Reviews of the Media Series

Library Journal

(January 2005)

Los Four/Murals of Aztlán: The Street Painters of East Los Angeles. color. 46 min. James Tartan, Chicano Cinema & Media Art Series,

This DVD combines two pioneering documentaries about Chicano artists of east Los Angeles. Los Four (1974) explores the art collective that included Frank Romero, Carlos Almaraz, Gilbert Lujan, and Roberto de la Rocha, collaborators for a decade on street murals and other public art installations throughout California. Their 1974 exhibition at the L.A. County Museum of Art brought Chicano art to the attention of the mainstream art community locally and nationally. Murals of Aztlán documents a project that took place at the Craft and Folk Art Museum in Los Angeles in 1981. Curated by Romero, the exhibition featured Romero and Almaraz, as well as Gronk, Judithe Hernandez, John Valadez and the East Los Streetscapers, and George Yepes, among others, painting murals within the gallery space. In both programs, filmmaker Tartan masterfully captures the artists discussing their roots in the barrio and technical and iconographic issues of Chicano streetscape art and the interaction with their collaborators and their newly found museum audience. These films contribute greatly to the understanding of Chicano art and culture during the crucial decade of the 1970s; highly recommended for Latino and culturally diverse collections.

-Susan E. Annett, Santa Monica P.L., CA

Educational Media Reviews Online

(April 2006)

Harry Gamboa Jr.: Early Video Art

Reviewed by Brian Falato

"Recommended."

"Gamboa enjoys taking a serious situation and pumping it up into melodrama and absurdity."

"Gamboa's Early Video Art is recommended for libraries that collect intensively in the areas of Latino artists or video art."

Educational Media Reviews Online

(April 2006)

Harry Gamboa Jr.: 1990s Video Art

Reviewed by Brian Falato

"Recommended."

"Libraries with extensive collections in video art or Latino artists will want to get both of the Gamboa DVDs. For others, 1990s Video Art is the better choice."