Almudena Carracedo LPA Fellow Estela Award Winner 2008 Filmmaker e. acarracedo2@yahoo.com w. www.madeinla.com Blog

Born in Spain, Almudena Carracedo is the director, producer and cinematographer of the feature documentary Made in L.A., which had its U.S. broadcast premiere on PBS’ POV series and was funded by ITVS, POV and the Sundance Institute Documentary Fund. Made in L.A. has won numerous international awards and has received an excellent critical response, praised by the New York Times as “an excellent documentary… about basic human dignity”. Prior to Made in L.A., Almudena worked as a television director in Spain until she came to the U.S. to work on her doctoral dissertation at UCLA’s Film School, where she produced the award-winning documentary short Welcome, A Docu-Journey of Impressions. Almudena is a past fellow of NALIP’s Latino Producers Academy and recent winner of NALIP’s Estela Award. She is currently working full time on the outreach for Made in L.A., touring with the film and bringing its impactful story to audiences around the world.

"NALIP trusted my vision from the beginning and nurtured the development of a 5-year project that became Made in L.A. NALIP’s Latino Producers Academy and annual conferences provide rare access to mentors and to information in a safe familial environment that fosters development and creativity. NALIP is a true vibrant community that makes a difference everyday, and I am grateful to be part of it!"

- Almudena Carracedo

Dear NALIPsters:

We are deep into preparations for our sixth annual Latino Producers Academy™, which moves for the first time to Santa Fe, New Mexico. This is a consuming program for our small staff, and we welcome three summer interns plus production manager David Wolf Perez and Antonio Velarde to help produce NALIP’s second largest annual event. Thirteen documentary projects/twenty Fellows have been selected to attend Aug. 5 – 14, while ten feature projects/fifteen Fellows were chosen to work with mentors, professional crews and SAG performers Aug. 12 – 22.

We just returned from our first Latino Writers Lab™ in Santa Fe, and considered it a great success. The town is gorgeous, creative, intimate, Latino and inspiring. We are so grateful for the invitation by the New Mexico Film Office and Governor Richardson to develop our programs in New Mexico, and to expand their support to Native Americans and to New Mexico filmmakers.

Some of you wonder, what criteria do we use to evaluate the many submissions to these programs? And who selects the LWL and LPA Fellows each year? We invite a panel of professionals to evaluate the materials using the standards outlined below. The panel has included documentary producers like Bienvendia Matias and Evangeline Griego; professional story analysts like Sage Vanden Heuvel and Harrison Reiner; and professoinal writer/producers like Miguel Tejada-Flores and Diana Lesmez.

We ask that our panelists evaluate each narrative project along the following guidelines:
* NATURALISTIC DIALOGUE: First priority goes to writers that demonstrate an ear for naturalistic dialogue that is intelligible
* VISUAL STORYTELLING: We look for writers that demonstrate an ability to tell a story visually, rather than relying upon exposition to tell a story
* ABILITY TO BE EMOTIONALLY IMPACTING: We look for scripts with scenes that evoke emotion in the reader
* ABILITY TO CONVEY THE SWEEP OF A STORY: We look for a narrative through-line, i.e. a clear beginning, middle, and end. We check that each subsequent scene is a building block of logic that gets us to the next scene, and to the next
* A SENSE OF CAUSE AND EFFECT: We look for writers that demonstrate a sense of cause and effect, i.e. an action taken leads to a clear and direct response
* AN ABILITY TO CREATE DISTINCT CHARACTERS: We look for characters that are distinct from one another
* CREDIBLE STORYTELLING: We seeks characters that are credible or believable, and that make believable choices given who they are as people

Treatments are accepted as part of the LWL application, but they too need to demonstrate a sense of structure--a clear beginning, middle, and end—and be accompanied by a completed writing sample. Part of the panel’s decision-making addresses a writer's ability to be somehow clever or to demonstrate good intuition vis-a-vis human nature.

Producers, directors and scripts for the LPA are evaluated based on the strength of their project, depth of their background and viability as an independent feature in the production landscape. When considering individual projects, NALIP again looks to give first priority to those projects that demonstrate an ear for naturalistic dialogue, evidence visual storytelling, those that present an ability to be emotionally impacting, show a narrative through-line with clear beginning, middle, and end along with scenes that build, cause and effect, distinct characters, intuition vis-à-vis human nature and credible storytelling.

Documentary producers and project teams are evaluated based on the strength of their project, depth of their background and commitment to producing or leadership in the media business. NALIP looks to give first priority to those projects that demonstrate a well-conceived approach to their subject, a strong visual style, an understanding of the potential audience for this documentary, credible access and an interesting sample tape or rough cut. The LPA seeks to develop and encourage public television producers, but will also support and develop producers of personal documentaries, as well.

An arts service organization must always balance the benefits we provide to the full membership and the intensive efforts we apply to select artists. We hope that you continue to apply for our national signature programs; we recognize that they can serve only a select few each year. But please do not miss all of the new member benefits, partnerships and trade arrangements listed on our membership page. Please use our Latino Media Resource Guide online at www.lmrg.nalip.org to research jobs and funding, find collaborators or employees, update your information or program your class/festival with great Latino film offerings. Please click through on the Latinos in the Industry jobs and opportunities, archived at www.nalip.org. And start creating your personal billboard at http://tutube.nalip.org – the Chapter leaders are already creating sites there, but there is space for every NALIPster’s videos, resumes, photographs, blogs and more!

Wishing you a great and creative summer,
Kathryn F. Galan
Executive Director