Sundance: Pivot, Univision Partnering for Chavez Protest Documentary ‘Cesar’s Last Fast’

The film follows the late labor leader’s final quest — to bring attention to rampant pesticide use in the 1980s

Pivot, Participant Media’s TV network, and partner Univision are in final negotiations to acquire Sundance U.S. documentary entry “Cesar’s Last Fast,” the story of Cesar Chavez’ final protest. The deal comes ahead of the film’s Sunday premiere at the Temple Theatre.

“Cesar’s Last Fast” follows the late labor leader’s quest to bring attention to pesticide use in the 1980s and its dangerous impact on farm workers. Chavez went on many fasts to highlight farm workers’ rights; his last action, during which he subsisted on only water for more than a month, advocated for grape farmers and was captured on film.

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Kevin Iwashina’s Preferred Content repped the filmmakers: Richard Ray Perez, a former farm worker, and documentarian Lorena Parlee.

Pivot and Univision plan to premiere the film simultaneously in English and Spanish.

Here’s a description of the film from the Sundance website:

In 1988, Cesar Chavez embarked on what would be his last act of protest in his remarkable life. Driven in part to pay penance for feeling he had not done enough, Chavez began his “Fast for Life,” a 36-day water-only hunger strike, to draw attention to the horrific effects of unfettered pesticide use on farm workers, their families, and their communities.

Using never-before-seen footage of Chavez during his fast and testimony from those closest to him, directors Richard Ray Perez and Lorena Parlee weave together the larger story of Chavez’s life, vision, and legacy. A deeply religious man, Chavez’s moral clarity in organizing and standing with farmworkers at risk of his own life humbled his family, friends, and the world. Cesar’s Last Fast is a moving and definitive portrait of the leader of a people who became an American icon of struggle and freedom.

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