Airs on PBS September 13th
New York Latino Film Fest Premiere
4:00 PM, August 17th
AMC Empire
By Julio Martinez
On September 13th, PBS’s American Masters and Latino Public Broadcasting will join forces to present the first documentary on Raúl Juliá, the brilliant Puerto Rican actor, whose career was cut short by his untimely death in 1994 at age 54. At a recent meeting of the Television Critics Association, the documentary, Raúl Juliá: The World’s a Stage, was discussed by actor/social activist Edward James Olmos, now the co-founder and chairman of Latino Public Television. He was joined by Ben DeJesus, director, and producer of the documentary.
“I hope everyone gets a chance to see this documentary, said Olmos. “Ben DeJesus has done a brilliant job. And I’m emotional right now because it’s been 25 years and this is the first time we’re talking about Raúl Juliá. And if it wasn’t for Ben and what he’s done, we wouldn’t even be talking about him today. I mean, he was the best we had. He was better than José Ferrer. He’s better than Anthony Quinn. He’s better than me. He’s better than any of us. There’s not one actor that could come close to him. He could do the classics in Spanish and English. Anthony couldn’t do that. Quinn couldn’t do that. And José Ferrer never did it. And so I can only tell you that what you’re going to experience now has been a long time coming.
He was nominated four times for a Tony, never got it. Emmys, Golden Globes, you name it. He got nominated. Never won. And that shows you the understanding. He died with never receiving an accolade. He was nominated but never received one until he was dead.”
Juliá received a posthumous Golden Globes Award for his performance of activist Chico Mendes in the 1994 television movie, The Burning Season, directed by John Frankenheimer (Juliá also received a posthumous Emmy Award). This was Julia’s last film released during his lifetime. “I had to receive it and I wept,” continued Olmos. “I’m really tired of how long it’s taken for our diversity to be recognized.”
Born in Puerto Rico in 1940, Juliá was convinced to move to New York by actor Orson Bean, taking over Bean’s role in the off-Broadway rock musical, Your Own Thing. A fluidly bilingual actor, he performed off-Broadway, Broadway, the Puerto Rican Traveling Theater and Joseph Papp’s New York Shakespeare Festival, appearing opposite Meryl Streep in The Taming of the Shrew. During the 1980s he worked in several films, including Kiss of the Spider Woman. In 1991 and 1993, Juliá portrayed Gomez Adams in two film adaptations of The Addams Family. In 1994, he suffered several health afflictions, eventually dying after suffering a stroke.
This film is a breakthrough project for Latino Public Broadcasting (LPB), a non-profit organization funded by The Corporation for Public Broadcasting. LPB is the leader in the development, production, acquisition,
In addition to American Masters, LPB is deeply involved in VOCES, which is premiering four new films this season, beginning with The Pushouts, premiering September 20th, telling the story of celebrated professor and author, Dr. Victor Rios who, by the age of 15, was a high school dropout with multiple felony convictions. The film follows Victor over one summer as he works with his former mentor, Martin Flores, at YO! Watts, a Los Angeles program committed to changing the lives of young people who are often referred to as “dropouts,” that are actually pushed out of the education system. They are among the almost one in four Latino and black students who do not graduate each year and end up with low-paying jobs, and, too often, in the criminal justice system.
For Olmos, the working partnership with PBS is rapidly increasing the validity of LPB, which is beginning to exceed early expectations. “Thanks to the guiding lights of our executive director (Sandie Pedlow) and our staff right now, we’ve hit the highest we’ve ever been, and we’re starting now to really understand ourselves to the fullest. It’s difficult because we originally came about through a necessity to get diversity in line with the South Pacific Islanders, the indigenous, the African-American, of course, ourselves, Latino. Our cultures were so underrepresented, and we still are.”
“I’ve been doing this for 50 years, and I can tell you that things have gotten worse, and the reason they’ve gotten worse is that there’s more of us here now. The minority system of the country has grown, all of it, so that now we really should have a more diverse look in the arts, and it’s not being done. And I thank, very much, PBS and CPB and all the different groups that have helped us throughout the years to try to get alternative voices in line and to be seen.”
All I can say is PBS and Latino Public Broadcasting has been a dream, and it’s a dream come true, and we’re just beginning.”
About Raúl Juliá: The World’s a Stage
The documentary is a special presentation of American Masters and VOCES. The film is a co-production of ITVS, NGL Studios, Diamante Content, and LATINO PUBLIC BROADCASTING in association with American Masters Pictures.
The Team
Director/Producer: Ben DeJesus
Producer: Jill Krikorian
Editor/Co-Producer: Sikay Tang
Co-Producers: Edgar Andrade,
Executive Producers: Sandie Viquez Pedlow, Sally Jo Fifer, Michael Kantor
Co-Executive Producers: John Leguizamo, David
Cinematography: Edgar Andrade, Jonathan Belinski
Original Score: Chris Hajian
Post Production Mixer: Bassy Bob Brockman
Associate Producer: Evelyn Madera
Archival Producers: Jennifer Petrucelli, Rachel Antell
Animation & VFX: Garbanzo
Graphic Design: David Irlanda
