For Actor-Director Carlos Carrasco, founder of The Panamanian International Film Festival in Los Angeles (PIFF/LA), working with Raul Julia has always been a career highlight.

“I was a Shakespearean trained actor,” said Carrasco, “and, as a Latino, classically trained role models were few and far between.”

The two actors were in New York City at the same time, but it wasn’t until Carrasco moved to Los Angeles that he got to work with Julia in the HBO film The Burning Season, directed by the legendary John Frankenheimer of Manchurian Candidate fame. The film also brought Edward James Olmos and Julia together for the first and only time in a memorable East Coast meets West Coast moment celebrating the pairing of two iconic stars of Puerto Rican and Mexican-American descent.  

Carlos Carrasco’s clip of the classic film, The Burning Season, check the Latino actors: CLICK HERE

Latin Heat got to speak to Carrasco about his memories of Raul Julia, the mission of PIFF/LA, and the legacy of Latino actors, filmmakers, and storytellers in today’s turbulent times.

Remembering Raul: 25 Years Later

LH: Why did you choose Ben DeJesus’ The World’s A Stage for Panafest’s Opening Night? 

CC: First, I got to see the documentary premiere at LALIFF and it was sensational on so many levels. I would be remiss if I didn’t congratulate Edward James Olmos on an exceptional slate of films, youth participation, and an inspiring vision that was palpable at LALIFF. I was incredibly moved by Ben DeJesus’ commitment to telling Raul’s story in a way that honored the man, his family, and all those he touched in life and beyond. From the veteran Latino actors whose voices are woven into the documentary to the awareness that today’s generation of young Latino actors needs to know the Latino stage and screen journey.

It wasn’t until later that I realized three uncanny coincidences: 1) our Festival was scheduled within a week of Raul’s passing 25 years ago; 2) The Downtown Independent, our theater, is just block from where Hispanicize is taking place on the same date. This major event is produced by NGLC [NGL Collective], who also produced the documentary. And 3) both my wife and I worked on The Burning Season as she was handling Latinx PR outreach for HBO at the time. The Burning Season was about the 1988 murder of Chico Mendes and his impact on environmental consciousness in Brazil. Fast forward and the Amazon is burning. We need to remember. 

LH: What’s a favorite Raul Julia story?

CC: I knew Raul years ago in New York as we were connected by a mutual relationship with the dynamic Miriam Colón, founder and director of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, my theatre home in NY. Miriam ran a playwright’s unit which held readings of works in progress. I participated in many of those, and on one occasion Raul joined us.

Imagine our surprise when we learned that what we were reading was an interminable opus in iambic pentameter about Eskimos lamenting the dwindling whale population and the subsequent shortage of blubber. Why a Puerto Rican playwright felt compelled to write about Eskimos shall remain a mystery. The thing was so long that as the reading progressed more and more actors began to peel off to ‘previous commitments,’ but Raul staunchly plodded on. In the end, it was just me and him with the director reading in the rest of the cast of thousands of Eskimos and we eventually made it to the end. I have always admired him for doing that.

LH: Rumor has it the Raul Julia documentary is almost sold-out. What else is happening at Panafest 2019?

CC: So much good stuff. This is our 5^th year and we have expanded to three days. The films, panels, and other programming are so exciting. First, there’s a significant number of Panamanian and US Panamanian films represented in all genres – docs, features, animation, shorts – even the first horror film feature from Panama, Diablo Rojo. Day 1 kicks off with a documentary by an LA-born Panamanian from USC, Angelique Molina, whose documentary about gentrification in LA’s View Park area is fascinating. As is a revealing family DNA search shared in a documentary by Panamanian Anayansi Prado. My Associate Director Maia de Zan Hatch has done an amazing job of forming alliances with an exceptional community of independent film festivals and creators in Panama. There’s even a short music film that speaks to immigration from Grammy Award winners Las Rakas, a Panamanian duo from Oakland.

Saturday is packed with innovation. Everything from The Poetry Gallery Pop-Up in the Lobby created by PenClique to a live spoken word and dance performance created for the Festival by SP!T’s Alex Alpharaoh, whose solo-show WET and his DACA journey is the subject of a documentary that evening. And speaking of innovation, Sergio Garza Fox has directed a feature, Intolerance No More, that knocked my socks off. I don’t want to give too much away, but this film is shot with the most non-traditional use of technology – from cell phones to Go Pros to Security cameras. You just have to see it. And it’s about profiling and social media. Very visionary.

Sunday Fun Day is our nickname for a block of films that are just laugh-out-loud funny or twisted in a dark comedy kind of way. This includes Danny Hasting’s US Premiere of his feature film Venus De Macho. Danny founded the Original Latino Film Festival in Coachella and he’s Mexican-Panamanian and he’s the best kind of crazy.  Sunday closes with Fanny Grande’s award-winning documentary Quinceañera.

40% of the Festival’s content is by female directors. There’s also a lot of Afro-Latinx storytelling, LGBTQ narratives, and a spectrum of storytelling that defies stereotypes.” — Carlos Carrasco

LH: We heard there’s also going to be an altar at the Festival? 

CC: Yes, we are grateful to award-winning and deeply respected artist and Day of the Dead scholar Consuelo Flores for bringing her talents into our Festival and creating an altar to celebrate the Latinx talent who we lost too soon. The week of the Festival, for example, is very close to the 5th Anniversary of Elizabeth Peña’s passing. I knew Elizabeth since she was a kid in NYC and worked with her on several occasions. It will be in the lobby and free to the public to come to see it. We hope they’ll honor us by staying for a film as well. There’s something for everyone.
PIFF/LA’s Panafest 2019 runs October 18-20

Full Schedule and Tickets at Eventbrite: 5Panafest.Eventbrite.com

Facebook @Panamanian International Film Festival in LA

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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, and distribution of non-commercial, educational and cultural media that is representative of Latino people or addresses issues of particular interest to Latino Americans. The organization was created in 1998 by Olmos and Marline Demer, who served as Executive Director until 2002 and now sits on the Board of Directors. Olmos is presently LPB’s Chairman of the Board of Directors and is passionately involved in the organization’s efforts to increase the presence of Latino films on public television in the United States.

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, Cionin Lorenzo
Executive Producers: Sandie Viquez Pedlow, Sally Jo Fifer, Michael Kantor
Co-Executive Producers: John Leguizamo, David Chitel, Donald Thoms
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

The post Raúl Juliá: The World’s a Stage A Revelation of a True Artist first appeared on .

Ben DeJesus‘ long-awaited feature documentary, Raúl Juliá: The World’s a Stage, examines the life and career of the inspiring entertainer, Raul Julia. The film, a portrait of the charismatic actor, who earned recognition across the world for his versatility on stage and on screen before his life was tragically cut short, is set to premiere on Saturday, August 3, 2019, at the historic TLC Chinese Theater in the heart of Hollywood, CA.

Raúl Juliá: The World’s a Stage is a revealing portrait of the charismatic, groundbreaking actor’s journey from his native Puerto Rico to the creative hotbed of 1960s New York City, to prominence on Broadway and in Hollywood. Directed by Ben DeJesus, the film traces Raul’s personal and professional journey, showcasing his groundbreaking performances and humanitarian activism. Before diversity and inclusion were part of the national conversation, Raul with his magnetic personality and charismatic talent was able to amass a varied body of timeless work that helped pave the way for many Latino actors today.  

Raúl Juliá: The World’s a Stage 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. Director/Producer: Ben DeJesus. Producer: Jill Krikorian. Executive Producers: Sandie Viquez Pedlow, Donald Thoms, John Leguizamo, Michael Kantor, and Sally Jo Fifer. Michael Kantor is an executive producer for American Masters. Sandie Viquez Pedlow is an executive producer for VOCES. Co-Executive Producers: John Leguizamo, David Chitel, Donald Thoms. Cinematography: Edgar Andrade, Jonathan Belinski
This film was made possible by the generous support of Latino Public Broadcasting, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, WNET, PBS, and ITVS. 

*** Additional screenings are scheduled in New York, Puerto Rico, San Diego, Miami, and Puerto Rico, leading up to the PBS national premiere 
Friday, September 13, 2019 at 9 p.m. ET(check local listings), pbs.org/americanmasters and the PBS Video App in honor of National Hispanic Heritage Month. 

The post LALIFF: Raúl Juliá: The World’s a Stage, Premieres Aug. 3rd, TLC Chinese Theater first appeared on .