Genre
Synopsis
In the competitive world of high school mariachi, the musicians from the South Texas borderlands reign supreme. Under the guidance of Coach Abel Acuña, the teenage captains of Edinburg North High School’s acclaimed team must turn a shoestring budget and diverse crew of inexperienced musicians into state champions.
Bio
Alejandra Vasquez is a Mexican-American director and producer. Her directorial feature-length debut GOING VARSITY IN MARIACHI, co-directed with Sam Osborn, premiered at Sundance 2023 where it won the Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Award for the U.S. Documentary Competition. The film screened at over 30 festivals and released on Netflix. Alejandra’s short works include “Folk Frontera,” a surrealist film about the exchange of culture and music in the borderlands of Far West Texas that had a broadcast premiere in the PBS special The Latino Experience, won the SXSW Jury Award for Texas Shorts, and is taught in San Diego public schools. Her latest short about the boom-and-bust oil cycles in her rural Texas hometown, “When It’s Good, It’s Good,” a co-production with Latino Public Broadcasting, premiered on POV Shorts and is streaming on the Criterion Channel. She cut her teeth on the producing side as part of the teams behind the acclaimed features MATANGI/MAYA/M.I.A. (2018), US KIDS (2020), and PLAN C (2023).
Her work has been supported by the Ford Foundation, Catapult, Field of Vision, SFFILM, ITVS, and the International Women’s Media Foundation. Alejandra lives in Los Angeles where she is developing projects across documentary and fiction.
Screening History
Sundance Film Festival 2023
True/False Film Festival 2023
SXSW 2023
AFI Film Fest 2023
Guadalajara International Film Festival 2023
Awards History
Sundance 2023 - U.S. Documentary Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Award
Ford Foundation Grant JustFilms Grant - Recipient
Impact Partners - Financiers
Credits
Producer - Julia Pontecorvo
Producer - James Lawler
Producer - Luis A. Miranda Jr.
Cinematographer - Michael Crommett
Composer - Camilo Lara