Invited Filmmaker - Hector Galan

Hector Galán, whose film "Los Lonely Boys: Cottonfields and Crossroads" (2006) will be screened as the invitational on Saturday evening at the Flatland Film Festival,  has been called one of the most prolific and impassioned independent filmmakers working today. Galán, a Tejano from San Angelo, has contributed over forty hours of programming to the national PBS television schedule including eleven episodes for the provocative series “Frontline”: two programs for the PBS series “The American Experience,” and the landmark four-part PBS series, Chicano! History of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement; for which he was invited to the White House to screen the work for President Bill Clinton. His work has garnered numerous awards and recognitions including two Imagen awards, the Cine Golden Eagle Award, the Telly Award, SXSW Best Documentary, the Golden Apple, and the Blue Ribbon Award and numerous festival awards.
The critically-acclaimed Galán has won these numerous national and international awards and recognitions for exploring such diverse topics as migrant farm workers, (New Harvest, Old Shame, 1990) the dynamics of race relations in the military, (The Color of Your Skin, 1991) college athletics, (Chasing the Basketball Dream, 1984) and issues surrounding foster care, (Who Cares About Children?, 1992) for “Frontline.”  Galán has cast his lens on the Latino experience in America, bringing the culture and history of the U.S. Latino experience to the screen. He produced two award winning documentaries for the American Experience. Los Mineros (1991), the story of Arizona’s copper miners in the early half of this century and their struggles for equality, (SXSW Best Documentary) and The Hunt for Pancho Villa (Imagen Award, Cine Golden Eagle Award).
Right out of high school, Galán started out as a camera operator in his hometown of San Angelo and has worked in every aspect of television production ever since. While still in college at Texas Tech University, Galán was hired by KCBD, the NBC Affiliate in Lubbock, Tx, where he quickly worked his way up to News Director of the affiliate while still a college student. When he graduated from the University with a degree in Mass Communications, Texas Tech recruited him to work as a producer for the university based PBS affiliate station. Early on in his career, Galán realized that his goal in life and as a filmmaker was to bring diversity to national television, to bring real stories about real people. As a Mexican-American from Texas brought up in a bilingual household, Galán’s dual cultural upbringing gave him a unique perspective and a deep passion to help change the face of television, to make its programming more inclusive. Galán has accomplished this goal and so much more, and will share his perspective on filmmaking at the screening of his newest completed project.