Latino Producers Academy for Social Change Documentary Makers

Short Synopsis

NALIP's Latino Producers Academy is a 12-day artist intensive for documentary makers working to advance a just and equitable society. These documentary makers tackle issues that seek to inform decision- and policy-makers about issues of concern within their communities, including those of particular relevance to Latino/as, to the working poor, to women, to immigrants, and artists.

Description/Treatment

The project for which we seek support, the Latino Producers Academy, is a creative intensive that provides essential skills development and deep mentoring to support the voices and innovations of Latino and Native American directors as they bring to life important projects and careers. Media does not yet reflect American society: its creators, its characters, its contemporary and historic subjects do not yet include a full complement of Latino/as.  At the same time, opportunity and access are not available to emerging and mid-career Latino/as, to take a place at the table for funding, distribution and decision making. 

Even strong artist development programs like Sundance and the WGBH Academy, or the independent showcases like ITVS and A-level film festivals, do not invite, nurture, mentor or advance many Latino/a filmmakers or programs.  NALIP created the Latino Producers Academy six years ago to address this lack in the landscape.  Each year we mentor more artists and better stories, then insert them into a cross-cultural dialogue around issues of concern to our community, turning them into strong members of the media field at large. 

For six summers, NALIP has held the Latino Producers Academy in residence for twelve days.  Initially it was established in Tucson; now, we hold it in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  We invite fifteen to twenty documentary filmmaker teams (projects in post-production attend with their editors), and fifteen Latino and Native American independent feature filmmakers as Fellows.  In 2008, twenty documentary Fellows participated  in the Academy: five filmmakers had rough cuts, so they attended with editors who worked through the notes and mentoring provided during the program; the remainder represented eight other projects in production and they rewrote proposals, refashioned sample tapes, and planned their fundraising and outreach strategies while creating stronger stories.   

The curriculum is developed with the advice of professionals in the field, educators evaluating the needs of artists following graduate school, and the input of past mentors and Fellows. Because documentary production has become more accessible in the past ten years, and the ability to capture stories and breaking social issues more facile, filmmakers now embark on great projects without  having had the full experience of serving as researcher, associate producer, segment producers, etc.. This is particularly true in the Latino/a community, where internships and mentoring have been scarce, and few young Latino/as have aspired to media careers.

LPA Documentary Fellows receive instruction and mentoring in the full sweep of the process necessary to fund, complete and distribute their project, including multi-platform content creation and outreach, proposal and trailer revisions, story structure evaluation, working with a composer and special effects team, and pitching to a forum of funders.  Mentors and instructors include Aaron Woolf (KING CORN), POV’s Yance Ford, Sundance’s Rahdi Taylor, LPB’s Patricia Boero, producers Evangeline Griego (SIR!  NO SIR!) and Judith Helfand (BLUE VINYL), Wendy Levy of BAVC, Margaret Guerra Rogers (music supervisor), composers Daniel Hamuy (LA MISMA LUNA) and Joseph Julian Gonzalez (COWBOY DEL AMOR), producer John Valadez (THE LAST CONQUISTADOR), Kathy Lo (PBS), and CPB Sr. VP, Television Content, Ted Garcia. 

The program starts at 8 a.m. every day, continues through lunch each afternoon, and includes screenings or master classes after dinner: truly 8 am to 11 pm!  It is an intensive, in the true sense, and all the better for it.  All Fellows attend on full scholarship. We follow in the footsteps of decades-old media arts development programs like Sundance and Equinox that also provide their Labs free to select, talented and visionary artists. 

The environment is a creative and collegial one, very multi-cultural, with participants from all over the country and Puerto Rico coming together to support the creative visions and social change aspirations of each Fellow.  Over 125 people participate, including crew, interns, actors and instructors. 

A panel of professionals reviews applications from feature producers, writer/producers and directors, then notifies them of their invitation in early July.  The next LPA is scheduled for August 5-21, 2009 in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  After five successful years in Tucson, Arizona, we were invited by the film office and legislature to move the program to New Mexico in 2008, which permitted us to expand our Fellowships to Native Americans.  We have developed a support structure with the city, film office, undergraduate and diverse film educational institutions like the College of Santa Fe and the Institute for American Indian Arts, local production facilities and resident professional filmmakers.

For both documentary and narrative makers  the program is a supportive environment to advance media projects on a wide spectrum of topics: 

• In 2008, one project looked at a Puerto Rican-American family that lives in the south, overwhelmed with health, drug, and financialproblems.

• Another piece examined the effect of Proposition 200 and the new Employer Sanction law on minority workers in Arizona.

• One project looked at the dramatic changes in the Taos Ski Valley from the perspective of local Native Americans as well as that of ski lovers, examining the effect of a major policy decision on the environment and the spirit of the Taos community.

• Recently funded by Latino Public Broadecasting is OUR WOMEN, OUR STRUGGLE , a chronicleof the lives of three Puerto Rican revolutionary women  who dedicated their lives to the Puerto Rican Independence movement.

These stories find guidance, support and mentoring, vastly improving their chances for progress and success.  The artists learn tools for increased community involvement and social impact, including new media strategies, outreach, and multi-platform opportunities for their content that can create dialogues, blogs, maps, chats and actions around the issues. 

We believe that great media arts projects can stimulate social change and champion cultural and economic justice.  Our program mentors and instructors lead each filmmaker to the strongest and most creative strategy for each individual project.

Short-term goals of the Latino Producers Academy are to deliver this program in 2009 and 2010 to a new group of documentary and independent film makers. The program was created in partnership with corporations, and foundations like the Rockefeller, Ford and MacArthur foundations when they had a mandate to support media diversity and field development.  Grant support would permit us to invite all Fellows on full scholarship: room, board, and lab materials, plus crew, cast and mentors.  Funding will also allow us to continue covering the costs for all the professional staff, including an honorarium for their time. We would like to see forty to fifty more projects and their creative teams participate in the Academy, on their way to completion.

Ultimately, we see this program as a tool to create a new generation of Latino/a media leaders.  There are few other opportunities for Latino/a and Native artists to develop these particular skills and relationships.  While we have seen progress in the six years of our program, and while we are pleased to note some of the successes later in this proposal, NALIP recognizes that this is a long-view effort to build a critical mass of Latino/a artists andcreators.