Art can be defiant. It can be a form of resistance. And in this time of unprecedented national strife, art is a necessary form of both – particularly for our Latino comunidad. Few places have proved this more than here in our United States of America over the past few months. You don’t need a better example than Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl Halftime performance to see how Latinidad can control the zeitgeist. Thankfully, the same was also true for Latin films at 2026 Sundance Film Festival.
In the past few months, ICE has ravaged our domestic Latin community. Internationally, Trump is using tariffs to force Colombia, Brazil, and Mexico to cooperate on both drug enforcement and immigration. We could go on and on. But the point being, Sundance, the premier independent film festival, could not have happened at a more turbulent and more opportune time for our community.
Latina Media Co talked with Latin filmmakers, actors, and audiences throughout Sundance 2026 and asked about their thoughts on the current state of our community and how their art, in particular, was a form of resistance. Not surprisingly, they didn’t shy away from our questions.
American Pachuco Argues that We Belong
“I just feel strongly that right now, America’s in this place, where people are asking themselves again ‘Who belongs here in America?'” said David Alvarado, writer/director of American Pachuco: The Legend of Luis Valdez. “If anybody belongs in America, Chicanos belong here.”
The Legend of Luis Valdez is a documentary about the writer/director of La Bamba and Zoot Suit. Luis Valdez has been using art as a form of resistance for decades. From forming a theater troupe to confront unfair working conditions for farm workers alongside Caesar Chavez, to bringing the first-ever Chicano play to the bright lights of Broadway, Luis has made a career of using art as resistance.
“It totally is an act of defiance,” Alvarado told Latina Media Co exclusively moments before their Sundance premiere. “I mean, that’s what art is. It’s engaging the world and pushing back on the world around you in a way that makes a difference.”
All over the festival, we heard similar sentiments.
For the Daughter of Immigrants, Premiering The Musical Was Bittersweet
For Giselle Bonilla, the director of The Musical, it was a bittersweet experience. “My whole family is here. I’m the proud child of Mexican immigrants, and I am so grateful to have the privilege to premiere our first feature here at Sundance.”
Though her feature is a comedy, the heavy headlines of the moment were not lost on her. “I had like a full press day yesterday, and then at the end of the day, I found out that another person was murdered last night fighting and being resistant and protecting their communities,” said Bonilla in reference to the Alex Pretti shooting, which had occurred the day before her film’s premiere.
“Your voice is so strong. It’s important to be angry, but it’s also important not to let the rage consume you. Your existence is radical enough,” she added. “Because we were, I believe, we are not meant to be here. And I think you going out and being an artist or being a doctor, being whatever the hell you want to be and doing what you want to do is radical in itself.”
The Team Behind The Huntress Knows the Power of Art
“Of course, art is beauty, it’s entertaining,” said Adriana Paz, star of The Huntress, who spoke to us moments ahead of her film’s Sundance premiere. “But, it’s also a way to raise our voices, to talk about important matters. And cinema especially, I think it’s [a] powerful way to tell this kind of story of things that are hurting us, destroying our countries, our lives.”
“We are in a very weird, dark moment in the world, not just in Mexico or in the States,” she says and then adds, “Or maybe, I don’t know, maybe I’m naive, but maybe I think that through this, through the movies, people can see something different. Put themselves in someone else’s shoes, and try to understand other realities.”
For context, The Huntress is about a Juarez mother who takes justice into her own hands after the powers that be do nothing to stop the perpetual violence and killings of women. The film’s director Suzanne Andrews Correa, herself, is keenly aware of the film’s controversial topic. “This is definitely a defiant project. I think that it’s going to generate some controversy, and I think that it’s going to generate important conversations,” she tells us. “We need a more complex vision of the world.”
For his part, co-star Guillermo Alonso wants “For people to understand that just because everybody here is brown and this is a Spanish [language] film, doesn’t mean that these things don’t happen in LA, don’t happen in Vancouver, don’t happen in London. These problems happen anywhere that there is law enforcement, anywhere that there’s an unequal playing field between men and women, which is everywhere.”
Latin Films Win Sundance 2026
Sundance, and its audience, was certainly on board with art as a form of defiance and resistance. Not only did they agree with that sentiment, but they celebrated it. Sundance 2026 rewarded many of the Latin films that made their premiere in Park City.
The documentary American Pachuco: The Legend of Luis Valdez (brought to us by Latino Public Broadcasting) won both the Audience Award: U.S. Documentary and the coveted Festival Favorite Award – two of the biggest awards at Sundance.
The U.S. Grand Jury Prize (Dramatic) and the Audience Award (U.S. Dramatic) went to Josephine, written and directed by Beth de Araújo. The Chinese-Brazilian-American filmmaker not only earned two awards at Sundance, but her film commanded a seven-figure distribution deal.
The U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Documentary went to Nuisance Bear, a documentary co-directed by award-winning Venezuelan Canadian filmmaker Gabriela Osio Vanden. TheyDream, directed by William David Caballero, gives audiences an incredibly unique and visually refreshing look at a Puerto Rican family over two decades, and won the Special Jury Award for Creative Expression in the NEXT category.
We Will Not Be Silenced
Latinos belong in this country. Our art – be it on display at the Super Bowl or in a film festival tucked away in the Park City mountainside – is our culture. It is defiant, necessary, and historic. And damn it to hell, we will not be silenced.
Adriana Paz put it perfectly by saying, “We are not alone. I mean, even if you feel alone, we are not. And we have an inner power that we have to be in touch with. I mean, nothing can destroy the power of a community united. So we have to be united more than ever.”
Orale mama.
