By Noma Faingold (April 11, 2026)
Chilean-born filmmaker Andrés Gallegos chose San Francisco in 2014 to continue his education, earning an MFA in Cinema at San Francisco State University. He had visited prestigious film schools in New York and Los Angeles, but the Bay Area instantly felt like home. “I liked the program at State, but I fell in love with what was happening here,” he said. “The richness of the culture and the creative community made me want to stay.”
Gallegos, 39, became a successful cinematographer and writer/director, dividing his time between shooting indie films, corporate/commercial projects and developing his own original films.
His directing credits include the 2022 documentary, “From Mexico to Vietnam, a Chicano Story,” about Jesus S. Duran, an immigrant who enlisted in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War and was awarded a posthumous Medal of Honor in 2012. The 50-minute film won the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the Riverside International Film Festival.
He also directed the documentary short, “Guy Hircefeld, A Guy with a Camera,” which won Best Short Documentary at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival. Gallegos received recognition on the festival circuit with narrative work, such as the 2016 drama short, “Stay.”
His latest short narrative, “The Darkest Night,” will be part of a special screening (with two other short films) during the 69th San Francisco International Film Festival, April 24-May 4. The Sound & Cinema Showcase, an SFFILM collaboration with the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, will be held at SFCM on April 27.
Gallegos returned to his hometown of Talca, Chile to film the 22-minute “The Darkest Night,” which was shot in nine days. It is actually part two in a planned trilogy that began with the short, “Shoe Shiner,” set in the 1990s and filmed eight years ago in the same town, with the same cast. He compares what he’s trying to accomplish to what director Richard Linklater created with “Boyhood,” which was filmed with the same cast over 12 years, capturing real-time growth of the main character from age 6 to 18. Gallegos also names “Moonlight” as a storytelling inspiration.
“Shoe Shiner” is a coming-of-age piece about a 10-year-old named Diego living on the margins of post-fascist Chile. “It’s an ode to my grandfather and dad, who had to work. It’s a very personal story. I am grateful that I got to go to school,” Gallegos said. “When I look at photos of my mom and dad in my first three years, it was very rough.”
“The Darkest Night,” picks up with Diego (played by Patricio Jara Maraboli) at age 16. He is working as a construction assistant in a wealthy neighborhood for father figure Sergio (Daniel Antivilo). When Sergio gets seriously injured, it leads Diego to make dangerous choices in an effort to help Sergio get the quality medical care he desperately needs.
“I like the characters. These films are looking at a marginalized community. I want to explore that in my filmmaking because it’s connected to my family and to many Chileans who don’t have the opportunity for a proper education and to have a more comfortable life,” Gallegos said. “This film portrays this kind of experience and community in a respectful way. It’s not exploitive.”
During the pandemic, when Gallegos was living in San Francisco’s Outer Richmond District, he had a lot of time to ponder and create. While waiting for the bus on Balboa Street and 45th Avenue, he had an epiphany that he could further develop Diego and the other characters, making the material worthy of a full-length feature.
“The Darkest Night” ends with a cliff-hanger. His plan is to raise money to continue the story and show what happens to the adult Diego. While the first two films can stand alone, Gallegos sees the final installment as a way to convert the trilogy into a feature film.
His cast is in it for the long hall. They signed contracts to work on the conclusion of the story, however long it takes. Gallegos hinted that the final act will involve revenge.
A pivotal scene in “The Darkest Night,” is a conversation Diego has with his mother. He’s looking for guidance from her as to what is the right thing to do. What she doesn’t say is more important than giving him the answer he seeks. “There’s a little ambiguity. A filmmaker can get very moralistic of what is good and what is bad,” Gallegos said. “Who am I to say what is good and what is bad? That’s why I leave certain things open to interpretation. It’s for the audience to decide.”
Gallegos was the cinematographer for both “Shoe Shiner” and “The Darkest Night.” He approached “The Darkest Night” documentary-style by using handheld shots almost 100 percent of the time.
He plans to submit “The Darkest Night” to the 2027 Sundance Film Festival, with other festival entries to follow.
SFFILM supported “The Darkest Night,” by awarding Gallegos a year-long FilmHouse residency, an artist development program. In addition, he was selected as a Sound and Cinema fellow with SFCM, which provided post-production sound technology and original music compositions (the score) by conservatory students.
Gallegos and his wife, Constanza Hevia, a filmmaker and photographer, were both producers of “The Darkest Night.” “She is the soul of the project. She is my creative partner in everything I do as a director,” he said. “Her role spanned from scriptwriting assistance to overall production management.”
The couple lives in the Outer Sunset District with their two-year-old daughter, Inara (meaning “shining light” in Arabic). Gallegos loves being less than two blocks from Ocean Beach, but he misses being able to walk to the Balboa Theater. He has a soft spot for local movie theaters like the recently restored Castro Theatre. He has a documentary in the works called, “The Shape of Light,” which focuses on activists and audiences working to keep local movie theaters alive.
Gallegos and Hevia, who met in college in Chile, both earned MFAs at S.F. State. They got married on November 11, 2020 at the height of the pandemic. “We needed to do something good,” he said.
What they did was hold the ceremony at Vista del Mar, in front of the Cliff House, overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Only a photographer and a minister witnessed the wedding in person. All the other guests, from locations near and far, were present via Zoom. “We were on a mountain top and we were able to be connected with family and friends,” Gallegos said. “It was great.”
“The Darkest Night will be screened with two other shorts at the Sound & Cinema Showcase on April 27 at 7:30 p.m., at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, 200 Van Ness Ave., during the 69th SFFILM International Film Festival, April 24-May 4.
Watch “From Mexico to Vietnam.
- Website: https://andres-gallegos.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andresgallegos_dp/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/andresgallegos.y
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andresgallegosy/
- Other: IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3672514/
- El Dorado Films: https://www.eldoradofilms.net/filmmakers/andres-gallegos/
Watch “Guy Hircefeld: A Guy with a Camera “
Noma Faingold is a writer and photographer who lives in Noe Valley. A native San Franciscan who grew up in the Sunset District, Faingold is a frequent contributor to the Richmond Review and Sunset Beacon newspapers, among others. She is obsessed with pop culture and the arts, especially film, theater and fashion. Noma has written about poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, artists Tamara de Łempicka, Isaac Julien, and Wayne Thiebaud, numerous independent filmmakers, and singer/songwriters Janis Joplin, Diane Warren, and Linda Smith for EatDrinkFilms.