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This year is the season for examinations of the life of civil rights icon Cesar Chavez. There’s Diego Luna’s feature film Chavez, Miriam Pawel’s book The Crusades of Cesar Chavez, and now, Richard Ray Perez has a new documentary called Cesar’s Last Fast. Featured at Sundance Festival, the film chronicles the rise and fall of the United Farm Workers and their efforts, led by Chavez, to organize farm workers through strikes, boycotts, and fasts.

With unprecedented access to a stunning archive of material from Lorena Parlee who was once Chavez’s press secretary and had collected many hours of footage for a film project. Parlee died of breast cancer before she could finish the film. Richard Ray Perez finished the film as its current Director, Producer, Executive Producer, and Writer.

GUEST: Richard Ray Perez, filmmaker of Cesar’s Last Fast

Cesar’s Last Fast is showing at the Pasadena Playhouse 7 starting today. Perez will attend Q&A sessions at the 7:10 and 9:40 screenings.