Moisés a. González: Filmmaker
I was born in 1963 to Cuban immigrants in San Antonio, Texas. After high school, I attended the University of Texas at Austin where I graduated with a degree in English in 1987. Moving to New York after graduation, I worked as a copy editor, proofreader and apartment painter (the last job paid best). In the early 1990’s, I moved to Albuquerque sight unseen; yes, there was a woman involved. As there is little in the way of publishing work in Albuquerque, and as I had tired of painting apartments, I went back to school and received a degree in Secondary Education (Spanish, English, Bilingual and ESL certifications). After teaching in private and public schools for seven years, I decided to pursue my lifelong dream of telling stories. In 2001, I graduated magna cum laude in Moving Image Arts from the College of Santa Fe. In 2003, I formed a one-horse production company, MarAbí Productions, Inc. Commissioned works from the likes of Najulda Records, the University of New Mexico, and the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District have kept MarAbí Productions going. Also, in 2011, I was asked to to become Media Coordinator for Dual Language Education of New Mexico. But it is documentary filmmaking that really lights my fires. My first film, Cuba Next Exit, an impressionistic personal narrative, won a Premio Mesquite Award for Experimental Film at the 25th San Antonio CineFestival. Light Heavy, a biographical short about Light-Heavyweight Champ and Albuquerque native son, Bobby Foster, garnered the Audience Choice Award at the Alibi Film Festival and was awarded a Governor’s Cup cash prize. Dangerous Highway, a feature-length documentary about Alabama-born singer Eddie Hinton, made in conjunction with Deryle Perryman, premiered nationally at the Siskel Film Center at the Chicago Art Institute and was an official selection at festivals from Santa Fe to Athens, Georgia, San Francisco to Tucson. It was also the only film featured at the 2008 Porretta Soul Festival in Italy. In 2015, Deryle Perryman and I premiered Same Same But Different at the Kimo Theatre in Albuquerque. Terry Allen, whose music is featured in the documentary, performed as well. Despite the pride I take in being an educator and a filmmaker, I am most proud of the twenty-year relationship I have had with the gal who lured me to Albuquerque (see picture) and the three beautiful children that relationship produced.
Karla and me.
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