Films in progress
Documentary film, content production, and narrative works
Luis Valdez—founder of el Teatro Campesino, writer, director, producer, activist.
American Pachuco:
a feature documentary on
Luis Valdez
Airing mid-2026 on PBS American Masters
role: Producer and Creative direction
Directed by David Alvarado
Insignia Films
At a time when immigration and identity remain at the center of national debate, Luis Valdez's story offers a powerful reminder of America's enduring promise. For five decades, his work as playwright, screenwriter, film director, and actor has transformed how we see ourselves—proving that the voices once relegated to the margins can reshape the mainstream conversation entirely.
Born to farmworkers yet treated as a stranger in his own country, Valdez's journey from the fields to Broadway and Hollywood demonstrates that authentic American stories come from every corner of our nation. His commitment to elevating Chicano voices and experiences hasn't just expanded our cultural landscape—it's shown us a path toward the understanding and unity our country desperately needs today.
As we grapple with questions of belonging, borders, and what it means to be American, Valdez's legacy reminds us that art has always been our most powerful tool for building bridges across difference. His story isn't just about one man's triumph—it's about the transformative potential that emerges when we finally listen to all the voices that make up the American chorus.
From Fields to Broadway
Born to farmworkers in Delano, California, Valdez embodied the American dream as he rose from humble beginnings through the power of art and storytelling. When he learned of Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez's fight for union rights, he immediately joined their efforts, creating El Teatro Campesino (The Farmworker's Theater) to inspire workers across Central California.
Bringing Luis Valdez's story to the screen meant reconnecting with the extraordinary community of artists and activists who shaped the Chicano movement alongside him. Our cameras captured intimate conversations with civil rights icon Dolores Huerta, who shared never-before-told stories of those early days organizing farmworkers in Delano. Music legend Linda Ronstadt opened up about how Valdez's theatrical innovations influenced her own exploration of Mexican folk traditions, while Edward James Olmos reflected on the profound impact of seeing "Zoot Suit" as a young actor—a performance that would later inspire his own commitment to Chicano representation in Hollywood.
Most people think counterculture and technology are opposites. Stewart Brand proved they're the same impulse—the drive to build better tools for human consciousness.
Brand is the prophet you've never heard of who predicted everything: personal computers in 1972, online communities in 1985, the whole earth perspective that launched environmentalism. He coined "information wants to be free," connected hippies to hackers, and built the cultural bridges that became Silicon Valley.
Our film follows his most radical project yet: bringing extinct species back from the dead. Using his current de-extinction work as a lens, we traced the through-line of a man who's spent 50 years asking the same question: How do we use god-like technological power responsibly?
This wasn't a typical documentary. We gained access to Brand's personal archives spanning five decades—handwritten journals, NASA footage, never-before-heard recordings. Brian Eno created an original score. The motion graphics were built from Brand's actual drawings and chaotic design language from the Whole Earth Catalog.
The result captures something essential about American innovation: our capacity for radical reinvention, our comfort with contradiction, and our faith that technology can serve human values when guided by long-term thinking. In an age when we're all becoming gods, Brand's story is both inspiration and warning about how to get good at it.
A documentary from Stripe Press that follows the evolution of a rudimentary gaming network between friends in Cuba into a DIY internet that serviced most of the island.
Executive Producer: Everett Katigbak
Director: Emile Bokaer
Cinematographer: Tijana Petrović
Producers: Everett Katigbak, Emile Bokaer, Sage Lewis, Jorge Nhils Herrera Ortíz
