Filmmakers

Richard Ray Perez, Project Producer, Director

In addition to his work on Cesar’s Last Fast, Richard Ray Perez is the executive producer for the multi-platform documentary series, In Their Boots (www.InTheirBoots.com), a series about the impact the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are having on communities across America. The series was nominated for a 2009 International Documentary Association award for best single-subject documentary series, and began broadcasting on Public Television Stations across the U.S. in July, 2010.

Mr. Perez also produced and directed the seminal political documentary Unprecedented: The 2000 Presidential Election (www.Unprecedented.org), which The Los Angeles Times called “a riveting story about the undermining of democracy in America.” Unprecedented was an official selection at over 50 international film festivals, winner of nine festival awards and premiered on the Sundance Channel in 2004.

Mr. Perez was also the co-executive producer of The Freedom Files, Season II (http://bit.ly/FreedomFiles2), a 9-episode documentary series about the impact civil liberties violations have on the daily lives of real people. The Freedom Files was broadcast on Public Television Stations throughout the U.S. in 2007.

Mr. Perez directed and was the supervising producer of Sierra Club Chronicles (http://bit.ly/SierraClubChronicles), a hard-hitting, half-hour documentary series of environmental stories that broadcast on Sundance Channel during the network’s primetime “Green” programming block.

Mr. Perez was also the director of photography for the acclaimed Robert Greenwald documentaries, Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism and Uncovered: The War in Iraq. Richard Ray Perez earned a bachelor of the arts degree, cum laude, in Visual and Environmental Studies from Harvard University and is currently a Directing and Producing Fellow at the Sundance Institute’s Documentary Program.

To view media coverage of Richard Ray Perez and his work please visit:

Cuéntame Latino Voices: http://on.fb.me/hGgc19 , Documetary Magazine: “Operation In Their Boots” http://www.documentary.org.mode/17740 and KPCC, NPR Affiliate Interview with Mr. Perez http://bit.ly/aPdc0P

Molly O’Brien,  Project Producer

For her work in film and television, Molly O’Brien was short listed for the Academy Awards in 1998, awarded a prime time Emmy in 2000 for producing, nominated for a prime time Emmy in 2001 and made a Sundance Institute Producing Fellow in 2010.

Her non-profit collaborators have included Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council, American Civil Liberties Union, thebump.com and Los Angeles Philharmonic.

O’Brien’s work has been funded by the Sundance Institute, Latino Public Broadcasting, California Community Foundation, Alma and Morris Schapiro Foundation and the Norman Lear Family Fund, and has premiered at IDFA in Amsterdam, Full Frame Documentary Festival, Montreal World, Galway Film Fledegh, Austin film festival, and broadcast on Sundance Channel, FOX, TLC, Link TV and PBS.

O’Brien is a graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Cesar’s Last Fast is the third multi-platform documentary and social impact project Molly O’Brien and Rick Perez have produced together.

To view samples of O’Brien’s work please visit http://vimeo.com/mollyobrien

Lorena Parlee, PhD

The late producer/director Lorena Parlee began working on the film that was to become Cesar’s Last Fast in 1986 when she volunteered with the United Farm Workers of American at La Paz, the UFW California Headquarters.

That year Lorena also produced, directed and wrote The Wrath of Grapes, a UFW advocacy video depicting the effects pesticides have on agricultural workers and their families.  In 1988 Lorena was Cesar Chavez’s press secretary and spokesperson when Cesar launched his Fast For Life.  During Cesar Chavez’s fast, Ms. Parlee collected some of the most intimate and powerful footage shot of Cesar.

After working for Cesar Chavez, Lorena produced, directed and co-wrote the feature-length IMAX film Mexico.  Ms. Parlee also co-produced Concerto for the Earth, a large-format 3D film, which was shown at the 1992 World’s Fair Environmental Pavilion in Seville, Spain.

In addition to making films, Dr. Parlee was a Professor of Mexican and Chicano History at the University of California’s Santa Barbara, Irvine and San Diego campuses.

Lorena Parlee died Aug. 18, 2006 after an extended battle with breast cancer. She was 60 years old.

Jean-Philippe Boucicaut, Editor

Jean-Philipe Boucicaut is a documentary editor, and producer with over 20 years experience. His work includes the following:

American Blackout, a film he co-produced and edited, won the Special Jury Prize at both the Sundance Film Festival 2006 and the Independent Film Festival of Boston; Best Documentary at Cinequest; and the Audience Award at both the Cleveland and Columbus Film Festivals. He edited Citizen King, which had a special screening at the Sundance Film Festival 2004. Jean-Philippe produced and directed Voices of a Divided City, for Henry Hampton’s Blackside Inc., which aired on PBS. He produced and edited Liberia: America’s Stepchild and We’re Still Here, both of which aired on PBS. We’re Still Here won the Henry Hampton Award for Excellence in Documentary Filmmaking 2004. He co-produced and edited Secret Daughter, for which he won an Emmy Award and a Dupont-Columbia Awards Gold Baton.

He was a juror in the Documentary category at the Sundance Film Festival 2005 and served as an advisor at the Sundance Documentary Story and Edit Lab in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007. He is currently working on a feature-length documentary about Desmond Tutu, a film about Jayson Blair and a film about Van Jones and the Green Movement. Jean-Philippe is also a lecturer and creative advisor at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism’s Documentary Program.

Ed Barguiarena, Composer

Ed Barguiarena is a Los Angeles-based composer, producer, and musician. He has collaborated with the creative team of Cesar’s Last Fast on multiple projects including The Freedom Files and Sierra Club Chronicles – both for Brave New Films, and the NRDC Action Fund Campaign featuring Kyra Sedgwick. Ed’s film and video scores have been heard on The Sundance Channel, LinkTV and Public Television Stations throughout the United States. Most recently Ed composed the score the Downtown LA, a film collaboration with filmmakers Nick Higgins and Kristina Robbins.

Mr. Barguiarena’s work spans a diverse landscape that includes producing field recordings in Botswana, arranging Billie Holiday classics in London, creating concert presentations for Los Angeles Philharmonic, directing songwriting workshops at the Kennedy Center, producing a community concert for the San Francisco Symphony, and leading a youth symphony workshop in El Salvador as a United States Embassy Cultural Envoy

Ed is a recipient of grants and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, The Ford Foundation, and The ASCAP Foundation, and was the Music Panel Chairperson for United States Artists 2007.

More info and music can be found at: www.ebmusica.com.