Plot

Documentary examining the racial "off-worlds" and migrant camps of California's Mexican farm workers.

A troubling journey through migrant work camps in suburban Southern California Rancho de los Diablos, Kelly Camp, Porterville, McGonigle Canyon and Loma Bonitawhere homeless indigenous Mixteco workers coexist nearby gated designer home enclaves in Carlsbad, La Costa, Encinitas, and Del Mar. The film shows racial identity to be carefully cultivated in the region, and how grass-roots development efforts by indigenous Mixteco organizers work to resist conditions of deprivation hidden at the heart of this otherwise scenic landscape.

What the critics have been saying:

"An extraordinary feat of artistic & political fusion that explores a charged American debate on the tortured value system that underlies this countrys dualistic approach to its own problems of labor & immigration. --Sundance Film Guide, January 2002

"Caldwell brings a keen sense of intelligence and visual flair to issues normally treated in sanctimonious sound bytes. Rancho California wrestles with problems of economic exploitation through layering of direct and symbolic forms of representation, a pastiche of texts and visual styles. In doing so, he inscribes the idea of a collective responsibility that is devoid of either pity or hectoring." --Steven Berndt, Cineaste, vol.xxix, no.3, Summer 2004, p.72.

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Selected Film Festival History:

20th Sundance Film Festival, World Premiere selection, January 2002 Winner, Gold Premio Mesquite Award/Special Jury Prize, February 20, 2003 at the: 26th Annual CineFestival San Antonio, Texas, February, 13-21, 2003 6th Los Angeles International Latino Film Festival, July 27, 2002 14th Rencontres Cinemas d'Amerique Latine de Toulouse, France, March 15-24, 2003 9th Cineteca Nacional, Jornada de Cortometraje Mexicano, Mexico City, December 1-7, 2002 2nd Palm Springs Festival of Festivals, Palm Springs, November 1-17-2002 3rd Dahlonega International Film Festival, Georgia, June 26-29, 2003 9th San Diego Latino Film Festival, San Diego, March 17-24 13th Pacific Rim Film Festival, Santa Cruz, California, November 1-3, 2002 Bronze Plaque, Chris Awards, CIFF, Nov. 2002, at the: 48th Annual Columbus International Film Festival, Nov. 2002. Bronze Prize, 24th Annual Big Muddy Festival of Independent Film, Feb.2002. John Michaels Memorial Award, BMFF, February 2002. 4th Pan American/ Cine Cuahatemoc Film-Video Festival, Houston. 11th Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival, October 2002. IDA Documentary Salon Screenings, Los Angeles, April 2002. 4th Silverlake International Film Festival, Los Angeles, September 13, 2003. 6th River Run International Film Festival, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, April 24, 2004. 1st Geographies of Identity International Film Festival, Amherst, Massachusetts,April21,04 3rd Dahlonega International Film Festival, Dahlonega, Georgia, June 24-27, 2003. 10th Sedona International Film Festival, Sedona, Arizona, March 3-5, 2004.

Featured Screenings at: 53rd Annual International Communications Association Conference, ICA Plenary/Keynote Screening, San Diego, May 25-26, 2003. 52nd Annual American Studies Conference, Hartford, Connecticut, October 16-19, 2003. Center For 21st Century Studies, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, Oct.15, 2004. 44th Annual Society For Cinema Studies Conference, Denver, May 2002. 56th University Film and Video Association Conference, Ithaca, New York, August 2002. Lublin Marie Claire Sklodowska University, Lublin, Poland, January 2004. University of Glasgow, Intercultural Studies Program, Graduate School, Scotland, UK,Mar2004 Victoria University of Wellington, School of English, Film & Media, New Zealand, March 2004. University of Guelph, Ontario Province, Guelph, Canada, March 3, 2004. York University, Department of Sociology, Toronto, Canada, June 2, 2004. NEH Regionalism and the Humanities Conference, Lincoln, Nebraska, November 22, 2003. Macalester College, Communications and Media Studies Department,St.Paul,MN,June2,04. Electronic Elsewheres: Globalization & Media Conference, Evanston, IL, May 16, 2003. 7th Annual Visible Evidence Documentary Conference, Los Angeles, CA August 2000. 42nd Society For Cinema Studies Conference, Chicago, IL, March 2000.

86th Annual National Communications Association Conference, Seattle, Nov. 8, 2000. Cultural Intersections Conference, Northwestern University, Nov. 2000. Museum of Photography: University of California, Riverside, May 3, 2002. Museum of Contemporary Art/ Cincinnati Film Society, Cincinnati, August 6, 2003. University of Arizona, Department of Media Arts, College of Arts, Nov. 12, 2002. California State University, Fullerton, American Studies Department, October 2004. Beyond Baroque, Los Angeles Emergences Screenings, March 2000. Angelika Theater, New York, 23rd IFP/Independent Feature Project Screenings, Sept.2001. 7th Annual Console-ing Passions International Conference of Video & Feminism, University of Notre Dame, Indiana, May 11-14, 2000. Occidental College, Department of Film and Art History, LA, October 28, 2002. Tia Chucha Centro Cultural, Sylmar/ Los Angeles, May 7, 2003. University of California, Department of Communication, San Diego, Feb. 2003, University of California, Davis, American Studies, Davis, CA, Feb. 6, 2003. University of California, Department of Sociology, Santa Cruz, Nov. 13, 2001, Cabrillo College, Cultural Center, Watsonville, CA, Nov. 1, 2002. Film Forum Long Beach, HFLB, Long Beach, CA, July, 2003. Loyal High School, Los Angeles, California, January 12, 2004. American Film Market Screenings, from UC CMIL, September 2003. Chicano Studies Research Center, American Studies Centers, UCLA, Feb. 25, 2004. Ohio University, NEH Regional Humanities Center, Athens, April 10, 2003. School of Theater, Film, and Television Colloquium, UCLA, May 14, 2003 Northwestern University, School of Communications, May 28, 2002. Dartmouth University, Humanities Center, Nov. 15, 2000.