We create heartfelt, artful media that celebrates people, purpose, creativity, and the magic in between.
This is Casa 0101 : Feature Documentary trailer
(In Production) For 25 years, Casa 0101 Theater in Los Angeles’ Boyle Heights has positively impacted lives through Latino storytelling and arts education. With founder Josefina López’s hit play, Real Women Have Curves making history by being adapted into Broadway's first Mexican-American musical, the theater celebrates its legacy while facing the challenges of establishing lasting roots in Boyle Heights.
Directed by: Michael Vargas & Moni Vargas :: Join us: info@friendswelove.com
ADORNMENT | ARTIFACT : TRANSCENDENCE
This film explores the idea of Transcendence through art-making featuring studio visits with LA-based artists Natou Fall, Kori Newkirk and Samira Idroos. Their works were included in the Adornment Artifact exhibits celebrating ancient Nubia through contemporary art, events, and conversations throughout five sites across the city including Transformative Arts and The Getty Villa. Curated by jill moniz and generously supported by The Vera R. Campbell Foundation.
Director / Producer / Camera: Moni Vargas | DP / Editor: Michael Vargas
A Rubén Ortiz-Torres Story | ARTBOUND | SEASON 13, EPISODE 6 | KCET
Since the early-80s, artist Rubén Ortiz-Torres has been working as a photographer, painter, sculptor, writer, filmmaker and video producer. Often associated with the development of a Mexican form of postmodernism, Ortiz-Torres's life is a collage that explores the social and aesthetic transformations related to cross-cultural exchange and globalization.
Directed by Michael Vargas & Moni Vargas | Produced by Moni Vargas
Emmy Awards Nomination, Arts, 2023
CON SAFOS | ARTBOUND | SEASON 12, EPISODE 1 | KCET
A pioneer of Chicano rock 'n' roll, Rubén Funkahuatl Guevara recounts his life in music, performance art, and activism — from his time as the lead singer of the doo-wop band The Apollo Brothers, his collaborations with Frank Zappa and Cheech Marin, and his crossover into the Chicano performance art world of the 1960s and 1970s — all of which shaped Mexican American culture. (Watch full documentary: PBSSoCal)
Directed by Michael Vargas & Moni Vargas | Produced by Moni Vargas | Edited by Michael Vargas
Emmy Awards Nomination, LA Color, 2022
Winner: 2 x National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards, 2022
Winner: 2 x Southern California Journalism Awards, 2022
120 SECONDS
cultural influencers sharE their passions and inner playbooks to life, love, and creativity
“The imagination is like a muscle and we need to work it out, we need to make it stronger to keep it healthy and to keep it expansive.” - Susu Attar, Artist
One of LA’s finest event promoters and DJ's on the 1's & 2's affectionately known to the world as @spinorita shares some great childhood memories about how an early love of getting close to the DJ booth paved the way for a career in music that has no signs of slowing down.
Writer & Director Roberta Munroe shines a light on toxic masculinity and applauds all the men in women working to eradicate it from our lives and culture.
The incredibly funny, beautiful and ever talented @sashamerci talks about something she became super passionate about after moving to LA and the lack of representation she faces by people trying to silence her culture.
Author, musician, playwright, activist & culture sculptor, Rubén “Funkahuatl” Guevara talks about writing his autobiography and how it’s kept his flame alive as human and a working artist.
Rebecca Gitana is a Transformational Guide who uses home healing as a means of cleansing the mind, body and spirit.
In order to want to see a change in any aspect or situation in life, you have to go out and do something about it.
Singer Daymé Arocena enjoys traveling around the world while sharing her Cuban music and reminds us to dream & make love part of your life.
Singer/Songwriter Nia Andrews describes the simple ways in which Stevie Wonder and a batch of chai tea helps her reconnect with her "why" keeping her grounded in a world in need of more human connections.
Anthony Valadez, a KCRW DJ, and Fuse TV personality talks about how his life has changed after adopting Smedley, a french bulldog responsible for bringing more sunshine, fun, and connection to his Venice Beach community.
Benjamin Lowder takes pleasure in transforming metal advertising signs into sculptures steeped in sacred geometry and shares thoughts on negative space and its effect on the repeating patterns of organic life from the subatomic to the galactic level.
No matter what side of the environmental debate you stand on, one thing we can all agree on is that she’s the only planet we’ve got. Have a listen as the ever-forward thinking Jaden Smith shares some of his ideas about how education, solar tech and gaining a passion about your environment just might hold the keys to creating long-lasting positive change.
OFF THE HOOK
OUR VISUALLY EXPLOSIVE WEB SERIES SHOWCASING SOME THE WORLD'S TOP STREET ARTISTS
Veteran street artist, Dan Witz describes the various techniques - both classical and digital - he implements in his upcoming solo exhibit, Moshpits, Human and Otherwise at the Jonathan LeVine Gallery.
On the eve of "Life Cycle," his third solo show at the Jonathan LeVine Gallery, Jeff Soto adds the finishing touches to this incredible mural and reflects on past influences, present themes and future plans.
The man, the myth, the legend...Doze Green. In his studio w/ Ian doing what they do best, painting and having fun. No interviews. No reasons. No justifications. Just a creative process.
AXIS
AN Immersive artistic experience showcasing the creative process in action
Artist and author, Yuri Shimojo, explains how her unconventional upbringing has influenced her many forms of expression throughout the years leading up to her current watercolor paintings.
Pop Art icon, Kenny Scharf shares ideas behind his stream of consciousness approach to mural painting as well as some new projects on the pipeline. The mural in the video was done in connection to his opening exhibition at the Anonymous Gallery in NYC.
Music pioneer Gilles Peterson takes us on an up close and personal ride through his 30 year career sharing humorous insights on his life and times as one of the most influential DJs in global jazz and dance music scene.
NYC's favorite creative powerhouse Mr. Bobbito Garcia, gets the spotlight treatment as he takes us a ride through some of his career highs, inspirations and a life changing moment in Africa.
Critically acclaimed and world renown artist, Jose James invites us to witness the Black Magic of his new record with an intimate studio session that reveals the many facets of his creative process.
Film director Albert Xavier recounts how his artistic background prepared him for filmmaking and the development of his latest release, Hermafrodita, which is the first Dominican film to be screened at the Cannes Film Festival.
Ellis Gallagher aka © Ellis G. takes us on a personal ride through his creative process and the defining moment that led him to his signature style of shadow-based outlines.
N'Dea Davenport tells us what contributed to her development as an artist from childhood to LA in the 80s, her signature style.
Limited to the subway ads at any given station, NYC's most controversial artist Poster Boy, cuts, splices and reworks these images into pieces of free public art full of social commentary and humor for commuters to enjoy.
“There is a deficit especially among women of color to look at ourselves as own seeds.”
- Tracy Perez, Storyteller