This Friday the winner of both the Sundance Dramatic Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award, Quinceanera, will be coming to theaters.
In Wash Westmoreland and Richard Glatzer’s coming-of-age drama, Magdalena (Emily Rios) is the daughter of a Mexican-American family living in Echo Park, Los Angeles. While dreaming of the day she celebrates her fifteenth birthday with the traditional rite of passage known as “quinceanera”), she learns she is pregnant. She seeks refuge with a great-great uncle and gay cousin who are also outcasts, but the unlikely friends face a crisis that threatens their way of life.
A real-life quinceanera was precisely what drew the directors to their first Latino-themed project.
Their next-door neighbors in Echo Park asked them to take pictures for a quinceanera and the two men were amazed by the elaborate preparations — including waltzing practice for the girl and her friends in the backyard weeks in advance.
“They approached it with an extreme amount of respect,” said Rios. “I think they portrayed our traditions and our culture in such a realistic way.”
See the trailer.
Below: A mural in Echo Park depicting a quinceanera.
We had no idea that this award-winning film would be opening so soon when only couple of weeks ago we created these fun gift tees for a quinceanera and her damas:
[tags]film, movies, quinceanera, latino, latina, coming of age, debutante, echo park, culture, sundance, sundance film festival, hispanic, mexican-american, mexican, chicano, quince, sweet 15[/tags]
