Latino
Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month with The Storm That Swept Mexico
ITVS celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month with Raymond Telles’ documentary and interactive website on the complex historical, social, political, economic and cultural forces that shaped the Mexican Revolution and its legacy.
The Mexican Revolution, the first major political and social revolution of the 20th century, not only changed the course of Mexican history, but also profoundly impacted its relationships with the rest of the world. The Storm That Swept Mexico, produced in association with Latino Public Broadcasting, looks at the complex historical, social, political, economic, and cultural forces that shaped the Revolution, influenced its course and determined its consequences and legacy.
Watch The Storm That Swept Mexico throughout Hispanic Heritage Month on PBS (check local listings).
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Veteran Producer Raymond Telles Receives 2011 ALMA Award
The prestigious ALMA awards promote accurate and balanced portrayals of Latinos in the entertainment industry. Raymond Telles was recently lauded with a ALMA award for Outstanding Career Achievement.
Telles’s distinguished 30-year career as a documentary filmmaker includes three ITVS-funded films: The Fight in the Fields: Cesar Chavez and the Farmworkers’ Struggle, Race is the Place, and The Storm that Swept Mexico, a documentary about the Mexican Revolution currently airing on PBS in celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month (check local listings).
ITVS is proud to be part of Ray’s extended family, and speaking of extended family, our good friends and co-funders at Latino Public Broadcasting (LPB) published a blog post about Ray and his illustrious career. Click here to read the post >>
Watch the trailer for The Storm That Swept Mexico after the jump >>
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The Longoria Affair Nominated for an Emmy
The Longoria Affair (El caso Longoria) — which aired this past November on Independent Lens — has been nominated for an Emmy in the Outstanding Historical Programming Long Form category. The film examines the refusal of a Texas funeral home to care for the body of WWII Mexican American soldier. Filmmaker John Valadez spoke with Independent Lens about the film and its impact through a series of community screenings.
When you set out to tell this story through film, was there a particular audience you wanted to reach, and if so, did you succeed?
I remember when I first started college, I came across a really stunning and disheartening statistic: the high school drop out rate for Xicanos hovers was around 50 percent and it has been that way for at least half a century. That fact has always troubled me. For Mexican American kids who do get into college they find a world largely devoid of educational materials about how Xicanos have helped shape the destiny of this country. The same absence in history that is so devastating to Mexican Americans is something that ultimately hurts non-Xicano students as well. You can look to the ethnic studies wars taking place in Arizona to see just how determined many policy makers are to maintain this absence of self-knowledge.
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Made in L.A. Arrives on Global Voices
Made in L.A. airs this Sunday on Global Voices
Follow the remarkable story of three Latina immigrants working in Los Angeles sweatshops as they embark on a three-year odyssey to win basic labor protections from a trendy clothing retailer. Catch Made in L.A. this Sunday, September 26th on Global Voices on PBS WORLD (check local listings).
In intimate observational style, filmmakers Almudena Carracedo and Robert Bahar tell a story about immigration, the power of unity, and the courage it takes to find one’s voice. The film was a regular in our Women’s Empowerment screenings last month and we’re delighted to bring it to you on Global Voices this Sunday.
Latino Art & Culture Shines in Visiones
Parts three and four of Visiones airs this Sunday on Global Voices on PBS World. The six-part series examines the richness and impact of Latino culture through the eyes of some of the most influential painters, musicians, dancers, and writers working in America today.
The film, directed by Hector Galan, explores everything from New York’s break-dancing community to the theater scene in Texas, offering a truly unique cross section of Latino artists working today.
Visiones weaves a tapestry of paintings, songs, dances, and spoken-word performances to reflect on how Latinos have impacted arts and culture.
Watch a clip from parts three and four of Visiones, airing this Sunday on Global Voices on PBS WORLD.
Visiones Kicks Off on Global Voices
Visiones: Latino Art and Culture, directed by Hector Galan
Visiones: Latino Art and Culture profiles some of the most influential painters, musicians, dancers, and writers working in America today. Parts one and two of the six-part series air this Sunday, August 15 on Global Voices on PBS WORLD.
Directed by Hector Galan, Visiones explores how contemporary Latino artists continue to build on rich traditions that reflect a unique multi-ethnic experience, taking established art forms and reinventing them, constantly challenging themselves and the communities that nurture them.
From New York City’s breakdancers to mural painters in Los Angeles to stage actors in Texas, the series offers a unique cross section of Latino artists working today.
Check out parts one and two of Visiones this Sunday on Global Voices.
A New Season of VOCES Kicks off Tonight on Public Television
Tune in tonight for the season premiere of VOCES, the only Latino anthology series on public television devoted to exploring and showcasing the best of Latino culture. Featuring films about musical legends Tito Puente and Celia Cruz and documentaries about subjects ranging from the Puerto Rican activist Antonia Pantoja to Mexican “guest workers” to a unique soccer league made up of former stars from Latin America, VOCES is a presentation of Latino Public Broadcasting and is distributed by American Public Television.
Tonight’s episode, CELIA THE QUEEN, airing at 10:00 PM on public television (check local listings), is a loving look at the amazing life and legacy of a woman whose voice symbolized the soul of a nation and captured the hearts of fans worldwide. Erupting onto the Cuban music scene as the lead singer for La Sonora Matancera, Celia Cruz broke down barriers of racism and sexism. With the powerful weapon of her voice and the warm tolerance of her heart, Celia soon became all things to all people. The film shows the diversity of the people whose lives she touched, from stars like Quincy Jones, Andy Garcia and Wyclef Jean to ordinary people all over the world who loved not only her music but her incredible spirit. Tonight’s episode is a co-presentation with National Black Programming Consortium.
In addition to the public television broadcast, films will be available for online viewing on the VOCES Web site.
Watch BEYOND THE BORDER on Global Voices on PBS WORLD
Over the past decade, thousands of Latinos seeking una vida mejor (“a better life”) have migrated to Kentucky, finding low-paying service jobs. As the Latino communities have swelled, so too have xenophobia and discrimination. BEYOND THE BORDER traces the painful transition made by four sons who leave their family in Mexico and fight cultural, class and language barriers in the United States.
Watch a preview below:
BEYOND THE BORDER airs Sunday, June 21 at 10:00 PM on Global Voices on PBS WORLD (check local listings).
Latino Public Broadcasting Open Call Deadline
Are you an independent producer working on a project that relates to or is representative of Latino Americans? Be sure to apply to Latino Public Broadcasting (LPB)’s Open Call 2009.
Deadline: June 1 at 5:00 PM.
LPB supports the development, production, acquisition and distribution of non-commercial educational and cultural television that is representative of Latino people or addresses issues of particular interest to Latino Americans.
Programs should bring new audiences to public television and have a recognizable impact on a broad range of viewers, presenting a range of subjects, viewpoints and forms from a variety of Latino producers across the country that complement and challenge existing public television offerings.
At NALIP with ITVS Production Manager Jorge Trelles
Over the weekend, ITVS Production Manager Jorge Trelles attended the annual National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NALIP) conference. Read about his experience and about how Latinos are making a difference in media.
Carlos Sandoval, producer of A CLASS APART, Jorge Trelles, ITVS production manager, and Bernardo Ruiz, producer of American Experience’s ROBERTO CLEMENTE and Board Member of NALIP.
Juan Mandelbaum, producer of OUR DISAPPEARED, Natalia Almada, producer of EL GENERAL, and Simon Kilmurry, executive director of P.O.V., discuss creative and financial strategies for their documentaries.
As I landed into John Wayne airport in Orange County, CA, I knew this year’s National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NALIP) conference promised to be one for the books.
This year celebrated the 10-year anniversary of this great organization, which has done so much to provide not only a voice, but a megaphone for Latinos in the media. The combination of documentary filmmakers, new media producers, narrative producers, funders, studio executives and everything in between delivered what it had promised––a celebration of a decade of influence.
During an uplifting keynote address, Luis Valdez, founder of El Teatro Campesino, gave some background on the history of Latinos in media to remind everyone about our righteous place in society, as the original Americans, and as the future of the national media.
Paula Kerger, president and CEO of PBS, took time to recognize the valuable contributions of Latino producers, past and present, and also addressed PBS’s strategy to increase minority presence throughout the organization as well as representation on the board and management.
Our very own ITVS-funded producers also contributed to the energy of the conference. Natalia Almada, producer of EL GENERAL, and Juan Mandelbaum, producer of OUR DISAPPEARED/NUESTROS DESAPARECIDOS shared a panel facilitated by P.O.V.’s Simon Kilmurry. This case study traced the creative and business journeys of these films that tell stories of the Latino diaspora.
On the new media developments, the conference had sessions about some of the most successful multi-platform projects online today. Douglas Cheney, co-founder of Big Fantastic, and Eric Escobar of Kontent Films showed their immediate audience feedback models, the development of fictional social platform profiles of their narrative characters, as well as their “concept placement” model as a funding tool. Manuel Garcia-Durán, chairman and CEO of mio.tv, described the success of the “comunitainment” model, the idea of combining social media with original content, which has placed mio.tv as one of the few profitable online portals today.
But for me, one of the greatest highlights came from the “What’s Going On? Meeting Today’s Challenges” panel facilitated by Frances Negrón-Muntaner, co-chair of NALIP. In this panel, we received a number of rating statistics from Cindi Smith of Nielsen Entertainment, which reinforced that at 13 percent of the American population, Latinos are the biggest consumers group of media today. Ligiah Villalobos, writer of LA MISMA LUNA, described how the trends of today’s market point at international plot lines as some of the hottest commodities.
It was Juan Gonzáles, columnist of the New York Daily News and co-host of Democracy Now! that reminded everyone “it’s the pipe, stupid!” It is the federally funded media pipelines that have brought on revolutionary changes that have re-shaped the way we communicate with each other (from the postal systems to the telegraph to the radio to TV to the Internet and satellite). On that note, Mark Lloyd, vice president of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, spoke about the fact that there is $7.2 billion today that has been allocated by the Obama Administration, to fund broadband installations on the communities that need it the most. He reminded us that it was “brown” who helped to get “black” into the White House, and it was now time for “brown” to reap the benefits from that political power. He reminded us that a decade of influence was not enough. It is time for the next decade to be the decade of real power.
Well said.
-Jorge
Production Manager, ITVS
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