Paul Espinosa

Biography

Paul Espinosa is an award-winning filmmaker and anthropologist who has worked at the intersection of social justice, media culture and Latino history over the last 40 years. He is the President/CEO of Espinosa Productions, a film and video company specializing in both documentary and narrative films focused on the U.S.-Mexico border region. Espinosa holds a BA from Brown University and a PhD from Stanford University where he explored connections between media and anthropology. He is Professor Emeritus and a founding faculty member in the School of Transborder Studies at Arizona State University and is a frequent guest lecturer at colleges and universities around the country. Espinosa has worked with the public television stations in San Diego and Dallas as a Senior Producer and Executive Producer. His films have been screened at festivals around the world and have won many awards including eight Emmys. Espinosa has shared his expertise, experience and social activism at many universities and community centers across the Americas. He has been honored with Paul Espinosa Film Festivals in Phoenix, Albuquerque, El Paso, and San Diego. The National Association of Hispanic Journalists inducted him into the NAHJ Hall of Fame and the California Chicano News Media Association honored him with a Lifetime Achievement Award. He received the Outstanding Latino Cultural Award in Performing Arts from the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education; the Domingo Ulloa Cultural Worker Award from California Rural Legal Assistance in recognition of his contributions to public understanding of the experiences of Mexican origin peoples in the United States; and he was honored with the Hispanic Heritage Month Resolution presented on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington DC. Espinosa is a Board Member of the Media Arts Center of San Diego and is a member of the National Association of Latino Independent Producers. He previously served on the Boards of the National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture (NAMAC) National Board, the Arizona Latino Arts & Culture Consortium, the Media Arts Center of San Diego (as President and Founding Board Member), the California Council for the Humanities, the Arizona Humanities Council and the Association of Independent Video and Filmmakers National Board (as Treasurer).