Parity Pipeline

Parity Pipeline

Going Varsity in Mariachi

Directed by Alejandra Vasquez and Sam Osborn

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.

  • ABOUT
  • BIO
  • SCREENINGS
  • AWARDS
  • CREDITS
  • GALLERY

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 filmmaker raised between rural Texas and the San Francisco Bay Area. Her award-winning films spotlight youth, art & culture, and convey a cinematic sense of place in rural and borderland environments. Her feature directorial debut, GOING VARSITY IN MARIACHI (co-directed with Sam Osborn), premiered at Sundance 2023, won the Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Award in the U.S. Documentary Competition, and is now streaming on Netflix. 


Her short films include “Folk Frontera” (Independent Lens), winner of Best Texas Short at SXSW; “Baca” (LA Times Short Docs), commissioned by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA); and “When It’s Good, It’s Good” (POV Shorts), a co-production with Latino Public Broadcasting currently streaming on the Criterion Channel.


Alejandra began her career as a producer, contributing to acclaimed documentaries such as MATANGI/MAYA/M.I.A. (2018), US KIDS (2020), PLAN C (2023), and most recently co-produced NIGHT IS NOT ETERNAL (2024). She also produced the short docs "Stalin Boys" (SXSW Winner, NYT OpDocs) and exec produced "A New Inferno" (SXSW, NYT Op Docs).


Now based in Los Angeles, Alejandra co-founded Masa Films with her partner Sam Osborn, where they are developing, producing, and directing nonfiction and scripted projects. They are prepping their first scripted project TEEN AGE RIOT with support from the Film Independent Screenwriting Lab and Antigravity Academy. She's also writing HALF ORANGE with support from the SFFILM Rainin Grant. She was awarded the Concordia Fellowship in 2026.



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