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“Spirit of Miami” Documentary Recounts the Life of Indy Car Promoter Ralph Sanchez

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A new documentary to air this fall will showcase the life of Ralph Sanchez, a visionary, charismatic Cuban refugee whose car racing passion transformed the streets of downtown Miami into an international speedway of global significance and changed South Florida forever.

Sanchez realized his dreams against unimaginable odds. After the Cuban Revolution, he began his new life in Miami as young boy, sent by his family to become a ward of the Catholic Church and its program, “Pedro Pan.” Under those auspices, he lived in the former World War II barracks at The Opa-locka Airport and struggled with the uncertainties of a new life and a new language. One constant in his life was a boyhood love of auto racing which he developed after hearing about the legendary Grand Prix of Cuba.

The early 1980’s was a troubled time in Miami, which was suffering from high crime rates. At this time when there was only one national sports franchise in Miami, Sanchez created generations of racing fans by transforming Miami’s iconic Biscayne Boulevard into a Monte Carlo-style raceway. In the process, he also began to transform an embattled city into the international hub for sports and culture that it is today.

The program documents how one annual event in the 1980s drew the world’s most famous racecar drivers and celebrities, to Miami, a city only emerging to be known for entertainment and excitement.

“This project is so important. It happens at a time when immigration is part of our daily national dialogue,” said producer Chucha Barber. “Ralph is a great example of how a single life can make a profound difference on a city, a state, an industry and our collective history.”

The four-time EMMY Award-winning producer described the intensely personal experience that the project represented for her.

“I was an employee of Miami Motorsports, and Ralph was a great mentor to many people, including me,” Barber said. “It’s a labor of love to tell his story and show how it’s inextricably connected to Miami’s story.”

The program will include dramatic video and photographs of IMSA car races (exotic prototypes) and INDY car races held in Miami, interviews and heartfelt stories from the “royalty” of car racing, his family, as well as those who knew him.

Former Miami Motorsports employees testify to Sanchez’s insatiable appetite for the thrill of racing, his perseverance to succeed, and for his ability to imagine and create the impossible, over and over again. Barber said viewers will be inspired to learn from Sanchez that dreams really do come true.

The program title, “Spirit of Miami,” was also the name Sanchez gave to the cars he personally entered into his own races. The name was a tribute to his gratitude to the city that took him in and the city which he so proudly served.

NBC6-WTVJ will be the first to air the hour-long program, in English, in November 2018. Telemundo 51-WSCV will air the Spanish-language version in December 2018.

Florida National Guard & WJCT to premiere Camp Blanding documentary

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WHAT: The televisions debut of the documentary “Camp Blanding: Florida’s Hidden Gem From the Beginning”
WHEN: 8 p.m., Thursday, Mar. 23 2017.
WHERE: WJCT Channel 7-1 / Comcast Channels 8 or 440
This short documentary gives viewers a modern day high tempo view of the current training and capabilities of this little known post. It also provides a rustic historical telling of how the post came into being, its ties to Naval Air Station Jacksonville, the Empire State Building, and German POW’s.
Some of the people who appear in the movie worked at Camp Blanding as teenagers, trained there before entering World War Two, were held as German POW’s, and one woman who was born there, tells the story of her father who worked in the post hospital as a doctor.
The original movie was written, directed and produced by Mr. A.J. Artley. The extended version to air on local television was co-produced by Mr. Artley and WJCT Producer, Mr. Carlos Bouvier.
Contributors: Col. Matt Johnson, Commander, Camp Blanding Joint Training Center
Mr. Greg Parsons, Historian, Camp Blanding Museum
Doctor George Cressman, Historian, Camp Blanding Museum

Documentary Portraying Life in Syrian Refugee Camp to be Shown at UT Feb. 21 Followed by Q-and-A With Filmmakers

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The documentary After Spring, which provides a glimpse into a Syrian refugee camp in Jordan, will be screened at The University of Tampa on Tuesday, Feb. 21, at 2 p.m. in the Reeves Theater on the second floor of the Vaughn Center. The screening will be followed by a Q-and-A with filmmakers Steph Ching and Ellen Martinez at 4 p.m. The event, which is part of the Honors Program symposia series, is free and open to the public.
Executive produced by The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart, the film follows two refugee families and aid workers at Zaatari, the largest camp for Syrian refugees that is gradually evolving into a permanent settlement.
Ching and Martinez both served as directors and producers on the film.
Ching was associate producer and additional editor on the Emmy-nominated documentary Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon. She participated in relief efforts post-Hurricane Katrina and made several trips to Sichuan, China, to film testimonials with survivors of the 2008 earthquake.
Martinez was associate producer on Tested, a feature documentary about educational inequality in the New York City public school system. She was a director’s assistant and worked in the assistant director and production departments for various films in New York City. She has spent more than eight years in the Middle East and lived in Damascus, Syria, for four years.
For more information, contact the Honors Program at (813) 257-3545 or [email protected].
The University of Tampa is a private, residential university located on 110 acres on the riverfront in downtown Tampa. Known for academic excellence, personal attention and real-world experience in its undergraduate and graduate programs, the University serves 8,310 students from 50 states and 140 countries. Approximately 65 percent of full-time students live on campus, and more than half of UT students are from Florida.