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NALIP is Right Around The Corner!!

NALIP 10: A DECADE OF INFLUENCE: THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF LATINO INDEPENDENT PRODUCERS EXAMINES THE LAST AND NEXT DECADE OF LATINOS IN FILM

Industry Pros Michael Lombardo, Herb Scannell and Luis Valdez Give Keynote Speeches
at Tenth Anniversary of NALIP, April 17 – 19, 2009

Los Angeles, CA (April 7, 2009) The National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NALIP) celebrates their Tenth Anniversary, and examines the present and future trends of Latino media at a weekend Conference, April 17 – 19 in Newport Beach, CA. Presented by HBO and the National Latino Media Council, the three-day event offers an unrivaled combination of conversations, panels, producing opportunities, and networking events for both established and emerging media professionals. NALIP is committed to creating more images by and about Latinos through professional training, industry networking and trend forecasting.

NALIP 10: A DECADE OF INFLUENCE kicks off with a high-level keynote lunch where Michael Lombardo, President of HBO’s Programming Group and West Coast Operations, will accept a special award presented to the network for their dedication to diversity and the Latino media community. A crowd of over 500 conference attendees will be present for the keynote speech, “Where Were We, Where Are We Now?” given by influential director and playwright, Luis Valdez (LA BAMBA, ZOOT SUIT). The opening plenary follows with a panel discussion around “What's going on? Meeting Today's Challenges", featuring a new Nielsen research report on the decade’s Latino viewing habits in film and television, presented by Executive Director, Research and Analysis, Cindi Smith. Future-looking keynote address on Saturday will be made by Herb Scannell, Next New Networks Chairman, and former President of Nickelodeon Networks. Esteemed academic and industry leaders, including Academy Award®, Emmy Award® and Golden Globe® winners and nominees, lead the rest of the weekend’s conference case studies, workshops and sessions.

NALIP welcomes PBS President/CEO Paula Kerger for a critical conversation about the role of Latino producers in public television. The program also includes a case study of the 2009 Sundance premiere DON’T LET ME DROWN with filmmakers Cruz Angeles and Maria Topete, along with cast member Yareli Arizmendi. The Tenth Anniversary culminates with NALIP’s annual awards that honor world-renowned advocacy and filmmaking pioneers Raphael Montañez Ortiz, Ray Andrade and Kenny Ortega, who have paved the way to change. NALIP also presents the 2009 Estela Awards, the largest Latino filmmaker grants endowed by the McDonald’s corporation, which go this year to rising Latino talents, Cruz Angeles (DON’T LET ME DROWN) and Hugo Perez (SUMMER SUN, WINTER MOON).

CONFERENCE AGENDA

NALIP 10: A DECADE OF INFLUENCE is co-chaired by Columbia University professor/filmmaker Frances Negrón-Muntaner (WAR IN GUAM), producer/executive David Ortiz (WANTED, HELLBOY 2), and writer/producer Ligiah Villalobos (LA MISMA LUNA). "Having participated at the first annual NALIP conference in San Francisco,” states Villalobos, “it is an honor for me to be a Co-Chair for the 10th Anniversary. It is with great pride that I look back at what this organization and its members have accomplished in the last ten years". Executives from HBO, Universal, CBS, Fox, Lifetime, NBC/Telemundo/mun2, Warner Bros., Maya Pictures, CNN, Participant, State Street Pictures, the Walt Disney Studios, the WGAW, NALA Films, Mio.tv, IndiePix, PBS, POV, Truly Indie, LPB, and many others are scheduled to attend and participate.

Longtime co-sponsor HBO will host an opening night welcome reception for Conference attendees, as well as a “Conversations With…” HBO Documentary Films executive John Hoffman and independent filmmaker Paula Heredia (“Addiction”). The session will offer an interactive dialogue that addresses how filmmakers best present projects to HBO Documentary Films, as well as how the HBO model and process differ from other distribution outlets developing and acquiring documentary programming. HBO Documentary Films will also announce an exciting new filmmaker grant for one emerging Latino documentary maker, with a winner awarded in summer 2009.

The dynamic, successful Latino edition of Back Stage’s Actorfest will once again be hosted at the NALIP annual conference. Over 500 Latino hopefuls will attend this free open call for Latino talent, which runs 9 am – 7 pm on Thursday, April 16, prior to the conference opening. Back Stage’s Actorfest will include casting directors from CBS, ABC, mun2, NBC, Fox, Telemundo, and the Disney Channel, along with managers and independent casting directors who will be on hand to seek out fresh Latino talent for roles in upcoming film and television productions. Special informational panels and master classes will also be accessible, free, to all attendees.

NALIP 10 sessions include a no-holds-barred Reality TV Boot Camp lead by expert producers Luis Barreto and Christopher Ragazzo. Opportunities for Latinos in comedy will be discussed by execs from HBO, Comedy Central, and Fox, along with comedians Marlon Wayons and Kiki Melendez. Actor Wilmer Valderrama and his producing partner Danny Villa will do a conversation with CBS VP Edith Mendoza about the burgeoning brand that is WV Enterprises. Performers will have headshots and audition techniques adjusted and critiqued by CBS Senior Casting VP Fern Orenstein and writer/director Rick Najera (Latinologues), while special writer workshops are held with Real Women Have Curves playwright/screenwriter Josefina Lopez, and CBS Story Analyst/UCLA Extension instructor Harrison Reiner (AMAR A MORIR). Special prizes to NALIPsters screening their short work will be hosted by Final Draft. Documentary makers have a 3-workshop DocFundamentals track of seminars, plus a case study of two documentaries from the Latino diaspora, the Sundance award winner EL GENERAL by Natalia Almada, and NUESTRA DESAPARETIDOS by Juan Mandelbaum, moderated by P.O.V.’s Executive Director Simon Kilmurry.

Speakers include HBO President Michael Lombardo and HBO SVP Nancy Geller, Participant’s Bonnie Abaunza, CNN’s Rose Arce (“Latino in America”), New York Daily News’ Juan Gonzalez, Maya Pictures Chair Moctesuma Esparza and Exec. VP Jose Martinez, Fox Sr. VP of Programming Pancho Mansfield, director/producer/writer David Zucker, Showtime SVP Pearlena Igbokwe, Comedy Central VP Scott Landsman, Paramount creative executive Alan Khamoui, Fox creative executive Adriana Ambriz, Universal Director of Development Franklin Leonard, State Street VP of Development and Production Rene Rigal, HBO VP of Market Development Lucinda Martinez-Desir, and Si TV co-founder Jeff Valdez. A complete list of speakers is available at: www.nalip.org/Conference10 .

Further elevating their Tenth Anniversary, NALIP will honor three media luminaries at a cocktail reception hosted by Sauza 3G tequila. The three honorees have broken barriers and made remarkable contributions that changed how Latinos are viewed in film and television. The evening, mc’ed by comedian Joe Hernandez-Kolski, will include celebrity presenters.

NALIP’s 2009 honorees include Raphael Montañez Ortiz, Pioneer Achievement Award recipient who is considered the first U.S. Latino to make a film, and is also one of the co-founders of El Museo del Barrio in New York. The Pioneer Achievement in Advocacy Award recipient is Ray Andrade, a media activist and founder of the pan-Latino protest group Justicia that challenged the lack of Chicano representation in media, and the inaccurate portrayal of Latinos in the entertainment industry as a whole. These two media luminaries paved the way for the third honoree and Outstanding Achievement Award recipient, Kenny Ortega. He has achieved unprecedented success as the director/co-producer of the HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL series phenomenon.

Capping off the evening is the presentation of NALIP’s highly anticipated 2009 Estela Awards, presented to two talented Latino filmmakers on the rise. The Estela Award for a narrative filmmaker will be presented to Cruz Angeles, a director who made his feature film debut at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival with DON’T LET ME DROWN; and producer/director Hugo Perez, who receives the Estela Award for his documentary work, SUMMER SUN, WINTER MOON. Through their commitment to excellence and Latino media, the McDonald’s Corporation provides a $7,500 filmmaker grant to each of the Estela Award winners. The McDonald’s financial contribution, together with NALIP’s recognition, supports each artist’s next project, and their progress towards being a star.

Concurrent with Conference 10 and with the support of the National Endowment for the Arts, NALIP presents the fifth Latino Media Market™. Thirty two select feature production and development projects, documentary works-in-progress and reality television series ideas will be accepted to participate in a special executive meeting series designed to advance each producer’s project, arrange financing and attract broadcast licenses. Si TV will once again take non-scripted television series concept pitches, and will award a $2,500 prize plus a 4-month development option to the strongest series concept pitched at the Market. Additionally, NALIP will hold a special Loteria, with all of the proceeds going to one lucky Conference attendee in order to advance the winner’s project; second and third-place prizes donated by Showbiz Software Store and Final Draft.

ABOUT THE ORGANIZERS

FRANCES NEGRON–MUNTANER, Conference Co-Chair
Frances Negrón-Muntaner is a filmmaker, writer, and scholar. She is the recipient of Ford, Truman, Scripps Howard, Rockefeller, and Pew fellowships. She holds a Masters in Visual Anthropology and Fine Arts from Temple University, and a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Rutgers University. Ms. Negrón-Muntaner’s books include Boricua Pop and Sovereign Acts. Among her films are AIDS IN THE BARRIO and BRINCANDO EL CHARCO: PORTRAIT OF A PUERTO RICAN. She is currently completing two documentaries, WAR IN GUAM and REGARDING VIEQUES. She is a co-founder of NALIP and founder of Miami Light Project's Filmmakers Workshop; she is also a tenured professor at Columbia University.

DAVID ORTIZ, Conference Co-Chair
David Ortiz is a producer/executive who most recently worked as a development executive for Universal Pictures, overseeing the latest FAST & FURIOUS starring Vin Diesel and Paul Walker, WANTED starring Angelina Jolie and James McAvoy, HELLBOY 2, written and directed by Guillermo del Toro and ROLE MODELS, starring Paul Rudd and Seann William Scott. Born and raised in the Bronx, New York, David graduated from the University of Chicago with a B.A. in Public Policy. David also sits on the Executive Board of NALIP.

LIGIAH VILLALOBOS, Conference Co-Chair
Ligiah Villalobos is currently writing an 8-Hour miniseries and has just completed writing the screenplay for DIEGO ASCENDING, an adaptation of the Israeli film BONJOUR, MONSIEUR SHLOMI for Salma Hayek's production company, Ventanazul, and a soon to be announced biopic. She is the writer and executive producer of the feature film UNDER THE SAME MOON, (LA MISMA LUNA). The film was an Official Selection at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival and became the highest sale for a Spanish-language film in the history of Sundance, selling to Fox Searchlight and the Weinstein Company. Made for under $2 Million, the film has grossed over $23 Million worldwide. Villalobos Co-Produced the film, DANCING IN SEPTEMBER, was a staff writer on the NBC show, "Ed", Head Writer on the Nick Jr. series, "Go, Diego! Go!" She has also sold TV projects to NBC, Showtime, F/X and ABC/Family. Before becoming a writer/producer, Ms. Villalobos held several executive positions including Director, Programming for Buena Vista Productions, Director, Current Programming for the WB Network and VP, Creative Affairs at Esparza/Katz Productions.

KATHYRN F. GALAN, Executive Director
Kathryn F. Galan has been NALIP’s Executive Director for nearly eight years, establishing NALIP as the preeminent national Latino media organization by taking it from an NCLR special project with a steering committee to an autonomous and substantial advocacy and professional development organization. She has created 6 national signature programs, and programmed eight national conferences. Ms. Galan has worked as an independent producer (FRENCH KISS, SQUANTO, DAYBREAK), new media consultant, and studio executive at Atlantic Entertainment Group, at Walt Disney Studio’s Hollywood Pictures, at Prufrock Pictures and with her own consultancy firm, EKR Strategies. She is a graduate of Amherst College, and did initial media studies in video art at SUNY Buffalo, then Masters studies in film history and criticism at UCLA, specializing in World Cinema.

NALIP ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Since its inception in 1999, NALIP has emerged as the premiere Latino media organization addressing the most underrepresented and largest ethnic minority in the country. NALIP has four national initiatives:

· The National Conference – NALIP 10: A DECADE OF INFLUENCE is NALIP’s tenth national conference. This year the conference includes the second edition of the highly successful Latino Actorfest and a spectacular line up of keynote speakers and panelists. The conference will also offer a Loteria which is a special cash prize awarded to a conference attendee for project development or completion. The Latino Media Market will again be on the agenda selecting top film, television and documentary projects for targeted one-on-one meetings with executives, representatives and funders in order to facilitate more business deals and steps to production. This year NALIP has added a category for completed films seeking distribution.

· The Latino Writer's Lab™ -- The seventh lab is presented in collaboration with Time Warner and the Writer's Guild of America East in Santa Fe, New Mexico, May 27-31, with a second session scheduled for Santa Monica in September. This 10-day intensive program attracts Latina/o film and television writers from around the country. The curriculum advances their screenplays through work on craft, as well as through direct mentoring; the program also introduces writers to agents, managers, producers and funders in order to expand their professional network and further their projects and careers.

· Latino Producers AcademyTM – Feature, television and documentary producers and directors attend this ten-day intensive seminar in Santa Fe, New Mexico by special selection and invitation. Producer/director teams participate in seminars on advanced professional skills development and in-depth mentoring that support all aspects of their project development, production skills and marketing understanding as instructed by top industry professionals. Feature casts and crews are provided so that scenes can be rehearsed, shot, edited and scored. Presented in association with Time Warner and the New Mexico Film Office, Nielsen Media Research, the UCLA Film and Television Professional Certificate Program and the University of Arizona, School of Media Arts Department, the seventh LPA will be held August 4 - 21, 2009.

· Latino Media Resource Guide™ – A printed and online directory of Latino/a writers, directors, producers, crew members, executives and production companies, including their contact and credit information, plus deadlines for diversity initiatives, film schools and funding opportunities, distribution companies and Hispanic American film listings. This reference is provided free to members, as well as to all studios, networks, production companies and agents in order to enhance employment and build community. The database is also updatable online, at www.lmrg.nalip.org , where all of the additional resources, links, and connections are housed.

· NALIP has 15 regional chapters that provide professional development workshops and support in project development, fundraising, proposal writing and other essential media skills.


ABOUT NALIP
NALIP is a national membership organization that addresses the professional needs of Latino/Latina independent producers. NALIP is the first such effort aimed at Latino production in thirty years, and it is the first to last more than one year and to provide ongoing support for the Latino independent film and video makers. It stands as the premiere Latino media organization, addressing for ten years the most underrepresented and the largest ethnic minority in the country. The mission is to promote the advancement, development and funding of Latino/Latina film and media arts in all genres. NALIP is the only national organization committed to supporting both grassroots and community-based producers/media makers along with publicly funded and industry-based producers.

NALIP's values are:
* Commitment to Latino/Latina media and filmmakers, regardless of the form or content of their work
* Commitment to respect for diversity based on a code of ethics open to and respectful of differences, including gender, geography, color, class, age, ethnicity, language, sexuality, religion, genre or physical abilities
* Commitment to solidarity and accountability, applying our code of ethics to the selection, funding and mentoring process
* Commitment to raise the question of historical and cultural relevance and awareness of Latinos and Latinas
* Commitment to solidarity, alliance building and multiple visions of Latina/Latino experiences within the local, national, international and global context

For the latest information about NALIP 10: A DECADE OF INFLUENCE, go to www.nalip.org. All those interested in exhibiting, please contact Conference Director, Octavio Marin at 310.395.8880.

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PRESS CONTACTS
Monica M. Jaramillo
Norm Marshall & Associates
818.982.3505x225
mjaramillo@normmarshall.com

Lindsey Rowe
Norn Marshall & Associates
818.982.3505 x333
lrowe@normmarshall.com

LINKS!
Conference Website: http://www.nalip.org/conference10/
Speaker Bios: http://www.nalip.org/conference10/KenotesandSpeakers.htm
Schedule: http://www.nalip.org/conference10/program_schedule.htm