Looking back at SXSW 26, I’m glad there were so many Latinx titles (I counted 35 films with Latinx folks in front or behind the camera) – and that these films are continuing to screen across the country. Let me introduce you to two of them, Agridulce and Quince, that you should catch when they’re in theaters near you. These coming-of-age movies brilliantly capture the formative years of our lives with very different approaches.

Agridulce

Directed by Frank Pavich, the documentary Agridulce follows four students enrolled at Academia de Bachata, the world’s first school to study bachata, in Cabarete, Dominican Republic. Each student has their own unique story, but what ties them together is the music.

Music producer Benjamin de Menil opened the Academy in 2013 to provide free music classes for young adults and children as young as three years old. He was inspired by the students’ personalities and passion and reached out to Pavich to make a documentary about it. Even though he had never heard of bachata, Pavich was blown away by the footage de Menil sent him. To him, the small town of Cabarete felt timeless. You rarely see a screen in the students’ hands. They’re hanging out with their friends. They’re riding bikes. They’re writing in notebooks and holding instruments.

“The world that they live in is just so different than any world that I’ve ever known,” said Pavich. “I don’t live in the U.S. anymore, but when I come back to the U.S., I see every kid is constantly on their phone and just sort of in their own world. But over there, it’s not that, and part of that is possibly because of their experience in this music school, where they’re doing something tangible.”

Filming periodically for five years gave the filmmakers the space to capture genuine moments in the lives of the students and their families. While Agridulce centers around its subjects learning bachata, the documentary doesn’t feel like a disingenuous advertisement for the school. The school isn’t a savior. It’s an outlet. The scenes where the students are writing music and revealing their thoughts through their lyrics really shine, making me smile with them as they’re visibly having fun on stage.

But as with life, the good comes with the bad, with each of the film subjects facing their own hurdles. For example, there’s Edickson García Disla, who stands out thanks to his musical talent. He lives with his mother, but longs for his father to hear him perform. In the film, they take the long trek to his dad’s house to make it happen. Watching García’s dad suppress his emotions as he watches his son is beautiful, despite the family’s thorny history. And it shows how Agridulce lives up to its name, which translates as “bittersweet.”

“I think it even touches on how the school is shown in the film, where it’s not just unequivocally positive. You see these kids being pushed really hard, and sometimes you wonder, is this too much?” said de Menil. “In the filmmaking role, I felt that it was important to tell the story in its fullness and see the good and the bad, because nothing in life is unequivocally good.”

Agridulce shows a real, authentic view of four students growing up in the Dominican Republic and using music to guide them along the way.

There are three screenings of Agridulce on April 19, 20, and 21 at the Guadalajara International Film Festival. Details are on the film’s website at agridulce.com/screenings.

Quince

From the get-go, Quince heads straight to the gore. The opening scene shows best friends Ligia and Mayte standing side by side at their quinceañera, which quickly turns violent. But it was all a dream, or so we think.

Quince, directed by brothers Yossy and Jack Zagha, is a supernatural, body horror centered around these best friends who are planning their joint birthday party in Mexico City when outside influences disrupt their plans.

We feel the pressure to have a perfect party through Ligia, played by Greta Martí. She and Mayte come from lower-class families, but Ligia wants to project something different at her quince. So she befriends an awful rich girl, who bullied both friends in the past. Mayte, played by Macarena Oz, tries her hardest to help even as Ligia shuts her out and begins physically transforming to achieve her new ideal.

“The movie is about accepting the way you are in many ways: physically, emotionally, and also, socially,” said Jack.

Ligia’s supernatural transformation is reminiscent of the cult classics, Ginger Snaps and Jennifer’s Body. She becomes confident, yet her uncontrollable aggression destroys everything in her path, a gory metaphor for this rebellious phase. Which works, thanks to the lead actresses really capturing the weight and anxiety teens feel as they maneuver through the politics of high school. We all knew girls like this in school (if we weren’t them ourselves), and Quince captures the dynamics so well that watching it, I felt myself reverting back to that awkward and insecure time

“I think of the quinceañera as the perfect celebration. You prepare for years,” said Yossy. “Then the contrast with adolescence and how painful and scary it can be… made it appealing to start something that mixes the perfect quinceañera gone horribly wrong. So from there, I think there was a lot to explore.”

Quince will next screen on April 25 at the Calgary Underground Film Festival.