A documentary about renowned playwright and screenwriter Luis Valdez has won the seventh annual $200,000 Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize.
Directed by David Alvarado, “American Pachuco: The Legend of Luis Valdez” chronicles how Valdez illuminated the Mexican-American experience on stage and screen, transforming the American cultural landscape. In 1965 Valdez created the Chicano theater company El Teatro Campesino alongside the United Farm Workers. Fourteen years later, in 1979, Valdez became the first Chicano director to have a play presented on Broadway when his play “Zoot Suit” premiered in New York. Valdez went on to write and direct the 1987 film “La Bamba.”
Related Stories
Since the inception of the Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize, the Library of Congress, The Better Angels Society, Ken Burns, and the Crimson Lion/Lavine Family Foundation have awarded $2.6 million to documentary filmmakers working on late-stage documentaries that use original research and a compelling narrative to tell stories that bring American history to life.
Popular on Variety
“American Pachuco: The Legend of Luis Valdez” features extensive interviews with Valdez, 85, and is narrated by Edward James Olmos, who starred in the original production of “Zoot Suit.” The filmmakers also collaborated with UC Santa Barbara to digitize over 80,000 feet of previously unseen footage of Teatro Campesino, which was deteriorating and at risk of being permanently lost.
“American Pachuco” captures the life of a singular artist and the pulse of a particular moment in American history,” says Burns. “Throughout the selection process, the film was praised as dramatic, compelling, relevant, and joyful. It illuminates a figure whose career in the arts broke down barriers and built up a fuller understanding of our shared American story.”
Acting Librarian of Congress Robert Randolph Newlen added, “Luis Valdez created space on stage and in film for Mexican-American stories. The Library of Congress is pleased to recognize a documentary that illuminates the life of this writer and director who seeks to ‘create a common vision that speaks to an audience.”
Runner-up Yuriko Gamo Romer’s “Diamond Diplomacy” garnered a $50,000 cash award. The doc examines how baseball evolved into an unlikely national pastime in Japan, despite the country’s cultural and political tensions with the U.S. during the 20th century. The film presents a fresh perspective on the history of American and Japanese relations, exploring how sports serve as a cultural mediator, and examining the bond that baseball forged between the two countries.
“Baseball is a topic close to my heart, and “Diamond Diplomacy” gave me an even greater appreciation of how America’s pastime can transcend borders,” Burns says.
This year, 121 American history documentary feature projects were submitted for consideration. Six finalists were selected by a national jury. Newlen, in consultation with Burns, selected the winner and runner-up.
“Each year, the Prize for Film reminds us that both making and watching American history documentaries is a powerful form of civic engagement, says Katherine Malone-France, President and CEO of The Better Angels Society. “The films recognized this year connect us to the past, to each other, and to the wider world.”
The four finalists — Angela Tucker’s “The Inquisitor,” Edward Gray’s “One More Mission,” J.M. Harper’s “Soul Patrol,” and Bonni Cohen, Jon Shenk, and Pedro Kos’s “The White House Effect” — will each receive a $25,000 cash prize.