Alejandra Vasquez

Four Mexican-American middle school boys in a Texas border town have developed an unusual obsession: Joseph Stalin. When their teacher tells them about the Texas State History Fair, they write a play about the Soviet dictator and his efforts to destroy all who opposed him. With cardboard props and fur hats purchased on the internet, the boys enter the competition as underdogs and leave home for the very first time.

A year in the life of an underdog competitive high school mariachi band in the Texas borderlands.

When the activist painter Judy Baca conceived The Great Wall of Los Angeles in 1975 as a monument to the history of indigenous peoples in California, she didn't realize that she was embarking on a 50-year journey that would employ 400 youth painters and amount to one of the largest murals on the planet.

When she returns to rural West Texas to document the effects of the boom-and-bust nature of the oil industry on her hometown, filmmaker Alejandra Vasquez unexpectedly captures the political transformation that takes place in her family over five years and two election cycles. An intimate portrait of place, of family and memory, of politics and economy, “When It’s Good, It’s Good,” centers around life in an oil-town called Denver City, Texas.

Folk Frontera is a magical-realist portrait of life in the borderlands. The film follows two fronteriza women as they struggle to find their place in the vast Chihuahuan Desert, a region whose culture is thousands of years old, but which is bisected by the U.S.-Mexico border.

When 15-year old Emilio Monreal is dragged to Mexico City after his mother's divorce, he finds a home among the city's emo scene. Little does he know that he'll soon play a pivotal role in the stranger-than-fiction punk vs. emo riots of 2008, where he'll battle in the streets for his right to exist.

Four Mexican-American middle school boys in a Texas border town have developed an unusual obsession: Joseph Stalin. When their teacher tells them about the Texas State History Fair, they write a play about the Soviet dictator and his efforts to destroy all who opposed him. With cardboard props and fur hats purchased on the internet, the boys enter the competition as underdogs and leave home for the very first time.

A year in the life of an underdog competitive high school mariachi band in the Texas borderlands.

A year in the life of an underdog competitive high school mariachi band in the Texas borderlands.

When the activist painter Judy Baca conceived The Great Wall of Los Angeles in 1975 as a monument to the history of indigenous peoples in California, she didn't realize that she was embarking on a 50-year journey that would employ 400 youth painters and amount to one of the largest murals on the planet.

When she returns to rural West Texas to document the effects of the boom-and-bust nature of the oil industry on her hometown, filmmaker Alejandra Vasquez unexpectedly captures the political transformation that takes place in her family over five years and two election cycles. An intimate portrait of place, of family and memory, of politics and economy, “When It’s Good, It’s Good,” centers around life in an oil-town called Denver City, Texas.

When she returns to rural West Texas to document the effects of the boom-and-bust nature of the oil industry on her hometown, filmmaker Alejandra Vasquez unexpectedly captures the political transformation that takes place in her family over five years and two election cycles. An intimate portrait of place, of family and memory, of politics and economy, “When It’s Good, It’s Good,” centers around life in an oil-town called Denver City, Texas.

Folk Frontera is a magical-realist portrait of life in the borderlands. The film follows two fronteriza women as they struggle to find their place in the vast Chihuahuan Desert, a region whose culture is thousands of years old, but which is bisected by the U.S.-Mexico border.

When 15-year old Emilio Monreal is dragged to Mexico City after his mother's divorce, he finds a home among the city's emo scene. Little does he know that he'll soon play a pivotal role in the stranger-than-fiction punk vs. emo riots of 2008, where he'll battle in the streets for his right to exist.