Film Forum
AMERICAN PACHUCO: THE LEGEND OF LUIS VALDEZ
David Alvarado · 2026 · USA · 93 min
View at Film ForumGroundbreaking Chicano activist/director Luis Valdez mounted agitprop performances on flatbed trucks in the 1960s with his El Teatro Campesino, mobilizing California farmworkers to secure their first union contract; authored Zoot Suit, the first Chicano play on Broadway, and directed the 1981 screen adaptation, starring Edward James Olmos; and wrote and directed the highest-grossing Hollywood Latino movie in history, the Ritchie Valens biopic, LA BAMBA. AMERICAN PACHUCO (Valdez defines pachucos as Mexican-American “street cats with style”) playfully tracks his extraordinary life and career, with rarely seen footage from his subversive theater and television work, and interviews with Valdez; actors Olmos (who narrates the film in his ZOOT SUIT pachuco voice), Lou Diamond Phillips, and Cheech Marin; labor activist Dolores Huerta; and Linda Ronstadt.
Upcoming Showtimes
Past showtimes▾
Saturday, July 25
- 6:45 PM
- 4:40 PM
- 12:15 PM
Friday, July 24
- 6:45 PMIntroIntroduced by Sound Designer & Mixer Peter Albrechtsen
- 4:40 PM
- 12:15 PM
Thursday, July 23
- 8:50 PM
- 6:40 PM
- 4:30 PM
- 2:20 PM
- 12:15 PM
Wednesday, July 22
- 9:10 PM
- 4:30 PM
- 2:20 PM
- 12:15 PM
Tuesday, July 21
- 8:50 PM
- 6:40 PM
- 4:30 PM
- 2:20 PM
- 12:15 PM
Monday, July 20
- 6:40 PMPost-Screening Conversation with David Alvarado, Lemon Anderson, and Amalia Olivia Rojas, Co-Presented by The Action Lab
- 4:30 PM
- 2:20 PM
- 12:15 PM
Sunday, July 19
- 7:15 PM
- 4:30 PM
- 2:20 PM
- 12:15 PM
Saturday, July 18
- 7:15 PMQ&AQ&A with Subject Luis Valdez and Filmmaker David Alvarado
- 4:30 PMQ&AQ&A with Subject Luis Valdez and Filmmaker David Alvarado, Co-Presented by Borderlands Cinematic Arts
- 2:20 PM
- 12:15 PM
Friday, July 17
- 6:45 PMQ&AQ&A with Subject Luis Valdez, Actor Lou Diamond Phillips, and Filmmaker David Alvarado, Co-Presented by Cinema Tropical and The Gotham Film & Media Institute
- 4:30 PM
- 2:20 PM
- 12:15 PM