gus chavez wrote:
> Filmmaker Phillip Rodriguez , 47, is a senior fellow at the Annenberg > School for Communications at USC. His earlier documentaries include > Los Angeles Now and Mixed Feelings: San Diego/Tijuana. > > Brown is the New Green: George Lopez and the American Dream, which > airs Thursday, on KPBS. The hour-long film explores the way Latinos > are perceived by the media and marketers and how they perceive > themselves. > > "The timing of his new film has raised some eyebrows. It comes 11 days > before PBS begins airing Ken Burns' seven-part epic about World War > II, The War, which has been criticized for months by Latino > activists. They said the filmmaker overlooked the experience of > Latinos on the battlefield and the homefront. " > > "he thinks PBS is eager to air his documentary first because they had > egg on their face from the Burns controversy." > > Read attached article. > > Gus Chavez > Defend The Honor San Diego Union Tribune Minority report Documentary explores how the quickly rising Latino population fits into U.S. society By John Wilkens STAFF WRITER September 10, 2007 If the demographers are correct that Latinos will be a majority in California by 2042, filmmaker Phillip Rodriguez has a question: Who are these new neighbors? CLAUDIA ROCHA Comedian George Lopez learned to "walk a tightrope between ethnic authenticity and prime-time appeal," according to a new documentary. He searches for answers in his documentary, Brown is the New Green: George Lopez and the American Dream, which airs Thursday, on KPBS. The hour-long film explores the way Latinos are perceived by the media and marketers and how they perceive themselves. Americans are in a collective state of confusion about Latinos, Rodriguez said. He's not surprised. It starts with terminology. Most Latinos don't call themselves Latino; they are more likely to identify themselves by their country of origin. Hispanic? That's a term the federal government came up with for record keeping. And it's a myth, Rodriguez said, to consider Latinos a homogenous group. What are the commonalities between a member of the Cuban bourgeois who came here in 1959, and a peasant from Michoacan who came here yesterday? he asked during a phone interview from Los Angeles, where he lives. Other than language, and maybe Catholicism, I'm not sure there are many. DETAILS Brown Is the New Green A documentary about how Latinos are perceived by the media and marketing companies. When: Thursday, 9 p.m. Where: KPBS / Channel 15 Yet as his documentary shows, many media and marketing companies continue to treat Hispanics as monolithic, and that in turn is shaping how America understands the nation's largest (44 million) and fastest-growing ethnic group. Or doesn't. Latinos are caught in a netherworld, Rodriguez said. Mainstream media have largely ignored them, while Spanish-language networks and Hispanic ad companies have served up an exoticized image that has no basis in contemporary American reality. One notable exception is comedian George Lopez, he said. Before being canceled this year after five seasons, The George Lopez Show was the longest-running English-language program with a Latino lead in TV history. The documentary starts with footage of Lopez heading to a stand-up comedy appearance first in a helicopter, then a limousine. He's arrived, in more ways than one. Talking about his popularity, Lopez says: Finally there is someone that you can invest in that looks like you, speaks like you, relates to things you relate to, and makes our culture OK to talk about. CLAUDIA ROCHA Filmmaker Phillip Rodriguez (left) with Lopez following the comedian's performance at the Long Beach Arena. Rodriguez likened Lopez to Bill Cosby, whose 1980s sitcom normalized African-American life for a wider audience. Lopez, he said, is a case study of someone who managed to introduce this brown Mexican-American identity to mainstream audiences. By following Lopez around to his stand-up act, to a sitcom writer's meeting, to the set of the show the film addresses an important question, Rodriguez said: How does an outside culture get on the inside? Cosby's show was criticized in some quarters as too bland; Lopez, too, has been accused of sanding off some of his sharp edges. He doesn't deny it. I've been in meetings with Warner Bros. when I wasn't particularly happy with what I was hearing, Lopez recounts in the documentary. The Chicano in me would say, 'I'm leaving.' But when you leave, you're out. So I made myself stay. Probably a lot of people would say that's selling out. But it's not selling out. It's the way the business is set up. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
