Broadcast
Producers: Maria Teresa Rodriguez/Kathryn Pyle
Category: Post-Production
Genre: Documentary
1 Episode/60 Minutes
¿Dónde Están? The Disappeared Children of El Salvador is a documentary about children, now adults, who vanished during the Salvadoran civil war of the 1980’s. Many were survivors of massacres, taken from the scene by U.S. Trained soldiers of the Salvadoran Army, permanently separating them from their communities and their identities. Told through the eyes of three survivors who were separated from their families, the documentary reveals the protagonists’ effort to reclaim their lost identities in an El Salvador in transition from armed conflict. Through the stories of Jenny Wolf, Miguel Morales and Margarita Zamora, and the civil society organizations that support their quest, ¿D&oactue;nde Están? The Disappeared Children of El Salvador asks the larger question: How does a society heal itself from the scars of a civil war?
Producers: Virginia Espino/Renee Tajima-Peña
Category: Post-Production
Genre: Documentary
1 Episode/60 Minutes
¿Más Bebes? is the story of injustice, uncommon courage, and activism. Direct participants in the case will recount what happened inside the OB-GYN unit at LA County-USC Medical Center, and the resulting organizing campaign and class action lawsuit. The film will document the rise of a new generation of Chicana leaders who got their start as young activists and lawyers, working on the case in tandem with a whistle-blowing doctor who exposed the abuses. But the heart of the film will be lead plaintiff, Dolores Madrigal, and the sterilized mothers who never received compensation, an apology, or justice, and have been largely forgotten.
Producers: Miguel Martinez/Jamie Sisley
Category: Production
Genre: Documentary
1 Episode/60 Minutes
Almost 80% of all carnival labor is foreign labor. Nearly 30%of the workforce comes from Tlapacoyan, a small town located in the foothills of central Mexico. Farewell, Ferris Wheel will illustrate the immense complexities that the American carnival industry and its workers face in order to legally navigate the U.S. immigration system with the H-2B seasonal work visa. Through a series of character-driven stories, the film will examine the escalating tension surrounding the H-2B and its far-reaching impact on American commerce, the town of Tlapacoyan, and the debate surrounding comprehensive immigration reform.
Producer/Director: Cristina Ibarra
Category: Post-Production
1 Episode/60 Minutes
In Laredo, Texas, on the Mexican border, a regiment of dresses is made in honor our nation’s Founding Father. A year in the making, each dress costs $28,000 – the median family income of Laredo. For 114 years, the Society of Martha Washington has invited the most prominent young Latinas in town – las Marthas – to debut theses dresses on George Washington’s birthday at an annual Colonial Ball. Marthas follows several Society daughters, the dressmakers Linda Leyendecker Gutierrez, and the workers who labor behind the scenes, as they prepare for this extraordinary rite of passage. In February, the debutantes are presented in a month-long celebration (culminating in the Ball) that each year brings in $21 million. Still, how did Laredo – the capital of a separatist Republic back when Texas was annexed, and Mexicans were getting their land stolen and even lynched – eventually come to host the largest celebration in the country in honor of George Washington? By tracing the creation of gowns, layered with the chronological rise of the celebration, we deconstruct this long-standing Tejano tradition, and how it reveals the social and economic underpinnings of a conflicted Mexican American identity, searching for a way to belong.
Producer: Ray Santisteban
Category: Post-Production
Genre: Documentary
1 Episode/60 Minutes
Rainbow Coalition charts the history and legacy of a forgotten but groundbreaking multi-ethnic coalition that rocked Chicago in the 1960’s and forever altered the political landscape of the United States. Comprised of activists from the Black Panthers, the Young Patriots, and the Young Lords, Chicago’s Rainbow Coalition (1969-1971) united poor African Americans, Whites and Latinos to openly challenge police brutality and substandard housing in one of the most segregated cities in postwar America.
Producer: Phillip Rodriguez
Category: Production
Genre: Documentary
1 Episode/60 Minutes
Ruben Salazar, one of the 20th century’s most prominent Mexican-American journalists, was killed in 1970 by an L.A. County Sheriff. At the heart of the film is Salazar’s transformation from a mainstream, middle-of-the-road reporter to a supporter and primary chronicler of the radical Chicano movement. The film will also embark on an in-depth investigation of his mysterious death at the hands of law enforcement – still a painful and unresolved chapter in American history.
Producer: Ray Telles
Category: Post Production
Genre: Documentary
2 Episodes/60 Minutes
The Storm that Swept Mexicotells the story of the Mexican Revolution of 1910, the first major political and social revolution of the 20th century. It is a conflict that not only changed the course of Mexican history, transforming economic and political power within the nation, but also profoundly impacted the relationships between Mexico and the rest of the world. This documentary illuminates the complex historical, social, political, economic and cultural forces that shaped the Mexican Revolution, influenced the course of the conflict and determined its consequences, as well as the role of myth and memory in shaping public perceptions of this event and its legacy.