Bienvenida (Beni) Matías is a director, writer and producer working at the intersection of independent film, social justice, and community organizing.  The log line for Coquito, her latest film is: "Passion, history and politics collide in a glass of Puerto Rico’s famed Christmas drink - coquito.”

The film explores how the traditional drink is a metaphor for a cultural longing many Puerto Ricans in the diaspora feel for the island they left behind. It tells how culture is informed by agriculture, and how the current economic woes of the island have roots in forgotten agricultural policies created when sugar was king.