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Producer: Michael Torres |
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Producer: Denise Zmekhol |
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Producer: Maria Teresa Rodriguez/Kathryn Pyle |
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Producer: Natalia Almada |
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Producer: Paco De Onis |
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Producer: Jennifer Maytorena Taylor New Muslim Cool is an hour-long observational documentary exploring faith and culture through the story of 29 year old Puerto Rican hip-hop artist and staunch Muslim convert Jason “Hamza” Pérez, his small upstart religious community of Latino and African American Muslims, his family, and his cultural collaborators and friends. Setting Hamza’s story in the context of American Muslims’ emergence among the deep dividing lines of the post-9/11 world, New Muslim Cool gives audiences an intimate glimpse of life in one of America’s most rapidly growing and least-understood communities as it comes of age in a time of danger and promise. The program tells the unfolding story of the burgeoning Latino Muslim population within the United States, offers a fresh perspective on Islam in the West and prompts viewers to examine their own assumptions about the role of faith in our private and public lives. |
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Producer: Yolanda Cruz Re-encounters chronicles the personal experience of Oaxacan artist Alejandro Santiago, who learned the truth of the old saying that you can never go home again. After more than a decade living abroad, Santiago returned to the Zapotec Sierra seeking the village of his childhood. Instead, he found abandoned houses, empty streets, and deserted farm fields. Santiago’s sense of emptiness drove him to search for answers in his art. His current project, 2501 Migrants, expresses his response—a symbolic community of life-size clay sculptures in homage to those who left. He plans to repopulate his village one statue at a time. Like many migrants, Santiago survives by recreating memories of life back home. Re-encounters tells his story and the stories of countless others. |
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Producer: Rick Tejada-Flores The genesis of The Road to Chulumani occurred during the filmmaker's first visit to Bolivia, in 1997. During this visit, he made family connections and found literature that described his family’s involvement in the slave trade, as well as in the Chaco War during the 1930s. While American audiences have seen several views of the legacy of slavery in North America, how the process played out in Latin America is completely unknown. Likewise, regional conflicts, like the Chaco War, which had a profound impact on Latin American societies, are not well known or understood. The filmmaker will take viewers on a personal journey to search the past and discover his family's history and how it has affected Bolivia. |
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Producer: Bernardo Ruiz For nearly 150 years, baseball has been known as “America’s Pastime” and has reflected cultural values in a way that no other sport, and few other institutions have. Today, roughly one quarter of Major League players claim Latino heritage. Yet, until the mid-1950’s few Latinos were in the game. While Roberto Clemente was not the first Latino to play in the big leagues, he was the first Latino star to have a major and lasting impact on the game. By dint of his tremendous talent, his pride and his grace, he helped to shatter stereotypes about Latinos, to make the game more accessible to other Latino players and to provide a great source of pride to a growing Latino population in the mainland United States. This film delves into Clemente’s story and what it reveals about the Latino experience in the United States in the second half of the 20th century. |
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Producer: James Rutenbeck Saint Patrick’s Parish has become a kind of social laboratory as a traditionally Irish-American institution changes to reflect the city that surrounds it. Scenes from a Parish raises questions about the nature of community – how the ideals of a faith community come up against pressures that place this ideal at risk. In this film, nine Catholics face obstacles – class, ethnicity and sexual orientation – that threaten to break apart the fellowship they seek. |
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Producer: Phillip Rodriguez Latino history – to the extent that it has been narrated at all – is full of half-told stories. The case of Oscar Zeta Acosta, also known as “The Brown Buffalo” is one example. A brilliant and controversial writer/lawyer/activist, Acosta is remembered less for his role in the Chicano movement in the late 1960s than for his fictionalized appearance in a white man’s novel. The novel was Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas; the character was Dr. Gonzo, a Sancho Panza-esque sidekick to the illustrious Raoul Duke. Through exclusive interviews and rare archival material The Secret Life of Buffalo Z. Brown explores Acosta’s colorful biography, his political and literary contributions and his legacy. |
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Producer: Gemma Cubero/Celeste Carrasco Challenging gender roles and rigid social traditions, She Wants to Be a Matador is a documentary about women who chose the profession of bullfighting. Through the viewpoint of the female matadors, the film explores why these women pursue the same dream as their male counterparts – the glory of dominating the beast. They are forced to fight not only against the bull, but also against historical and political events, including decades of legal prohibitions and prejudice. |
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Producers: Marcia Jarmel/Ken Schneider Educational inequity, immigrant integration, cross-cultural competency, white flight, global competitiveness – what links this nexus of concerns not usually spoken in one breath? Bilingualism may be the surprising answer. Speaking in Tongues documents the experience of one city grappling with the challenge. Amidst the widespread perception that bilingual education, intended as a transitional program, has failed, the San Francisco school board will consider a measure to offer language immersion education to all public school students. |
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Producer: Raymond Telles The Storm That Swept Mexico is a two-hour, primetime documentary series on the Mexican Revolution, the first major Revolution of the 20th century, and the first important challenge to the world order of the industrial creditor nations. It is a conflict that changed the course of Mexican history, transforming economic and political power within the nation, and profoundly impacting relations with the United States and with the rest of the world. |
