“Gomez-Peña's work is among the most powerful examples of intercultural performance.” Richard Shechner, American Theatre Magazine

In 2002, PBS commissioned several Latino filmmakers to create a 3-hour documentary on “Latino arts” in the US. The segment for San Francisco was commissioned to Gustavo Vazquez, who in turn invited me to partake in the project. We decided to feature “re:group,” a loose association of SF-based performance artists who had created "a multi-ethnic/multi-generational performance lab" in response to the perils of 9/11 and the dangers of the Bush era. Our performance imagery was a strange premonition of sinister things to come including the invasion of Iraq and the shocking Abu Graib photos.

A PBS crew was invited to shoot several "jamming sessions," but the material was so politically explicit and sexually charged that soon it became clear to Vazquez and me that PBS was not going to air it. Instead, PBS shifted the nature of the project from the troubling portrait of “re:group” to a safe portrait of several “established” artists (including a “lite” version of myself). Vazquez and I decided to go ahead and create the portrait we desired of the rebel troupe, using the “sensitive” outtakes that PBS didn't want to touch. It is shown here for the first time ever.