Arak.

This documentary, produced in collaboration with Armando.info and FRONTLINE PBS, tells the story of Alex Saab who was captured and released in a controversial U.S. prisoner swap, and the challenges faced by journalists who uncovered the corruption. In conversation with The Atlantic's Gisela Salim-Peyer, the creators of the film will detail their experience covering one of the most explosive corruption scandals connecting Venezuela and the United States. 

Following the event, a networking reception will be held for attendees. 

This event is open to the public and has limited capacity. Registration is required.

Speakers:

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Juan Andres Ravell, director, is an audio producer and documentary director from Caracas Venezuela. In 2008, Juan co-founded El Chigüire Bipolar, a wildly popular political satire website that used humor to bypass government censorship in Venezuela. In 2018, Juan branched into investigative journalism collaborating in projects with reporters from Armando.Info, IDL Reporteros and Columbia Journalism School. Juan recently directed the investigative documentary feature “A Dangerous Assignment” for FRONTLINE PBS.

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Roberto Deniz is a renowned Venezuelan investigative journalist. For years he has investigated and uncovered large cases of corruption in Venezuela with a transnational reach. He has received numerous awards both in his country and in Latin America. Since 2016 he has been part of the Armando.Info team and is currently also a partner of the only Venezuelan media outlet dedicated to investigative journalism and which in 2019 was awarded the María Moors Cabot Award from the Columbia University School of Journalism in New York.

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Jeff Arak is a journalist and filmmaker based in New York City. Over the past decade he has produced non-fiction TV and documentaries for HBO and FRONTLINE PBS. Arak is a graduate of the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY. He speaks Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese.

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Gisela Salim-Peyer is an assistant editor at The Atlantic, where she covers Venezuela’s dictatorship under Nicolás Maduro. Gisela is a Columbia Journalism School alumni. Before joining the magazine, she worked as a research assistant in academia and also interned at the United Nations. She grew up in Caracas, and prior to moving to New York City she lived in the Netherlands, Italy, Uganda, and Portugal.