KCET Episode, TNT Movie Win Imagen Awards

KCET-TV’s “Las Vidas de Pico/Union” and Turner Network Television’s “Crazy From the Heart” were awarded Imagen (“image”) Awards Friday by the National Conference of Christians and Jews for their positive portrayals of Latinos and Latino themes.

“We hope rewarding these films will do more than picket lines outside of theaters,” said Jerry Freedman Habush of the National Conference of Christians and Jews. Started in 1984, the awards have annually recognized projects that show a rounded picture of Latino characters or serious treatment of Latino issues, Habush said.

An episode of KCET’s “Life and Times” series that aired in January, “Las Vidas de Pico/Union” is a documentary portrait of the daily lives of Central-American refugees living in the Pico-Union section of Los Angeles. Nancy Salter, who produced “Las Vidas de Pico/Union” with Nancy De Los Santos, the series’ producer, accepted the award at a ceremony at the Regent Beverly Wilshire.

“The whole series is committed to give a voice to the many peoples of Los Angeles,” Salter said. “This award gives us some indication that what we are trying to do has succeeded.”

The TNT cable movie “Crazy From the Heart” was written by Linda Voorhees and directed by Thomas Schlamme. The movie, which aired last August, dramatized the struggles of an interracial couple in a small Texas town.

“People want to see these kind of films that deal with the human spirit regardless of race,” said Sherry Marsh, who was the movie’s executive producer along with Freddy DeMann. “The award is an affirmation about how good the material is.”

Writer-director Neal Jimenez received a special recognition for the motion picture “The Water-dance,” which depicts the friendship of three men, a Latino, a white and an African-American.

Past Imagen Award winners have been “Stand and Deliver,” “La Bamba,” “The Milagro Beanfield War,” “Shannon’s Deal” and “L.A. Law,” which has won three times for the Victor Sifuentes character played by Jimmy Smits.