Nelson Antonio Denis

NBC News noted that "Make America Great Again! was shot in the diverse neighborhood of Washington Heights in New York City. Denis intentionally incorporated local landmarks like the United Palace Theater, the Iwo Jima Memorial, the Morris-Jumel Mansion, the Audubon Ballroom (where Malcolm X was shot), and the George Washington Bridge into the film, to make his characters’ surroundings part of their story."

In Spring 2019, Make America Great Again was commercially distributed in Puerto Rico. While playing in movie theatres throughout the island, the film received major coverage from the island's largest newspapers.

In New York City, the film received additional newspaper and radio coverage from the Latino press, and was invited to the Chelsea Film Festival, for a world premiere on October 20, 2018.

His article on the status of Latino publishing in the U.S. was the second most-read editorial in Publishers Weekly for the year of 2017.

In March 2016, El Nuevo Dia, the largest newspaper in Puerto Rico, reported on the 25 best-selling books in Puerto Rico over the past year (2015-2016). War Against All Puerto Ricans topped the entire list.

Denis wrote the screenplay adaptation of his own book War Against All Puerto Ricans (Nation Books, 2015). According to The Daily News a feature film of War Against All Puerto Ricans was being planned from this screenplay and several actors, including Luís Guzmán, were interested in the project.

From 2015 onward, Denis's journalism has focused on the economic crisis in Puerto Rico, and the historical and political underpinnings of this crisis. His editorials in this area have appeared in the New York Daily News, New York Times, The Nation, Orlando Sentinel, and Truthout. Denis has also appeared on ABC TV, C-SPAN, New York 1, MSNBC,Al Jazeera TV, and Democracy Now! to discuss the history and current fiscal crisis of Puerto Rico.

Denis is the author of War Against All Puerto Ricans, which was published on April 7, 2015. The book is based on recently declassified FBI files, congressional testimony, oral histories, personal interviews and eyewitness accounts. It covers the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party Revolts of the 1950s, a series of coordinated armed protests for the independence of Puerto Rico led by the president of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party, Don Pedro Albizu Campos.

Denis also wrote and directed the feature film Vote For Me! which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. It also won the Best Picture Award at the 2009 Staten Island Film Festival, and a Feature Film Award at the 2009 Orlando Hispanic Film Festival.

Nelson Antonio Denis is an attorney, author, film director, and former representative to the New York State Assembly. From 1997 through 2000, Denis represented New York's 68th Assembly district, which includes the East Harlem and Spanish Harlem neighborhoods, both highly populated by Latinos.

In 1996 Denis won a seat in the New York State Assembly, where he served as a Democrat from 1997 to 2000, and developed a reputation as a reformer. He was also a New York State Democratic District Leader from 1995 to 2001.

In 1995, as deputy director of Yucahu Inc., an East Harlem community group, Denis opposed the merger of Chemical Bank and Chase Manhattan due to inadequate service to the community.

In 1994, Denis entered into a controversial relationship with the Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation. While jogging along the FDR Drive, he ran into a group of 500 Latin Kings and recruited them into his campaign for the State Assembly.

Starring Malik Yoba (New York Undercover, Soul Food, Cool Runnings); Chi Chi Salazar (Scarface (1983 film), Carlito's Way); Ricardo Barber (The Feast of the Goat); Vote For Me! was a comedy about a 75-year-old Puerto Rican super who runs for the United States Congress.

Long Island Weekly reported that, "With the daily political narrative being defined within a truth-is-stranger-than-fiction framework, filmmaker Nelson Denis has taken a satirical crack at addressing these strange times we currently live in. The former New York State Assemblyman and acclaimed author of War Against All Puerto Ricans recently shot Make America Great Again!, a feature film that takes a look at the trials and travails of an undocumented immigrant from the Dominican Republic, played by Angel “Chi Chi” Salazar (Scarface (1983 film)."

Denis went on to graduate from Harvard College in 1977, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Government, and then a Juris Doctor (J.D.) from Yale Law School in 1980. He then went to work as an attorney with the New York law firm of Donovan, Leisure, Newton & Irvine.

Amongst the reviews for the book, the New York Times wrote: "Scathing insights into Washington's response to Albizu Campos's nationalist party and its violent revolution in 1950 that still has broad implications...his perspective of largely overlooked history could not be more timely."