A Lake Highlands neighbor recently received a grant from the Austin Film Society for his documentary.
Arturo, pictured on the right-hand side of the photo, with his family.
The AFS awarded grants to 14 different filmmakers at a reception on Sept 9. Among them, Lake Highlands neighbor Luis Arturo Tapia won the North Texas Pioneer Award grant for his work on the documentary film Mother of Buffalo.
His documentary follows one woman in Hong Kong as she protects the home of a water buffalo herd, and was filmed over five years. The grant, which supports underrepresented North Texas filmmakers, will allow Tapia to return to Hong Kong and complete filming.
“I am honored by the recognition and tremendously grateful for this generous support, which will allow me to return to Hong Kong later this year and next to complete filming on this project. It’s an exciting time to be a Texas filmmaker, and I’m proud our state is increasingly supportive of independent projects such as mine.”
Arturo lives two streets down from his parents off Skillman St with his wife, Xiaoli, and three kids. He is a graduate of Princeton University, where he majored in East Asian studies, and spent 20 years based in Shanghai and Hong Kong from 2002-2022. His work has appeared on BBC, The Olympic Channel, and ESPN.
Mother of Buffalo is expected to release in the fall of 2026. A trailer can be found here.
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Austin Wood is the Lake Highlands editor for The Advocate. He is a graduate of Texas Tech University, where he wrote for The Daily Toreador. A lifelong resident of Lake Highlands, Austin loves learning about the neighborhood’s history and hidden gems. You can email him at awood@advocatemag.com