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For Immediate Release
LATINO PUBLIC BROADCASTING’S SERIES WINS IMAGEN AWARD FOR BEST DOCUMENTARY
Top Honors Go to Hector Galán’s “Visiones: Latino Art and Culture”
LOS ANGELES, CA, JUNE 20, 2005 — Latino Public Broadcasting (LPB), a non-profit organization funded by The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, announced today that “Visiones: Latino Art and Culture,” won the Imagen Award for Best Documentary. Produced by Latino television veteran Hector Galán, the six-part documentary travels throughout the United States, tapping into the often hidden wealth of Hispanic artistry.
“That the first PBS series to focus exclusively on Latino artistic expression in the U.S. won this year’s Imagen Awards is a resounding vote of approval for the work we are doing,” said Luca Bentivoglio, executive director, Latino Public Broadcasting. “‘Visiones: Latino Art and Culture,’ a co-production of Galan Incorprated and The National Association of Latino Arts and Culture, is the type of program that finds a home in public broadcasting, where the ultimate goal is to share unfettered knowledge, art, news or culture with viewers. We are very proud to have funded Hector Galán in this rich, multi-faceted series.”
The Imagen Awards ceremony was held Friday, June 17 at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles. A sold-out crowd of celebrities and supporters of the Latino entertainment community attended the black tie gala that recognizes individuals, series as well as films and their contributions to the entertainment industry.
“The tapestry of Latino art is so intricate and diverse, that even a documentary such as ‘Visiones: Latino Art and Culture’ only scratches the surface of what Latinos are creating in our country. I am extremely proud to be a microphone for their work, to document their art, to publicize their culture,” said Hector Galán.
“Visiones: Latino Art and Culture” was one of the first projects LPB supported. Currently, it holds a yearly competition that invites independent producers to submit proposals for funding on Latino-themed programs or series. This year’s 2005 Open Call competition ended on June 6, 2005 with over 100 entries from across the country. Submissions included documentaries, documentary series, experimental, animation, drama and comedy from over 18 states. Winners will be announced in November 2005.
The Imagen Foundation
With financial support from Norman Lear’s Embassy Communications, staff support from NCCJ, the cooperation of many entertainment companies, the leadership of Helen Hernandez and a voluntary advisory committee of professionals and community leaders, the Imagen Awards became a successful enterprise. Since 1985, the Imagen Awards competition has brought out the best and most talented portrayal of Latinos in television and film. For more information on the organization, please visit www.imagen.org.
ABOUT LPB
Created in 1998 by Edward James Olmos and Marlene Dermer, Latino Public Broadcasting (LPB) is a non-profit organization funded by The Corporation for Public Broadcasting. LPB’s mission is to support the development, production, post-production, acquisition and distribution of non-commercial educational and cultural television that is representative of or addresses issues of particular interest to U.S. Latinos. These programs are produced for dissemination to public broadcasting stations and other public telecommunication entities. Mr. Olmos is presently LPB’s Chairman of the Board of Directors.
VARIETY, JUNE 20 2005
Latinos fete ‘West,’ Smits
‘Motorcycle’ drives honors at kudofest
By ANNA MARIE DE LA FUENTE
Comedian George Lopez, a hero in the Latino community for fronting his own hit sitcomsitcom on ABC, dominated the 20th Imagen Awards gala Friday at the BevHilton with his sometimes off-color jokes, but major kudos went to “The West Wing”"The West Wing” for primetime series and to thesp Jimmy Smits for his portrayal of a Latino politician in the skeinskein.
In the features category, Walter SallesWalter Salles’ road movie “The Motorcycle Diaries” won a clutch of awards, including pic, director and supporting actor (Rodrigo de la Serna).
Actress nod went to Colombian thesp Catalina Sandino Moreno for her Oscar-nommed perfperf in “Maria Full of Grace.”
“We (Latinos) have come a long, long way,” declared Freddy Rodriguez, who has won Imagen’s supporting TV actor award three years in a row for his portrayal of a funeral director in HBO’s “Six Feet Under.”
“We’re not whining; we’re here,” said Smits, one of the small but growing number of Latinos who are snagging atypical roles in film and TV.
Argentina’s Mia Maestro won a supporting actress award for her perf as a secret agent in ABC’s “Alias.” There was no actor category this year because there were no contenders aside from Gael Garcia BernalGael Garcia Bernal in “The Motorcycle Diaries.”
DocuDocu helmer Hector Galan, whose “Visiones: Latino Art & Culture” won TV docu series, urged audience members to write their congressional reps to protest pending cuts of public broadcasting coin.
Lawrence Bender accepted Imagen’s Humanitarian Award along with helmer Luis MandokiLuis Mandoki, scribe Oscar Torres and co-producer Alejandro Soberon Kuri for their harrowing pic “Innocent Voices,” based on the childhood experience of Torres, who was among many 12- and 13-year-olds conscripted into the army in El Salvador.
And the winners are…
FILM
Best Picture: “The Motorcycle Diaries”
Best Actress: Catalina Sandino Moreno, “Maria Full of Grace”
Best Supporting Actor: Rodrigo de la Serna, “The Motorcycle Diaries”
Best Supporting Actress: Shelbie Bruce, “Spanglish”
Best Director: Walter Salles,” The Motorcycle Diaries”
Best Theatrical Short or Student Film: “Cuco Gomez-Gomez is Dead”
Best Documentary: Visiones: Latino Art & Culture
TELEVISION
Best Primetime Series: “The West Wing”
Best Actor: Jimmy Smits, “The West Wing”
Best Actress: Madeleine Stowe, “Saving Milly”
Best Supporting Actor: Freddy Rodriguez, “Six Feet Under”"Six Feet Under”
Best Supporting Actress: Mia Maestro, “Alias”"Alias”
Best Variety Special: “LATV Live”
Best Children’s Programming: “Nick News With Linda Ellerbee”
Best Local Informational Programming: “Vista L.A.”
Best National Informational Programming: “American Latino T.V.”
Best Live Theatrical Production: “Yo Soy Latina!”
Five outstanding achievement awards were also presented, including:
Creative Achievement Award: Nina Tassler, the first Latina to head a major television network, CBS
Norman Lear Writer’s Award: Jose RiveraJose Rivera, author of the Oscar-nominated screenplay, “The Motorcycle Diaries”
Humanitarian Award: Lawrence BenderLawrence Bender, Luis Mandoki, Oscar Orlando Torres, and Alejandro Soberon Kuri for the realistic portrayal of civil war in El Salvador and its effects on the country’s children in the film “Innocent Voices”
President’s Award: “The Hollywood Reporter” for recognizing the impact of Latino accomplishments within the entertainment industry.
Hennessy Privilège Award: George Lopez, the star and executive producer of the “George Lopez”"George Lopez” show for his outstanding contributions to the Latino community.
Booklist, Vol. 101 No. 16, April 15, 2005:
Visiones: Latino Art & Culture
This well-made six-part documentary examining Latino culture in the U.S. is colorful, enlightening, and a joy to watch. The title exchews voice-over narration in favor of on-camera interviews, archival footage, and snappy editing. The tone is set in the first episode, in which Latino mural artists, Puerto Rican poets, and a controversial editorial cartoonist are explored in downright splashy coverage. The opening section, centering on artists who create large murals on building walls and similar places, begins with a series of quick cuts, showing a collage of people and their art- a perfect way to graphically depict the subject matter. This is a story of Latinos expressing their identity, history, and culture through words, sounds, and the visual arts; some are rebelling, while others are celebrating their rich heritage. The appeal of this documentary is definitely not limited to Latinos; it speaks to a general audience- David Pitt
School Library Journal, May 2005:
Visiones: Latino Art & Culture
Grade 6 Up- In this six-part documentary that aired on PBS in last summer 2004, many facets of Latino art and culture are presented in a fascinating quilt of music, murals, poetry, drama, and dance. Utilizing the talents of Latino producers from around the country, Visiones incorporates unique storytelling, innovative filmmaking, and fresh perspectives to weave an interesting account of the past and its relationship to the present and the future. From murals on the streets of Chicago and Los Angeles to hip hop dancers in New York City, from the Miami Sound to theater in Texas, the series offers a vibrant cross section of the work of Latino artists today and yesterday. Each 30 minute episode presents six to seven stories that will educate, entertain, and electrify viewers by their sheer creative energy. While each segment focuses primarily on similar forms of art or artists, it blends different art forms and shows common historical or cultural themes. Thus the first episode showcases the Latino Mural Movement of the 1960’s with Nuyorican spoken art that emerged in the same time period. Episode four showcases music that ranges from hip hop and Miami Sound to modern dance. Interviews with the artists bring a personal touch and immediacy to the art, and help us to understand how and why they were created. The series incorporates extraordinary archival material to give historical depth to the ongoing work of a new generation of Latino artists. It also examines our diverse Latino communities and how they were able to keep their artistic expressions alive while creating new and unique visions that contribute to art in America. Some of the artists, such as dance pioneer Rudy Perez, Prima Ballerina Evelyn Cisneros, actress Miriam Colon, musician Tito Puente, and singer Selena are familiar to many Americans, but this series introduces the lesser-known Latino art community as well, and shows how the Latino culture has blended Hispanic and American roots to grow and thrive. Well-paced and emotionally stirring, this is an invigorating introduction to Latino art and culture and would be especially useful in studies of Hispanic-American art, literature, and social studies. - MaryAnn Karre, Horace Mann Elementary School, Binghamton, NY
- ITVS Press ReleaseVISIONES: Latino Art & Culture
Posted: 7/19/04
“VISIONES: LATINO ART & CULTURE” CAPTURES THE RICH CULTURAL AND ARTISTIC EXPRESSIONS OF LATINOS IN THE UNITED STATES
From Mural Painters to Break Dancers to Spoken Word Poets Latino Artists Take Center Stage in Special Six-Part Series Austin, TX - VISIONES: LATINO ART & CULTURE is the first PBS series to focus exclusively on atino artistic expression in the United States. This landmark presentation will examine the nation’s diverse Latino communities and how they have been able to keep their artistic expressions alive while creating new and unique visions that contribute to art in America.
VISIONES: LATINO ART & CULTURE, a special six-part half-hour series, airs nationally on PBS beginning Sunday, September 5, 2004 at 10:30 PM (Check local listings).
VISIONES is a journey through the music, words, dance, painting and performance of rich Latino cultures made more complex and fascinating by their history in our country. The series explores how contemporary Latino artists continue to build on rich traditions that reflect a unique multi-ethnic experience, taking established art forms and reinventing them, constantly challenging themselves and the communities which nurture them. From New York City’s break-dancers to mural-painters in Los Angeles and Chicago to theater in Texas, the series offers a unique cross section of Latino artists working today.
VISIONES also examines the origins of Latino art and culture through storytelling and vivid imagery, depicting the struggles and victories that the artists endured to continue their artistic interpretation.
Hector Galán, Executive Producer and Director of the series states, “VISIONES seeks to go beyond the reductive, one-dimensional, stereotypical imagining of Latinos. Learning about Latino art and culture is learning about what it means to be American today. ”
Galán is recognized for producing eleven episodes of the award-winning series Frontline and two films for American Experience: Los Mineros and The Hunt For Pancho Villa. He has been producing long form documentaries for the PBS national schedule for over twenty years, including the award-winning four hour public television series Chicano! History of the Mexican-American Civil Rights Movement (1996).
Four years in the making, VISIONES is a co-production of Galán Inc. and the National Association of Latino Arts and Culture (NALAC), and is presented by the Independent Television Service (ITVS), with Latino Public Broadcasting (LPB) as co-presenter. Funding for VISIONES was also provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Houston Endowment and the Texas Commission on the Arts.
The Austin Film Society, One World Theatre,and Austin filmmaker Héctor Galán present
A Special Screening of VISIONES, LATINO ART AND CULTURE,
a 3-part documentary produced by Galán for PBS (2004).Co-presented by the Radio-Television-Film Department of the University of Texas at Austin and The Austin Chronicle
September 17 (Wednesday), 7:00 PM at the One World Theatre (7701 Bee Caves Rd).
Austin audiences have a unique opportunity to be among the first in the nation to see 90 minutes of selections from this exciting, “it’s about time” mosaic of historical and contemporary Latino culture from East Coast to West Coast, Chicago to Miami, and all across the Southwest. The arts of Puertorriqueños, Cubanos, Dominicanos, and Chicanos/Mexicanos shine in all their glory in this extended documentary slated for public airing on PBS in 2004.
Assisted by some of the finest Latino documentary film producers, both rising and established talent, Galán examines and extols the richness and diversity within Latino culture(s) in America.murals, santeros, New York hip-hop dancers, editorial cartoons, the Miami sound, Puerto Rican and Chicano teatro (theatre), zoot-suited pachuco swing dancers, poetry, la Vírgen de Guadalupe, political art, altars, salsa, the Royal Chicano Air Force and other performance artists, experimental filmmaking in El Paso, Taco Shop poets, and Tejano music. The list is almost overwhelming. Galán is the first to admit that even he learned new things about the widely dispersed Latino cultures as he began editing the segments and creating unexpected juxtapositions.
Along with the fascinating stories of living artists, Galán and his producers inserted hundreds of historical photographs and films into the programs to reveal some of the socio-political forces that provided a context for the arts. “A lot of [the archival material] has never been seen before, because there haven’t been venues for Latino programming.” That last statement explains why Héctor Galán is the perfect executive producer for such a project.
With over 30 years experience in television and film (20 of those as an independent documentary producer/director/writer), Héctor Galán is uniquely positioned to pull together a complex collection of Visiones. Some of his most recent documentaries include a series of musical celebrations (Accordion Dreams; Songs of the Homeland; and I Love My Freedom, I Love My Texas: On the Road with Mingo Saldivar Y Los Cuatro Espadas), a study of border life in the economically deprived colonias of South Texas (Forgotten Americans), and a socio-political history of the Chicano civil rights movement (Chicano!). Starting in the early 70s, this native San Angelino worked his way through a generally Anglo-dominated television production system before landing a job in Boston at WGBH, where he honed his skills in making politically engaged social statements through the powerful combination of portable video and PBS (Frontline). Even with the satisfaction of having a nation-wide public forum through working for the most powerful station within PBS, Galán’s dream was ultimately to be an independent producer. With that in mind, he returned to Texas in the 1980s and set out to realize his intentions. His numerous documentaries and awards attest to his success during the past 20 years.
Now you will have the wonderful opportunity to see the results of his most recent labor (four years from thought to finish) in the beautiful setting of the One World Theatre in the Texas Hill Country near Austin. You will also be able to participate in or simply enjoy a Q&A session with Héctor Galán after the screening.
Chale Nafus, Director of Programming
‘Pocho’ PatchworkAFs’s Texas Doc Tour brings the formidable Héctor Galán and his “Visiones’ to One World Theatre
Come on out to the One World Theatre for a sneak peek at Héctor Galán’s next epic project — Visiones — a terrific odyssey through the patchwork quilt of Latino culture in the U.S. of A. Galán has been dubbed the “Hispanic Ken Burns” for his many PBS-broadcast films on wide-ranging issues involving the country’s Latino population, including Chicano! History of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement (1996). He’ll screen 10 segments (about 70 minutes) of Visiones, as a work-in-progress that, when completed, will be broadcast as a three-hour PBS special sometime next year.
Be prepared to fill some gaps in your knowledge of the roots of familiar Latino contributions to the American culture scene, music being one of the more obvious ones. Visiones has segments on the Cuban “Miami Sound” and Lalo Guerrero, one of the fathers, in the Forties, of Chicano music of the Southwest. There’s also a segment on prolific indie filmmaker Willie Varela. Then there are artists in Latino communities from coast-to-coast who are doing things creative, outré or mainstream, that chances are you’re unfamiliar with: Ever heard of Rokafella, the New York hip-hop dancer? Or Evelyn Cisneros, prima ballerina with the San Francisco Ballet? “We’re so narrow in our thinking,” says Galán. “As a Chicano in the Southwest, for instance, I see the world in a particular way — my relationships to Anglos and my place here, but, of course, the Puerto Rican experience in New York or the Cuban exile experience in Miami is totally different.”
La carpa, meaning “tent,” is a little-known but fascinating form of traveling theatrical entertainment that began in the Twenties and spanned more than 30 years. La Carpa Garcia, profiled in a Visiones segment with interviews from surviving members as well as terrific archival photography, is historically hailed as one of the more popular and long-standing Mexican tent shows from this era. This group traveled and performed in California, New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas, eventually settling in San Antonio. “Carpa was early vaudeville,” explains Galán. “They did circus, comedy, drama, Greek tragedy, and parody — which was probably one of their most important roles, because, for many, they were the source of news of what was going on in the world.”
The Carpa segment features UT drama department playwright Amparo Garcia-Crow, who is developing a musical production called La Carpa Garcia because she finds carpa an excellent vehicle for filling the vacuum of meaningful Latino acting roles for students, as well as for fleshing out and portraying realistically — warts and all — significant, if less well-known, characters in Latino history. One such historical figure portrayed in Garcia-Crow’s Carpa production is Chicano lawyer Gus Garcia, the first Latino to argue a case before the U.S. Supreme Court, whose stellar career as an advocate was cut short by his alcoholism.
Then there’s the widely syndicated Latino cartoonist Lalo Lopez Alcaraz. The guy who takes a lot of heat from Latinos because he tells it like it is, pulling no punches. He’s got a Web site called Pocho.com, pocho being the derogatory term that Mexican nationals often fling at Mexican-Americans for leaving their native country. “Alcaraz represents people like me,” laughs Galán, “people who have been criticized for decades as squatters in this country, those who have created their own art, their own language, like Chicanese. To a lot of people, being called a pocho is an insult, but Alcaraz took this idea of pochismo and made it something to be proud of.”
To assemble Visiones’ vast cultural mosaic, Galán worked closely with the National Association of Latino Art and Culture and then Latino producers all over the country, developing the stories that would make it into the final cut. As executive producer, he then sent out a single production crew of three to each venue, crisscrossing the country in a van to film the segments. “For me, it was a great learning experience to bring this together,” says Galán, “because, while Latinos in this country share a lot — a language and a lot of traditions — there are a lot of differences; we’re not homogenous, even though a lot of people tend to think of ‘Latino’ as a big umbrella.”
Segments of Visiones: Latino Art and Culture screen as part of the Texas Documentary Tour on Wednesday, Sept. 17, 7pm, at One World Theatre (7701 Bee Caves Rd.). Héctor Galán will conduct a Q&A after the screening. Tickets — $6 for current Austin Film Society members and new members joining before the screening, as well as students; $8 for nonmembers — are available only through One World Theatre (329-6753) by phone or at the venue one hour prior to screening. For more information, check www.austinfilm.org.
THE LATINO LENS (08-05-2004)The National Association of Latino Independent Producers comes to town, allowing
Tucsonans to preview a PBS seriesBy James Reel
This weekend, more than two dozen mid-career Latino producers and directors are bringing their projects to town to be critiqued by established professional Latino filmmakers. And that’s not the only reason this is a good time to be a Latino filmmaker, according to the head of the organization that’s sponsoring the event.
“The market is becoming a bit more accessible and responsive to true independent films, and that’s good for all of us,” says Kathryn Galán, executive director of the National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NALIP). “Independent voices, small films, intensely personal, provocative and distinguished films can be financed, they can be discovered, and they can be appreciated by audiences.
There’s also absolutely an interest in Latino subjects and a Latino voice in the culture–you see that with American Family, Raising Victor Vargas, and that’ll be followed up with the release of The Motorcycle Diaries.”Austin-based Hector Galán–no relation to Kathryn–has been a producer for 25 years, and he says things are much easier than when he was starting out. “In the early ’80s, it was very difficult for me to try to persuade national production entities to do Latino-themed programming,” he says. “I can remember trying to persuade producers at WGBH in Boston or in New York to look at Latino issues, and it was almost like a perplexing question: Latinos? Hispanics? Who are they?”
Today, PBS stations like WGBH certainly know who Latinos are, and they know all about Hector Galán, too. His new, six-part series on Latino art and culture in the United States, Visiones, will air on PBS stations across the country (including Tucson’s KUAT-TV) in September and October. You can get an advance look at the series’ first three half-hour episodes at 8 p.m. this Friday, Aug.
6, at the TCC Leo Rich Theater. There will also be a Q&A session with Galán and other participants, and Latino comedian Joey Medina will open the free show.That’s the only part of this NALIP Producers Academy that will be open to the public. The rest of the event is an intensive, invitation-only gathering for mid-career Latino producers working on new projects.
“This week will further those projects and put the producers in the room with other industry professionals, to help them develop that network of relationships that can help them get that next actor, that piece of funding or that distribution deal to secure their success,” explains Kathryn Galán. The event is expected to involve 35 producers, about as many instructors, 14 actors and eight Tucson-based theater directors who will preside over staged readings.
Hector Galán says the biggest problem he faces today, as an established producer, isn’t getting funding or distribution, but deciding whether to make documentaries in Spanish targeted specifically at Latinos, or in English for the general market. “I think we can do both,” he says.
In the six half-hours of Visiones, Galán and his team of independent producers cover the Latino muralist movement of the 1960s, Tejana musician Selena, Santero artisans from New Mexico, Teatro Campesino, the Virgin of Guadalupe as a Latina icon, ballerina Evelyn Cisneros, the Taco Shop Poets of San Diego, Afro-Cuban music of Miami, Tucson-born musician Lalo Guerrero and much more. “You’d be surprised how much you can squeeze into a half hour,” says Galán.
The series was in production for four years, with separate producers documenting Latino artists all over the country and digging up archival material to put new work into its historical context.
If the series demonstrates anything, Galán suggests, it’s that Latino culture is incredibly diverse, not something monolithic and unified that supports easy generalizations.
“And obviously this is an American experience,” he says. “It’s how we come to assimilate, how we bring our own culture into this vast melting pot, but it’s also how we try to stay true to our particular kinds of expression. A lot of it is rooted in movements of social change and artistic expression in the 1960s. Today, a lot of the younger artists borrow from that, but they’re a separate
generation and not as connected to the old country as we were. Some don’t even speak Spanish. So it’s a whole new mode of expression that’s unique and different from the art you find created in Mexico.”Galán says he’s especially looking forward to screening three of the episodes live in Tucson. As a television producer, he almost never has any direct response from an audience. “We tried to stay consistent with our style and not be too avant-garde, but the series has very tight editing, and it’s visually very exciting,” he says. “We pushed it to the limit, and I want people to tell me what they think of it.”
Sneak preview of Visiones: Latino Art & Culture, featuring comedian Joey Medina
8 p.m., Friday, Aug. 6
TCC Leo Rich Theater
260 S. Church Ave.