Nov 8, 2006 10:17 pm US/Pacific
Challenging Limits, Changing Worlds
Jefferson Award Winner: Victor Pineda
by Kate Kelly
(CBS 5)
Victor Pineda was an undergraduate student at UC Berkeley when he made his first documentary. His film "In Cuba Disabled" takes viewers on a personal journey.
"I began using film as a way of showing people what is possible; primarily to show myself what is possible," he says.
It was possibilities that first brought Victor to the United States. He was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy when he was just two. His mother quickly realized her son would have few opportunities in their home of Venezuela, so the family moved to California. At UC Berkeley, Victor flourished. While completing a degree, he won a grant for a small camera and started to use film to teach people about the challenges of being disabled.
"I hope people will be taken on a journey and taken on a trip and really feel something," he explains. "If they feel something, they are forever changed. That way, little by little, we can help change the world."
Local filmmaker Michael Fried's world changed when he saw Victor's first documentary.
"He made me realize what our humanity is about. It's not our bodies, it's our hearts and minds and souls," says Michael.
Together, Michael and Victor formed the Disability Media Arts and Education Center to encourage others with disabilities to fulfill their potential through careers in film and media. Young filmmaker Donis Georgiou credits Victor with inspiring him not to let his cerebral palsy keep him from making his own documentary.
"He encouraged me, he mentored me, he inspired me to become a filmmaker," Donis says.
At age 27, Victor has completed four documentaries that feature the lives of the disabled in third world countries. He's worked on the United Nations Disability Treaty and the World Bank's Disability and Development team, and now his sights are firmly set on the global stage.
"Victor is a Bay Area ambassador to the world," says Michael. "He traveled to Oslo, Bosnia, Thailand, bringing his message of inclusion, and also using media as both a creative and transformative tool."
Victor adds, "I think often we see someone with a disability and we strip them from all of their value because of one small imperfection or one small limitation. We, in a sense, devalue that individual and... it makes no economic sense, no rational sense, and it's really holding us back from really pushing forward our potential as a society, as a community."
So for helping the disabled realize their dreams as he challenges the world to value their potential, this week's Jefferson Award in the Bay Area goes to Victor Pineda.
(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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