Life, Liberty & Pursuits of Happiness

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American Exile revolves around the lives and unexpected challenges that compel decorated Vietnam veterans Manuel and Valente Valenzuela to defend their honor years after they leave the battlefield.  The brothers volunteered to fight and did so with distinction. When they received word in 2009 that they would be deported, they started asking questions and telling their story.  

Filmmakers John Valadez and Carleen Hsu became committed to documenting the plight of the Valadez brothers. Their focus on them soon widened and began to tell an even more extensive story about deportations and about the deportation of Mexican-American veterans in particular.  The activism and humanity that the brothers have brought to this issue reached as far as the White House and has been credited with changing American policy regarding the deportation of veterans. 

American Exile first aired on PBS in November 2021 as a Latino Public Broadcasting/Voces veterans special.  It earned the 2022 Imagen Award for Best Documentary, the 2022 Ruben Salazar Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism and was recognized with 2022 Awards of Excellence from The Broadcast Education Association and the Michigan Association of Broadcasters. 

John Valadez is a Peabody Award winning filmmaker, whose work has received two national Emmy nominations.  A professor of Film, Television and Media at the University of Michigan, he has directed a dozen documentary films for primetime national broadcast on PBS and CNN over the past 25 years.  His body of work explores race, power, and identity through the Latinx experience. Valadez has tackled diverse and often controversial subjects, bringing thoughtful, and emotionally engaging work to a national audience.  His film, American Exile (PBS/2021), which  aired nationally in primetime, explores the deportation of US military veterans, and played an important role in helping to change national policy, allowing deported veterans and their families to return home.

Professor Valadez’s other major works explore a diverse range of subjects including: the lynching of Mexican Americans in the West (The Head of Joaquin Murrieta PBS/2017), the Chicano struggle for equality and justice (Prejudice and Pride /2013 for the PBS series Latino Americans), Latinos in World War II (War and Peace/2013 for the PBS series Latino Americans), the birth of Mexican American civil rights (The Longoria Affair/ 2010 aired on the PBS series Independent Lens), the history and evolution of Chicano Music (The Chicano Wave/2009 for the PBS series Latin Music USA), public art and the genocide of Native Americans in the Southwest (The Last Conquistador/2008 aired on the PBS series POV), the devastating impact of standardized testing on America’s most vulnerable children (High Stakes Testing 2005/ aired on the documentary series CNN Presents), the resegregation of American schools (Beyond Brown/2004 received a primetime national broadcast on PBS), contemporary segregation in a small southern town (The Divide/2003 for the PBS series Matters of Race), Latino gangs in Chicago (Soul Survivors/1997 for the PBS series Making Peace), and the false imprisonment of a leader of the Black Panther Party (Passin’ It On/1994 aired on the PBS series POV).

Valadez’s films have garnered top prizes at film festivals from San Francisco to Chicago to Atlanta to Mumbai, have been broadcast across the United States, Canada and Europe, and have been featured at major museums and cultural institutions – including the Hirshhorn Museum, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Georges Pompidou Centre in Paris, Lincoln Center, the Smithsonian Institute, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC.  –University of Michigan