Luis Valdez documentary opens in New York after Sundance wins

American Pachuco: The Legend of Luis Valdez is stepping into theaters with awards heat and a sold-out New York launch, even as The Odyssey crowds the weekend box office.

The documentary about Chicano theater and film pioneer Luis Valdez opens at Film Forum in New York, Deadline reported. Its Friday night screening, featuring Valdez, director David Alvarado and Lou Diamond Phillips in attendance, has sold out.

The timing is unusually bold for a specialty release. Deadline reported that The Odyssey is tracking a $117 million U.S. opening, making it the weekend’s heavyweight attraction.

American Pachuco arrives after taking two honors at Sundance: the Festival Favorite Award and the Audience Award for U.S. Documentary. It also won first place for the Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize.

A Chicano trailblazer gets the spotlight

The film centers on Valdez, the activist, playwright and director behind Zoot Suit and La Bamba. Deadline described the documentary as a portrait of an artist who made room for Chicano voices while facing political resistance and doubts from the entertainment business.

Valdez was born in Delano, California, in 1940. According to Deadline, he began writing plays while still in grammar school and had his first produced play while attending San Jose State University.

He later founded El Teatro Campesino, the theater group connected to the United Farm Workers. That work helped spark a wider Chicano theater movement, Deadline reported.

Zoot Suit opened in Los Angeles in 1978, and Valdez became the first Chicano director to have a play staged on Broadway the next year. He later wrote and directed the 1987 Ritchie Valens biopic La Bamba. Both Zoot Suit and La Bamba were chosen by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry.

Deadline noted that Valdez has described pachucos as Mexican-American “street cats with style.”

Where it goes next

Insignia Films is producing the rollout, with booking support from mTuckman Media, according to Deadline. The film expands next week to about a dozen Los Angeles-area theaters, including Laemmle and AMC locations, Maya Cinemas, Alamo Drafthouse and Vidiots.

Dolores Huerta, the labor leader and civil rights activist who co-founded the United Farm Workers, is expected to appear during the Los Angeles run, Deadline reported.

On July 31, the film moves into Bay Area theaters including San Francisco’s Roxie Theater, where the opening is sold out, as well as Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael, Rialto Elmwood Theater in Berkeley, Alamo Mountain View and Valley Fair in the South Bay and San Jose area.

Alvarado and Valdez are set for in-person talks during opening weekends in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Deadline reported that the documentary is booked in more than 20 cities into September, including Dallas, Austin, Houston, Chicago and Tucson.

The film is narrated by Edward James Olmos as El Pachuco, the master of ceremonies role he played in Zoot Suit. Its featured participants include Valdez, Phillips, Lupe Valdez, Cheech Marin, Linda Ronstadt, Taylor Hackford and Rose Portillo.

Other specialty openings

Deadline also reported several other new and repertory releases. Susan Carpenter’s 40 Watts From Nowhere, produced by Jack Black, opens at DCTV through Factory 25 and tells the story of KBLT, a 1990s Los Angeles pirate radio station run from Carpenter’s apartment.

Mischa Richter’s Summer Tour opens at New York’s IFC Center and Los Angeles’ Laemmle NuArt before nationwide event screenings July 23. The film follows a couple following Dead & Company’s final 2023 tour in a camper van.

Film Movement is releasing a 25th-anniversary 4K restoration of Kwak Jae-young’s My Sassy Girl at Anthology Film Archives during the New York Asian Film Festival. Kani Releasing is also bringing Jeong Jae-eun’s Take Care of My Cat back in 4K at Metrograph in New York.

This story draws on original reporting from Deadline.