Film Forum

Borderlands Cinematic Arts, a project of The Sidney Poitier New American Film School, is a space for world-class filmmakers to create new cinematic works that are grounded in the social experience of the “borderlands” and elevated in craft and form.

Luis Valdez is widely regarded as the father of Chicano theater and film. The son of migrant farmworkers, he founded El Teatro Campesino in 1965 on the picket lines of the Delano Grape Strike, staging short plays on flatbed trucks and in union halls to galvanize Cesar Chavez’s United Farm Workers. His landmark play, Zoot Suit, drawn from the 1942 Sleepy Lagoon murder trial and the Zoot Suit Riots, became the first Chicano production on Broadway and was later adapted into a 1981 feature film starring Edward James Olmos. In 1987 he wrote and directed LA BAMBA the Ritchie Valens biopic that became a major box office success and brought his vision to mainstream audiences. Across six decades, Valdez has written and directed dozens of plays and films, earned a Peabody Award and the National Medal of Arts, and seen ZOOT SUIT, LA BAMBA, and I AM JOAQUIN all preserved in the Library of Congress National Film Registry, leaving an indelible mark on American storytelling.

David Alvarado, a Chicano documentary filmmaker, is passionate about human rights, science, and technology. His latest film, AMERICAN PACHUCO: THE LEGEND OF LUIS VALDEZ, won both the Festival Favorite Award and the Audience Award for U.S. Documentary at Sundance. Alvarado’s other notable works include We Are As Gods (adapted into an eight-part Audible Originals podcast), Bill Nye: Science Guy, Blood Sugar Rising, and the BFI-nominated THE IMMORTALISTS. He also produced and shot TRUE CONVICTION. A graduate of Stanford University’s MFA in Documentary Filmmaking, Alvarado co-founded Structure Films, focusing on science and tech stories. In 2022, he was named one of DOC NYC and HBO’s 40 under 40 documentary filmmakers to watch.

Cristina Ibarra is a 2021 MacArthur Fellow and award-winning filmmaker whose storytelling is rooted in her Tex-Mex, Spanglish, border-crossing identity. Her films, including THE INFILTRATORS, LAS MARTHAS, and Dirty Laundry: A Homemade Telenovela, blend documentary and scripted forms to explore themes of cultural identity, race, and migration. Recognized by Sundance, HotDocs, PBS, and other prestigious platforms, Ibarra is committed to creating a distinct border cinema. She is the Co-Founding Director of Borderlands Cinematic Arts and an Associate Professor at ASU’s Sidney Poitier New American Film School.

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