6 Must-See Movies at FICG in LA, the Guadalajara Film Festival’s Hollywood Takeover

Juanicas is an intimate portrait of Mexican immigrant family affected by mental illness. Using material shot over almost 10 years, filmmaker Karina Garcia Casanova documents her complex relationship with her mother and brother, both suffering from bipolar disorder. She starts filming when Juan, her brother returns to live in Canada after several years in Mexico. At first the camera provides a distance that helps them reconnect with each other, but soon old patterns returns. As her brother’s downward spiral unravels, the viewer is taken on a journey as heart-wrenching as it is illuminating

Based on Colombian cult writer Andrés Caicedo’s only completed novel, ¡Qué viva la música!’s fragmented, drug-infused story follows an adolescent scion of Cali’s upper classes who embarks on a hedonistic descent from her insulated ivory tower existence into the sweaty, salsa-dancing barrios. Much like the novel, the feature film adaptation features murder, suicide, sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll, but more importantly, salsa. As Caicedo’s heroine affirms her existence in the face of upper class ennui, the soundtrack to her descent becomes a veritable back catalog of Fania Records classics.

A transgender opera singer from the state of Guanajuato takes on persistent social stigmas and the disapproval of her own family to pursue her dream of self transformation. Mexico-based Argentine director Flavio Florencio follows Morganna from their first encounter in a Mexico City cantina all the way across the world to Thailand, where she undergoes gender reassignment surgery in hopes of finally finding a body fitting for her authentic self.

American filmmaker Michael Dwyer’s debut feature follows the story of Claudia, a young woman deported to Mexico after being convicted of credit card fraud in the United States. Sent to live on her estranged father’s ranch, Claudia has difficulty adapting to the way of life in a country she hardly knows. After falling in with a drug trafficker who promises to smuggle her back into the United States, Claudia finds herself caught up in a dangerous and complex web of betrayal and deception that will pit her own selfish needs against those of her family.

In this documentary, Spanish master genre director Álex de la Iglesia takes on one of contemporary soccer’s most consecrated players, mixing archival footage, interviews, and dramatic reenactments to paint a picture of a sometimes polemical figure known for his reticence in front of the cameras. From his humble beginnings in Argentina, to his growth defect and expensive hormonal treatment, de la Iglesia traces the career trajectory of one of the beautiful game’s true artists.

A young boy of humble origins begins a process of self-reflection after learning that he qualifies as a genius. His greatest concern? What to be when he grows up. Albert Einstein? Jim Morrison? Alan Turing? Along the way, he must deal with his not-so-genius family’s inability to understand his exceptional gifts.