Julia Alvarez: A Life Reimagined Premieres Tuesday, September 17 on PBS in Honor of Hispanic Heritage Month
New York/Los Angeles, CA (August 7, 2024) – Julia Alvarez: A Life Reimagined is a new documentary about the life and work of one of America’s most celebrated and influential Latina writers. Presented by American Masters and VOCES and produced and directed by Adriana Bosch, Julia Alvarez: A Life Reimagined features extensive interviews with Alvarez, her family, and her literary contemporaries. The film premieres Tuesday, September 17, 2024 at 9pm ET (check local listings) on PBS, pbs.org/americanmasters and the PBS App in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month.
The Dominican-American poet and novelist Julia Alvarez burst onto the literary scene and blazed a trail for a generation of Latino authors. Her semi-autobiographical novel, How the García Girls Lost Their Accents, was published in 1991, followed in 1994 by In the Time of the Butterflies, which sold over a million copies and raised global awareness about life under Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo. Spanning multiple genres and audiences, Alvarez’s work includes three nonfiction books, three poetry collections, 11 books for children and young adults and seven literary novels. This new documentary opens a window into her extraordinary journey from her childhood in the Dominican Republic to a life of exile in New York City to a brilliant literary career that shows no sign of slowing down. At 74, she recently published the critically acclaimed novel The Cemetery of Untold Stories.
“We’re delighted to partner with American Masters to tell the story of one of the most influential Latina writers of our time,” said Sandie Viquez Pedlow, LPB Executive Director and Executive Producer of VOCES. “Alvarez’s poetry and novels offer a unique perspective on the melding of her two cultures — American and Dominican — and are among the finest works about the American immigrant experience.”
Says filmmaker Adriana Bosch: “In our film, Dominican poet Elizabeth Acevedo introduces Julia by say that ‘Julia belongs on the Mount Rushmore of Women Latino writers, along with Isabel Allende and Sandra Cisneros. She was among the pioneers in creating a new literature that expanded the meaning of the ‘American Mainstream’ and reminds us of the famous line by Langston Hughes – I too sing America.”
Julia Alvarez: A Life Reimagined will be available for streaming concurrent with broadcast on all station-branded PBS platforms, including PBS.org and the PBS app, available on iOS, Android, Roku streaming devices, Apple TV, Android TV, Amazon Fire TV, Samsung Smart TV, Chromecast and VIZIO. PBS station members can view many series, documentaries and specials via PBS Passport. For more information about PBS Passport, visit the PBS Passport FAQ website.
Julia Alvarez: A Life Reimagined is a co-production of Latino Public Broadcasting, Bosch & Company, Inc. and ITVS in association with American Masters, with funding provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Democracy demands wisdom, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Original American Masters series funding provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, AARP, The Rosalind P. Walter Foundation, Burton P. and Judith B. : Resnick Foundation, Blanche and Hayward Cirker Charitable Lead Annuity Trust, Koo and Patricia Yuen, Seton J. Melvin, Lillian Goldman Programming Endowment, The Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation, Thea Petschek Iervolino Foundation, Anita and Jay Kaufman, The Philip and Janice Levin Foundation, The Marc Haas Foundation, The Ambrose Monell Foundation, Kate W. Cassidy Foundation, Ellen and James S. Marcus, and the Charina Endowment Fund.
About Adriana Bosch (Producer/Director)
Adriana Bosch is an independent documentary filmmaker with more than 40 years of experience. She was Series Producer of the six-hour series Latino Americans (2013) and the four-hour series Latin Music USA (2009) for PBS. Bosch has produced and written several films for the AMERICAN EXPERIENCE acclaimed presidential biography series, including Reagan, Jimmy Carter, IKE and Ulysses S. Grant. She also produced and wrote documentaries on the Rockefeller family, Fidel Castro, Cuban scientist Carlos Finlay, American Comandante, about American soldier of fortune William Morgan, and Letters to Eloisa, about Cuban writer José Lezama Lima. Her films have received many of the industry’s highest awards, including two Peabody Awards, an Emmy Award, a Silver Hugo, and an Erik Barnouw Award. Born in Cuba, Bosch holds a Ph.D. in International Affairs from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.
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