My name is Diane Revilla and I come from a business family with a line of history going back several generations in Austin. My family has lived in East Austin since the very early 1900’s. My family has owned a local community newspaper that has been serving the Latino community since 1986. Over the years that it has been running it has sparked an intense interest in the major issues facing the Latino community in East Austin, more specifically gentrification. Being the family cinematographer I have produced a range of videos chronicling the escalating rate of gentrification/resulting displacement Austin has had on lower income families. In many cases that displacement has ruined many cultural aspects of the city while adding more toward it’s long history of segregation and economic discrimination toward people of color is quite the opposite. As a film maker I want to tell the story of the people that cannot or will not tell their story out of fear. I want to be more than a voice, I want to be able to document what is going on and shed light to a topic that is not as widely talked about as it should be.
My creative journey began at Neighborhood Playhouse, a theatrical institute in New York City where I learned a great deal on method acting and theatre. I later moved to Texas and furthered my education at the Austin School of Film that make up who I am today. I have written several short and produced several short films both on my own budget and for the newspaper with the most recent one being Lost at 6th and Pedernalez. Although I am mostly known it the community for my work at La Prensa where I donate most my time to making videos that help expose the City of Austin for there unfair treatment of the Latino community. I plan on venturing out and pursuing my passion for documenting Austins gentrification on my own time and really get to tell peoples stories.