The Boyle Heights Latina Independent Film Extravaganza yearly celebrates the film and video work of Latina filmmakers. Ranging from documentaries and narrative films to music videos, the works signal a new generation of important writers, producers and directors who are availing themselves of new digital technologies to reflect their communities. Following are some of these new Latina filmmakers and their works.

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Iris Almaraz

IRIS ALMARÁZ is a graduate of San Francisco State University’s film program with a BFA in production. With insightful, original and intelligent films, her work has screened at festivals around the world garnering twelve awards including three for best director. She is currently concluding post-production on her first feature film. FILMS: Delusions of Grandeur Trailer, New Light and the Realm of Possibility.

Belinda Carreno

BELINDA CARREYO has been using a camera making home videos since she was 5 years old. Growing up in a stigmatized community such as East Los Angeles, she has had to fight against the odds but has now successfully graduated from the prestigious California State University at Northridge Film School. FILM: Braceros.

MARÍA JOSÉ OLIVA CARRERAS is an independent documentary producer and director who graduated from Brooks Institute of Photography. María José’s documentary, Guatán, was an official selection at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival and at the Boyle Heights Latina Independent Film Extravaganza. She has worked for the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival, Azteca América, NALIP, and FUEL TV at FOX. She is currently producing her next documentary, For the Plight of the Elephant. FILMS: Guatán.

Maria Jose Oliva Carreras

Katrina Jasso-Osorio

YVETTE FERNÁNDEZ is an award-winning veteran in the art of communication. A published author, and a Emmy award winning television reporter and filmmaker, she has been finding interesting stories and telling them her entire career. A believer in “giving back” to the community, Ms. Fernández was founder of the non-profit organization S.T.A.R.–a mentoring organization for high school aged women. Ms. Fernández has remained involved in community service and advocacy organization focusing on women and Latino community issues. FILM: Field Soldiers.

KATRINA JASSO-OSORIO founded Jasso-Osorio Entertainment in 2002. She produced her first film, Lowriding in Aztlán, in 2004. The film was released nationwide by Code Black Entertainment in 2006. Jasso-Osorio Entertainment’s next film, Miracle, is Katrina’s directorial debut. The film deals with the reality of her troubled pregnancy. Films: Lowriding in Aztlán, Miracle.

Jessica Leza

JESSICA LEZA is a musician and video artist from Houston, Texas. Her video and music works have been performed across the United States, China and Europe. She lives in Houston, Texas and is completing an album of ambient electronic music and an accompanying series of short animated films. FILM: Seduction in the Sterilization Room.

RISA MARA MACHUCA was born in Long Island, New York and raised in Liberty, New

Risa Mara Machuca

York and San Blas, Nayarit, Mexico. Since an early age she was drawn to movies. In 1996, Risa started working for a large record label in the San Francisco area and also worked as an intern for the production company UC IS UGET. Her filmmaking took off when up and coming director Chris Robinson saw her and felt the energy she brings to her work. He asked her to join him in his venture Robot Films. FILM: Asi Es.

Sara Celeste Martin

SARA CELESTE MARTIN is a sixteen year old Latina art student currently living in Whittier, California with her mother and siblings. Her work is greatly influenced by her Mexican culture and the sights and sounds of Los Angeles. FILM: Next Time Down.

CRISTINA NAVA is a native of Los Angeles, born to Mexican parents. Cristina earned

Cristina Nava

her Bachelor’s degree from UCLA in 1997 and immediately began working as an actress, writer and filmmaker. Cristina is dedicated to producing and acting in films as well as creating stories that truly represent the American-Latino experience. FILM: Salsa Lessons.

Arianna Ortiz

ARIANNA ORTÍZ is a writer and actress living in Los Angeles. Her play The Consummation of All Things was developed with the comedy trio Culture Clash as part of their Writer’s Portal Project. Arianna is a graduate of the California Institute of the Arts. FILM: Still Life With Couch.

ELIZABETH OTERO. Elizabeth’s forte is comedy writing though she occasionally also ventures into directing and acting. She’s written for the Disney series, My Friends Tigger & Pooh, and LATV’s The Homies Hip Hop Show. Her play, Gas, won the SI TV Playwriting Award. FILM: McCain’s War/Valet Party.

ASHLEY PINEDO Originally from Arizona, Ashley earned her B.A.. Degree in video

Ashley Pinedo

production from Pacific University. She is a bilingual video artist interested in promoting social awareness and change in everything she creates. Her latest project is a “doculog” featuring Chicana/Mexicana perspectives on La Virgen de Guadalupe. FILM: Nana’s Palabras.

Iliana Sosa

ILIANA SOSA was born and raised in El Paso, Texas. She is currently pursuing an MFA degree in directing and production at UCLA. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Latin American Studies and French from Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas. Mojado is her first film short. It details a sexual violation of a young Mexican immigrant by an immigration officer. FILM: Mojado.

CHRISTINA SOTO is an award winning photographer/filmmaker/playwright born and raised in New York City; her work often focuses on women’s issues and her Cuban heritage. Her photographic images have been featured in numerous group and juried shows on both the East coast and the Southwest. In March, 2008, Soto was presented with an award by the Hudson County for Women’s History Month, Women’s Arts: Women’s Vision. She had worked on more than 20 independent films with many different directors. She is founder and organizer of the Hudson County Youth Video Event, now in its fourth year. FILM: High Voltage.

Carolina Vila

CAROLINA VILA was born and raised in Caracas, Venezuela. She studied Mass Communications and worked as a radio and press journalist for several years before shifting her attention to becoming a filmmaker. After being awarded with a scholarship for outstanding academic achievement, she came to the United States to obtain an MFA in Film Production at USC. After having short several student films, Carolina directed and produced her own short film “Roam,” a film recognized with a Directors Guild of America Student Award; the film was also selected for the Sundance film festival. Returning to Venezuela, Ms. Vila has produced, directed and photographed several commercials and three one-hour documentaries. She also teaches film and television production in Caracas and is developing her first feature film. FILMS: Roam, Onda Corta (Shortwave).

Conchita Nora Villa

CONCHITA NORA VILLA Nora makes her directorial debut with the film Alondra Smiles. Ms. Villa was born in East Los Angeles and raised in Monterrey Park, California. Ms. Villa graduated from UCLA with Bachelor of Arts degree in History and attended the Producer’s Program at the UCLA Extension Film School. She has worked as an Executive Assistant on the feature films Selena, The Disappearance of García Lorca and My Family (Mi Familia). She has joined with her brother, Producer Juan Francisco Villa, and her family to launch the production company Villa Media Productions. FILM: Alondra Smiles.

MICHELLE ZAMORA is a performer/puppeteer originally from Brownsville, Texas. She

Michelle Zamora

recently puppeteered the webisode Kung-Fu series The Fist of Oblivion for Roman Coppola Studios. She has performed in four Cornerstone Theater Company productions and has puppeteered for Rogue Artist Ensemble, CASA0101, Playhouse Disney–Live on Stage! and the toy-theater film Dante’s Inferno. Michelle is currently designing puppets for a children’s television pilot for Trifecta Productions, Inc., and the upcoming Native Voices production of Wild Horses for the Autry Theatre. Poet Vs. Puppet was a winner at the 2008 Christopher Coppola Presents: PAH NATION online film festival. FILM: Poet vs. Puppet.

Josefina Lopez

JOSEFINA LÓPEZ is founder and organizer of the Boyle Heights Latina Independent Film Extravaganza. She is an acclaimed playwright and co-wrote the screenplay for the motion picture, Real Women Have Curves based on her original play. This prolific playwright is also a poet and novelist. She is currently developing the musical version of her play Real Women Have Curves, has recently completed a musical comedy Trio Los Machos and has published her first novel, Hungry Woman in Paris. She is currently adapting her screenplay Lola Goes to Roma into a novel. Find out more about Josefina Lopez at her website: www.Josefinalopez.com.

FANNY VÉLIZ is festival director of the Boyle Heights Latina Independent Film

Fanny Veliz

Extravaganza. She is an award winning actress and filmmaker originally from Venezuela. She strives to use theater and film to inspire the community and highlight the triumphs and challenges of culturally diverse minorities. She received the Promising Filmmaker award from the First Boyle Heights Latina Independent Film Extravaganza and since has produced and directed several short films which have been screened in festivals in the United States, Mexico, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic. Fanny Véliz is currently working oon her feature script titled Alice No Land. She plans to start production in Venezuela in 2009. She resides in Los Angeles with her two sons.

TEN TOP BOOKS ON LATINO CINEMA
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HISPANICS IN HOLLYWOOD
By Luis Reyes ad Peter Rubie
Garland Publishing, Inc.
New York & London, 1994

Hispanics in Hollywood by Luis Reyes and Peter Rubie

To date, this is still the definitive book on Latinos in the motion picture and television industry. The 569 page “encyclopedia of Film and Television,” is divided into sections on “Movies,” “Television,” “TV Series” “TV Movies and Miniseries” and also has special chapters on the phenomenon of “Zorro” and “The Cisco Kid.”  The brainchild of long time film publicist Luis Reyes and co-written with author/editor Peter Rubie, the book benefits from Reyes’ life experience working in Hollywood. Virtually any film ever made featuring Latino themes, characters or actors is profiled in the “Movies” section. Film profiles include detailed and often little known background information on films as well as television series. An appendix contains in depth and thorough biographies of leading Latino actors, writers, producers, directors and crew personnel. A must for the library of anyone seriously interested in Latinos in motion pictures and television.

CHICANO CINEMA
Edited By Gary D. Keller
Bilingual Review Press
Binghamton, New York, 1985

Chicano Cinema by Edited by Gary Keller

One of the first books to document the new generation of Chicano and Chicana filmmakers, writers, producers and directors, Dr. Gary Keller’s anthology includes essays from a wide variety of writers, ranging from distinguished academicians such as Dr. Carlos Córtes, David Maciel,
Cordelia Candelaria and Dr. Rolando Hinojosa to film critics like Gregg Barrios and Rosa Linda Fregoso to the filmmakers themselves. Film reviews and criticism cover Chicano cinema documentaries such as I Am Joaquin, Ballad of an Unsung Hero, Cinco Vidas and The Unwanted
as well as early narrative films such as Raíces de Sangre, The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez, Seguín and Zootsuit.

IMAGES OF THE MEXICAN
AMERICAN IN FICTION AND FILM
By Arthur G. Pettit
Texas A & M University Press
College Station, Texas, 1980

For many years Arthur Pettit’s historic overview of cinematic

Images of the Mexican American in Fiction and Film

renderings of Mexicans and Latinos was the only book to cover the field. Beginning with the images and stereotypes that were promulgated in the era of silent films–the “Greaser” and the Latinas as the“women of the conquest,” Pettit reviews portrayals of Mexicans and other Latinos in American cinema to 1976. Particularly enlightening is his review of the portrayal of Mexicans in popular fiction and how this impacted cinematic renderings. A valuable asset for anyone interested in the portrayal of Latinos in cinema and popular fiction.

THE CHICANO/HISPANIC IMAGE
IN AMERICAN FILM
by Frank Javier Garcia Berumen
Vantage Press
New York, New York, 1995

A good follow-up to Arthur Pettit’s review of Mexican portrayals in American cinema, Harvard educated Frank Berumen goes much more in depth in his analysis of portrayals in motion pictures

The Chicano/Hispanic Image in American Film

from the 1920s through the early 1990s. Culling from reviews in trade publications and
contemporary press, as well as industry sources, Berumen manages to hone well researched scholarship into an engaging account of Latino portrayals in Hollywood in a style accessible to the average reader.

CHICANOS AND FILM-
REPRESENTATION AND RESISTANCE
Edited by Chon A. Noriega
University of Minnesota Press
Minneapolis & London, 1992

This collection of scholarly essays on Chicano cinema includes essays on

Chicanos and Film Edited By Chon Noriega

mainstream Hollywood motion pictures as well as independent documentaries and narrative films of the first generation
of Chicano and Chicana filmmakers. Though the essays are uneven, the volume is distinguished by its inclusion of early manifestos and documents of the Chicano Cinema movement including Jason Johansen’s Notes on Chicano Cinema, Sylvia Morales’ Filming a Chicana Documentary
and Towards the Development of a Raza Cinema by Francisco X. Camplís.

BROWN CELLULOID
LATINO/A FILM ICONS AND IMAGES
VOLUME ONE
By Frank Javier Garcia Berumen

Brown Celluloid by Frank Garcia Berumen

The third in Berumen’s trilogy of books on the subject of Latinos in Hollywood, this volume covers Latino actors who became icons of the big screen from 1894 to1959. Exhaustively
researched, the actor profiles include not only some of the bigger names like Ricardo Montalban, Anthony Quinn, Cesar Romero and Carmen Miranda,  but also lesser known actors such as
Tomás Gómez, Elena Verdugo and Elsa Cardenas. In reviewing each decade, Berumen provides context by singling out key motion pictures representative of the decade. Meticulously footnoted, with an extensive bibliography, Berumen once again takes a scholarly study and makes it imminently popular and enjoyable. Volume Two is forthcoming.

EL NORTE – THE U.S. BORDER
IN CONTEMPORARY CINEMA
By Dr. David R. Maciel
Institute for Regional Studies
San Diego State University, 1990

In under a hundred pages of thoughtful analysis, David Maciel manages to cover every significant motion pictures produced in either Mexico or the United States dealing with the phenomenon of the U.S.. Mexico border. Covering Mexican border classics

El Norte edited By David R. Maciel

like Mojados, Deportados and including films made during the socially conscious 1970s–films like
De Sangre Chicana, Chicano, Mojado Power–Maciel also covers Hollywood portrayals of the
border in such films as Borderline, The Border and Viva Max. The volume concludes with a
review of films about the border experiences made by the new generation of Chicano filmmakers–films such as El Norte, Ballad of Gregorio Córtez and Break of Dawn.

THE ETHNIC EYE-
LATINO MEDIA ARTS
Edited By Chon A. Noriega
and Ana M. Lopez

The Ethnic Eye Edited by Chon Noriega & Anan López

This volume of essays by film scholars covers the spectrum of both mainstream Hollywood and independent Latino film makers as well as documentaries, experimental videos, multi-media
installations and performance art. Overview essays cover the emergence of Chicano cinema. Puerto Rican Cinema, Cuban American cinema and the Latino gay experience as portrayed
in film and video. Hollywood films reviewed include Stand and Deliver, El Mariachi and American Me. Independent cinema reviews include Carmelita Tropicana, One Moment in Time and Improper Conduct.

EYEWITNESS- A FILMMAKER’S
MEMOIR OF THE CHICANO MOVEMENT
by Jesús Salvador Treviño
Pioneering documentary filmmaker and television director Jesús Treviño recounts his experiences documenting key historical events of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement from 1968 to 1978–events which he both

EYEWITNESS by Jesús Salvador Treviño

participated in and documented as a filmmaker. The book is remarkable for its uncompromising honesty and for its analysis and discussion, in the final chapter, of the success and failures of the Chicano Movement seen from the hindsight of the year 2000. Culling from a rich store of archival materials, the book conveys an authenticity of the times that prompted United Farm Worker’s Vice-President Dolores Huerta to declare it, “A riveting and courageous testimony that rekindles the spirit of the Chicano urban movement.”

MY LAST SIGH
by Luis Buñuel
Vintage Books
New York, New York,1984

The creator of such cinematic classics as Belle Du Jour, Los Olvidados and The Exterminating Angel recounts his early years in Spain, his experiences in Paris as a surrealist, and his later years as a world famous motion picture director. Peppered throughout this memoir are Buñuel’s thoughtful views on memory, history, cinema and art.

My Last Sigh by Luis Buñuel

First published in 1983, as an insight into the process of creativity of a unique artist, this book still holds up. Especially memorable are observations such:”Chance governs all things; necessity, which is far from having the
same purity, comes only later.”

TOP LATINO MOTION PICTURES
Latinopia defines Latino motion pictures as those movies having to do with the Latin American experience written, produced and or directed by people from Central America, South America, North America or the Caribbean. These movies are works ‘by’, ‘about’ or ‘for’ the Latino community in the United States that have remained in our cultural memory.

For these films to be considered memorable, however, they must have remained popular for at least a decade. This goes to show how popular and relevant they have remained throughout the years after their release. Although noteworthy, such films as Leon Ichaso’s “El Cantante” (2006) and Guillermo del Toro’s “Pan’s Labyrinth” (2006) are not included since it has not been 10 years since their release. Here is Latinopia’s pick of TOP LATINO MOTION PICTURES.
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Please Don’t Bury Me Alive (1976)

CAST:
Efrain Gutiérrez
Josefina Paz
David Moss
Abel Franco
Oscar Escamilla
José Armando de Hoyos

Director
Efrain Gutiérrez

Writer
Sabino Garza

Summary: This slice of life drama follows the protagonist, Alejandro Hernandez, played by the film’s director Efrain Gutiérrez, as he buries his brother who was killed in Vietnam. Thereafter, Alejandro falls into a spiral of petty crime eventually being set up by an undercover police officer and arrested for heroin possession. The film examines the unjust ways in which Chicanos are dealt justice in Texas society. Alejandro is eventually sentenced to a 10-year prison term by the same judge that presided over the funeral of Alejandro’s brother. Touted as the first Chicano feature film, Please Don’t Bury Me Alive was made on a budget of $60,000 but made back more than $300,000 when it was four-walled in Texas. Particularly notable is the fact that the film broke the monopoly that Spanish language cinema had on the Southwest’s Spanish surnamed audiences.

Raices de Sangre (1979)

CAST:

Richard Yniguez (Carlos)
Leon Singer (Rogelio)
Roxanna Bonilla-Gianini (Lupe)
Enrique Muñoz (Adolfo)
Pepe Serna (Juan)
Adriana Rojo (Rosa)

Director
Jesús Salvador Treviño

Writer
Jesús Salvador Treviño

Summary: Mexican immigrants suffer exploitation and discrimination in a clothes factory operating on both sides of the border. A young Chicano lawyer Carlos Rivera (Richard Yniguez) arrives in town to aid his uncle Rogelio (Leon Singer) and the struggling workers at the Barrio Unido Community Center. Rivera meets Lupe Carillo (Roxanna Bonilla) a young activist at the Community Center and soon falls in love. Rivera is torn between his duty to his uncle and the workers and his own selfish desires for Lupe and to remain detached from the cause. Lupe implores Carlos help the Chicano movement and he resists until a terrible crime is committed. Intercut with the action on the U.S. side of the border is the story of an immigrant family (Adolfo and Rosa) who decide to cross into the United States illegally with dire consequences.

Zootsuit (1981)

Cast
Daniel Valdez (Henry Reyna)
Edward James Olmos (El Pachuco)
Charles Aidman (George Shearer)
John Anderson (Judge F.W. Charles)

Director
Luis Valdez

Writer
Luis Valdez

Producers
Peter Burrell
Kenneth Brecher
William P. Wingate

Summary: Zoot Suit is the film version of Luis Valdez’s critically acclaimed play, based on the actual Sleepy Lagoon murder case and the zoot suit riots of 1940s Los Angeles. Henry Reyna (Daniel Valdez) is the leader of a group of Mexican-Americans being sent to San Quentin without substantial evidence for the death of a man at Sleepy Lagoon. As part of the defense committee, Alice Bloomfield and George Shearer fight the blatant miscarriage of justice for the freedom of Henry and his friends. Edward James Olmos plays “El Pachuco,” a mythic apparition who serves as narrator and Henry’s conscience. Zootsuit was groundbreaking for it’s time and was one of the first Latino films to have large-scale success in mainstream America.

Ballad of Gregorio Cortez (1982)

Cast
Edward James Olmos (Gregorio Cortez)
James Gammon (Seriff Frank Fly)
Tom Bower (Boone Choate)

Director
Robert M. Young

Writers
Americo Paredes
Victor Villaseñor
Robert M. Young

Producers
Moctesuma Esparza
Michael Hausman

Summary: Based on the classic corrido (ballad) of Gregorio Cortez, the film retells the story of an incident in Gonzales, Texas in 1901 involving a stolen horse, mistaken identity and a killing. At a time when Texas justice toward Mexicans was often arbitrarily meted out by the Texas Rangers, the incident involving Gregorio Cortez was notable because he fought back, “with a pistol in his hand.” This important film that teaches us about racism, assumptions, and what can happen in a bias society.

El Norte (1983)

Cast

Zaide Silvia Gutiérrez (Rosa Xuncax)
David Villalpando (Enrique Xuncax)
Ernesto Gómez Cruz (Arturo Xuncax)

Director
Gregory Nava

Writers
Gregory Nava
Anna Thomas

Producer
Trevor Black
Bertha Navarro
Anna Thomas

Summary: Mayan Indian peasants, tired of being thought of as cheap labor, organize in an effort to improve their lot in life. They are soon discovered by the Guatemalan army which destroys their village and family. A brother and sister, teenagers who just barely escaped the massacre, decide they must flee to “El Norte,” the United States. After receiving clandestine help from friends and advice from a veteran immigrant on strategies for traveling through Mexico, they make their way by truck, bus and other means to Los Angeles, where they try to make a new life as young, uneducated, and illegal immigrants. This film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen.

Crossover Dreams (1985)

Cast

Rubén Blades (Rudy Veloz)
Shawn Elliott (Orlando)
Tom Signorelli (Lou Rose)
Elizabeth Peña (Liz Garcia)

Director
Leon Ichaso

Writer
Manuel Arce
Leon Ichaso

Producer
Manuel Arce

Summary:  Ruben Blades plays the lead role in this salsa drama shot in Spanish Harlem for a reputed $600,000. Blades portrays Rudy Veloz, a salsa musician driven by a dream to escape the obscurity of one-night stand sat anonymous Latino bars and “cross-over” into becoming a mainstream star.  Elizabeth Pena plays his loyal girlfriend, Liz.  A record producer recognizes Rudy’s talent and produces a single which becomes a hit. Unfortunately,  Rudy’s overnight success goes to his head. Imagining that success has finally arrived, he drops his girlfriend and manager but soon discovers that success is a fleeting thing in this tragic story of self-discovery.

La Bamba (1987)

Cast

Lou Diamond Phillips (Ritchie Valens)
Esai Morales (Bob Morales )
Rosanna DeSoto (Connie Valenzuela)
Elizabeth Peña (Rosie Morales)

Director
Luis Valdez

Writer
Luis Valdez

Producer
Bill Borden
Taylor Hackford

Summary: A film based on the true story of Ritchie Valens (Lou Diamond Phillips) a young rock & roll singer of the 1950’s on his way to international superstardom. The film follows Ritchie from his days in Pacoima, California where he and his family make a meager living working at plantations. Soon Ritchie’s talents catapult him to a dramatic rise which only incites his older brother Bob’s jealousy. This film interweaves Richie’s battles at home and on the stage with his nascent relationship with Donna, his girlfriend. “La Bamba” is one of the most popular and highest grossing Latino films of all time.

The Milagro Beanfield War (1988)

Cast

Rubén Blades (Sheriff Bernabe Montoya )
Richard Bradford (Ladd Devine)
Sonia Braga (Ruby Archuleta)
Melanie Griffith (Flossie Devine)

Director
Robert Redford

Writer
John Nichols

Producer
Moctesuma Esparza
Robert Redford

Summary: In Milagro, a small town in the American Southwest, Ladd Devine (Richard Bradford) plans to build a major new resort development. While activist Ruby Archuleta (Sonia Braga) and lawyer/newspaper editor Charlie Bloom realize that this will result in the eventual displacement of the local Latino farmers. Their efforts to arouse opposition fail because of the short term opportunities offered by construction jobs. But when Joe Mondragon illegally diverts water to irrigate his bean field, the local people support him because of their resentment of water use laws that favor the rich like Devine. When the Governor sends in ruthless troubleshooter Kyril Montana to settle things quickly before the lucrative development is canceled, a small war threatens to erupt.

Stand and Deliver (1988)

Cast

Mark Eliot (Tito)
Edward James Olmos (Jaime A. Escalante)
Lou Diamond Phillips (Angel Guzman)
Andy Garcia (Dr. Ramirez)

Director
Ramón Menéndez

Writer
Ramón Menéndez
Tom Musca

Producer
Tom Musca

Summary: Edward James Olmos’s Oscar-nominated performance of the true-life story of Los Angeles high school teacher Jaime Escalante who drives his students on to excellence at calculus. When it comes time to take quallifying SAT exams for college, The students are falsely accused of cheating by the Education Testing Service. A critically acclaimed and highly lauded film, “Stand and Delivery” spoke to a new generation of Latino’s in the U.S. acculturating to new realities.

American Me (1992)

Cast

Edward James Olmos (Montoya Santana)
Sal Lopez (Pedro Santana)
Vira Montes (Esperanza Santana)
Roberto Martin Marquez (Acha)
Dyana Ortelli (Yolanda)

Director
Edward James Olmos

Writer
Floyd Mutrux

Producer
Sean Daniel
Edward James Olmos
Robert M. Young

Summary: This epic depiction of thirty years of Chicano gang life in Los Angeles focuses on a teen named Santana who, with his friends Mundo and J.D., form their own gang and are soon arrested for a break-in. Santana gets into trouble again and goes straight from reform school to prison, spending eighteen year there, and becoming leader of a powerful gang, an avatar for the real life Mexican Mafia prison gang, both inside and outside the prison. When he is finally released, Santana tries to make sense of the violence in his life, in a world much changed from when last he was in it. “American Me” showed a different perspective of Latino life in U.S., that of the second-generation Latino caught between two worlds.

El Mariachi (1992)

Cast

Carlos Gallardo (El Mariachi)
Consuelo Gómez (Domino)
Jaime de Hoyos (Bigoton)

Director
Robert Rodriguez

Writer
Robert Rodriguez

Producer
Carlos Gallardo
Robert Rodriguez

Summary: American crime lord, Moco, has set up a lucrative business in Mexico. He tries to rub out his imprisoned employee Azul. However, Azul overcomes the hit-men and escapes. Meanwhile, a wandering mariachi comes to the same town looking for work. As Azul’s trademark is his guitar case filled with weapons, the Mariachi is mistaken for him and finds himself a hunted man. An action packed film which was made with a reputed budget of $7,000 by writer, director, editor, cinematographer and all around auteur Robert Rodriguez.

Mi Familia (1995)

Cast

Edward James Olmos (Paco)
Rafael Cortés  (Roberto)
Ivette Reina  (Trini)
Amelia Zapata (Roberto’s Girlfriend)
Jacob Vargas (Young Jose)

Director
Gregory Nava

Writer
Gregory Nava
Anna Thomas

Producer
Anna Thomas

Summary: Traces over three generations an immigrant family’s trials, tribulations, tragedies, and triumphs. Maria and Jose, the first generation, come to Los Angeles, meet, marry, and face deportation all in the 1930′s. They establish their family in East L.A., and their children Chucho, Paco, Memo, Irene, Toni, and Jimmy deal with youth culture and the L.A. police in the 50′s. As the second generation become adults in the 60′s, the focus shifts to Jimmy, his marriage to Isabel (a Salvadorian refugee), their son, and Jimmy’s journey to becoming a responsible parent.

Selena (1997)

Cast

Jennifer Lopez (Selena Quintanilla-Pérez)
Jackie Guerra (Suzette Quintanilla)
Constance Marie (Marcela Quintanilla)
Jacob Vargas (Abie Quintanilla)
Edward James Olmos (Abraham Quintanilla)
Lupe Ontiveros (Yolanda Saldivar)

Director
Gregory Nava

Writer
Gregory Nava

Producer
Moctesuma Esparza
Robert Katz

Summary:  “Selena” tells the true-story of Tejana singer Selena Quintanilla-Perez, who was the most popular Latin Singer at the time of her death at the age of 23 years in 1995. The film tells the story of the 10-year-old singer and her family who form a musical group “Selena y Los Dinos” and embark on a path which would lead them to great musical heights and a catastrophic end. A film beloved by millions which launched Jennifer Lopez’s film career.

LATINOPIA CINEMA LINKS:

NALIP (NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF LATINO INDEPENDENT PRODUCERS). This national organization promotes Latinos in television and motion pictures. Their weekly newsletter keeps you abreast of current happenings in the field. Visit: http://www.nalip.org

LATIN HEAT. This is the premiere source for entertainment news featuring Latinos in motion pictures, television, theater. Visit: http://www.latinheat.com.

NHMC (NATIONAL HISPANIC MEDIA COALITION). This advocacy group monitors opportunities for Latinos in the entertainment industry. It sponsors a Writers Program in conjunction with ABC and NBC. Visit: http://www.nhmc.org

LPB (LATINOPUBLIC BROADCASTING). This organization provides funding for non-commercial and documentary programming for public broadcasting. Visit: http://www.lpb.org.