Official Selections: Latinx Film Festival

Congratulations to our accepted filmmakers!
Films are listed in alphabetical order, index to the left.
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A Street Named Mercado

Short Documentary
**West Coast Premiere, Los Angeles Premiere**
In the heart of Brooklyn, New York, where salsa once poured out of bodegas and dance halls until the early morning hours, a street sign goes up bearing the name of a man who changed the sound of a generation. “A Street Named Mercado (The Man Behind the Music)“ is a short documentary capturing the ceremony and legacy surrounding the renaming of a Brooklyn street in honor of Ralph Mercado, the legendary music industry mogul who rose from humble beginnings in the borough to become one of the most powerful figures in Latin music history.
Born and raised in Brooklyn, Mercado built an empire from the ground up, founding RMM Records, the premier salsa label of the 1980s and '90s, and managing a constellation of Latin superstars including Celia Cruz, Marc Anthony, Tito Puente, and La India. But before the Madison Square Garden sellouts and the Grammy stages, there was Brooklyn, the streets, the culture, and the community that shaped him.
The film interweaves footage from the street dedication ceremony with intimate testimonials from family members, longtime friends, and fellow music industry figures who knew Mercado not just as a businessman, but as a son of the borough. Neighbors and community elders recall a young Ralph who was always hustling, always listening, always dreaming bigger than the block he stood on.
Through on the street interviews, this short documentary paints a vivid portrait of the era Mercado helped define, a time when Latin music was fighting for mainstream recognition, and one Brooklyn kid refused to let it be ignored. Former associates reflect on what it meant to have someone in their corner who understood their culture, spoke their language, and believed in the power of their music with an almost evangelical conviction.
The ceremony itself becomes a moment of collective memory. Families gather beneath the new street sign, a modest green placard that somehow carries the weight of an entire musical movement.
For the community, it is more than a tribute to one man. It is an acknowledgment that the beats and rhythms born in their neighborhoods echoed around the world.
“A Street Named Mercado (The Man Behind The Music)” is a love letter to Brooklyn, to Latin music, and to the unsung architects of culture who shape our lives long before anyone thinks to put their name on a street.
Director: Vergi Rodriguez
Producer: Vergi Rodriguez, Damaris Mercado, Adam Taylor
Writer: Vergi Rodriguez
Cast: Damaris Mercado, Ralphie Mercado Jr, Daper Dan, Marta Muñoz, John Cruz, Raul Moris, Debbie Mercado, Lincoln Restler, Ron Bernberg
Cinematographer: Lonnie Edwards Jr
Editor: Lonnie Edwards Jr
Website: https://mercadoproject.org
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/MercadoProject/
https://www.instagram.com/raceofyourown/

**American Dreams**

**Documentary Short**
**Los Angeles Premiere**
Framed by today’s immigration debate, a son traces his family’s journey from undocumented newcomers to American citizens, revealing how those labeled a threat have always been a gift to the nation.
Director: **Miguel Lepe Jr**
Producer: **Miguel Lepe Jr & Giselle Doyle**
Writer: **Miguel Lepe Jr**
Cast: **Miguel Lepe Sr, Mercedes Lepe, Azucena Lepe, Sonia Martin, and Miguel Lepe Jr**
Cinematographer: **Andrew Degner**
Editor: **Carolina Silva**
Composer: **Omar Monzon**
Instagram: **https://www.instagram.com/leafcutter_productions/**

Bird of Four Hundred Voices

Bird of Four Hundred Voices: A Mexican American Memoir of Music and Belonging
Feature Documentary
**Los Angeles Premiere**

A profoundly personal story of a musician who leads his students on a journey of cultural affirmation during a four decade span that placed their community into the bullseye of America’s crisis of democracy. The film features archival footage that captures the growth of community youth from teen to adulthood, and features a Who’s Who of culturally influential collaborators that include Linda Ronstadt, Los Lobos, Lalo Guerrero, Taj Mahal, Jackson Browne, Daniel Valdez, Ry Cooder, Flaco Jimenez, Preservation Hall, and others. A film by James Hall.
Director: James Hall
Producer: Eugene Rodriguez
Website: https://www.loscenzontles.com/bofv/

This film is a musical Journey of memories, family, and beautiful music. Music of family tradition and cultural identity The kind that moves your soul and reminds you where you come from. Music is life and life is music. It is a memory of the past and a reminder of our legacy. This film sings its own song. Si Se Puede...”
—Daniel Valdez, El Teatro Campesino

An inspiring tale of the transformative power of culture."
—Linda Ronstadt

"A son of so much: activism, history, art, pride, California, Mexico, the world . . . [the] story is a fandango for the soul."
—Gustavo Arellano,
L.A. Times columnist and author of Taco USA

Official Selections: Latinx Film Festival

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