From an Alien Love Story to Major Lazer in Cuba: These Are the Latino Movies Playing Los Cabos Film Festival

A six-year-old girl (the remarkable Brooklynn Prince) and her two best friends (played by newcomers Valeria Cotto and Christopher Rivera) run wild on the grounds of a week-by-week motel complex on the edge of Orlando’s Disney World. Meanwhile, her mother (talented novice Bria Vinaite) desperately tries to cajole the motel manager (an ever-surprising Willem Dafoe) to turn a blind eye to the way she pays the rent. A film about but not for kids, Baker’s depiction of childhood on the margins has fierce energy, tenderness, and great beauty. After the ingenuity of his iPhone-shot 2015 breakout Tangerine, Baker reasserts his commitment to 35mm film with sun-blasted images that evoke a young girl’s vision of adventure and endurance beyond heartbreak.

Emilia escapes from a hospital to travel through Baja California with her friend Violeta. She’s been getting treatment for a while and it’s clear this may well be her final chance to enjoy her life to the fullest—and truly, nothing is quite as life-affirming as the landscapes and vistas in this Baja road trip. On their way, the two free-spirited best friends stumble onto a man claiming to have come from another planet. As a powerful storm threatens to make landfall and cause utter destruction, this inscrutable young man (played by Club de Cuervos‘ Luis Gerardo Mendez) keeps saying he’s come to Earth in order to witness the end of humanity. Emilia and Violeta think he is crazy, or perhaps just disoriented, but something makes them slowly start to believe him. And soon, concepts of love (which he decries) and humanity start seeming to be more weighted the more this end of the world nonsense starts to feel more real.

A being runs through Mexico City, taking hold of different bodies to get to Luisa, a young woman they’ve fallen in love with. These shapeshifting encounters remind us that you may yet find a deep connection with someone else, even in cities where you can be lonely while surrounded by millions of others. Gabriela Mariño’s sci-fi tinged drama, shot in black and white, offers a riff on what modern-day romance can be all about.

Cardenche singing, born within the backdrop akin to slavery of the cotton laborers of Durango in the 19th century, is a tradition hanging on by a thread. To Die in the Desert is a close look at this music and the men which keep it alive.

Ana has a vague memory of her sister’s death near their family home in Tijuana. When she returns for work, her encounter with Silvia, the tenant who now lives in the house and wants to buy it, forces Ana to confront the violent events of her past.

A violent and alcoholic gold prospector lives with his wife near the border. She is convinced that a demon is stalking them, and he thinks his wife is cheating on him. Blinded by jealousy, he decides to seek both his wife’s lover and the demon to strike them down.

Paul, an American composer, and Daniel, a Mexican documentary filmmaker meet in Real de Catorce. Their encounter makes them face supernatural phenomena which seem to unearth a past buried in the desolation of the desert.

2015 was a landmark year for electronic dancehall superband Major Lazer. After topping the EDM charts with their international hit single “Lean On,” the band continued its world tour, mounting elaborate shows not only in traditional destinations, but also in more challenging locations around the globe. Fueled by a dream of “making the world smaller by making the party bigger,” the group furthered their mission of peace through music with a free concert in the unlikeliest of venues — downtown Havana, Cuba, where no American band at the height of their fame had previously been allowed to perform. Without knowing whether anyone in the country even knew who they were, they hoped to reach a potential crowd of 50,000. After half a million exuberant fans showed up, music history was made on a massive scale. In what began as a concert film intended to document this groundbreaking event, director Austin Peters turns the camera on a burgeoning youth movement, fusing exhilarating performance footage with authentic stories of cultural and political shifts in a country on the precipice of change.

The directors of Mala Mala are back with their sophomore documentary effort. Dina, an outspoken and eccentric 49-year-old in suburban Philadelphia, invites her fiancé Scott, a Walmart door greeter, to move in with her. Having grown up neurologically diverse in a world blind to the value of their experience, the two are head-over-heels for one another, but shacking up poses a new challenge. Scott freezes when it comes to physical intimacy, and Dina, a Kardashians fanatic, wants nothing more than to share with Scott all she’s learned about sensual desire from books, TV shows, and her previous marriage. Her increasingly creative forays to draw Scott close keep hitting roadblocks—exposing anxieties, insecurities, and communication snafus while they strive to reconcile their conflicting approaches to romance and intimacy.

Amelia wants nothing more in the world than to stop time. She’s got leukemia and she’s sick of taking her medication and losing her hair. In her search to make her wish come true, Amelia meets Malachi, an angel who lives inside her cuckoo clock that’ll take her on a wild adventure through the Fields of time where she’ll meet two faires, Aqui and Ahora (“Here” and “Now”). As she travels to this fantasy universe, she’ll have to come face to face with her fears and desires as she battled No-Time and attempts to get back home.

Marina (Daniela Vega), the transgender heroine of A Fantastic Woman, is beautiful, enigmatic, and plunged into a precarious situation after her boyfriend dies unexpectedly in her company. Fifty-seven-year-old divorcé Orlando (Francisco Reyes) wakes in the middle of the night, suffers an aneurism, and falls down some stairs, sustaining injuries that will come to haunt Marina after she takes him to the hospital and attempts to slip away before authorities and family members begin prying. Marina knows she’s regarded with suspicion for her youth, class, and, above all, gender status. She expects to gain little from Orlando’s demise, but the viciousness of Orlando’s son, the cold-heartedness of Orlando’s ex-wife, and the intrusiveness of a detective from the Sexual Offenses Investigation Unit force Marina to not only clear her name, but also to demand the very thing no one seems willing to give her: respect.

Following the now infamous 1973 “Battle of the Sexes” tennis match between Billy Jean King (Emma Stone) and Bobby Riggs (Steve Carell), this touching tale of groundbreaking feminist history also plunges us deep into the personal stories behind those two sports titans. And yes, that means showing King struggling with her own sexuality while wanting to fight openly for equal pay. Beyond Stone and Carrell, this playful film is stacked with A-list talent, including Sarah Silverman, Fred Armisen, Bill Pullman, and even Natalie Morales as Salvadoran Grand Slam champion Rosie Casals.