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Michele Serros’ Shortlist

Published on October 9, 2008

The Shortlist article series is your opportunity to learn about the films that inspire intellectual, artistic and activist leaders—leaders like Michele Serros. We asked Michele to share her favorite films and her thoughts on the power of documentary to change the world. So what films make Michele Serros’ Shortlist? Keep reading to find out.

Who is Michele Serros?

Michele Serros

Named by Newsweek as “One of the Top Young Women to Watch for in the New Century,” Michele Serros is the author of Chicana Falsa : And Other Stories of Death, Identity, & Oxnard , How to be a Chicana Role Model, Honey Blonde Chica and her newest young adult novel, ¡Scandalosa!

Serros has written for the Los Angeles Times, Ms. Magazine, CosmoGirl and The Washington Post and contributes satirical commentaries regularly for National Public Radio. An award-winning poet, she has read her poems to stadium crowds for Lollapalooza, recorded Selected Stories from Chicana Falsa for Mercury Records and was selected by the Poetry Society of America to have her poetry placed on MTA buses throughout Los Angeles County.

In 2002, Michele wrote for the ABC television sitcom, The George Lopez Show. “An opportunity,” she says, “that hopefully with my contribution opens the door for a wider representation of Latinos in the mass media.”

Serros’ work is required reading in U.S. high schools and universities and garners a diverse fan base ranging from Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers to author Sandra Cisneros.

Originally from Oxnard, CA, Michele is currently working on a new novel, An Unmarried Mexican.

Michele Serros on the Power of Film

My first memory of documentary film was a 1974 short directed by my Uncle Rudy. He had obtained a video camera on loan, the almighty Kodak XL 340 Super 8 and announced to the whole family that he would document our entire Christmas vacation during our stay in a cabin rental in Big Bear, CA. My uncle Rudy, then using his new artistic moniker, ¡Rudulfo!, was a forerunner of the shaky hand technique, long before such a method became popular via The Blair Witch Project or Cloverfield.

The realism he captured was profound, but the final results were disastrous. At the world premiere screening of Christmas, Big Bear in Grandma Cuca’s living room, the documentary exposed, unbeknownst to us, numerous family shortcomings. My aunt Lola was caught consuming pork tamales under the cabin’s stairwell, after she had bragged and bragged to everyone how “disciplined” she was with her Scarsdale Medical Diet; Uncle Robert was recorded “accidentally” patting the bottom of cousin Ronnie’s new blonde girlfriend; and, even more scandalous, my own father was filmed running out last minute to the nearest 7-11 to find a little “Christmas something” for my mother.

After highly-charged negative reviews, !Rudolfo! scrapped the idea of directing Easter, Cousin Benny’s Backyard and resumed his position as a longshoreman. My aunt Lola has since started the South Beach Diet, my uncle Robert is divorced and my father now gives out cash during Christmastime. Regrettably, many members of my family have not talked to one another since that fateful winter of 1974. But me? I learned at an early age that the pairing of “release form” and “signature” is of utmost importance in documentary film making.

Michele Serros’ Picks

Metallica: Some Kind of Monster: Since I was fourteen years old I’ve always held a penchant for troubled rocker boys with long hair. My therapist says I have co-dependency issues. Of course, I got rid of that therapist, which is what the boys of Metallica should have done with their pricey performance enhancement coach, “Dr.” Phil (Towle), who consulted them during the recording of their eighth studio album, St. Anger. One thing that I’ve learned as an artist is that it’s probably best to let personal resentment and rage build up; it creates good product and, as in the case of Some Kind of Monster, great bi-product. The documentary is superb while St. Anger is sorta, well, stock.

The Blair Witch Project: As an avid hiker, I’ m always on the lookout for new trails in uncharted territory. What I learned most from this documentary is something very valuable: stay away the woods of Burkittsville, MD. I know that many insist that The Blair Witch Project isn’t really a documentary, but rather a mockumentary with a strong publicity team. However, I read on the internet months before the film was ever released that the curse of Elly Kedward was very much real. And, as everyone knows, facts on the internet aren’t false.

Step Into Liquid: While the film’s premise is to portray global surf culture, one can’t help but ignore the fact that the majority of surfers featured in Step Into Liquid are white American males seeking stoke around the world whereas people of color are exotic backdrops. But that said, I still love this film. A big mahaloto Dana Brown; especially for showcasing all the girls in the curls and the tanker surfers of Galveston, TX; enough so that I was inspired to leave Manhattan and fly out to the Lone Star State where I found my own stoke: tanker surfing in the Gulf of Mexico against a very exotic backdrop of white, American males.

Super Size Me: As an author, I speak at numerous schools and universities across the country and it’s always overwhelming to witness students stacking toxins on their cafeteria lunch trays, as depicted in Supersize Me. I’ve also experienced firsthand the devastating effects of high volume fast food consumption. After my mother’s divorce, she medicated her depression with value packs and refillable super-sized sodas. The result led to a massive weight gain which led to gastric bypass surgery (also depicted in the film) and consequently her untimely death. Too many of us are unaware of the dangers of processed food and I’m eternally grateful for Mr. Spurlock’s focus on this serious issue.

Chicana Role Model: the Brown Ambition Tour: This isn’t a documentary, yet, but the pre-production proved to be killer! This film chronicles the book tour of one critically-acclaimed Chicana author (okay, me) on a two week book tour to promote her 2000 Los Angeles Times bestseller, How to be Chicana Role Model. Satirically based on Michael Moore’s The Big One and Madonna’s Truth or Dare, viewers will learn what it’s really like to be a brown girl on a national book tour; from virtuous Chicano journalists demanding interviews to be conducted solely in Spanish to hyped-up book signings that garner the lowly count of three people who showed up only for the cheese. Maybe not Oscar worthy, but is that Diablo Cody calling again?

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