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» A Class Apart
SWAMP is proud to sponsor the production of a new documentary by Carlos Sandoval. A Class Apart brings to life the heroic struggle of Mexican Americans to dismantle the Jim Crow-style discrimination targeted against them. The story is built around the landmark 1954 legal case, Hernandez v. Texas, in which an underdog band of Mexican Americans from Texas bring a case all the way to the Supreme Court — and win. The film begins with a murder in a gritty cantina in the small town of Edna, Texas. From this unremarkable crime emerges a landmark civil rights case that would forever change the lives and legal standing of tens of millions of Americans.
The central drama is the legal journey of the Hernandez lawyers through the Texas courts and ultimately to the United States Supreme Court. We see them forge a daring legal strategy that puts to question their own racial identities by arguing that Mexican Americans were “a class apart” who did not neatly fit into a legal structure that only recognizes blacks and whites. As legal skirmishes unfold, the lawyers emerge as brilliant, dedicated, humorous and at times terribly flawed men. A grassroots national movement supports the legal efforts paid for with tiny contributions sent by Latinos from around the country. The film dramatically interweaves the story of its central characters — activists and lawyers, returning veterans and ordinary citizens, murderer, and victim — within the broader history of Latinos in America during a time of extraordinary change.
In bringing to light this little known history, the film will help inform a new civil rights movement reignited by the challenge of today’s burgeoning Latino population.
Producer/director Carlos Sandoval was co-producer/director of the documentary “Farmingville,” which won numerous awards and honors including the Sundance Special Jury Prize and the Council on Foundation’s Henry Hampton Award. A lawyer and writer, Sandoval’s work has appeared in The New York Times and other publications. Sandoval worked on immigration and refugee affairs as a member of the U.S. delegation to the United Nations, and as a program officer for The Century Foundation. Of Mexican-American and Puerto Rican descent, Sandoval grew up in Southern California and is a graduate of Harvard College and of the University of Chicago Law School.
Co-Producer Peter Miller has worked as a producer on several of Ken Burns’s films including the upcoming series “The War,” the “Jazz” series, and the Peabody Award-winning “Frank Lloyd Wright.” His own work includes the just-released “Sacco and Vanzetti,” “The Internationale” (Oscar short-list), and “Passin’ It On” (shown on P.O.V., winner of over twenty film festival prizes). Miller was a producer on Barbara Kopple’s Academy Award-winning “American Dream,” and has worked on dozens of other historical and social issue documentaries.
Cinematographer Allen Moore has served as a director of photography for several of Ken Burns’s historical films including “The Civil War,” “Thomas Jefferson,” “Lewis and Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery,” and “Mark Twain.” Other DP credits include the award-winning films “Wild by Law,” “The Donner Party,” “The Way West,” “Divided Highways,” “The Harriman Expedition,” the “New York” series, “Horatio's Drive: America’s First Road Trip,” and the Peabody Award-winning “Monkey Trial.” Moore received Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Cinematography for his work on the Ken Burns’ “Baseball” series and Ric Burns’s “New York” series.
Editor Aaron Vega is currently completing “John Audubon: Drawn from Nature” for PBS’s American Masters (which will air in the fall of 2006). Other editing credits include “Race to the Moon: The Apollo 8 Story” (American Experience 2005), Ken Burns’s “Jazz” (episode 6), and “Ram Dass: Fierce Grace” (PBS).
To donate to the production of A Class Apart via Paypal, please click below:
You may also make a contribution over the phone using American Express, Visa, Mastercard or Discover by calling SWAMP at 713-522-8592, or by sending a check to:
SWAMP
c/o A Class Apart
1519 West Main
Houston, TX 77006
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