By Lisa Deaderick – SanDiegoUnionTribune.com – Photo: Howard Lipin|The San Diego Union-Tribune.
Photo: Ethan van Thillo is the founder and executive director of the Media Arts Center San Diego, a local non-profit that also organizes the annual San Diego Latino Film Festival, which he also founded.
A career organizing Latino film festivals started simply enough for Ethan van Thillo: He volunteered. As a Latin American studies major in college in Santa Cruz, van Thillo had a professor who asked whether anyone wanted to be part of organizing a Chicano film festival as part of their class work. Van Thillo went on to organize three festivals and produce a short film before leaving Santa Cruz and arriving in San Diego.
