Rita Carmona is an MFA student in Social Documentary at UCSC. Currently, she is in her first year of the program starting her writing and project planning for her thesis film. This project will take her to Guanacaste, Costa Rica this summer to capture the impacts of the tourism industry on local communities. This research explores the violence within this industry from the perspective of those most affected by it. New to film, her experience doing community work in Chicago greatly informs her work here in Santa Cruz. As an ARI Graduate Student Fellow, Rita is excited for the opportunity for such profound support and connections. In her free time, Rita enjoys film photography, eating with her partner, walking her dog, and trying to get her cat to stop knocking over everything in their home.