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I’m Ernesto ‘Tito’ Cabellos, a Peruvian documentary filmmaker and educator. My award-winning films, including Daughter of the Lake, Choropampa, and Tambogrande, have screened at festivals worldwide and featured on Netflix, Sundance TV, BBC, and more.
Award-winning documentaries on environmental justice and human rights in Peru and the Amazon. Each film follows communities confronting mining companies, land loss and inequality — screened at Sundance, IDFA and Hot Docs, and broadcast on Netflix and BBC.
At the height of the Peruvian gold rush, Nelida, an Andean woman able to communicate with water spirits, uses her powers to prevent a mining corporation from destroying the body of water she considers her mother.
A gold deposit valued at billions of dollars lies just beneath Nelida’s lakes and leads farmers and Latin America’s biggest gold producer into conflict.
Peru is in the midst a gastronomic revolution. Its army: thousands of culinary students. Its leader: the Peruvian chef Gastón Acurio. Its weapons: centuries of ethnic fusion.
In his documentary “Cooking Up Dreams“, renowned Peruvian director Ernesto Cabellos, presents his country’s spectacular cuisine and asks himself: Can an entire nation be represented by its cuisine? This documentary journeys to the kitchens of Peru’s coast, highlands and jungle, as well as Peruvian expat communities in Paris, London, Amsterdam and New York for answers.
From the most humble family kitchens to the poshest restaurants, from stories of pioneering Peruvian chefs abroad to those who preserve ancient recipes at home, we find that Peru’s cuisine is deliciously integrating for its people, who have historically been divided by ethnic and economic differences. This documentary isn’t just about food. This documentary is about integration, challenges, culture, poverty and wealth. We’ll discover the origin of Peru’s ubiquitous national dish – cebiche – the anticuchos of beef hearts or the annual meal mourners share at the graves of their dead relatives.
Famed chefs such as Spain’s Ferran Adrià, as well as Peru’s Gastón Acurio share their views and experiences with Peru’s cuisine alongside the thousands of unsung chefs, who also dream of Peru’s cuisine as a motor of development.
A devastating mercury spill by the world’s richest gold mining corporation transforms a quiet peasant village in Peru’s Andean mountains into a hotbed of civil resistance. A courageous young mayor emerges to lead his people on a quest for health care and justice. But powerful interests conspire to thwart the villagers at every turn in this 2-year epic chronicle of the real price of gold.
Adventurous pioneers transform Peru’s harsh northern desert into a fertile valley of mango and lime orchards. But all they’ve worked for is threatened when gold is discovered under their land.
Fear, violence and murder rock their once quiet community. In the midst of chaos, a martyr’s vision unites the farmers and leads them down a revolutionary path of non-violent resistance — a historic community referendum that became a symbol of grassroots resistance to extractivism.
Co-directed by Ernesto Cabellos and Stephanie Boyd. The film has won more than 20 international awards and travelled to festivals worldwide.
Father Marco, a humble priest from the mountains of Peru, is being followed. A private security firm is filming and photographing the priest’s every move; their meticulous reports are code-named “The Devil Operation”. Marco’s allies are murdered and tortured, but he and his disciples refuse to be victims. They turn their cameras on the spies and develop a counter-espionage plan that leads to South America’s largest gold mine, owned by the Newmont Mining Corporation of Colorado. For the past two decades, Father Marco has defended farming communities against the Yanacocha mine’s abuses, earning him the nickname ‘The Devil’. Peru is one of the world’s top gold producers and the state has ceded power to transnational corporations who guard their territory like outlaws in the Wild West. Film-maker Stephanie Boyd has spent 10 years documenting the farmer’s struggle and became caught up in this real-life political thriller.
Ernesto “Tito” Cabellos is available for screenings and Q&As with his films, keynote talks, masterclasses and one-to-one mentoring for directors developing their own projects.
His work brings together hands-on craft and a lasting commitment to storytelling, ethics and social impact.
Ernesto also teaches documentary filmmaking at the University of Sussex (UK).
Festival talks, keynote lectures, panel discussions and masterclasses on documentary filmmaking and social impact.
One-to-one guidance for documentary filmmakers developing projects, refining stories or preparing for funding and festivals.
Host one of Ernesto’s award-winning documentaries followed by an engaging conversation with audiences.
Ernesto “Tito” Cabellos’ films and work have been featured on major international platforms and broadcasters.





