Santiago Pozo

Life

Pozo was born in Madrid, the son of a baker. He became interested in film making as a teenager.

Career

Since the early 1980s, Pozo has been involved in the distribution of Spanish-language films to the American market. In 1983, he moved to Los Angeles where he was employed as a cleaner in city buildings. He was then retained as a production assistant by Jose Luis Borau, a film maker. In 1984, having received a Fulbright scholarship from the Spanish-North American committee, Pozo enrolled in the Peter Stark producing program at The University of Southern California. In 1985, he took an internship at Universal Studios and with his enthusiasm for supplying the Hispanic market, was employed at the studios as director of special markets.

Arenas Group

In 1987, Pozo resigned from Universal Studios and founded Arenas Group, a film marketing company By 1997, Pozo was using the '360' marketing method, where a brand is presented to the customer at all points of contact.

Arenas Entertainment

In 2001, Pozo founded Arenas Entertainment, a studio to produce and distribute Latino films to the Hispanic market in the US. He received support from Marco Polo, a Spanish risk and capital management firm, and from Marc Shmuger, the vice chairman Universal Pictures. In 2002, Pozo's company was engaged to make the international distribution of Empire. In the same year, Pozo produced Imagining Argentina. In 2004, Pozo distributed the film, Nicotina. Pozo's partnership with Universal Pictures finished but continued with Marco Polo.

Community

In 2001, Pozo successfully lobbied the City of Los Angeles to add the Spanish language tilde (Ñ) to street signs where required.

Producer

Director

Writer