Biography
A.P. Gonzalez was born Alfred Peter Gonzalez in San Antonio, Texas; his parents are Tejanos as well. The family moved to Los Angeles when A.P. was only two years-old although he spent every summer visiting grandparents in Texas until he was about 15. A.P. went to Loyola High School in Los Angeles and followed that Jesuit education with a BA in English at the University of Southern California. He later earned an MA in English & American Literature before continuing his graduate studies in Film Production at San Francisco State University.
A.P. is a writer, director and producer, who honed his filmmaking skills in San Francisco during the late 1980s while founding his own production company, In Camera Film and Video. While still in San Francisco, he directed his first indie feature, Clay Farmers (newly restored and distributed) and was awarded AFI and Billboard Magazine's Best-Fiction AVC Award as well as being broadcast internationally by the BBC and Canada's Knowledge Network, among others. Gonzalez is also the recipient of an Alma Award for "Mangas," from TV's FOTO-NOVELA series.
His newest short films, "The Wetback" and "George & Dorothy" have won a combined 45 awards at international contests and film festivals in the U.S. and throughout the world. In addition, he has produced, written and directed the documentary, Together Against Abuse, for the State of California. Among other notable works, A.P. has directed Hurricane Party, a 2007 festival circuit success; The Silent Crisis: Diabetes Among Us, a one-hour documentary for The Discovery Channel; 22 shows of Amigos, a bilingual narrative series, broadcast nationally; and a segment on performance artist, El Vez, for a national show entitled, ColorVision.
As a writer, A.P. has adapted a short story and a number of novels, including Fausto's Road, based on the famous 1975 novel, The Road to Tamazunchale, by Ron Arias and The Right to Remain Silent, a psychological thriller by Charles Brandt. He has also written for production companies as well as continuing to focus on his own original screenplays.
Gonzalez, now a professor emeritus, has taught writing and directing at The School of Theater, Film and Television at UCLA where he was awarded UCLA's prestigious Distinguished Teaching Award in 2003. A.P. Gonzalez is a member of The Directors Guild of America; he is actively involved and served 6 years as the co-chair of the DGA's Latino Committee. In October 2005, he was named among the top 100 influential Latinos in the country by Hispanic Business Magazine as well as being nominated for a Rockefeller Media Arts Fellowship.
