New PBS Documentary VOCES: LATINO VOTE 2024 Examines Key Issues Ahead of the Presidential Election
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Los Angeles, Calif. – Oct. 9, 2024 – PBS SoCal, Southern California’s flagship PBS station, and Latino Public Broadcasting present VOCES: LATINO VOTE 2024, a new documentary and collection of digital shorts examining the priorities of the politically diverse Latino electorate in the run-up to the 2024 presidential election. Directed and produced by Bernardo Ruiz (as a follow up to his 2020 documentary) and produced by Andrés Cediel along with Marcia Robiou, the film focuses on the key issues that will drive Latino voter turnout in some of the most hotly contested battleground states, including Arizona, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. The film also delves into the efforts both political parties are making to reach the Latino electorate in California and Florida, two states with large Latino populations. VOCES: LATINO VOTE 2024 premieres Tuesday, October 22 at 10:00-11:00 p.m. ET (check local listings) on PBS, PBS.org, and YouTube with a special early release of the documentary on Wednesday, October 9 on the PBS app. The ten digital shorts, which focus on the experiences of young, first-time Latino voters, will roll out online during October.
As Clarissa Martinez de Castro, VP of Unidos US, says in the film, “Latinos are now the second largest voting age population in the country, and it is expected that around 17 and a half million Latinos are going to be voting. For 20 percent of these voters, this is going to be their first presidential election. The highest concentration of Latino voters are going to be in places like California, Texas and Florida, but Latinos will also be decisive in places where we are seeing extremely thin margins and even a small population can tip the balance.” “There is a tsunami of new voters coming,” says political consultant Mike Madrid. “Latinos will be the decisionmakers in who becomes the next president of the United States.”
VOCES: LATINO VOTE 2024 was filmed in large cities and small across the country and was on the ground at both the Republican and Democratic National Conventions. The film follows the ever-evolving story of the campaign, including the fallout from the debates and how the sudden candidacy of VP Kamala Harris is changing the political calculation of the race. Also featured are several evangelical Latino clergy, including Pastor Gabriel Salguero of Orlando and Pastor Samuel Rodriguez of Sacramento, who often align with Republicans’ social conservativism but often struggle with the campaign’s negative depictions of immigrants. This increasingly hostile rhetoric has coincided with a rise in hate crimes against Latinos nationwide.
The film features the insights of many of the most prominent Latino political operatives, including longtime Democratic strategist Chuck Rocha; María Teresa Kumar, President and CEO of Voto Latino; former HUD Secretary Julián Castro; Alejandra Gomez, Executive Director of LUCHA; Daniel Garza, President of the LIBRE Initiative; and Darryl Morin, President of Forward Latino. Although their politics may not align, they are all united in the effort to engage as many Latino voters as possible and make sure their voices are heard in November.
“Our goal is that through VOCES: LATINO VOTE 2024 our viewers will gain a deeper understanding of the impact of the changing demographics of America and the issues and concerns of Latino voters,” explained PBS SoCal Chief Content Officer Tamara Gould. “With the documentary’s immersive approach and the short films, we delve into the issues Latino voters in key battleground states care about the most and hear from the next generation who is voting for the first time.”
“VOCES: LATINO VOTE 2024 gives voice to Latino voters across the nation – young, old, Democrats, Republicans and undecideds – and provides an up-to-the-minute look at the issues and concerns of this politically diverse and often misunderstood community,” said Sandie Viquez Pedlow, Latino Public Broadcasting Executive Director and VOCES Executive Producer. “With Latino voters poised to be the largest minority voting bloc in the upcoming presidential election, this film offers an inside look at how both parties are courting the community that could cast the deciding votes this November.”
"I am very pleased to be partnering with PBS SoCal and Latino Public Broadcasting in order to bring together a team of journalists and filmmakers for VOCES: LATINO VOTE 2024,” said the film’s director and producer Bernardo Ruiz. “As we saw with our 2020 film, there is a large and growing audience for this story."
VOCES: LATINO VOTE 2024 is funded by PBS, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the Ford Foundation. VOCES: LATINO VOTE 2024 is a Quiet Pictures co-production with Latino Public Broadcasting and ITVS in association with PBS SoCal.
VOCES: LATINO VOTE 2024 and the accompanying digital shorts will be available to stream on all station-branded PBS platforms, including PBS.org and the PBS App, available on iOS, Android, Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, Samsung Smart TV, Chromecast and VIZIO.
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About the Filmmaker
Bernardo Ruiz (Director/Producer) is an award-winning documentary producer and director based in New York. Ruiz has directed and produced both documentary films and series for a wide variety of outlets including ESPN's 30 for 30 series, numerous PBS series as well as Disney+. Highlights of past directing work include Roberto Clemente for AMERICAN EXPERIENCE, which won the Alma award for outstanding made for television documentary. He also directed the feature documentaries Reportero, about Mexican reporters covering organized crime and political corruption in Tijuana and the Participant-financed Kingdom of Shadows, about the U.S.-Mexico drug war. Both films were nominated for News & Documentary Emmy's. Ruiz also directed the James Beard-nominated Harvest Season, about the lives of the temporary laborers, permanent residents, and multigenerational Latinos intimately connected to the production of premium wines in the Napa and Sonoma regions of Northern California. In 2020, Ruiz created, directed and produced Latino Vote: Dispatches from the Battleground, which was filmed during the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic.
About VOCES
Produced by Latino Public Broadcasting, the acclaimed PBS documentary series VOCES features the best of Latino arts, culture and history and shines a light on current issues that impact Latino Americans. Devoted to exploring the rich diversity of the Latino experience, VOCES presents new and established filmmakers and brings their powerful and illuminating stories to a national audience — on TV, online and on the PBS app. Luis Ortiz is series producer; Sandie Viquez Pedlow is executive producer. Funding for VOCES is provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and PBS. Follow us on Facebookand X.
About Latino Public Broadcasting
Latino Public Broadcasting (LPB) is the leader in the development, production, acquisition and distribution of film and digital cultural media that is representative of Latino people or addresses issues of particular interest to Latino Americans. These programs are produced for dissemination to public broadcasting stations and other public media entities. Providing a voice for the diverse Latino community throughout the United States, Latino Public Broadcasting is funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. LPB also produces the acclaimed PBS documentary series VOCES that presents new and established filmmakers and brings their insightful stories to a national audience — on TV, online and on the PBS app.
Between 2009 and 2023, LPB programs won over 135 awards, including three prestigious George Foster Peabody Awards as well as Emmys, Imagen Awards and the Sundance Film Festival Award for Best Director, Documentary. LPB has been the recipient of the Norman Lear Legacy Award and the NCLR Alma Award for Special Achievement – Year in Documentaries. Sandie Viquez Pedlow is executive director of LPB; Edward James Olmos is co-founder and chairman.
About PBS SoCal
PBS SoCal uses the power of public media for good, strengthening the civic fabric of Southern California and providing our community with an essential connection to a wider world. As a local, donor/member-supported non-profit organization, PBS SoCal manages 7 channels — including 2 primary broadcast channels, PBS SoCal and PBS SoCal Plus as well as 5 digital subchannels. With a commitment to make content available anytime and anywhere for free, PBS SoCal is reaches nearly 19M viewers in the region with programming that reflects the diversity of Southern California and showcases the full schedule of beloved and trusted PBS content spanning Education, News, Environment and Arts & Culture. PBS SoCal programming is available to viewers over-the-air, on all key streaming platforms via the free PBS App and PBS KIDS App. PBS SoCal also sparks the sharing of ideas at in-person cultural events and community conversations as well as prepares children for kindergarten and beyond by bringing bilingual, hands-on learning experiences to the community for free.
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