Author: Hipolito Munoz

By Lani Cupchoy, Ph.D. Lani Cupchoy is a Public Historian-Artivist-Photographer-Filmmaker whose research focuses onChicanx-Latinx Studies, Ethnic and Gender Studies, U.S. Transnational/Global History,Indigenous knowledge, Critical Food Studies, Oral History, Digital Storytelling, and CriticalCivic Engagement. She is also an award-winning filmmaker of Truth Seekers, Urban Seeds,Food Medicine, and Aloha Soul Food, documentaries that illuminate the power of communityengagement and social justice. A former elected school board member for Montebello Unified,Lani led important grassroots policy-making initiatives including the K-12 ethnic studiesrequirement and the expansion of district-wide school-based gardens. She currently serves asAssistant Professor of Chicana(o) Latina(o) Studies at California State University at LosAngeles. I fell in love with filmmaking after launching my first award-winning documentary Truth Seekers in 2016 and experiencing how film serves as a powerful tool and emotionally engaging format that can introduce unique voices and innovative visions to diverse audiences. Six years later, my filmmaking experiences have catapulted me as an “established” independent storyteller with four award-winning documentaries on my portfolio that tend to focus on community engagement and social justice. My films are multicultural and intersectional often reflecting my own positionality as an Asian-Pacific Island Latina. While Independent film festivals provide filmmakers and smaller production companies with the opportunity to shine amongst more established mainstream colleagues, the inner workings of the industry can be difficult to navigate. The following serves as a personal testimonio of some of my...

By Lani Cupchoy, Ph.D. Lani Cupchoy is a Public Historian-Artivist-Photographer-Filmmaker whose research focuses onChicanx-Latinx Studies, Ethnic and Gender Studies, U.S. Transnational/Global History,Indigenous knowledge, Critical Food Studies, Oral History, Digital Storytelling, and CriticalCivic Engagement. She is also an award-winning filmmaker of Truth Seekers, Urban Seeds,Food Medicine, and Aloha Soul Food, documentaries that illuminate the power of communityengagement and social justice. A former elected school board member for Montebello Unified,Lani led important grassroots policy-making initiatives including the K-12 ethnic studiesrequirement and the expansion of district-wide school-based gardens. She currently serves asAssistant Professor of Chicana(o) Latina(o) Studies at California State University at LosAngeles. For Landscape Latino I sat down with Gregory Esparza, lead vocalist of two legendary Chicano bands, Cannibal and the Headhunters and Thee Midniters, to discuss his musical journey and experiences in the industry as well as a historical exploration of consciousness development for the Chicana/o/x community. Lani: Welcome Gregory Esparza, let’s start with your personal story. Please introduce yourself. Gregory: When I hear the question, I perceive it as, “Who are you?” and right away my mind races philosophically thinking all these things that I am and not sure where to start. But I also drift back to when I was at El Cerrito elementary school in La Habra when I first became curious about who and what I was. As a young kid, I didn’t know it at...

By Hipolito Munoz Navarrete Sometimes I get lucky. I was teaching in Santa Ana, Ca, and as I was getting settled forthe one-hour traffic horror that was awaiting me, I saw a pop-up for The Frida Cinema’sscreening of “Apocalypse Now: The Final Cut” in the theater! I immediately circled backto find a place where I could have a cup of coffee and wait for the 7 pm screening. 3hours later, as the first Doors, The End, pulled us into melancholy, I immediatelyexperienced the unexpected, a somber thrill that I was about to be all up in my feelingsfor almost three hours. I am a fan of the Marvel and DC films. I have watched all of them several times trying toconnect the stories as they were supposedly designed. I have watched and read theHarry Potter books and am positive about the thoughtfulness that those creativesplace while they produce those stories. They are, at times, spectacular, which I wasreminded by Apocalypse Now, that such spectacles, maybe a distraction to hide thatthere is no real story, that, unlike Francis Ford Coppola’s masterpiece, those stories aredesigned mostly to bring us to a seat and to sell us to pay for the moment.In Apocalypse Now, the story of the madness that engulfs people during war is craftedin such a way that from the opening scene we are brought into a world that if...