PRODUCTION CREDITSLaura Varela
Producer/Director
Laura Varela is a San Antonio-based documentary filmmaker and media artists whose work as a storyteller is shaped by her roots growing up on the US/ Mexico Border in El Paso, Texas. Her work navigates between ideological, cultural, linguistic and physical borders through the use of film and contemporary art installations.
She is currently developing the PBS documentary raúlrsalinas and the Poetry of Liberation, about the life and times of the Xicano poet and activist. In March 2009 she created the site-specific public art installation “Enlight-Tents” at the Alamo with German artist Vaago Weiland. Her installation work has been exhibited at the San Antonio Museum of Art, Blue Star Center for Contemporary Art, The Esperanza Peace and Justice Center, Gallista Gallery, and the UTSA Downtown Art Gallery.
She is a fellow of the 2006 CPB/PBS Producers Academy, the 2006 NALAC Leadership Institute, and the 2003 NALIP/UCLA Latino Producers Academy. She attended the Sundance Filmmaker’s lab in 1997 and in 1993 received her Bachelor of Science from the University of Texas in Radio TV and Film. Artist Residencies include Swarthmore College, PA, Art for Change in NYC, and the Hoschule Neiderrhein and Faust Academy in Germany.
Fernando S. Cano II
Co-Producer
Fernando S. Cano II has been involved in the film industry for over sixteen years. Fernando has produced several feature films, including Painflower (16mm), EvenHand (35mm), and No Pain No Gain (35mm) and served as Production Supervisor and Production Coordinator on two PBS/ITVS-funded programs: Come & Take It Day (Mini-DV) and the Foto-Novelas II series (16mm, directed by Carlos Avila), respectively. A UT Film School graduate, Fernando co-founded Yerba Buena Productions (YBP), whose main purpose was to produce films by, for, and about Latinos. YBP has had its projects featured in film festivals in both the U.S. and Latin America, winning honors and awards along the way. His production credits include feature films like Syriana, Selena, The Newton Boys, All The Pretty Horses, and Miss Congeniality, as well as shorts, documentaries, music videos, commercials. Currently, Fernando holds a position as Senior Producer for Laszlo Rain, a San Antonio-based commercial production company specializing in ads for national and regional clients.
Anne Lewis
Associate Producer/Editor
Anne Lewis’s current projects include: Morristown, a working class look at globalization from both sides of the U.S./Mexico border, and ¡Ya Basta! about Texas labor history, and High Stakes which explores the impact of standardized testing on school children in Texas. She is a Film/Video/Multimedia Fellow of the Rockefeller Foundation and a senior lecturer in editing and documentary filmmaking at The University of Texas at Austin, and a proud member of Local 6186 CWA-NABET and the Texas State Employees Union.
Guillermina Zabala
Editor
Born in Argentina, Guillermina Zabala is a San Antonio media artist/photographer. She graduated from Columbia College-Hollywood with a Bachelor’s degree in Cinema. Currently, she is the Media Arts Director at San Antonio’s SAY Sí. In 2006, she was awarded with the NALAC Fund for the Arts Grant for her documentary project Juanito’s Lab. She served as Curator at the 28th Annual CineFestival en San Antonio and as a Curator at the 9th LA Freewaves Festival. She has directed fiction and documentary films, music videos, and video installations. Recently, Guillermina participated in the multimedia installation Exist/Resist: Metamorphosis of Destruction shown at Flight Gallery and in the Media Kunst Symposium in Blue Star Contemporary Arts Center (in both events she worked alongside artists Vaago Weiland and Laura Varela).
Lee Daniel
Director of Photography
Lee Daniel’s credits include Be Here to Love Me: A Film About Townes Van Zandt (2005), Before Sunset (2004), I Remember Me (2001), SubUrbia (1997), Before Sunrise (1995), Rift (1993) and Dazed and Confused (1993), Slacker (1991).
Production Credits
Producer/Director
Laura Varela
Co-Producer
Fernando S. Cano II
Associate Producer/Editor
Anne Lewis
Editor
Guillermina Zabala
Director of Photography
Lee Daniel