Director, Walter Dominguez
Walter Dominguez was born in Santa Paula, California in 1947. He is a second-generation Latino/Hispanic of Mexican and Spanish heritage. His family’s roots in California begin in 1904. Growing up in Pasadena, California he attended Pasadena public schools. He began acting in leading roles for the stage beginning in 1960, in Pasadena-area productions, including the lead acting role in The Nutcracker, performed at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium. He also attended acting classes and workshop productions at the Pasadena Playhouse. Attending 4,000-student John Muir High School, Walter became Student Body President in 1964, and he was active in numerous award-winning theatrical productions in the Drama department, performing in leading roles, including as the Wizard in a national tour of The Wizard of Oz in the summer of 1964, for which Walter was recognized by the National Children’s Theater Association for his outstanding work as a lead actor.
Also in 1964, Walter was recognized by the National Student Association at the NSA national convention for his outstanding leadership abilities, and he was honored at ceremonies in Bangor, Maine. In 1965, The Rockefeller Foundation recognized Walter’s outstanding academic and leadership accomplishments by awarding him a full tuition scholarship for four years of undergraduate studies at Occidental College in Los Angeles, California.
Graduating in 1969 from Occidental College, Walter received a B.A. in History – a long-time passion. And having minored in theater, he continued work as an actor and director. His leading role as “Jerry” in The Zoo Story won him acclaim and led to an invitation to test for the DGA-Producers Assistant Director Training Plan, into which he was accepted in 1970. He was also accepted into the Peace Corps, but chose to begin film and television production as an Assistant Director as a member of the Director’s Guild of America. He was only the second Latino to have graduated from the Director’s Guild-Producer program and to become a DGA member.
Walter worked on several major studio feature films as an Assistant Director, including Robert Wise’s, The Andromeda Strain, Stanley Kramer’s, Oklahoma Crude, and Frank Perry’s Play It As It Lays. Walter has remained a member in good standing continuously in the DGA since 1972. Walter also attended the University of Southern California School of Cinema Studies, doing graduate work in 1972, where he was recognized for his outstanding student films, and again in 1979 when he received the school’s most prestigious prize and grant money for graduate-level student films. Meanwhile, Walter continued working professionally in television and film production. In 1973 Walter married professional actress, Shelley Morrison.
In 1982, after meeting three influential Native American spiritual elders, Walter shifted to other work, so he could study Native American history and culture, and travel throughout the U.S. to participate in countless native rituals and ceremonies, and assisting ceremonial leaders. Meanwhile, in 1984 he began a successful practice in massage therapy and spiritual counseling. He planned and led a number of growth and support workshops for men in the 1990s. During this time, Walter also turned to fiction writing: researching and writing a project entitled: Blood Ties, about traditional Native Americans working inside the LA Police Department. Walter’s social activism has manifested in years of participating in LA city local issues. He has been awarded several commendations from the LA City Council since 1990 for tree planting projects, traffic improvements, and organizing volunteers to gather food & clothing and render support to National Guard troops, LAPD and LAFD during the LA Riots of 1992. From 1998 until 2007, Walter performed personal management work for his wife, Shelley Morrison, co-star of NBC’s hit, Will & Grace.
Walter returned to filmmaking in 2002 when he established his own independent production company, Chasing Light Pictures LLC to produce the feature-length documentary project: Weaving the Past: Journey of Discovery. Requiring years of extensive research and development and filming in Mexico and the U.S. southwest, Walter is proud to bring the story of his ancestors interwoven with largely unknown, but important history of Mexico and the U.S. to the public. Walter also produced two short documentaries, Full Circle: The Bronx Walk of Fame, and Around the Track, a documentary about the festivities surrounding the Kentucky Derby. He is also currently developing two other projects: Whitewashed Adobe: The Rise of Los Angeles, a history documentary television series for public television, and a feature film based on the life of Mexican revolutionary, Praxedis G. Guerrero.
Walter’s passion for history – particularly the history of Mexican people in the American Southwest – has also led him to organize in 2008 an ongoing oral history project centering on first-hand accounts by surviving pioneering seniors (and memories of their descendants) of the early history of the Mexican Methodist churches, schools and orphanages of Southern California and Arizona; as well as spearheading a historical photograph preservation and archiving project coordinated with Cal State University Northridge’s Urban Archives Center, and the La Plaza Historical Society & Archives in Los Angeles to conserve, digitize and catalog thousands of early Los Angeles Mexican Methodist photographs that document living conditions, health issues, economic and social aspects of Los Angeles’ and Southern California-Arizona area’s Mexican Americans and Mexican immigrants. Likewise, working in tandem with the special collections archivist at the Claremont School of Theology in Claremont, California, Walter has organized a volunteer effort to digitize thousands of historic photographs in their collection in order to put a selection of them online for public and scholarly access. Walter served as a founder and the first President of the Board of the Los Angeles United Methodist Museum of Social Justice at Olvera Street & Plaza de Los Angeles in downtown Los Angeles, dedicated to telling the story of the history of the diverse ethnic communities of Los Angeles and region, their struggles and achievements of social justice.