
Filmmaker Moctesuma Esparza Reflects on 'Requiem-29'
Clip: Season 14 Episode 3 | 1m 25sVideo has Closed Captions
Filmmaker Moctesuma Esparza on Requiem-29, a film about the Chicano Moratorium in East LA.
In August 1970, students in UCLA’s “ethno-communications” program took on a class project — a film that documents the 1970 Chicano Moratorium against the war in Vietnam. The film, “Requiem-29,” presents footage of the march in East L.A., the brutal police response and an investigation into the killing of journalist Ruben Salazar. Filmmaker Moctesuma Esparza reflects on "Requiem-29," decades later.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Artbound is a local public television program presented by PBS SoCal

Filmmaker Moctesuma Esparza Reflects on 'Requiem-29'
Clip: Season 14 Episode 3 | 1m 25sVideo has Closed Captions
In August 1970, students in UCLA’s “ethno-communications” program took on a class project — a film that documents the 1970 Chicano Moratorium against the war in Vietnam. The film, “Requiem-29,” presents footage of the march in East L.A., the brutal police response and an investigation into the killing of journalist Ruben Salazar. Filmmaker Moctesuma Esparza reflects on "Requiem-29," decades later.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
How to Watch Artbound
Artbound is available to stream on pbs.org and the free PBS App, available on iPhone, Apple TV, Android TV, Android smartphones, Amazon Fire TV, Amazon Fire Tablet, Roku, Samsung Smart TV, and Vizio.
Providing Support for PBS.org
Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship[Film projector clicks] [Film feeding] Moctesuma: We had equipment, and students were making their own films.
And it was in this environment that in our second year, August of 1970, we took on a class project, all the students together, which was to document an antiwar march in East Los Angeles that occurred on August 29, 1970.
So it became an EthnoCommunications project.
So all the African-American students, all the Asian students, all the Chicanos, we all came together, and we said, "We're going to make a documentary about this march."
[Indistinct chanting] Moctesuma: And in 2022, that film was inducted into the Library of Congress Film Registry, one of only about 60 movies up to that time so inducted... [Men singing in Spanish] Moctesuma: which is amazing to me that that student film, which I still cringe when I look at some of the terrible shots and I see a moment in which the boom goes into the shot and another pan that goes nowhere-- just horrifies me.
But at the time, we didn't know any better.
Stormé: My family was
L.A. Rebellion: A Cinematic Movement (Preview)
Video has Closed Captions
Preview: S14 Ep3 | 30s | Following the Watts Uprising, UCLA increased film program enrollment of students of color. (30s)
L.A. Rebellion Filmmakers Discuss Their Project One Films
Video has Closed Captions
Clip: S14 Ep3 | 6m 1s | Filmmakers Ben Caldwell, Eddie Wong and Stormé Bright Sweet discuss their first films. (6m 1s)
Providing Support for PBS.org
Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship- Arts and Music
How the greatest artworks of all time were born of an era of war, rivalry and bloodshed.
Support for PBS provided by:
Artbound is a local public television program presented by PBS SoCal