______
B i o g r a p h y
MANNY MONTERREY
Dedicated Producer, Author, and Curator of Latino Arts
Manny Monterrey’s love and commitment to his Latino roots is evident thru his successful multi-media creations and community activism.
In September of 2005, Monterrey secured the continuation of his dedicated work by signing a major TV partnership deal with A&E Networks to co-produce and air his next film documentary A Color of Honor:A Tribute to Latinos in the US Military, a project which like his first production Americanos:Latino Life in the United Sates will include a photo-book, a traveling photo and war artifacts traveling exhibition and a public musical concert in New York’s Central Park with some of today’s hottest names in the music world, all saluting Latino men and women in uniform.
Additionally, Monterrey has joined Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) to introduce A Color of Honor’s Hispanic War Veterans Memorial Act—an effort kicking off in November 2005 to help build the first national war memorial in Washington, DC honoring Latinos in the military service who have given their lives for freedom and democracy in all of America’s wars.
To bring his message of hope to all youth, Monterrey is active teaching young high school students the arts of journalism and filmmaking through By Youth for Youth productions. Two of those national programs include Regenerate, a national program created in California by producers David Miller and Steven Jay Rubin where youth produce and direct documentaries showing the consequences of teen reckless driving. Another youth project led my Monterrey is Operation: My Soldier/My Hero, a nationwide film docu-drama project where youth interview and film surviving war heroes dating back to WWII to present active soldiers from the war on terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan. The pilot program features top officials from the Department of Defense. A development deal to make this educational initiative a nationwideprogram is currently underway.
Author/producer Manny Monterrey, originator and executive producer of A Color of Honor: A Tribute to Latinosin the US Military, also created, co-authored and co-executive produced the very successful and first of its kind multi-media award-winning production Americanos: Latino Life in the United States. His project, released in 1999 and 2000, was sponsored by Time-Warner, Inc. It includes a book published by Little, Brown & CO, a Sundance Film Festival award winning HBO film, a 1999 thru 2005 traveling Smithsonian Institution photo Exhibition (the largest photo exhibition ever mounted by the Smithsonian), a Kennedy Center Presents concert with top-name musical artist on PBS and a Warner Music CD of the music in the film and concert.
The multi-media project was co-produced by actor/activist Edward James Olmos. In 2001, Monterrey produced and served as guest curator at the Smithsonian Institution for the Farmers Insurance sponsored project Young Americanos, another visual arts traveling exhibition depicting Latino life in America as seen thru the eyes of society's most prized citizens, our youth. Additionally, Monterrey is also co-authoring a book with his children titled Jenny and the Rocking Chair. The book will address some of the most challenging issues our youth face currently and written from the standpoint of children who have personally lived through tough emotional experiences.
Mr. Monterrey’s dedication to youth is evident through his production Young Americanos and through his national student produced and directed educational documentaries tackling some of today’s hottest topics.
Monterrey’s landmark projects boast congressional and presidential support, bring awareness of the major roles Latinos have played in all of our nation’s wars, and calls on the nation’s most powerful institutions to join forces and pay tribute to those who make it their everyday purpose to uphold freedom and democracy.
Monterrey is a resident of suburban Maryland.
______
4350 North Fairfax Drive, Suite 700t. (703) 516 4000 f. (703) 516 4819
Arlington, Virginia22203