Independent Television Service (ITVS) funds, promotes and distributes independently produced programming to public media. Aguilar oversees all aspects of program initiatives, including programming strategy, funding calls, peer panel review, and funding recommendations. She commissions programming from the global community of independent producers and is curator of INDEPENDENT LENS, the PBS prime-time series of independently produced programming.
She came to ITVS from public television station KCET/Los Angeles, where she programmed the station’s schedule and managed programming acquisitions. Prior to that she was a film programmer at the UCLA Film and Television Archive, one of the leading exhibition venues for international documentary and classic Hollywood films. She has served as a programming consultant and panelist for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the Rockefeller Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Pew Fellowships in the Arts, and many other media and funding organizations. She has led and participated in film juries for IDFA, Sheffield Doc/Fest, Silverdocs, and Visions du Réel.
A second-generation Filipina-American, she holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communications Studies and a Master of Arts in Film and Television Studies from UCLA. She serves on the board of Women Make Movies, STEPS International, and the EURODOC Steering Committee.
