CALAVERA HIGHWAY - Winner Best Documentary San Francisco Film Festival, May 4th

For immediate release
Tel. 323.221.7397
Renee, tajimapena [at] aol.com
Vangie, abouttyme [at] aol.com


WINNER, GOLDEN GATE AWARD
BEST TELEVISION DOCUMENTARY-LONG FORM
SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
SUNDAY, MAY 4, 6:15 PM, Sundance Kabuki Cinemas



What divides families and what brings them together?

When brothers Armando and Carlos Peña set off to carry their mother's ashes to south Texas, their road trip turns into a quest for answers about a strangely veiled past. As they reunite with five other brothers,
the two men try to piece together their family's shattered history. Why was their mother cast out by her family? What happened to their father, who disappeared during the notorious 1954 U.S. deportation program Operation Wetback? Calavera Highway is a sweeping story of seven Mexican-American men grappling with the meaning of masculinity, fatherhood and a legacy of rootless beginnings. Calavera Highway has won the Best Television Documentary-Long Form Goldent Gate Award from SFIFF, and the Best Television Documentary prize from the San Diego Latino Film Festival.

Calavera Highway will screen on Sunday, May 4, 6:15 p.m. at the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas, 1881 Post at Fillmore as a part of the San Francisco International Film Festival. Additional screenings are slated for Wed., May 7, 1pm at the Sundance Kabuki and Thurs., May 8, 6:30pm at the Pacific Film Archives in Berkeley. Tickets for the screenings are available from http://fest08.sffs.org, 925-866-9559. Calavera Highway is produced in association with American Documentary | P.O.V. A co-presentation of Latino Public Broadcasting. Funded in part by the Center for Asian American Media with funds provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

About the characters:

Armando Peña, the film's narrator, works for the city of Los Angeles and is a veteran of the 1968 Chicano student walkouts at Edcouch-Elsa High School – and across the Southwest - which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. Carlos Peña is a migrant counselor near his hometown in the Rio Grande Valley, and has been honored for his work with farmworkers.

About the filmmakers
Calavera Highway is a new production by the filmmaking team of and Renee Tajima-Peña (Who Killed Vincent Chin?, My America…or Honk if You Love Buddha.) and Evangeline Griego (Sir! No Sir!, Chevolution, God Willing) who recently collaborated with editor Johanna Demetrakas (Amandla!) on 'The Mexico Story" of the acclaimed PBS series, The New Americans. Calavera Highway is executive produced by Jeff Bieber, cinematographer Jonathan Schell, sound recordist Sara Chin, composers Brian Kirk and Sharon Smith, music performances by Ry Cooder, Rene Gasca, Los Frijoles Romanticos and Hugo Arroyo. Produced in association with The American Documentary/P.O.V. (Simon Kilmurry, Executive Producer