Month of May, 2008

With Monica Pelayo and Prof. Matt Garcia

A huge thank you also goes to student leader Monica Pelayo, who coordinated the entire event, and to the event sponsors Semana Chicana and The Center for Study of Race and Ethnicity!

The moment I entered the screening room, I received a huge hug from Unidad Latina organizer Fátima Rojas, who had seen Made in L.A. on PBS in September. That was moving, and it was a beautiful reminder of how many people may have seen or been impacted by the film without our even knowing...

The panel discussion following the screening was moderated by Professor Jennifer Klein and included Fatima and Juan Granados, from Unidad Latina en Acción, and Elizabeth Breton from the UNITE-HERE Joint Laundry Board. It was moving to be able to hear a deep discussion of the human and local issues that stem from the film, and I wrote down a few sentences that touched me, to share here:

"Many times we feel very small but when we are organized we lose our fear" - Juan
"I was waiting for the American dream to come knock on my door and say ‘come join me', but it never happened" - Elisabeth.
"Everyone living in a community, all of us, at the end of the day, we are all workers" -Fatima.

Fear. Unity. Hope. These are the three words I wrote on my pad to remember from that night.

This panel was a great example of how the film can help bring together students, academics, community members, activists and workers! As a result of the event, Unidad Latina has shown the film in New Haven today, May 1st, during the day of action "La Unidad hace la Fuerza. In Unity there is Strength". For more info click here or write ULAccion@yahoo.com.

We also just heard from Professor Klein about a successful union organizing drive at a laundry plant near New Haven (click here for more info). Exciting news!

Here's a group photo of everyone involved, with Made in L.A. flyers: Left to right, bottom to top: Alfonso Santiago with little Ambar, a student, Juan Granados, Fátima Rojas, Elizabeth Bretón, Michael Denning, me, Jennifer Klein, Steve Pitti and Robert.

With Desiree Garcia and Bernadine Mellis

With Alisa Kowal and Liana Foxvog

We went to dinner afterwards with some of the organizers, and it was a beautiful finish to the tour, full of new people, new places, and new experiences... Wherever we go, we want to think that the film leaves a mark -and its circle of impact expands day by day...

This event was sponsored by: SSJIC, Nosotras, Sweatfree Communities (one of our outreach partners - to find out how to become a partner, click here), the Program for the Study of Women & Gender, and the Film Studies program (Mt. Holyoke).

At the reception held in my honor at the Raices Gallery in Tuscon, with the wonderful organizers and Ruben Reyes, who programmed the film.

Finally, I returned to L.A. to go to straight to the Port of San Pedro, where Made in L.A. was screening as the closing night film of the LA Harbor International Film Festival. The screening was sponsored by ILWU (thank you!) and we received a memorable Certificate of Appreciation from the City of Los Angeles, which was presented by LA Councilmember Janice Hahn. I got home exhausted from so much activity, but quite invigorated!!!

City Councilmember Janice Hahn, a big fan of the film, with Joann Lo, Robert and me, after presenting the Certificates of Appreciation.

Lupe holds one of the clever centerpieces, which she nicknamed an "Oscarito". Out in the hall people looked at us as though it was a real Oscar!

The first night, Grantmakers in Film and Electronic Media (GFEM), held a special dinner and screening of Made in L.A., with support from Hispanics in Philanthropy and Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees. Lupe, one of the stars in the film, had also been invited to attend, and she, Robert and I led a long Q&A (beautifully moderated by Alyce Myatt!), which focused on the outreach efforts and the continued impact that Made in L.A. is having in the US and abroad. There was also an interesting discussion about the funding process for Made in L.A. (which, like many independent documentaries, struggled for years before breaking through), and it was of course beautiful to see one of our funders, Patricia Boero from Latino Public Broadcasting, in attendance lending her support!

While at the conference, we had the opportunity to attend several panels and events, and Monday's plenary luncheon was especially powerful. Titled "Philanthropic Partnership: Improving the Lives of our Fellow-citizens", it explored the state of human rights sixty years after the Universal Declaration. Moderated by Gara LaMarche, this was a passionate two-hour conversation among three extraordinary panelists: Anthony Romero, Executive Director of the ACLU, Kumi Naidoo of CIVICUS, and Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland. You can view much of the discussion here (the panel actually starts in "Part 2").

The entire experience was a rare opportunity to peek into this world, and we were deeply inspired by what we saw. Just as we, as filmmakers, strive to change the world through filmmaking, and its unique emotional power to make an impact, so very many of the executives and program officers that we met during the conference are striving to change the world through philanthropy. It's inspiring to know that we are all on this quest together.

Prof. Eileen Boris walking on stage with a copy of the invitation to the houseparty that she hosted for Made in L.A. 4 years ago.

While Almudena flew to Spain for DocumentaMadrid, I went to present Made in L.A. at the University of California at Santa Barbara. This event had special significance: almost exactly 4 years ago, Almudena and I held a houseparty at the home of Professors Eileen Boris and Nelson Lichtenstein, to raise funds for the film. This was one of several houseparties that we did during our first four years of production, and these events were not only one of our most important sources of funding in those years, but also served to provide much needed emotional support. When people hug you, crying, to tell you "you must finish this film", you know that you are on to something and that you really MUST finish the film. These were our very first audience members and supporters, and Made in L.A. would not exist without the support of over 300 individuals that came to our houseparties.

Four years later, there I was, back in Santa Barbara with Eileen, and now with the finished film doing educational screenings just as we had promised we would at that houseparty! And it was an amazing evening. What had been planned as a 150-person screening soon overflowed to 200... and then 300. Two more rooms had to be opened at the Multi Cultural Center so that the film could screen simultaneously. And, in addition to my talking about the making of the film at the Q&A, Aidin Castillo, an organizer from Santa Barbara's PUEBLO, was there to talk about the issues that workers are encountering in communities near campus, which really brought the message home.

I called Almudena to let her know -it was 3am in Spain and she was still partying after the second full day of screenings in Madrid. How amazing that, thousands of miles apart, Made in L.A. is able to move and impact people at the same time!

Special thanks to event organizer (and Ph. D Student in Sociology) Veronica Montes, to Rebekah Meredith, Programmer for the Multi-Cultural Center, to Professor Elizabeth Currans, and of course to Professor Eileen Boris for her faith and support for Made in L.A. for so many years!

While Robert was doing presentations in California, I was in Madrid presenting Made in L.A. at Casa de America as part of DocumentaMadrid. Originally planned as a single screening, Teresa Toledo (who is in charge of film programming at Casa de America) soon added a special 4-night run for a total of 5 screenings in 1 week! (thank you Teresa!)

With the wonderful press team of DocumentaMadrid: Marcela, Lucía and Sonia Uría, marvelous Chief of Press.

The screenings were announced in major newspapers such as El País Semanal (the largest newspaper in Spain), Público and Diagonal, in over 30 on-line publications, and I was also interviewed on 6 national radio programs including "De Película", "Hora America" "Otros acentos", "De Cine", and Radio "La Nuestra". Finally, the news was spread in dozens of e-mail list-serves and what started as a grassroots effort soon spread and became "the screening" to go to during Madrid's annual Fiestas de San Isidro.

The first night the film was scheduled to start at 8:30pm and it was sold out by 7:45! A big crowd gathered at the entrance and I tried to talk to everyone to encourage them to come to the other screenings. People protested: "but we want to hear the Q&A!" Originally we hadn't planned to do Q&As at the other four screenings, but in that very moment I agreed to it! As a result, we had an hour long Q&A everyday. Word of mouth brought more and more people each day, and we ended up with 5 full-house screenings, and with tons of people who (unfortunately) could not make it in! It was exhausting but so moving...

The success of the event was also a great example of effective grassroots work in reaching a wide audience, and our Q&As brought together very diverse people, from immigrants to fashion students, from activists to regular folk who were curious to see the film. The Q&As enabled a discussion among audience members, who linked the themes and the experiences of the characters in the film with what's happening in Spain at this very moment: precariedad laboral (precarious jobs), subcontracting, immigrant bashing, etc. It is interesting to see how Made in L.A. comes to fill a void in the representation of immigrants in Spanish society, which is trying to cope with a process of rapid changes that, over the last 8 years, have made this country much more multi-cultural, diverse and richer...

People in line waiting to talk to Almudena

Dozens of organizations have contacted us because they want to be part of a national effort to bring the film everywhere in Spain, and hundreds of people have signed up to receive news about the film. It is certainly a huge effort for Robert and I, who are at this point handling all of the distribution and the growing demand for the film (it's like a snow ball!)... But the response was so moving and amazing, that we feel an urgent sense of responsibility to work towards this goal. Many thanks everyone who was part of supporting and spreading the word about these screenings. Good things are in the works... stay tuned!