Courtesy / Amberly Alene Ellis, 2016 ©

Excitement abounds! Amberly Alene Ellis, an MFA film student at American University, recently finished up an amazing gig with Alaska Airlines promoting its first flights to Cuba in January. Ellis was selected as a content contributor, and her videos have reached over 141,000 views on Facebook. 

"Part of my contract with Alaska Airlines included a takeover of their instagram for three days [and] a blog post," she said in an email, adding, "I also received two all inclusive trips as a content contributor to wherever in the world Alaska Airlines flies, to be used within the next year." 

Ellis, an independent filmmaker, writer and documentarian, was also awarded the Ruby’s Artist Project Grant in media and performing arts in 2016. She is currently working on Hermanas en Ruedas, a documentary that follows the stories of young women in the underground skate culture in Havana, Cuba.