The deadline for for the 2008 Latino Producers Academy has passed

NALIP believes that a Producer is the creative originator of films, a self-starter who recognizes ideas that have artistic or commercial merit. Producers must have passion, sensitivity for story and audience, plus the organizational ability and practical smarts to put together a project then guide it to and through the marketplace. NALIP is committed to nurting the next generation of American Latino independent filmmakers. Our Latino Producers Academy™ is in its Sixth year, and provides each invited Fellows the practical skills and knowledge to accomplish their personal goals and realize their dreams as filmmakers.

NALIP invites you to participate in the 2008 Latino Producers Academy in Santa Fe, New Mexico. It offers professional development activiites designed to identify public television and independent narrative's next generation of creative producers and directors. NALIP believes that the best filmmakers enhance their production skills and their own creative energy by working and interacting with others. So the LPA curriculum encourages formal learning opportunities under the guidance of experienced mentor/professionals, facilitates relationship-building in a business based on relatinoships, and offers exposure to diverse perspectives and experiences around each creative project.

The 2008 LPA Invites Applications from Documentary Producers in two categories:

1. Documentary producer/directors with projects in development or production who have proposals and sample tapes, are invited with their producer/director partners

2. Documentary producers with projects in post-production who have rough cuts are invited with their editors

PLEASE NOTE: The 2008 LPA for Documentary Producers will take place from August 5 to August 14

The 2008 LPA Invites Applications from Narrative Feature Producers And DIRECTORS in two categories:

1. Feature producers (including producer/directors or producer/writers) with projects in early stages of development that have viable scripts ready for packaging and advancement towards production; prior NALIP program participants must have advanced drafts

2. Feature producers and their directors who have scripts in advanced stages of development with a package or ready to package (e.g. budget, executive summary, attachments, etc.); prior NALIP program participants must have advanced drafts

PLEASE NOTE: The 2008 LPA for Narrative Feature Producers will take place from August 12 to August 22

The 2008 LPA includes hands-on practicum for Producers at all stages of their professional development. Documentaries in post-production will have opportunities to re-cut and score sequences with intensive mentoring on their rough cuts and completion plans. Feature projects with directors will work with crews and casts to rehearse, shoot, cut and score scenes from their upcoming production. Documentary and Feature projects in development will benefit from comprehensive skills development with an opportunity to return with a rough cut or director in a future year.

This program is competitive and highly selective. It is open exclusively to NALIP members and/or New Mexico residents, and only to filmmakers with produced work on which they played a key creative role. All Accepted Fellows are invited on full scholarship: materials, lodging, meals and local transportation provided by our supporters, plus honoraria for documentary editors.

Applications are evaluated by a professional panel that considers the viability of each project, the type and quality of your prior work, your creative plans and commitment to a career in producing & media leadership, plus your potential to benefit from the Academy curriculum and opportunity.

The revelations of the 2000 census about America’s current ethnic make-up, and the companion statistics from Professor Chon A. Noriega and the National Hispanic Media Coalition about the percentage of minorities who work in mainstream and independent media point to a gap:  too few Latino producers, directors, writers, actors and other technicians work in film, television and media arts professions.  NALIP is committed to investigating and improving access and opportunities at all points of the media product pipeline, starting at the beginning:  how we train our next generation of media makers and how we educate emerging and mid-career professionals.

NALIP’s Latino Producers' Academy™ provides our makers an eleven-day intensive course that covers a range of production skills and draws on the expertise of independent film and television producers and executives who are available to mentor and support our makers.  Our goal with the Latino Producers' Academy™, in this and future years, is to encourage a diverse and talented group of producers and directors who will create new and greater programming achievements in film, broadcasting and media arts. 

Participants are selected from a competitive field of applicants.  For the first five years, the location has been Tucson, Arizona but now moves to Santa Fe, New Mexico – isolated enough to encourage total immersion but near enough to media centers like Los Angeles and New York so that instructors and funders have easy access to participate.  The Latino Producers' Academy™ program was developed for producers who create or intend to create feature films, documentaries, and series or other works for network, cable or public television.  We see it as an opportunity for these producers to work intensively on the skills that will benefit them most, through classes and through direct contact with talented industry professionals.

The definition of "producer" includes producer/writers and producer/directors who work locally as well as nationally, in all genres of programming, whether video, film, and interactive media, studio-based television as well as field production.   We encourage partnerships between producers and directors in both documentaries and feature teams.

The 2008 Latino Producers Academy™ invited 4 of the feature producers to attend with their directors.  Modeled on the Sundance Filmmaker Labs, the Director Fellows are provided SAG casts and professional crews, in addition to mentors like Luis Mandoki, Ligiah Villalobos and Alfredo DeVilla, in order to rehearse, shoot, edit and score select scenes from their projects.  4-5 of the documentary producer/directors who are rough-cut phase attend with their editors;  their projects were reviewed and revised, with specific tutorials on storytelling, special effects, clearances, outreach and scoring of works-in-progress, plus fundraising for completion funds.   The balance of Documentary Fellows are in production or development.

The LPA continues to assemble an esteemed advisory board of industry professionals plus graduate school educators at UCLA, Columbia College Chicago, UT Austin, College of Santa Fe, the Institute of American Indian Arts, the University of Arizona and Arizona State in an effort to provide the most effective curriculum for post-graduate Latino/a media professionals in need of additional support, mentoring and information to realize their first and second creative projects. 

For more information, please contact:
Octavio Marin, NALIP Signature Programs Director
310.395.8880 / octavio@nalip.org