Luis Valdez Will Sit in ‘The Director’s Chair’ This Sunday on El Rey Network

“I didn’t go to film school,” says La Bamba director Luis Valdez. His education came from doing. “I looked through the lens and I said, there are some possibilities here. We can do stuff.”

This Sunday on El Rey Network, influential Chicano movement filmmaker Luis Valdez will sit with Robert Rodriguez to discuss his career, his background, and everything else on the next episode of The Director’s Chair.

It’s impossible to ignore Valdez’s contribution to filmmaking, but it’s also shocking how little he’s mentioned amongst film enthusiast circles. Perhaps it’s just the crowds I run in, but Valdez isn’t a name people drop for film geek cred like they would Tarantino or Kubrick. I hope his participation in The Director’s Chair changes that.

What I especially hope to see in his interview is his founding of the Teatro Campesino, which I’m only learning about now, is a theatrical troupe performed entirely by the United Farm Workers. An intriguing Wikipedia paragraph sells me on why I’m eager to watch Valdez’s episode:

Although the troupe began by entertaining the farmworkers, within a year of their founding they began to tour to raise funds for the striking farm workers. By 1967, their subject matter had expanded to include aspects of Chicano culture that went beyond the fields: education, the Vietnam War, indigenous roots, and racism.

The Director’s Chair with Luis Valdez premieres this Sunday, March 29 at 8 PM EST/8:15 PT. It will be immediately followed by an airing of Valdez’s 1987 classic, La Bamba at 9 PM EST/9:15 PT. Check your local listings for El Rey Network.