BIO

Eliaz Rodriguez is an international award-winning self-taught writer, director, and editor from Chicago. In 2008 he co-created the comedy group Wood Sugars and over the next five years produced/directed hundreds of films, web series, podcasts, and live comedy shows.

In October of 2013 he made his first solo short film, an adaptation of a true story entitled “Beverly”, which went on to win Best In Show of the Cinema Minima Residency and Best of Fest of the Indie Incubator Film Fest.

Having filmed most of his shorts as a one-man crew, in 2015 he sought to create a network of collaborative filmmakers in Chicago, and co-founded the “Crosstown Collective”, a Chicago based film collective which aims to empower, low-budget, independent filmmakers from across the city. Eliaz was the Cinematographer for the group’s first short film “Hysteria”.

In 2016 he launched his production company “Elamina Films”. The first release from Elamina is his latest short "Think Twice", which was his first film with a full 15-person crew. “Think Twice” (Trailer, Facebook, Twitter) has gone on to be selected to 36 film festivals and has won multiple “Best Director” and “Best Short Film” awards at festivals including the prestigious Middle Coast Film Festival and the "Best International Comedy Film" award from the Cardiff Mini [budget] Film Festival.

Eliaz can also be heard weekly on segments of the podcast he co-hosts & engineers, called CinemaJaw "The greatest movies podcast ever!" which is an iTunes top #15 Film Podcast.

Email: EliazRodriguez {at} gmail {dot} com