WALTER DOMINGUEZ
Producer / Director
Walter Dominguez is the Project Director, Producer, and Writer for the series. He brings his production experience as a director, assistant director, 2nd unit director, writer and producer in Hollywood studio features and television series, independent features, and documentary video production. Walter wrote and produced the independent documentary feature, Weaving the Past: Journey of Discovery, which focuses on early 20th century Los Angeles progressives and immigrant Mexican revolutionaries. His credits as an assistant director include The Andromeda Strain, and Oklahoma Crude for Hollywood legends Robert Wise and Stanley Kramer, Play It As It Lays from auteur filmmaker Frank Perry, and Steven Ihnat’s contemporary western The Honkers. He has directed 2nd-unit for the cult thriller feature, Devil Times Five, as well as for Frank Perry’s Play It As It Lays. He has been a member of the Director’s Guild of America (DGA) since 1972, as well as a member of the National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NALIP), Film Independent (FIND), and the International Documentary Association (IDA). Walter is a graduate in History from Occidental College, and did graduate work in Cinema Studies at the USC School of Cinema.
WILLIAM DEVERELL,
Lead History Consultant
William Deverell, a nationally recognized historian of the 19th and 20th century American West, is Professor of History at the University of Southern California, and Director of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West. A graduate of Stanford, with an M.A. and a Ph.D. from Princeton University, and a former faculty member at UCLA and the California Institute of Technology, he has published numerous books and papers on the history of California and the American West, including the widely- acclaimed, Whitewashed Adobe: The Rise of Los Angeles and the Remaking of its Mexican Past, the landmark history book that forms the nucleus of content for this television series.
HECTOR GALAN
Supervising Producer
Hector Galán has been creating documentary films for over twenty years. He has produced and directed eleven films for the PBS series Frontline, two films for The American Experience, and many critically acclaimed and award-winning independent films such as feature documentaries, music documentaries, and documentary series. Galán founded his independent production company, the Austin Texas based Galán Inc. Television/Film in 1984. Most recently, Galan Inc. completed production on The Big Squeeze and is at work on The War Within, a two hour PBS Film that tells the story of Latinos in America’s Wars.
JOHN D. ESTES
Producer
A graduate of The University of California at Berkeley, John began as a freelance writer and story/project developer for clients such as Cinema Line, Amblin Entertainment, Electronic Arts Inc. and Warner Bros. Moving into production, he served for over 15 years as a freelance Production Manager and 1st Assistant Director on shorts, music videos, commercials and independent features. As a producer, John’s credits include Andre LeBlanc’s short film Handle With Care (Silver Medalist at the 2007 Park City Film Music Festival), Kevin McDermott’s The Driveway, and as Associate Producer on Walter Dominguez’s Weaving The Past: Journey of Discovery.
LISA TAUSCHER
Line Producer
A native of Seattle, WA, Lisa earned her B.S. in Visual Communications from Western Washington University. Lisa brings sixteen years experience as a line and field producer for documentaries and commercials including ten years as Head of Production at Go Film, a major commercial and music video company based in Hollywood and New York City. Lisa produced the award-winning documentary Beyond the Summit: The Everest Environmental Expedition which aired on National Geographic in 222 countries and won numerous awards including a Cine Golden Eagle. She is also currently in development on her documentary entitled Education War: A Look at the Battle for Public Education Choices and the Gray Area in Between.
NICK LIGONIS
Associate Producer
Nick has been involved in the world of independent film and media production for over six years, running the gamut of professional roles as a director, producer, actor, composer, photographer, editor, and graphic designer. Nick recently produced the award-winning short film Side Effect. Nick received his Bachelor’s degree in English from the the University of Florida and went on to study Music and Cinema Production at Los Angeles City College. His versatility and practical, hands-on expertise with so many aspects of the filmmaking process keeps him in demand and freelancing for a variety of clients such as NonStop Riot, Red Bull, and 6 ft 1 Productions.
YOLANDA MCCREARY
Associate Producer
Yolanda is a video producer whose experience has spanned many facets in the video media industry. She has extensive experience in marketing communications, specializing in promotional, fundraising, instructional and educational programs serving both private and nonprofit agencies. For over nine years, she worked with World Vision, one of the largest international Christian humanitarian aid organizations dedicated to combating the root causes of poverty and responding quickly when disasters strike. Currently, she works as a free-lance producer with numerous non-profit agencies and private companies.
GREG GARNEAU
Project Consultant
Greg Garneau is a business consultant in Durham, NC. He brings a career’s worth of experience in running small businesses, both in the for-profit and non-profit sector. Most recently, he retired as the Executive Director of the National Press Photographers Association and now serves as a member of the Durham Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission as well as volunteering with the Durham Bicycle Cooperative. His experience in the film industry include serving as the business manager of Anthology Film Archives and as a board member of the Southern Documentary Fund. He is a graduate of Occidental College and Columbia University Business School.
BILLY MARCHESE
Cinematographer
Billy began his career in 1990 as a camera assistant in Seattle while working towards his Bachelor degree in Visual Communications. In 2000, Billy served as Director and Cinematographer on the award winning documentary film Beyond the Summit: The Everest Environmental Expedition spending 3 months in Bhutan, India and Nepal shooting the film. He has directed and photographed many outstanding documentary programs for television for clients such as National Geographic, BBC, PBS, Discovery Networks, ESPN, MTV, and others. For the last three years, Billy has been working on his Dezart Cinematic-produced documentary, Fires from Above: The Fires Below, shooting on location in the Amazon Basin in Ecuador and Peru, documenting the impact of environmental abuses by global petroleum companies and the resulting cultural and spatial dislocations of indigenous tribal people.
MARIA HONRADO
Associate Producer / Editor / Graphic Design
Maria hails from Madrid, Spain where she studied Visual Arts at the prestigious Jaime Ferran College. She came to the U.S. in 2005 to study Cinema Production at Los Angeles City College. Upon completing her studies, Maria began her career in post-production on the award winning short film Side Effect, editing and designing titles for the film’s trailer. She went on to edit one of the finalist entries that formed The Experimental Witch, a feature film based on the book by bestselling author Paul Coelho, which premiered at the Rome Film Festival. She teamed up with Project Director Walter Dominguez as an editor and motion graphics designer for his documentary feature Weaving the Past: Journey of Discovery.