Leonard Cortana

Leonard Cortana (Guadeloupe/France) is a Ph.D Candidate at the Cinema Studies Department at NYU Tisch School of the Arts and a Fellow at the Berkman Klein Center, Harvard Law School. He holds undergraduate degrees in comparative politics and Spanish from Sciences Po Aix en Provence (France) and a EU Commission NOHA Masters degree in humanitarian assistance from Deusto University (Spain). Cortana also earned a BA in cinema and aesthetics from Sorbonne University Paris 1. Prior to his doctoral studies, he conducted several artistic and educational projects with non-profits and UN agencies that engage with youths in multiple countries including Chile, Brazil, France, and Bulgaria. He became a Trainer for the European Commission’s Youth Program projects and the Children International Summer Village Organization (CISV) and designed methodologies in theater and storytelling for social inclusion. Cortana is also a filmmaker. His last documentary, Marielle's Legacy Will not Die,  follows activist movements spreading the intersectional legacy of Afro-Brazilian activist and politician Marielle Franco in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. His doctoral research focuses on the circulation of transnational film narratives about racial justice and activist movements that re-open wounded historical memories between Brazil, France and the US.  Cortana teaches film studies courses at the Center for Applied Liberal Arts.