PRPRESS
KIT
1
[synopsis]
Stable Life follows the remarkable story of an immigrant family chasing a better life in the
stables of California racetracks. Dionicia M. lives with her family in a room on a Northern California
racetrack and works long hours tending horses . Despite her humble surroundings, Dionicia is optimistic
about her prospects: she likes her job, her two US citizen boys are in school, and her oldest son José Luis
is turning heads as a hot-shot apprentice jockey in California. Although she is undocumented, Dionicia
dreams of bringing her two sons who remain in Mexico to join her in the United States.
Horse racing in its heyday was a glamorous sport--the Sport of Kings. Wealthy owners, colorful
jockeys and elegant thoroughbreds were once the dominant images of the racetrack and Triple Crown
races have been cause for national celebration. Today, however, horse racing faces hard times.
Competition from televised sports and expanded gambling opportunities have reduced the fan base and
racetracks across the country are closing their doors. Moreover, the high-profile deaths and doping of
champion horses have led the public to question the sport's treatment of thoroughbred horses. Yet
there remains a racetrack story even more hidden: that of the immigrant workers who live and work on
the backside of the racetrack.
At the racetrack, gamblers make long-shot bets in the hopes of winning big. This high-risk, highintensity environment mirrors the situation faced by many of the 11 million undocumented immigrants
in America: with no possibility of getting legal work visas, these immigrants gamble on improving their
lives by working and living clandestinely. These gambles often result in suffering as immigrants face
isolation, extended separation from loved ones, and constant uncertainty and fear.
Indeed, Dionicia’s gamble soon appears lost. The racetrack where she works and lives closes
down, and immigration crackdowns threaten her family. Undeterred, Dionicia will double down her on
her bet in a surprising way. Will she achieve the stable life of her dreams, or will her luck run out?
TRT 51:20 minutes, in Spanish and English with English subtitles
PRPRESS
KIT
2
[tag line]
A high-stakes documentary about family, immigration and life on the racetrack
[one-line summary]
An immigrant family struggles to succeed in the hardscrabble world of horse racing.
[65 word summary]
Dionicia M. lives in the stables at a California racetrack and works long hours caring for
racehorses while her teenage son José Luis is turning heads as a hotshot apprentice jockey. Dionicia and
José Luis have gambled their futures on the hardscrabble sport of horse racing. Will they succeed or will
their lack of immigration papers prevent them from achieving the stable life of their dreams?
[180 word summary]
Dionicia M. is an undocumented immigrant who lives at the stables of a northern California
racetrack and spends long days tending thoroughbred racehorses. Despite her humble surroundings,
Dionicia is optimistic about her prospects: she likes her job and her oldest son José Luis is turning heads
as a hot-shot apprentice jockey in Los Angeles.
At the racetrack, gamblers make long-shot bets in the hopes of winning big. This high-risk, highintensity environment mirrors the situation faced by many undocumented immigrants in America: with
no possibility of getting legal work visas, these immigrants gamble on improving their lives by working
and living clandestinely.
Indeed, Dionicia’s gamble soon appears lost. The racetrack where she works and lives closes
down, and her José Luis is picked up at an immigration checkpoint and deported. Undeterred, Dionicia
will double down her on her bet in a surprising way. Will she achieve the stable life of her dreams, or will
her luck run out?
PRPRESS
KIT
3
[director's statement]
How do we decide which people deserve to immigrate to the United States? I began my professional life
as a lawyer working on behalf of indigent refugees and asylum seekers. In my practice I encountered migrants
with horrific stories of persecution and hardship, many of whom ultimately were able to settle legally in this
country. But I also met many migrants whose hardships didn't qualify them as refugees and who didn't have
another way to live in the US legally. These 'economic migrants' could easily find jobs but their lack of
immigration papers condemned them to live in the margins of American life. Their urgent need to support
themselves and their families, and our urgent need for their labor, are unrecognized by our immigration system.
There are an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States, more than half of
whom are Mexican. These immigrants are hidden in plain sight, working in industries like agriculture, construction
and services. I first learned of the hidden world of the racetrack through a New York Times article about workers
on Southern California tracks. When I visited racetracks in Northern California, I found the unique community on
the "backside" fascinating. Largely immigrant and isolated from the outside world, racetrack workers created a
community they could call their own, far from the scary and puzzling America outside the racetrack.
When Dionicia and I met at the racetrack we had an instant rapport. Besides being a devoted mother,
Dionicia is a thoughtful woman who felt that she had something to say about the hardships undocumented
immigrants experience in America. Though she knew there was a risk involved in speaking out publicly in a
documentary, she wanted to be heard. In order to minimize potential risk, our team consulted with immigration
advocates and made some editing decisions ultimately to obscure the family's identity and whereabouts. (Spoiler
alert: in the end, such caution proved unnecessary.)
When our team learned that Dionicia's oldest son José Luis was making a stellar debut into the California
racing scene as an apprentice jockey, their story took a magical turn. Hard work, determination, and talent
seemed to be more important than a lack of immigration papers. As it turned out, we began filming Dionicia and
José Luis in a particularly hopeful moment of their lives. Dionicia and her husband had good jobs, their younger
sons were all in school and José Luis' jockey career was taking off. Sadly, it was not to last, and their lack of
immigration papers soon became the defining force in their lives.
I intended Stable Life to be a hopeful documentary, a tribute to the strength and resilience of the
racterack workers and their undocumented counterparts throughout the US economy. Instead, Stable Life is a
testament to America's broken immigration system and the needless suffering it creates. But I hope that it may
also draw attention to the crucial role our hidden immigrants play in the US economy. If we can recognize these
immigrants as the valued workers and beloved members of our communites that they are, perhaps we can
imagine a solution that brings people out from the shadows.
PRPRESS
4
KIT
[people in the film]
DIONICIA MARTINEZ is the matriarch of the
Martinez-Muñoz family, a racetrack paseadora
(stable assistant) and the dedicated mother of
five sons. Having grown up in dire poverty in
Pueblo, Mexico, Dionicia came to the US as a
young mother determined to offer her children a
better life. While three of her five sons live with
her in California, Dionicia desperately misses her
two sons who remain in Mexico. Yet with the
racetrack closing and her future uncertain,
Dionicia must rethink her family's chances of
finding a stable life in the world of horse racing.
JOSE LUIS MARTINEZ CAMPOS, a talented and
fiercely determined apprentice jockey, is Dionicia's
eldest son from her first marriage. José Luis crossed
the border alone at age 12 because even at a his
young age he had a vision: he wanted to come north
and race horses. After starting as a stable groom,
José Luis makes a stellar debut in the California
racing scene and is named Santa Anita's apprentice
jockey of the year. He appears poised to make his
dream come true when he runs into immigration
trouble. Faced with the biggest challenge of his life,
José Luis will be forced to revise his dream and start
anew.
PRPRESS
5
KIT
MARIO MUNOZ, Dionicia's husband, came
to the US as a teenager after enduring an
impoverished childhood in Michoacán,
Mexico , where he was never sent to school.
He has worked ever since at racetracks all
around North America, but by the film's
beginning he has settled in California with
Dionicia and two of their four sons. Over the
course of the film, Mario grows increasingly
distressed about the couple's separation
from their two sons who remain in Mexico.
Determined to reunite his family, Mario
hatches a plan.
MARIO JR AND HOMAR MUNOZ are
Dionicia and Mario's two US citizen sons.
After spending years living in Mexico with
their grandparents the two boys have
come north to live with their parents at
the racetrack. Seven year-old Homar is
delighted to live with his mother and
father and to be able to roam freely
through the stables. For 15 year old Mario
Jr, however, life in the US is far harder
than he imagined. Alienated from school,
Mario Jr turns to soccer for consolation
and dreams of returning to Mexico.
ANDRES AND CARLOS MUNOZ are Dionicia and Mario's two
sons living in Mexico. Because they were both born in
Mexico they are not US citizens and were left behind when
Mario and Homar came north. Though they are far from
their parents, Andres and Carlos are never far from their
thoughts. As events spin out of control in Dionicia and
Mario's life, Andres and Carlos make a surprising appearance
in the documentary.
PRPRESS
KIT
6
[ about the makers]
Sara MacPherson (director/producer)
Before making documentaries, Sara worked as an immigration lawyer specializing in political asylum and
family immigration. Her work documents the immigrant experience and explores the intersection of
personal stories with larger policy issues. Her short documentary Jornalero (Day Laborer) screened in
HBO’s Full Frame Documentary Film Festival and numerous other festivals. Sara has been a Fellow at the
FilmHouse by the San Francisco Film Society and the San Francisco Film Commission, a Media Maker
grantee with the Bay Area Video Coalition (BAVC), a Documentary Fellow at the National Association of
Latino Independent Producers (NALIP) Academy, and a STAND Fellow with the Film Arts Foundation. She
is a member of the SF Film Collective and lives in San Francisco.
Tricia Creason-Valencia (producer/new media director) Tricia directed the award-winning short
films Eighty Layers of Me (that you’ll have to survive), a documentary about former cheerleaders turned
activists and We Got Next, a narrative about young women basketball players. Tricia is the founder of
FLACAFILMS, where she works as a director/producer and digital video editor. Tricia is a fellow of the
PBS/CPB Producers Academy as well as the NALIP Latino Producers Academy. She has taught film/video
production at U.C. Santa Cruz, San Francisco State University and Drexel University.
Herb Ferrette (editor) is a National Emmy Award winner, a seven-time Regional Emmy Award winner
and a Emmy nominee for Individual Achievement in a Craft News and Documentary/Editing. His work
has been recognized at many prestigious film festivals, including Sundance for The Fight in the Fields:
Cesar Chavez and the Farmworker Movement. (When this ITVS sponsored film had it’s National PBS
airing it captured the highest ratings of any program for ITVS.) Herb has won a Gold Medal at New York
Film Festival, and his documentary Race is the Place won Best Feature Documentary at the 2006 San
Diego International Latino Film Festival and premiered as the season opener for Independent Lens.
PRPRESS
7
KIT
[film credits]
Director/Producer
Sara MacPherson
Producer
Tricia Creason-Valencia
Editor
Herb Ferrette
Cinematographer
Mark Arellano
Field Audio
Darcel Walker
Original Music
Richard Martinez
Associate Producers
Maria José Calderón
Mark Arellano
Sound Design/online finishing
Ramiro Segura
Meadow Holmes
[funders]
CAL HUMANITIES
BAY AREA VIDEO COALITION (BAVC)
FLEISHHACKER FOUNDATION
PENINSULA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION
BELLE FOUNDATION
[OTHER SUPPORT]
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF LATINO INDEPENDENT PRODUCERS (NALIP)
SAN FRANCISCO FILM SOCIETY
SAN FRANCISCO FILM COMMISSION
ARTS COUNCIL OF SILICON VALLEY
[technical info]
total running time: 51:20 minutes
in Spanish and English with English and Spanish subtitles
filmed in USA and Mexico in digital video (4:3)
PRPRESS
KIT
[press]
Content Magazine, Film as Activism: Tricia Creason-Valencia, by Daniel Garcia, March 2013, profile of
Tricia Creason-Valencia
Silicon Valley Latino, Stable Life: Movie Review, by March 2, 2013
San Antonio Current, February 20, 2013, More CineFestival Film Picks, "An unflinching portrait"
Santa Barbara Independent, January 25, 2013, Meet the Makers, by Michelle Drown, "Straightforward,
honest, and fascinating"
Univision News, January 12, 2012, "A Family--and a Documentary Film--Torn Apart by Deportation,"
http://univisionnews.tumblr.com/post/16022601101/opinion-a-family-and-a-documentary-film-tornapart
[Radio & TV]
Bay Sunday, KPIX San Francisco, Interview with Sara MacPherson, September 8, 2013
Thoughtline KFJC, Interview with Sara MacPherson and Tricia Creason-Valencia, February 25, 2013
Signature Silicon Valley with Janice Edwards, CRTV30, Interview with Sara MacPherson and Tricia
Creason-Valencia, March 5, 2013
8
PRPRESS
9
KIT
[contact information]
SARA MACPHERSON, director/producer
sara@equipoise films.com
equipoise films
c/o SF FIlm Collective
134A Golden Gate Avenue
San Francisco CA 94117
TRICIA CREASON-VALENCIA, producer
tricia@flacafilms.com
Flaca Films
San Jose CA
FOR FESTIVALS & SALES/
UNIVERSITY SCREENINGS:
sara@equipoisefilms.com
FOR COMMUNITY SCREENINGS/
SPANISH LANGUAGE EVENTS:
tricia@flacafilms.com