Chicano Cinema and Media Arts Series

Volume 1

Early Chicano Art Documentaries

Los Four. Documents the first exhibition of Chicano artists held at a major art museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, in 1974. Los Four (1973-1983) was an influential Chicano art collective that included Carlos Almaraz, Gilbert “Magu” Sanchez Lujan, Roberto de la Rocha, and Frank Romero. The documentary captures the group's debates over art, politics, and community, while it also reveals their experimentation with spray-can techniques, found object, and installation art as well as their self-conscious efforts to develop Chicano icons.

1974. 16mm. Color. 22:55.

Murals of Aztlán: The Street Painters of East Los Angeles. Documents the exhibition “Murals of Aztlán: The Street Painters of East Los Angeles” at the Craft and Folk Art Museum of Los Angeles in 1981. The exhibition featured portable murals in the gallery space painted by some of the leading Chicano and Chicana artists: Carlos Almaraz, Gronk, Judithe Hernandez, Willie Herron, Frank Romero, John Valadez, and the East Los Streetscapers (David Rivas Botello, Wayne Alaniz Healy, and George Yepes).

1981. 16mm. Color. 22:55.

James Tartan is a veteran filmmaker who played a pivotal role in documenting Chicano Los Angeles and also training early Chicano filmmakers in the 1970s.

Recently shown in the "Heritage Spectrum" exhibit at Indiania University.

Program Content © James Tartan. All rights reserved.

Package Design and Summary © 2004 UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center

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