 |
Producers: Ruben Martinez/Carl Byker Borderlands is a richly diverse historical road trip through the border region that divides the United States and Mexico. Told in a series of ten adventures, Borderlands, explores how epic clashes between Native Americans and Spaniards, Mexicans and Texans, and Minutemen and immigrants have shaped our current perspectives on illegal immigration, national boundaries and land ownership. Over the course of this journey, Borderlands adds a much-needed cultural and historical perspective to the current heated debates about how we should view our border and the people seeking to cross it.. |
  |
Producers: Maria Teresa Rodriguez/Kathryn Pyle |
  |
Producers: Miguel Martinez/Jamie Sisley |
 |
Producer: Anayansi Prado Give Us Your Retired, Your Rich, Your Americans explores the situation of the island of Bocas del Toro, Panama as its community struggles to redefine its identity amidst conflicts arising due to the fast-growing migration of American retirees and developers to the island. By following American retirees who are moving to Panama, Give Us Your Retired, Your Rich, Your Americans explores the effects and the challenges this migration creates for both the retirees and the local Panamanian community by exploring how the presence of Americans in Latin American countries are making a great impact on an economic, social and cultural level. |
  |
Producer: Paco de Onis/Pamela Yates Granito is the story of destinies joined by Guatemala’s past, and how a documentary film intertwined with a nation’s turbulent history emerges as an active player in the present. Connected by the Guatemala of 1982, then engulfed in a war where a genocidal “scorched earth” campaign by the military exterminated nearly 200,000 Maya people, the characters sift for clues buried in archives of mind and place and historical memory, seeking to uncover a narrative that could unlock the past and settle matters of life and death in the present. They piece together history, adding their granito, their tiny grain of sand, to the epic tale. |
 |
Producer: Esaú Meléndez Immigrant Nation! documents the journey of Elvira Arellano - from her initial arrest, her sanctuary in a storefront Chicago church, her arrest and deportation to Mexico. It is the first person story of a struggle for immigration reform. It also chronicles the birth and growth of the immigrant rights movement in Chicago that subsequently swept the country following the passage of the Sensenbrenner Bill in late 2005. |
  |
Producers: Jonathan Bogarín/Elan Bogarín Invisible Murals is a cautionary tale of the end of oil as told through the murals, myths and stories of El Tigre. In this oil-boom town, on the eastern plains of Venezuela, there exists an almost phantasmagoric cycle of images, painted by local residents, which bring to life the stories of their city. Each year, the murals appear and disappear across the city’s walls as they are bleached by the sun and washed away by the rain. Like the fugitive murals, the global fascination with oil too will disappear; yet the endless cycle of stories embodied by the residents will endure. . |
 |
Producer: Cristina Ibarra Marthas follows the year-long preparations of Mexican American teens debuting in the exclusive Society of Martha Washington (SMW) Colonial Pageant & Ball in Laredo, Texas; a 113 year-old tradition. This exclusive tradition presents the Society’s daughters in elaborate colonial gowns designed to represent characters from the American Revolution on George Washington’s birthday. Rich family legacies that go back to the making of Texas are on display each year provoking questions about patriotism, tradition, history, identity and the role of women along the border. |
  |
Producers: Virginia Espino/Renee Tajima-Peña ¿Mas Bebes? reveals the disturbing history of hundreds of Mexican-origin women who were coercively sterilized at USC-Los Angeles County Medical Center during the late 1960s and 1970s. Many spoke no English, and were prodded into tubal ligations in the late stages of labor, often based on little more than the question “More Babies?” ¿Mas Bebes? recounts the organizing campaign and class action lawsuit led by young Chicana activists and a whistle-blowing doctor who exposed the abuses. The heart of the film is the lead plaintiff, Dolores Madrigal, and the sterilized mothers who never received compensation, an apology, or justice, and have been largely forgotten. ¿Mas Bebes? tells their stories for the first time on film. |
 |
Producer: Mark Eisner Pablo Neruda: The Poet’s Calling creates a compelling, artistic and intimate portrait of one of Latin America’s most colorful characters, and introduces a broad North American audience to the power of Neruda’s poetry and activism. This documentary chronicles the life and work of one of the greatest poets of the 20th century: Chilean statesman, activist, Nobel Laureate Pablo Neruda, a voice for Latin Americans. His poetry remains vital and influential today, including much of the political verse. Neruda continues to be a best seller in poetry, while also a hero to many Latinos. |
 |
Producer: Joe Cardona The Plot to Kill Emilio Milian: The Death of Free Speech in Miami traces the steps of a son (Al Milian) searching for elusive answers in the attempted murder and subsequent cover up of the politically motivated, terrorist attack on popular Miami radio host Emilio Milian. In the violent days on the 1970’s Miami, MIlian emerged as a voice of protest, tolerance and reason and in 1976, a bomb ripped through is body and shattered the best ideals and principles of Cuban exile. The blast not only maimed Emilio Milian’s body, career and family, it transformed Miami, chilling freedom of expression, giving rise to an intolerant fringe and cementing the exile community’s image of narrow political intransigence. |
 |
Producer: Ray Santisteban 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. What began as a drive to achieve a voice for poor communities quickly grew into a formidable political movement, attracting the support of other disenfranchised groups and the attention of a threatened Chicago political machine determined to destroy it. |
 |
Producer: Phillip Rodriguez Ruben Salazar, one of the 20th century’s most prominent Mexican American journalists, was killed in 1970 by an L.A. County Sheriff. Accident or Assassination? Ruben Salazar: The Man in the Middle will seek to uncover the mystery of Salazar’s death while telling the story of his eventful life. Salazar embodied many of the enormous shifts that occurred during the 20th century – in politics, journalism, and Mexican American identity. This documentary will help restore him to his rightful place in American history. |
 |
Producer: Ray Telles The Storm that Swept Mexico tells 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. |
 |
Producer: Natalia Almada Untitled – Journalism and the Drug War in Mexico looks at the flood of violence that has erupted in Mexico through the life and work of a small town journalist in Sinaloa, the cradle of Mexico’s drug trade. Veritè footage of the journalist, interwoven with newspaper clippings and radio news reports, will give a broader and deeper context of how the media depicts violence and will contextualize the threat that journalists are facing throughout the country. |
