Belated Than Never

Howdy gente,

First let me start off by wishing everyone a belated-2 week

in Happy New Gregorian Calendar Year. According to the

Mayans we’re 4 years away from the end of time. Can’t wait!

Meanwhile, I’m bringing you a pepelicula update. Here goes:

’07 started with me in L.A. but ended with me in

Here’s how it happened, over the summer Beni Matias

from NALIP passed my info on to some folks creating an

intensive 6 week film class to a group of nine incarcerated

men. I gladly accepted the challenge and it was a marvelous

experience. With help from lots of people but especially

Shane King, Diana Brodie and Anthony Marchitiello, I taught

these 9 first time filmmakers and together we all produced

9 short but powerful films that ranged from an “Iron Chef”

spin off to water conservation rights and the Klamath River

to the Birdman of San Quentin. Each film has its own

compelling story both in front & behind the camera. The

finished films were shared with San Quentin’s general

population and from what I’ve learned the men are still

applauding these first time filmmakers visions.

More on this later… in the meantime check out

my SQ squatting/squinting soccer pose.

Since the new year, I have been literally

on the road working hard with award

winning documentarian Ilan Ziv and his

timely doc “A Journey Among The Believers”.

We are documenting/talking with grass root

activists and ordinary folks from across

the country with views from across the

ideological spectrum about how their faith

in God will or will not influence their

vote in the upcoming presidential

elections. The transition from San Quentin

fog from the bay to Pennsylvania’s snow plowing trucks has

been amazing. We’ve already passed through Iowa,

Indianapolis, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Connecticut,

Massachusetts and I write you this update from New York.

We are gearing up to pick back up on today and head to:

Ohio, Kentucky, the Carolina’s, Alabama, Florida and finish

the road trip in Oklahoma City on Super Tues. Feb. 5th.

Ride with us here or here.

2008 Pepelicula’s

“Radio Bandido” my documentary

about the stolen life and

times of Oscar “Bandido” Gomez

continues and I gather more

interviews and details about

his last days in Santa Barbara.

Which includes a return visit

to the shores where he was

ultimately found on the beach,

exactly 13 years later. I plan to have a rough cut of the

film done this year.

This past summer, with the help of my good buddy/creative

collaborating compañero Eric Escobar, I wrote an

undocumented romantic comedy entitled “Casi, Casi”. This

spring, our plan is to use all of our resources and help

from our friends (which may be YOU!) and make this feature

film for under $1,000. Wish us luck, it’s going to be

fantastic!!Looking forward to staying in contact &

connected with you this year. And if you have read this

far, we’re off to a great start-thanx!

con pasión,

-Urquijo