Efrain Gutierrez
Filmmaker
Gutierrez is recognized by academia as the first Chicano (Mexican American) to independently produce a movie, “Please Don’t Bury Me Alive! / ¡Por Favor, No Me Entierren Vivo!,” released in 1976. Gutierrez’s low-budget feature film’s revenues topped “All the President’s Men” and “Jaws” in several Texas theaters. He also wrote, produced and directed two other films, “Amor Chicano Es Para Siempre / Chicano Love Is Forever,” released in 1977, and “Run Tecato Run,” released in 1979.
Each year UCLA selects 15 movies, out of over one million films available. UCLA has honored Gutierrez by selecting these three films for restoration and preservation at the UCLA Film and Television Archive, making Gutierrez the first Chicano/Latino/Hispanic to have his films archived at UCLA. UCLA Chicano Film, Television, and Digital Media Studies Research Center professor Chon Noriega compares Gutierrez to Oscar Micheaux, the African American film pioneer who directed “race movies” for black audiences from the 1920s through the 1940s. Rooted in Chicano teatro, Gutierrez’s films dramatize the moral dilemmas and socioeconomic hardship facing the Chicano working-class community. In his honor, Noriega has nominated Gutierrez’s three films to the National Library of Congress.
Efrain also wrote, produced and directed “Lowrider Spring Break en San Quilmas,” released in 2001. His fifth and latest release, “Barrio Tales: Tops, Kites, and Marbles,” was screened at several branch libraries and the Central Library in San Antonio, and in Laredo, Harlingen and Brownsville, Texas. The San Antonio Public Library System’s “Chicano Renaissance” honored Efrain and several other Chicano artists and activists during National Hispanic Month. Gutierrez’s films and his story are part of the curriculum at many major universities and colleges. Several theses and dissertations have been written about Efrain Gutierrez at universities in California and Texas.
Efrain has written, directed and produced several documentaries, which include “El Juanio,” a documentary about toxic inhalants produced for the Mexican American Neighborhood Civic Organization and released in 1979. “El Juanio” was instrumental in Texas Governor Clements passing a law that made selling spray paint to minors illegal. Gutierrez also founded and directed the Chicano Arts Theatre (CAT) from 1971 to 1974. CAT’s performance of Abel Franco’s play “Juan Corazon” in 1972 at the Guadalupe Theater was instrumental in organizing the art community to reopen the Teatro Guadalupe for the community.
