Louis Alvarez (born January 23, 1955) and Andrew Kolker (born February 20, 1952) are American documentary filmmakers whose works deal with various aspects of American society and culture. Their films have been shown frequently on the American Public Broadcasting Service and are notable for their use of humor in the examination of serious subjects such as social class and politics.Current Magazine, Oct 20, 2001, The New York Times, August 26, 2007, Love Us or Hate Us, Ya Can’t Ignore Us Alvarez and Kolker's work has been recognized by two Peabody Awards and two Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards.
Early life Alvarez and Kolker first met in New Orleans in the mid-1970s as activist videomakers working in the city's poor neighborhoods, and their earlier work portrays life in New Orleans and surrounding parishes.
Works Their best-known works are People Like Us: Social Class in America, which is a wide-ranging examination of the American class system from 2001,Baltimore Sun, Sept 23, 2001, Our Kind of People (Or Maybe Not) and American Tongues, a 1987 study of dialects of North American English and their social implications. They have also collaborated with the filmmaker Paul Stekler on several films about American politics and culture, including Louisiana Boys - Raised on Politics and Vote for Me: Politics in America.
Between 1994 and 2014 Alvarez and Kolker collaborated with the film editor and producer Peter Odabashian on their films.
Filmography Changing the Channel, 1977 Talking Crime, 1978 The Clarks, 1979 The Ends of the Earth: Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, 1982 El mosco y el agua alta, or Mosquitoes and High Water, 1983 Yeah You Rite!, 1985 American Tongues, 1987 L.A. is It with John Gregory Dunne, 1990 The Japanese Version, 1991 Louisiana Boys—Raised on Politics, 1993 Vote for Me: Politics in America, 1996 MOMS, 1999 People Like Us: Social Class in America, 2001 Sex: Female, 2003 Small Ball—A Little League Story, 2004 The Anti-Americans (a hate/love relationship), 2007 Past/Present [video game], 2012 Getting Back to Abnormal, 2013 Buckwheat's World, 2015 Postcards from the Great Divide, 2016
References
External links
The Center for New American Media People Like Us website