John J. Valadez is a Peabody Award-winning filmmaker who has written, directed and produced many nationally broadcast documentary films.  He has tackled such diverse subjects as the false imprisonment of a leader of the Black Panther Party, Latino poets in New York City, gang kids in Chicago, the history of affirmative action, segregation in America's schools, Latinos in World War II, the evolution of Chicano music, Latino civil rights, and the genocide of Native Americans in the Southwest.  His latest film, debuting on PBS in 2021, is American Exile.