Ruben Grijalva grew up in San Jose, California with dreams of making the Major Leagues. It soon became clear, however, that his natural gifts were in the arts. In high school, he eventually left the ball field for the playhouse to pursue life as an actor, writer, and director. He formed The Easily Distracted Theatre, a small group of local players, musicians, and artists, as a vehicle for telling original stories.

In the Spring of 2000, Ruben made his first jump from live theatre to short film. “The Escape”, used the classic “day in the life of…” model to follow a marble that loses its way. After the positive response he received, he raised his personal bar considerably with “A Hunter’s Fall,” an award-winning short about an ‘easily distracted’ youth who seeks adventure in a world full of restraints. The main character moves seamlessly from reality to fantasy and back, in a smooth, graphic-matching style that reveals a gift for film editing.

Ruben parlayed “A Hunter’s Fall” into work as an editor and motion graphics artist. For the past seven years he has used these skills to support his theatre and film habits.

Shadow Ball, Ruben’s most ambitious short film to date, finally combines his love of baseball with his love of storytelling. He recently completed his Bachelor’s degree at San Francisco State University where he presented Shadow Ball as his undergraduate thesis. The film was selected as one of the top student films of the year at SFSU, and as a National Scholarship Award winner for excellence in the craft of film making by Eastman\Kodak. It has been selected for presentation at the prestigious Mill Valley and Harlem International Film Festivals.