by Rebecca Romani
March 21, 2026
Now in its 33rd year, the San Diego Latino Film Festival is celebrating community and diversity in the San Diego Chicano community and among US Latinos in general. This year’s festival includes tributes to Chicano icons such as Luis Valdez as well as collectives such as ASCO, and rising music groups in the border region.
For SDLF director, Ethan Van Thillo, the festival this year has had a very important role to play in the midst of anti-immigrant sentiment, ICE raids, and government saber rattling.
“We’re a country of all kinds of immigrants,” said Van Thillo. “And it’s good to talk about the issues and see our broader connections and (to) celebrate culture and representation.”
As the festival heads into its closing day, there is still a lot to look forward to on screens spread across several venues. Many of the films are San Diego or US premieres.
This year’s artist Tribute Award honors the visionary theater and film director, Luis Valdez. Valdez got his start in the fields of central California, working as a farm worker as Cesar Chavez and Delores Huerta were coming up as labor organizers. Valdez started the groundbreaking Teatro Campesino, dealing in staged stories grounded in Chicano storytelling and working-class realities.
Valdez brought his perceptive and sensitive storytelling to bear in the works he later created on stage and screen, making it very clear that Chicano and working-class representation were part of the Californian and, therefore, American experience.
This year’s SDLFF brings Valdez’ amazing trajectory as an artist who brought major change to representation in Hollywood, in a newly released documentary by David Alvarado, American Pachuco: The Legend of Luis Valdez. (5/21, AMC, 5/22 SWC).
In addition, two of Valdez’s most iconic films, La Bamba and Zoot Suit (3/22), which broke new ground by covering some major events in Chicano cultural history and boldly initiated a shift in representation will screen at the festival
Day Five (Sunday)
At the Mission Valley AMC
Sunday is the last day of the SDLFF, but there are still significant films to come.
The tribute to Luis Valdez continues with Zoot Suit– Based on real events surrounding a murder in the barrios of Los Angeles in the 1940s, the film is like an early who’s who of Chicano theatre and film. Written and directed by Luis Valdez, who also wrote the play the film was based on, Zoot Suit stars Daniel Valdez and Edward James Olmos, with music by Lalo Guerrero, known as the father of Chicano music.
Papa x Dos is a mildly charming film from Argentina, but Soy Frankelda might be a more interesting choice. Mexico’s first stop motion feature is a darker look at the power of imagination.
Several shorts programs are definitely worth viewing. Hecho en USA takes an intimate look at Latino life in the US, from music to immigration, factory work to summer jobs. ¡Para Toda La Familia! features thoughtful stories on relationships with grandparents, experiences as a new immigrant, and life between multiple worlds.
At the Digital Gym:
ASCO: Without Permission, plays again. The genre bending documentary is about as inventive as its subject, the Chicano art collective ASCO. The documentary looks at what made ASCO so extraordinary as they created work around the Vietnam war, racism and more.
Martina’s Search, from Brazil, looks back at Argentina’s dictatorship and a grandmother’s search for her grandson However at 75, Martina is running a race against time and Alzheimer’s.
Al Halcón from Mexico also looks promising. A retired luchadora turned taquero has to put his mask back on to defend his city when a drug kingpin kidnaps his son.
If you missed certain films you were interested in, keep an eye on the Digital Gym programming. Many films from the SDLFF often return as part of the programming in the months to come.
For more information on tickets, times, and events, go to SDLFF.
