Estevan Valdes has always been fascinated by what makes a story work.

Not just what happens on screen, but everything behind it: the choices filmmakers make, the people and perspectives that shape a story, the craft audiences never notice, and that hard-to-explain thing that makes certain films stay with us long after the credits roll.

That curiosity has shaped his career as a filmmaker, director, producer, and creative entrepreneur.

A graduate of the University of Central Florida’s Film and Television Production program and the University of Georgia’s MFA program in Film and TV Production, Estevan has built a multidisciplinary career spanning narrative film, documentary, commercial production, and branded storytelling.

His experience stretches across the filmmaking process, from directing and cinematography to editing and color, giving him an unusually hands-on understanding of how a story evolves from an idea into the final image audiences experience.

His commercial work has included productions for Short Barrel, Whiskey Tree Bourbon, and Ascending Capital Management. He also served as a producer and line producer on OG Stories alongside Dame Dash, a project that ultimately landed on Paramount+.

But for Estevan, filmmaking has never been only about making things that look good.

As the son of Colombian and Cuban immigrants, he grew up understanding that who gets to tell the story can matter just as much as the story itself. That perspective became part of the foundation for Uno Somos Films, the production company he founded around a belief in thoughtful filmmaking, collaboration, and stories shaped by the people who have actually lived them.

It also fuels Screen Sessions, Estevan’s platform for exploring the stories behind the screen. Through conversations with filmmakers, artists, craftspeople, and creative minds, he gets to do what he's always loved: ask too many questions, obsess over creative decisions, uncover the lore behind the work, and understand why certain stories connect with us.

Before film, Estevan played professional golf, which makes considerably more sense once you realize he has apparently always been drawn to pursuits that require an unreasonable amount of patience, precision, and obsession.

Today, whether he’s directing a project, interviewing another filmmaker, or disappearing down a cinematic rabbit hole, Estevan’s curiosity keeps bringing him back to the same question:

Why do some stories stay with us?

He intends to spend a very long time finding out.