Producer Catches Latino Film Wave

Rick Munoz, who grew up in Pacoima kickin’ it in the park with friends who would become anti-gang activists and world-class kick boxers, ignored the pleas of his mother and entered the entertainment business.

Not too long ago, the Northridge filmmaker was approached by an industry executive who was eager to make a film that would reach the growing Latino audience. Do anything, the executive told Munoz, and we’ll pay for it.

“Most film producers wait a lifetime for this opportunity,” said Munoz, 47, who built his career producing general market commercials, corporate videos and music videos. “I guess I am doing it backward.”

After talking to friends in the industry, Munoz decided to not only write, direct and edit the film himself but also to finance it through his production company, Our Productions. His first film, “No Mothers Crying. No Babies Dying,” will be released this month on video, and HBO plans to air it this summer.

The hybrid anti-gang docudrama mixes real-life interviews with reenactments of gang scuffles around Los Angeles.

The demand for Latino-themed movies is so great that Munoz plans to make three more films this year.

“Video stores need Hispanic movies. If they have a Hispanic product they will pick it up, they will rent it,” said William Conley, president of Urban Entertainment, which distributes African American films in the home video market.

“I’m going to do films that are about the Latino community,” Munoz, a hyper-energetic man with a big, infectious laugh, said last week. “We are not aliens. We are not from Mars. We have stories just like anyone else.”

First Love Was Rock ‘n’ Roll

Munoz, who was born in East Los Angeles, never set out to be a filmmaker.

After he was stabbed in the chest in first grade at his Catholic elementary school, his family moved to the Valley.

His cousins, aunts and uncles followed them to Pacoima, where his mother still lives.

It was a time when Mexican American parents pressured their children to assimilate. Munoz did not speak Spanish at home because his parents did not want him to have an accent, but later learned Spanish on his own.

As a child, Munoz’s love was rock ‘n’ roll. He began guitar lessons at 11, and joined a band at 12. His interest in music led him to a music school in Hollywood, the University of Sound Arts. He also earned an associate’s degree in sound engineering for motion pictures from Valley College.

After a stint with Paramount Studios, he spent four years in television news.

In 1982, with editing experience under his belt and money in the bank, he opened his own post-production company in North Hollywood. Crammed into a room the size of a garage was $8,000 of editing equipment and his desk.

Seventeen years later, he has a 22nd-floor penthouse suite in Hollywood floating above a smoggy panorama of Los Angeles.

Built Career on Experience

His strength, he said, was building his career on experience, clientele and products aimed at the mainstream market.

As a successful Latino businessman in an era when corporations, advertisers and entertainment executives are increasingly catering to Latino tastes, he suddenly finds himself in a powerful position.

Until now, the bulk of Munoz’s livelihood was earned through music videos, advertising and producing live events. Over time, his

business has grown increasingly Latino-focused.

Mexican companies, such as Benedetti’s Pizza (what Munoz calls “the Domino’s Pizza of Mexico”), and Latino-owned firms, such as La Pizza Loca, have hired him to create commercials with the mainstream look they want in their Spanish- and English-language ads.

For his first film, Munoz wanted to produce something that mattered, to give back to his community. He focused on gangs.

He started interviewing youths and gang members across Los Angeles. Some of them had done drive-bys only days earlier. They were tough, hard.

When he quizzed them about always having to watch their backs, on the run from police and competing gangs, it seemed to only boost their egos.

“It was like, bring ‘em on, we’re ready,” he said.

But when he talked to them about their mothers, everything changed.

“I saw I was talking to their souls. I could see it in their eyes,” he said. “It was the only time I had their complete, undivided, sympathetic attention.”

The title of Munoz’s film comes from a slogan Rodriguez often used in his anti-gang efforts.

Although the gritty, 90-minute film is a low-budget production--Munoz’s friend David Ortiz put up $200,000 and Munoz kicked in $70,000--some who have seen it say it is powerful.

“Was it ever horrible,” said Enriqueta Ramos, who taught at Cypress College in Orange County for 25 years.

“I mean, it was brutal reality. I think it should be shown at junior high schools, to fourth- and fifth-graders, so they can see the dangers, so it can deglamorize the gangs.”