Sandra Peña Sarmiento (aka "Pocha Peña") is an award-winning filmmaker, artist and writer who served as Festival Director for the CineFestival film festival in Texas and San Diego Latino Film Festival in California.

She has also worked with the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival and Spanish-language television networks such as Telemundo, Univision and Fox Latin American. Her video art has exhibited at museums, galleries and film festivals all over the globe and her handmade textile line is enjoying increasing popularity throughout the Southwest.

Additionally, La Pocha's seminal writing, "The Pocha Manifesto" was published in Jump Cut film journal and recently featured in the "Phantom Sightings" show at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Sandra has also written for La Opinion, Tu Cuidad, Chicano Art Magazine and other publications.  She currently divides her time between San Antonio, TX and Los Angeles, CA producing videos for private clients, exhibiting her work and consulting on matters of social justice though Media Arts.

Sandra is the producer of Aztec Gold with Lou Chalibre, an innovative arts and culture series hosted by a masked Mexican wrestler; and is currently producing a documentary about the restoration of the historic murals at Chicano Park in San Diego.

Her first work, a music video for the Southern California punk band The Vandals, was broadcast on MTV when she was 17. Sandra adopted the moniker "Pocha Peña" as a badge of honor while attending the UCLA's prestigious School of Film & Television.

Since then, Sandra has created striking video pieces that have screened in film festivals worldwide. Her work has also been exhibited as part of the CARA and Chicano Now! exhibits in San Francisco, at the UC Riverside Sweeney Art Gallery, at the Museum of the Living Artist in San Diego and at the BH Life Film Festival in Boyle Heights.

In 2005 she served as Associate Producer for the groundbreaking gay romantic comedy East Side Story, a funny Romeo and Julio story set amidst the turbulent backdrop of gentrification. She has also produced work for Telemundo, Fox Latin America and the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival (LALIFF).

As a multimedia and video instructor, Sandra recently produced two documentaries, the NY Times featured "I am Orange County" and Josiah Youth Film Festival favorite "San Anto TV".     

As a curator Sandra has also left her mark, with well-reviewed exhibitions at her POCHARTE Gallery in Orange County (which included works by Alma Lopez, Lalo Alcaraz, Jesse Lerner and Ruben Ortiz Torres).

Pocha's love of art fused with activism has also led her to co-found Santa Ana's annual Day of the Dead Celebration, join the Orange County Mexican-American Historical Society, and actively support The Chicano Park Steering Committee in San Diego. 

Additionally, she has been profiled in numerous catalogues, journals and published anthologies. 

 
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