Periodically, the Latinx Files will feature a guest writer. This week, we’ve asked Alex Rivera to fill in. Rivera is a Sundance award-winning filmmaker and a 2021 MacArthur fellow. His work focuses on migration, globalization and technology. He’s an associate professor in the Sidney Poitier New American film school at Arizona State University, based in Los Angeles. Read the full article here.
Alex Rivera is an award-winning filmmaker and media artist. Rivera's feature film "Sleep Dealer" (2008) is a cyberpunk thriller set on the U.S./Mexico border. "Sleep Dealer" won awards at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival and the Berlin International Film Festival, and is well-known for its contribution to Latino representation in science fiction. "Cine Latine: Shaping Latino Representation at the Movies" is the work of 2023 Library of Congress Junior Fellows and highlights the Library's vast moving image collections, while emphasizing the importance of Latino contribution and representation within the history of U.S. cinema. The interview series accompanies the Latinx Representation in Film Research Guide by showcasing emerging and established Latino or Latina filmmakers whose work is making a significant impact on the industry.
Filmmaker and activist Alex Rivera joins Jay and Tammy to discuss cryptocurrency—its right-wing associations, its potential for social movements, and whether the left can reclaim decentralized finance for the people. You can listen to the podcast here.
Filmmaker Alex Rivera joins Henry and Colin to discuss his journey in border and immigration storytelling, blending documentary and fiction in The Infiltrators, and the power of bottom-up political pressure in shaping history. You can listen to the podcast here.
Post-screening Q&A with director Alex Rivera and UC San Diego Professor Curtis Marez follows a screening of "Sleep Dealer." This Sundance award-winning sci-fi thriller follows a young man in Mexico who ends up in a strange factory at the US-Mexico border that outsources migrant workers north via virtual reality. Alex Rivera’s “adventurous, ambitious, and ingeniously futuristic” (Los Angeles Times) film is a visually stunning commentary on borders and the privatization of public resources.
