NEWS RELEASE

2/25/03

John Sanford, News Service: (650) 736-2151, jsanford@stanford.edu

Relevant Web URLs:
http://www.stanfordalumni.org/erc/events/reader.html?content_instance_id=108464

Director's cut of Alambrista! to make Bay Area premiere Saturday, March 1, at Stanford

The Bay Area premiere of the director's cut of Alambrista! (The Fence Cutter), Robert Young's award-winning 1977 film about a young, undocumented Mexican immigrant in the United States, will be held Saturday night in McCaw Hall at the Arrillaga Alumni Center.

The event kicks off at 6:30 p.m. with Jose Cuellar, a.k.a. Dr. Loco, and his conjunto band, Sus Tiburones del Norte, performing music from the movie's new soundtrack.

Following the screening, which runs about 90 minutes, director Young will join the producers of the director's cut -- Stanford history Professor Al Camarillo, the Haas Centennial Professor in Public Service; David Carrasco, Harvard's Rudenstine Professor of Latin American Studies; and Cuellar, a professor of Raza studies at San Francisco State University -- in fielding questions from the audience.

"This film is the centerpiece of an artistic and intellectual recovery process that two of my colleagues" -- Carrasco and Cuellar -- "and I directed over the past two years," Camarillo said.

They received a $240,000 grant from the Ford Foundation to produce the revised film and new soundtrack. In conjunction with the project, a volume of original essays, including a DVD version of the film, is scheduled to be published by the University of New Mexico Press in the late fall.

"In this way, the film and academic commentary in a book/film package will be available for teachers at the university and high school levels," Camarillo said.

The film is presented by the Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity and the Stanford Alumni Association. Admission is $10 (general) or $5 (student). For tickets, visit the web at www.stanfordalumni.org/erc/events/reader.html?content_instance_id=108464. Tickets also will be available at the door, but space is limited.

For more information, contact Roberta Chavez, alambrista2003@yahoo.com or 725-8414; or Sarah Booth, sarah.booth@stanford.edu or 736-2484.

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