Powerful film screens at ALAC on March 28

The award-winning short film, “Ballad of an Unsung Hero,” produced and written by ASU professor Paul Espinosa, will be screening Thursday, March 28, 7 p.m. at the Arizona Latino Arts & Cultural Center, 147 E. Adams St. in downtown Phoenix as an entry in the 2013 Phoenix College Latino Film Festival.  

Using rare historical footage, vintage musical recordings, and interviews with 88-year-old Pedro J. Gonzalez and his wife, this half-hour documentary chronicles Gonzalez’s long and colorful life, from his early days with Pancho Villa during the Mexican Revolution, to his career as a popular radio personality in Los Angeles in the 1930s, to the controversial court case that sent him to prison in 1934 and made him a victim of repression.

“Ballad of an Unsung Hero” tells the story of how Gonzalez’s tremendous popularity with his radio audience and his outspoken protests against discrimination led to his arrest on trumped-up charges of rape and subsequent sentencing to San Quentin.

The 30-minute film, narrated by actor Julio Media, makes extensive use of archival film from the U.S. and Mexico, and original music recordings from the ‘20s and ‘30s to tell the story of Gonzalez’s life in the style of a corrido, or Mexican ballad.

Paul Espinosa is an award-winning filmmaker and producer and currently a professor of Chicano/a Studies at ASU. His films have been screened on PBS television and won awards at regional film festivals. Espinosa will introduce the film and answer questions after.