Overview
- David Alvarado’s documentary on El Teatro Campesino founder Luis Valdez bowed in Sundance’s U.S. Documentary Competition and is seeking U.S. distribution.
- The team digitized about 80,000 feet of 16mm and 8mm film from UC Santa Barbara—roughly 30 terabytes—including rare César Chávez footage and early actos, with plans to post the material to the Internet Archive after release.
- Edward James Olmos narrates in character as a pachuco, providing a stylized guide instead of a neutral voiceover.
- Reviews highlight Valdez’s path from farmworker roots and union theater organizing to Zoot Suit’s Los Angeles success and Broadway backlash, followed by La Bamba’s box-office breakthrough.
- The film won the 2025 Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize for Film and is slated to air on PBS’s American Masters after its festival run.