UCSC undergraduates' film to be screened at Reel Work film festival

A film by two UCSC undergraduates about trailblazing Mexican American journalist Ruben Salazar will be screened during the Fourth Annual Reel Work May Day Labor Film Festival April 24-May 1, in Santa Cruz.

Filmmakers Leilani Montes and Victoria Fong collaborated on the 15-minute documentary Since Salazar. The film is a tribute to Salazar, whose reporting for the Los Angeles Times and KMEX-TV 34 established him as an influential voice for the Mexican American community in California until his untimely death in 1970.

Salazar was covering the Chicano anti-Vietnam War moratorium in East Los Angeles when he was killed by a tear gas projectile fired by a sheriff's deputy. Since Salazar is among the films that will be screened Wednesday, April 27, beginning at 7 p.m. in the Kresge Town Hall on the UCSC campus.

The Reel Work May Day Labor Film Festival began in 2002 to increase awareness of the labor movement. Each year, the festival presents a mix of rare and well-known critically acclaimed films, with screenings on campus and at several community venues. A full schedule is available. Admission to all events is by donation.

Major festival cosponsors include the UCSC Community Studies Department, Community Television of Santa Cruz County, the Nickelodeon Theatre, Community Printers (represented by GCIU Local 388), and the Monterey Bay Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO.

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