The 2024 Sundance Film Festival kicks off Thursday in Park City, Utah. The lineup includes a promising group of new films by or featuring Latino talent, both emerging and established faces. From a Latin music heavy hitter taking on serious acting to a famous Chilean heartthrob hanging out in Oakland, here are the 7 movies playing at the festival that we are most excited about.
If you are not making the trip to Park City, tickets are available for select titles that will have online screenings.
Some of our favorite indie darlings — directors, actors and documentarians — return to this year’s edition of the annual film showcase in Park City, Utah.
‘Freaky Tales’
Following an outstanding year thanks to the popular apocalyptic TV series “The Last of Us,†Chilean-born actor Pedro Pascal stars in this fantastical project set in 1987 Oakland composed of four interconnected stories following Bay Area underdogs facing peculiar challenges (such as skinheads and rap battles). From the co-directors of “Captain Marvel,†Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, the festival describes this new vision as a film that “imaginatively fuses styles and cinematic influences with giddy abandon.†Pascal’s co-stars include Ben Mendelsohn, Normani and up-and-coming Mexican American actor Mike Infante.
‘Frida’
Sought-after editor Carla Gutiérrez (“RBG,†“Cesar’s Last Fast,†“Chavelaâ€) takes on directorial duties for the first time with a documentary about revered Mexican painter Frida Kahlo. Gutiérrez’s take on the convention-deifying artist promises to bring us closer into her personal and creative facets in the woman’s own words taken from multiple sources and using animated segments in addition to a myriad of archival materials. One can’t help but be intrigued by the daring impulse to pursue a new consideration of a figure who seems to have been so thoroughly scrutinized in numerous previous literary and cinematic works.
‘Igualada’
In 2021, Black Colombian activist Francia Márquez decided to take her fight against racial and economic injustice from her rural community to the national stage by running for president. Director Juan MejÃa Botero documents the inner workings of her grassroots campaign and the power of her message. The title refers to someone who imprudently ignores established social hierarchies, a term that Márquez has reclaimed to demand better on behalf of the masses. Tackling some of Latin America’s thorniest issues, MejÃa Botero previously made the feature “Death by a Thousand Cuts,†which looked at tensions on the border between the Dominican Republic and Haiti due to illegal charcoal trade.
‘In the Summers’
Long gone are the days of his racy “Atrévete-te-te†verses, as René Pérez Joglar, better known as Residente, from the now-defunct urban duo Calle 13, plays Vicente, a troubled father in Colombian American director Alessandra Lacorazza Samudio’s debut feature. Drawing from personal experiences within her own family, the filmmaker traces the time that the ill-equipped parent and his two daughters spent together in Las Cruces, N.M., over several years. Sasha Calle, who came to mainstream recognition last year as Supergirl via “The Flashâ€; Lio Mehiel, the lead in the indie film “Muttâ€; and Leslie Grace, from “In the Heights,†are part of the cast.
‘Ponyboi’
Expanding and transforming their 2019 award-winning short film with the same title, Salvadoran American actor and filmmaker River Gallo (“Love, Victorâ€) wrote and stars in this portrait of a singular character set over a single day as an intersex sex worker in New Jersey who gets in trouble with the mob after a drug deal gone wrong. Dylan O’Brien, of “The Maze Runner†and “Teen Wolf†fame, co-stars. Behind the camera is Colombian-born director Esteban Arango, whose first feature “Blast Beat,†about two spunky Colombian brothers who migrate to the U.S. as teenagers, also premiered at Sundance in 2020.
‘Sujo’
Mexican directors Fernanda Valadez and Astrid Rondero return to Sundance with their latest hard-hitting drama looking into the indelible wounds of the drug-related violence that plagues the country. Valadez debuted her first feature “Identifying Features†(Sin señas particulares), co-written with Rondero, at the festival in 2020. That stunning drama about a mother searching for her missing son went on to sweep the Ariel Awards (Mexico’s equivalent to the Academy Awards) with nine awards including best picture and earned her a Gotham Award. “Sujo†centers on the young son of a cartel’s sicario, as he grapples with the possibility of following in his father’s blood-soaked footsteps.
‘Your Monster’
In the wake of being fired from the “Scream†horror movie franchise over social media posts on the Palestinian situation, Mexican actor Melissa Barrera will debut a new project this week: writer-director Caroline Lindy’s first feature, which has been described as a romantic comedy with genre elements. The “In the Heights†and “Vida†star plays the lead role of Laura Franco, a meek actor whose life is in shambles when she discovers there’s a charming “monster†(Tommy Dewey) living in her closet. The peculiar premise is likely to expand on the range Barrera has shown in varied roles over the last few years.
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