NEW YORK, NY — In the Bronx, Caribbean culture isn’t something you visit, it’s something you live. From block parties and basement studios to church halls and school auditoriums, the borough has long been a hub for Jamaican, Trinidadian, Haitian, and West Indian families building new lives while holding tight to home. For Bronx-born filmmaker Dante Hillmedo, that environment didn’t just shape who he is, it shaped how he tells stories.
Raised by Jamaican parents, Hillmedo grew up surrounded by the sounds, discipline, and resilience of Caribbean immigrant life in New York City. His work reflects the realities many Caribbean-American families know well: single-parent households, financial pressure, cultural pride, and the unspoken strength it takes to navigate two worlds at once.
Hillmedo’s path into filmmaking mirrors the journey of many children of immigrants, ambitious, resourceful, and forged through necessity. After enrolling at the School of Visual Arts with dreams of becoming an animator, financial challenges forced him to leave after his first year. Instead of giving up, he adapted. Teaching himself videography, he landed his first paid opportunity through a Craigslist post filming Caribbean DJ, DJ Mad Out, a moment that rooted him firmly in New York’s Caribbean creative ecosystem.
That introduction led to work with artists like Shaggy, Ding Dong, and Kranium, allowing Hillmedo to document Caribbean culture from the inside out. His visuals captured more than performances; they reflected community, movement, and identity.
“My goal has always been to make people feel seen,” Hillmedo says. “Caribbean stories are layered. We come from strength, sacrifice, and survival. I want that truth to live on screen.”
Today, Hillmedo leads Team Elite Productions, a visual production company known for discretion, excellence, and cultural respect. While his work has taken him into elite spaces documenting events for Michael Rubin and capturing moments connected to Jay-Z’s Shawn Carter Foundation, his perspective remains grounded in the Bronx communities that raised him. He has also collaborated with outlets like Essence Magazine, bridging mainstream visibility with diaspora-centered storytelling.
Hillmedo’s most personal work to date is his debut feature film, Butterfly, which won Best Feature Film at the Big Apple Film Festival in Spring 2025. The film follows a teenage girl growing up in a single-parent immigrant household in New York City who uses dance to cope with identity, pressure, and instability. The story draws heavily from Hillmedo’s own upbringing and reflects the experiences of many Caribbean-American youth navigating school, home, and self-discovery in the Bronx and beyond.
Rather than leaning into spectacle, Butterfly focuses on emotional realism, quiet moments, generational tension, and the power of creative expression as survival. It’s a story that feels familiar to families across the Caribbean diaspora.
Beyond filmmaking, Hillmedo continues to pour back into the community. He recently launched Lunessence, a luxury fragrance brand inspired by memory and mood, while also dedicating six years to teaching film and music production at a Riverdale high school. There, he introduced students, many from Caribbean and immigrant backgrounds, to creative careers they rarely see reflected in traditional education pipelines.
As Butterfly prepares for wider distribution and Hillmedo expands his creative ventures, he stands as a reflection of Bronx Caribbean excellence, proof that stories born in immigrant households and local communities can resonate far beyond borough lines without losing their soul.