Edward James Olmos accepted the Cinequest Maverick Spirit Award after a screening of his new film “Walkout” on Sunday, March 12. The Maverick Spirit Award is given each year at the annual film festival. Past award winners have included Sir Ben Kingsley, Blanchard Ryan, and Ian McKellan. The award honors the maverick spirit in filmmaking.
“Walkout”, which Olmos directed and in which he has a small part, is about the East Los Angeles high school walkouts in 1968, which sparked a wave of similar protests against the poor schools available to Chicano students. The film focuses on Paula Christosomo (Alexa Vega, “Spy Kids”), a gifted student and leader only a few months away from graduation. Inspired by a leadership conference for Latino youth, she and other student leaders from East LA high schools band together, determined to improve the educational system. Although dogged by police spying, discouraged by parents and administrators, and eventually the victims police brutality, they rally their fellow students and begin a tidal wave of protest that changes them forever.
Vega, who was only 16 at the time of filming, carries the film well and lives her performance so completely that it’s easy to forget you’re watching a movie. A strong cast, including Olmos’ son Bodie Olmos (“Battlestar Galactica”) and Michael Pena (“The Shield” and “Million Dollar Baby”), supports her and helps the entire film to feel thoroughly real. Watching “Walkout” is a moving experience.
After the screening, both Edward James Olmos and Bodie Olmos took the stage for a conversation with Mary Greenwood, the first female public defender in Santa Clara County. Edward James Olmos spoke a great deal about his drive to improve the lives of others. He feels that he and his family live a very privileged life and have a responsibility to give more than they receive. Making powerful films that educate as well as entertain, like “Walkout,” “Stand and Deliver,” and “American Me,” is part of that. He added that he’d rather “make one of these every ten to fifteen years” than one film every year without substance.
Olmos said that he hopes “Walkout” will inspire today’s young people to make a difference, and sees evidence that it does so in the reactions of adults who have seen it. “When you empower the youth,” he said, “it gives the adults tremendous fear.” He feels that “Walkout” has the potential to teach highschoolers today how to stage their own walkouts and feels that it may be necessary. “Things have changed,” he said, referring to the practice of beating students who spoke Spanish at school, “Now they don’t hit you openly.” But he added later, “not enough has changed. We still think there’s such a thing as a Latino race, an African race, a European race,” and use that as a cultural determinant, “when there’s only one race: the human race.”
“Walkout” is a look at a vital part of American history, a part that is often forgotten or overlooked. Olmos and the other filmmakers who created it have done an excellent job, and it’s easy to see that Olmos deserves to be called a maverick. “Walkout” will air on HBO on March 18th and Olmos will be taking it from city to city and showing it in one theater at a time until he can get full distribution.