Raul Benitez has been involved with the Chicago Film Community through the Chicago Underground Film Festival for the past 15 years. He has previously volunteered for The Chicago Cinema Societybefore taking over the film programming at Comfort Station Logan Square in 2013. He has partnered or programmed with Chicago Film Makers, Little Mexico Film Festival, First Nations Film Festival, Reeling Film Festival, Chicago Film Archives, Beguiled Cinema, CIMM Fest, La Guarimba Film Festival, South Side Projections, DollHouse DIY, The Wretched Nobles of the Exiled Dynasty, Kartemquin Films, ACREtv, Moving Image Arts, Chicago Latino Film Festival, Cinema Culture, Nerivela Mexico and the Permanencia Voluntaria Archivo Cinematográfico.  Raul was named by New City as a Chicago Screen Gem of 2015Â, 2017 , 2019 and in 2023 was named into the Film 50 Hall of Fame. His outdoor film series for Comfort Station was named by The Chicago Reader (2013) and New City (2015) as the best outdoor film series in the city.
He currently does film programming for Comfort Film at Comfort Station Logan Square , Full Spectrum Features, Midwest Film Festival, the After Dark and Shorts programmer for the Chicago International Film Festival. Nightingale Cinema and also a screener, presenter and web site administrator for The Chicago Underground Film Festival.
Raul is a screener for the 2018,19,20, 21, 22, 23 and 2024 Chicago On Screen Local Film Showcase and the Onion City Film Festival 2017/18/19,2020,2021,2022 and 2023. In 2024 Raul is on the Jury for Onion City.
Raul is the lead programmer for Chicagoland Shorts Volume 4, 5, 6, 7 and now volume 8 for 2022.
Raul was named on the Jury for the Cortadito Shorts Film Showcase at the Gene Siskel Film Center. He is also a former member of the Panorama Latinx Community Council. Raul was a jury member for 2019, 2020, 21, 22, 23 and 2024 DePaul School of Cinematic Arts DePaul Experimental Film Showcase, and the Chicago International Children’s Film Festival 2019,2020,2021. 2022 and 2023.
With Full Spectrum Features Raul was part of a grant award from the MacArthur foundation for an International Connections grant in 2019. The result of the grant was the Chicago Cinema Exchange where film makers from Chicago and Mexico City exhibited films programmed by Raul.
In December of 2019 Raul in partnership with Permanencia Voluntaria Archivo Cinematográfico and Viviana GarcÃa Besne screened the first two films of El Santo restored by Besne at the Musicbox Theater.
Raul was on the team for the Chicago Cinema Workers Fund which donated money to theater workers who were affected by the pandemic.
Raul presented a screening of the first Mexican sound Horror Film La Llorona (1933) at the Musicbox of Horrors in October 2020.
Raul was a Jury member for the 2020 Reeling Film festival.
Raul is part of the screening team for the 2021 and 2022 True/False Film festival.
Raul was the moderator for the Equity in Film: The Latinx Perspective panel for the Illinois Film Office. You can watch a recording of the panel here.
Raul was named Senior Programmer for the Midwest Film Festival.
Raul is now programming for the Chicago International Film Festival for their shorts and After Dark Program.
Raul is on the board for the Chicago Made Shorts Series.
Raul is on the 2022 and 2023 Ann Arbor Film Festival and Flex Fest 2022 screening committee.
Raul successfully programmed and exhibited the Chicago/Mexico City Cinema exchange in Mexico City in March of 2022.
Screened two Mexican Female wrestling films at the Musicbox in partnership with the Permanencia Voluntaria Archivo Cinematográfico.
Screened Double Feature: La Llorona & The Phantom of the Monastery at the Mexican Museum of Art in partnership with Permanencia Voluntaria Archivo Cinematográfico.
At the Ann Arbor Film Festival 2023 Raul screened his Mexico City/Chicago experimental film program co-curated by Mexican Film Archivist Tzutzu Matzin called The root and the harvest/La raiz y la cosecha   ÂWhich also played in August of 2023 at the Gene Siskel Film Center as part of the Nightingale Projects screenings.
Raul was named to the board for the Chicago Film Society.
Raul was awarded an Esteemed Artist Grant by DCASE.
Contact Raul.