Quetzalli

My name is Junior Robinson and I am a Xikano (Chicano), Mexican-Indigenous filmmaker from Southern Colorado. Growing up in Colorado I would take a cinematic vision shaped by both my Xikano/Mexican upbringing and the relationship with other neighboring Native communities throughout Southern Colorado and Northern New Mexico. I carry the name “Junior” after Luis “Junior” Martinez, the young Chicano activist who was killed in Denver 1973 while Chicanos supported the American Indian Movement and their occupation of Wounded Knee. I am proud to carry the name of a young warrior.
After coming up out of the turmoil of street-life I began working with inner-city youth in Colorado and started striving towards education. I received a BS in Mass Communications with an emphasis in the New Media Studies program at Colorado State University-Pueblo. I am also a graduate with an MFA in cinema production from the University Of Southern California, School Of Cinematic Arts in Los Angeles. I co-produced the documentary “Forged In Steel” while attending CSU-Pueblo and participated in the Shoot-Out Boulder 24 Hour Filmmaking Festival 2005 and 2006. My 1st-year USC short film “April 10th” was an official selection in the shorts program at the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival 2008 (LALIFF). I also co-directed the documentary short “Lost Angels” with Liu Chang as part of USC’s exchange with students from Beijing, China. Since graduating from film school I have been writing extensively while shooting short projects from Colorado to Standing Rock. I am working on a documentary project, publishing the underground For Us Chican@ Kids zine, and trying to develop my film, Quetzalli.
It was a long road to where I now walk but I accredit much of my accomplishments to the support of my Chicano community and spiritual upbringing in Aztec Danza and the Native American Church, Teocalli Tepeyolohtlan of Colorado. I now hope to give back to my community with my art and work of Xikano/Native Cinema.
I also take great pride in mentoring Xikano/Native youth on the streets in Southern Colorado. But I am impassioned to share my cinema since graduating from film school. While at USC, I was a friend with Ryan Coogler the director of Fruitvale Station, Creed and Black Panther. When Coog would always share his stories of his neighborhood in Richmond with me, I always had something to share about my Chicano community in Pueblo, Colorado. And I too have a passion to bring a personal cinema to life. I'm so proud of Coog for showing us all that the cinema dream can be captured, even it's coming from a place like Pueblo, Colorado.
Currently I am struggling to capture cinema in Pueblo, Colorado. I am writing and rewriting my screenplays and devoting time to freelance video work, while I also work towards a documentary project and my first feature.