SANTA MONICA: The world has lost one of the most talented and world-renowned animators of all time. Considered a pioneer in his field, animator Bill Melendez died September 2 of natural causes at the age of 91.
Melendez began his almost seven decades as a professional animator in 1938 when he worked on Mickey Mouse cartoons and such animated features as Pinocchio and Fantasia at Walt Disney Studios. He went on to exclusively animate Snoopy, Charlie Brown and other Peanuts characters in scores of movies and TV specials. Melendez was the only animator authorized by the comic strip's creator Charles Schulz to work on his Peanuts characters. Later at Warner Bros., he worked on Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig and Daffy Duck shorts.
Melendez founded his own production company in 1964. With his partner Lee Mendelson, Bill Melendez Productions helped produce the annually broadcast Christmas special A Charlie Brown Christmas, for which he won an Emmy and the George Foster Peabody award.
Melendez created Emmy-winning specials based on the cartoon characters Cathy and Garfield, and was involved in animated versions of the Babar elephant books and the C. S. Lewis book, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
Born
in 1916 in Hermosillo, Mexico, he moved to Arizona in 1928 before moving to Los
Angeles in the 1930s, where he attended the Chouinard Art Institute
(later changed to California Institute of the Arts).
In all, his productions earned some 19 Emmy nominations, including six awards. In addition to animation, Melendez shared his expertise as a faculty member at the University of Southern California’s Cinema Arts Department.
Melendez is survived by his wife Helen, sons Steven Melendez and (Ret.) Navy Rear Adm.Rodrigo Melendez, six grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.
LOS ANGELES: Gregory Nava's landmark independent film El Norte is making a comeback since its debut in 1983. A Janus Films presentation, the acclaimed drama earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay in 1984. In celebration of its 25th anniversary, the newly restored 35mm print opened festival screenings at the Los Angeles Latino Film Festival in Los Angeles.
Janus Films plans on presenting the film at festivals throughout the country. Nava will be present at the festivals, the next coming up October 26 at the Chicago International Film Festival, Saturday, and November 1 at the Virginia Film Festival where Nava plans a lecture presentation on the following day.
El Norte is the story of Enrique and Rosa Xuncax, brother and sister, who choose to flee their mountain village in Guatemala rather than face military persecution. They embark upon a heartbreaking journey to a fabled land of plush houses, electric lights, and flush toilets. The land is America: The North. Together, Enrique and Rosa acquire a small piece of the American dream, though their native Mayan identities are slowly being stripped away. When temptation threatens to destroy their bond, it is their spirits that prove indelible.
Additionally, the film will be released on DVD by the Criterion Collection on January 20, 2009. The DVD will include extras such as:
· New Director’s Commentary with Gregory Nava
· Featurette: The Making of El Norte, new high-definition interviews with Gregory Nava and co-writer/producer Anna Thomas as well asactors Zaide Silvia Gutierrez and David Villalpando and art director DavidWasco (45 min.)
· American Tapestry: The Story of Eva Canseco, a subtitled segment from Showtime Documentary, The American Tapestry. (16 min.
· The Border Wall, a new short documentary by Gregory Nava and Barbara Martinez Jitner (15 min.)
· The Journal of Diego Rodriguez Silva (1972), a national student film award-winner film by Nava (30 min.)
· Scouting in Chiapas Photo Gallery
Movie critic Roger Ebert described the acclaimed film as "a Grapes of Wrath for our time," the “first American independent epic” by Variety, and in 1996 was named an “American Classic” and designated for special preservation by the Library of Congress.
Known as Nava's masterpiece, El Norte is of enduring importance at a critical time when illegal immigration remains one of the most difficult and controversial political issues facing our nation. It was the first commercial feature film that presented the immigrant community in a humane and intimate light, and was recorded in Mayan, Spanish and English languages.
Nava, who has received worldwide acclaim for his work as a filmmaker and screenwriter continued his string of groundbreaking Latino films with My Family/Mi Familia (starring Edward James Olmos, Jimmy Smits, Jennifer Lopez) and Selena, which again featured Lopez in her definitive breakout role.
Nava is also the creator and executive producer of the award-winning television series American Family, and recently wrote, directed and produced Bordertown, a political thriller starring Jennifer Lopez and Antonio Banderas.
HOLLYWOOD: Actress Dyana a Ortelli has
uncovered an amazing detail of her ancestry with the discovery that her Tio
Tito was a professional baseball player. Although she knew he was a
baseball player while growing up, she got the surprise of her life when her mom
revealed that her baby brother, who passed away August 23, 2007 in Atizapan de
Zaragoza, Mexico, had been the first Mexican to play in the major leagues and
was a pitching legend.
Checking it out on the Internet, she came across a photo of her uncle Procopio Rodriguez Herrera of the St. Louis Browns. Born in her hometown of Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas in 1926, her uncle, one of the first Latino players in the majors (1951), began his professional career in the 1940s with the Obregon Arroceros. He played in Mexico and Venezuela through age 32 and later became a golf pro. Now that’s something of which Ortelli and her family and friends can be extremely proud.
NEXT POST: Just as soon as I finish reading a current thriller
and page-turner I can’t resist. Stay tuned.
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