Escaramuza: Riding from the Heart

GALLERY

ABOUT THE FILM

Producer/Director: Robin Rosenthal & Bill Yahraus

Genre: Documentary

Program Length: 1 Episode/60 Minutes

Premiere Date: October 5, 2012 on PBS

(Please check local listings)

Las Azaleas are the gutsy team of women rodeo riders vying to represent the U.S. at the National Charro Championships in Mexico, where “to be Charro is to be Mexican.” Escaramuza, or skirmish, describes both their daredevil horseback ballets, ridden sidesaddle at top speed, and the intensity of their competition season.
Neither life-altering challenges at home nor cartel violence across the border can keep Las Azaleas from their goal.

ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS

Robin Rosenthal (Producer/Co-Editor)

Rosenthal graduated Phi Beta Kappa and Summa Cum Laude from the University of Pennsylvania and went on to Queens College, City University of New York for her Master of Fine Arts. She taught studio art at San Antonio College and the San Antonio Art Institute, and exhibited her video art throughout the Southwest, before moving toward documentary work. She edited Chamoru Dreams for Pacific Islanders in Communications’ Pacific Diaries series, and the award-winning Mary Jane Colter: House Made of Dawn about the groundbreaking architect (both broadcast nationally on PBS). With filmmaking partner Bill Yahraus she made the feature documentary A Circus Season: Travels with Tarzan (PBS) and the Eclipse-winning series On the Muscle: Portrait of a Thoroughbred Racing Stable. Robin also oversees a small niche market distribution arm of their company Pony Highway Productions.

Bill Yahraus (Director/Editor)

Yahraus graduated from The Annenberg School at the University of Pennsylvania, and began his filmmaking career in San Francisco in the documentary unit at KQED. With Michael Anderson, Paul Jacobs and Saul Landau he made documentaries collectively (The Jail, Song for Dead Warriors, Robert Wall: Ex-FBI Agent).
In Los Angeles he formed Focal Point films with Chris Burrill and David Davis, and made the award winning Homeboys about the Cuatro Flats gang. In feature films he edited for directors Richard Pearce and Sam Shepard (Heartland, County, The Long Walk Home, Far North, Silent Tongue).
Bill consulted on the Academy Award-winning documentary Broken Rainbow, and cut The Samoan Heart for the Pacific Islanders in Communications’ Pacific Diaries series, and most recently the human rights documentary Screamers (BBC Storyville and theatrical). Since 1999 he has taught film production at the University of Southern California.