Low And Slow – San Antonio Lowriders (1991)
Music video intro and end credits sequence (05:18)
Michael Mehl, Producer/Director
Copyright Michael Mehl 1991

Produced and directed by Michael Mehl, Low And Slow is a one-hour documentary of San Antonio’s lowrider culture, an art form that evolved from the barrio for the barrio. Not having had a formal education in the arts, San Antonio lowriders developed their craft using basic tools and materials available to them. Most were auto mechanics, professional and amateur, therefore their cars and bicycles were their main form of artistic expression. As impressive as some of the cars get to be, the documentary is not about the cars, it’s about the people that created the cars.

Initial interviews with festival participants at the Rosedale Park Lowrider Festival in San Antonio –organized by Centro Cultural Aztlan in April of 1991– were followed up with in-depth interviews of a select group of lowriders at their workshops.

The interviews reflect the personal philosophies and commitments of the various lowriders –family, car clubs, work ethic, public perceptions– spanning several generations of involvement with the art form.

The show’s introduction sequence is a short music video with a dancer in the role of a lowrider queen performing for a group of lowrider families with their cars.

Low And Slow had its premiere public screening on October 3, 1991, at the El Parian Marketplace in San Antonio’s West Side. The broadcast premiere was on October 5, 1991 at 9 pm on KLRN TV, San Antonio’s Public Television affiliate.

Low And Slow has been broadcast nationwide on the Public Television Network, and featured in film festivals and public institutions around the world since 1991.

Michael Mehl, Producer/Director/Director Of Photography
Steve Henry, Associate Producer
Ann Kinser, Production Coordinator/Makeup/Wardrobe
Diane Henry, Production Assistant
Enrique Toussaint, Musical Sound Track
Kathy Reding, Post Production Manager
John Grossenbacher, Graphics
Jaime Luna (KVDA TV 60), Second Camera
Adan Garza (KVDA TV 60), Video Transfers
Randy Allee, Audio Transfers
Deanne Cox, Lowrider Queen Dancer
Co-produced by The Highlight Zone, KLRN TV, and KVDA TV 60
Charles Vaughn, KLRN TV Executive Producer
Araceli de Leon, KVDA TV 60 Executive Producer
Dagoberto Patlan, 2021 Digital Transfer/Color-Audio Corrections
Special Thanks to Centro Cultural Aztlan and Ramon Sanchez y Vazquez,
Albert Martinez, Freddy Solis, Frankie Squiabro,
Victor Stewart, George Flores, George and Ermelinda Guzman,
Julio Angulo, Joe Vazquez, Jay Johnson,
Fernando Fernandez, Amancio Treviño, and Jay Estrada