John Phillip Santos Shares His Thoughts on "A Photographer's Journey"

This week KLRN hosted a film screening and panel discussion for the film, Pedro E. Guerrero: A Photographer’s Journey. The film captures the remarkable life and work of Pedro E. Guerrero (1917-2012). He left behind thousands of photographs and nearly 15 hours of interviews. This film tells, in his words, the remarkable story of a Mexican American boy raised in segregated Mesa, Arizona, who goes on to a remarkable international career. With his outsider’s eye he produced insightful and iconic portraits of three of the most important artists of the 20th century: Frank Lloyd Wright, Alexander Calder and Louise Nevelson.

We held a panel discussion with notable local scholars Amelia Malagamba Ansótegui, Kathy Vargas and the film’s producer/director, Ray Telles as well as John Phillip Santos. John is an author, journalist and filmmaker from San Antonio, Texas. He produced more than 40 documentaries in 18 countries for CBS News and PBS. Currently, in conjunction with New York’s WNET, he is collaborating with Harvard scholar Davíd Carrasco in producing “Ancestral Journeys to Now,” a film for PBS that examines the mythic legacy of migration in ancient Mesoamerica, and its links to the experiences of Mexican migration today. He teaches cultural studies, writing and media theory and production in the Honors College of UTSA.

John shared a few words about the film:

Thank so much to KLRN for bringing Ray Telles to San Antonio to talk about how this film came about!

Ray’s film on the great Pedro Guerrero makes us ask why we’ve never heard of such a great artist before. As a photographer who spent his life in collaboration with architect Frank Lloyd Wright and artists Alexander Calder and Louise Nevelson, the film reveals the scope of experience and knowledge that still lies hidden in the lives of Latino Americans. A photographer who was really an artist, Telles’s telling of Guerrero’s story of a Latino life, boldly lived, entire of its own making, an incomparable American spirit.

People have to see this film to believe it.

A Photographer’s Journey airs on KLRN on Friday, September 18 at 9PM. To watch a preview of Pedro E. Guerrero: A Photographer’s Journey, visit our video player.