The Writer
Forrest Hartl
Forrest is a writer, actor, and professor from Norwalk, CA, who has lived in Downey for the past 20 years. He studied acting at UC Berkeley and writing at USC. Mass Effect is published by PlayGround-LA. Forrest's autobiographical play, The Whexican, adapted into a short film, premiered at the Tucson Film & Music Festival and was a NuvoTV emerging Latino filmmaker finalist. His short film A Boy and His Dad won awards at the Catalina and My Hero Film Festivals. He served as literary intern for Steve Carell's Carousel Productions and worked in the camera department on their first feature, Crazy Stupid Love. Tortilla Flat, adapted from John Steinbeck's novel, was presented through Center Theatre Group. Forrest teaches theatre at several colleges across Southern California.
The Director
Cristina Nava
Cristina Nava has been writing and producing movies for over a decade. Her last two movies got distribution - “In Other Words” (on HBO Max) and “Divorce Bait” (acquired by Samuel Goldwyn). For the last two years, Cristina has felt like she wanted to take that last step in getting her vision on the screen…directing!
“Free Lunch” was a perfect segue to directing movies because, in her former life, Cristina was a middle school teacher where she taught students film acting and producing, and she was in charge of directing an annual musical theater show for over ten years.
As a producer and screenwriter for film and television, Cristina has worked with every film department and has had the opportunity to shadow directors. The secret to the success of the movies she produced and wrote has been in working with people who excel in the departments in which they work. And so, with the help of Alex and Forrest, Cristina surrounded herself with talented crew members and actors who supported this beautiful venture in her directorial debut “Free Lunch”
The producer
Alex Linares
Alex Linares is a Salvadoran director and producer who immigrated to the United States when he was 15 years old. He had a drive to succeed, and worked every moment of his life after leaving his home country to learn English and make a name for himself. At 18, Alex started to work at a mom and pop camera store, at which point he fell in love with all things photo and video. Since then, Alex has become an internationally published photographer and videographer, and has become a master jack-of-all-trades director, producer, writer, actor and editor. He recently has produced and directed a series of short films, but is best known for his award winning short film La Persecución. Alex has lived in Downey, California with his two children for 15 years. "Free Lunch" is his first feature film, with "The Answer to My Prayer" directed by Patrick Perez Vidauri in post production, which he also was a producer on.
