“Red, White, Black and Blue,” which screens at Idyllwild CinemaFest 2013, is first a sports story that follows a traditional arc of inner city youth winning on the field and in their own lives, despite the odds stacked against them. But it goes beyond the playing fields and also chronicles the challenges these South Los…

Michael Jaime Becerra, associate professor of creative writing at University of California, Riverside, said a sense of place and trust in his characters are the keys to his writing success. Becerra is himself shaped by the place where he grew up, El Monte in Los Angeles’ San Gabriel Valley, and his writing is a product…