Taller Boricua and Arts Engine invite you to a film screening and post-film discussion Q & A with Nuyorican Dream Producer Katy Chevigny, Media Noche / PR Dream Founder and Director Judith Escalona and Arts Engine Filmmaker Services Manager Felix Endara THURSDAY, MAY 19, 6:30 - 9:00PM Event is FREE Please RSVP at contact@tallerboricua.org (82 minutes, 2000) Directed by: Laurie Collyer Produced by: Katy Chevigny, Laurie Collyer and Julia Pimsleur Associate Producer: Robert Torres Camera by: Aurora Agüero, Victoria Garza, Jaime Reyes Edited by: Allan Title Executive Produced by: John Leguizamo and Jellybean Benitez Nuyorican Dream chronicles the struggles and aspirations of a New York Puerto Rican family as they contend with the devastating effects of urban poverty. The film follows Robert Torres, Marta's eldest son and the only one of his family to finish high school and college. College was supposed to lead to the American Dream, but the experience of transcending class has had the result of alienating Robert from his family. The film captures harrowing images of a family in crisis. Sisters Beti and Tati struggle with devastating drug addictions, brother Danny spends half his life in prison, and mother Marta supports the entire extended family through welfare and selling homemade pasteles and used clothing on the street. What emerges most strongly about the Gutierrez family is the fierce love and support that sustains them. Nuyorican Dream is not just about "making it" in America, but about making it with the family intact. For additional information on the film visit http://www.bigmouthproductions.com/films/nuyorican_dream.html or Taller Boricua's website: www.tallerboricua.org ABOUT THE PARTICIPANTS: Katy Chevigny, Arts Engine's co-founder and senior director, is a documentary filmmaker, entrepreneur and nonprofit manager. For fifteen years, Chevigny has advocated for a diverse media culture, one that illuminates important stories and amplifies voices not often heard in the mainstream media. Chevigny founded Arts Engine and its predecessor Big Mouth Productions. As a film director, Chevigny most recently directed the film Election Day, which premiered at the South By Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival in March 2007 and was broadcast on public television by POV in 2008. Chevigny also co-directed Deadline (2004), an Emmy-nominated documentary about the dramatic events that took place in Illinois in 2003 concerning capital punishment. The film aired on NBC in July 2004 and premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, won a CINE Golden Eagle Grand Jury Award and the Thurgood Marshall Journalism Award. Chevigny has produced many award-winning documentaries at Arts Engine, including: Arctic Son, Journey to the West: Chinese Medicine Today, Nuyorican Dream, Innocent Until Proven Guilty and Outside Looking In: Transracial Adoption in America. Felix Endara, Filmmaker Services Manager Arts Engine Ecuadorian-born Felix Endara is a filmmaker and independent programmer living in New York City. His films have screened at festivals including Berlinale and Mill Valley. He has programmed screenings at the Brooklyn Museum of Art; been a reviewer for P.O.V. and Tribeca All Access; and an advisor for Cinereach Reach Fellows. He currently manages Arts Engine's fiscal sponsorship program and the monthly screening series DocuClub. Judith Escalona is the director, writer and editor of The Krutch. She is currently editing a new film project called Bx3M, the story of three Latino youths coming of age in a city going up in flames. Escalona is the Executive Director and Founder of Puerto Rico and the American Dream (www.PRdream.com), the award-winning, bilingual web site on the history, culture and politics of Puerto Rico and the Puerto Rican diaspora. PRdream's office is located in East Harlem/El Barrio, where the organization has launched several new media initiatives, among them a new media art gallery and digital film studio known as MediaNoche (www.medianoche.us). She is also a film curator and critic who has written for various publications including the Daily News, NY Latino, QBR/Quarterly Black Review, and Womensnet.net. Escalona teaches film and television at The City College of New York. She is also an award winning segment producer for the CUNY-TV show Independent Sources. Recently Escalona won an Ippies Award for the documentary short Color on the Great White Way. Taller Boricua Galleries at the Julia De Burgos Cultural Center: 1680 Lexington Ave., NYC, NY 10029 (between 105th & 106th streets) Directions: 6 train to 103rd Street station This event is made possible with support from The New York State Council on the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and The Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone.  Arts Engine supports, produces, and distributes independent media of consequence and promotes the use of independent media by advocates, educators and the general public. By fostering the production and use of independent film, video and new media, Arts Engine connects media makers and active audiences in order to spur critical consideration of pressing social issues. www.artsengine.net |
 Taller Boricua / The Puerto Rican Workshop is a 40-year old artist-run nonprofit art gallery and multidisciplinary cultural space in El Barrio. Our mission is to be a proactive institution for the community in East Harlem by offering programs that stimulate its social, cultural and economic development through the promotion of the arts. |
