“This is the fullest it’s been in years” Professor Laura Castaneda boasted admiringly. She had not seen RTVC140 this full since 5 semesters ago. And she cannot explain why. Maybe it has to do with her 20-plus years of experience in the field as a journalist, reporter, production assistant, assignment editor and now producer of the new documentary “The Devil’s Breath: Border Crossers Caught in San Diego’s Wildfires.”

City College has given way to several, now locally recognized TV reporters, such as weekend anchors Marco Serrano with Univision and Heather Myers with Fox 5 news. Univison’s own weekend weather anchor, and assistant director Susana Rivera Torres joins the class every Wednesday night to add more endowment to her resume. She hopes to gain more knowledge in writing for newscast and heard great things about Professor Castaneda and her class. “Six or seven people at Univison have taken classes with her, and they all said wonders about her”.

Also joining the class is Lawrence Gaskin, a communications major, who just received news of his acceptance into an internship program at KUSI. He is taking RTVC140 to learn how to “perfect newswriting”. When asked about the class he stated, “I think she (Castaneda) has got a handle of what this business is”.

Professor Castaneda’s latest project “The Devil’s Breath: Border Crossers Caught in San Diego’s Wildfires” is a half-hour documentary based on the 2007 San Diego Wildfires that rampaged across the San Diego County and took the lives of several undocumented people. “Many people are not aware of what happened” she states.

The show will preview on KPBS on Oct.8th at 9:00pm and will play at the Saville Theatre October 10th.