Quinceañera (film)
Encyclopedia
Quinceañera is a 2006
2006 in film
- Highest-grossing films :Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top-grossing films that were first released in the United States in 2006...

 American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...

 film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

 written and directed by Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland. It was released as Echo Park, LA in UK. Set in Echo Park, Los Angeles
Echo Park, Los Angeles, California
Echo Park is a hilly neighborhood in Los Angeles, California, northwest of Downtown Los Angeles and southeast of Hollywood.-History:At the end of the 19th century, when the hills were still covered with native vegetation, a horse-drawn streetcar line served the dirt road that is now Echo Park Avenue...

, the film follows the lives of two young Mexican American
Mexican American
Mexican Americans are Americans of Mexican descent. As of July 2009, Mexican Americans make up 10.3% of the United States' population with over 31,689,000 Americans listed as of Mexican ancestry. Mexican Americans comprise 66% of all Hispanics and Latinos in the United States...

 cousins who become estranged from their families: Magdalena
Magdalene (given name)
Magdalene, Magdalen, or Magdalena is a female name used in many countries including Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Romania, Germany, Greece, Poland, Spain, Scandinavia, Slovakia and Slovenia and may refer to:...

 because of her unwed teenage pregnancy
Teenage pregnancy
Teenage pregnancy is a pregnancy of a female under the age of 20 when the pregnancy ends. It generally refers to a female who is unmarried and usually refers to an unplanned pregnancy...

  and Carlos because of his homosexuality
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...

. The third issue entered upon by the film is the gentrification
Gentrification
Gentrification and urban gentrification refer to the changes that result when wealthier people acquire or rent property in low income and working class communities. Urban gentrification is associated with movement. Consequent to gentrification, the average income increases and average family size...

 of a populous district of Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

, and the resultant culture clash.

The film is spoken in the mixture of English and Spanish ("Spanglish
Spanglish
.Spanglish refers to the blend of Spanish and English, in the speech of people who speak parts of two languages, or whose normal language is different from that of the country where they live. The Hispanic population of the United States and the British population in Argentina use varieties of...

") used by bilingual people who switch easily from one tongue to another; some of the humor is best appreciated by bilingual viewers.

Plot

As Magdalena's (Emily Rios) 15th birthday approaches, her working-class family prepares for the important Quinceañera
Quinceañera
Quinceañera , sometimes called "Fiesta de quince años", "Fiesta de Quinceañera", "Quince años" or simply "quince", is the celebration of a girl's fifteenth birthday in parts of Latin America and elsewhere in communities of immigrants from Latin America...

, a lavish coming-of-age celebration. To help with expenses Magdalena is forced to wear a hand-me-down party dress and abandon her dream of arriving in a Hummer
Hummer
Hummer was a brand of trucks and SUVs, first marketed in 1992 when AM General began selling a civilian version of the M998 Humvee. In 1998, General Motors purchased the brand name and marketed three vehicles: the original Hummer H1, based on the Humvee; and the H2 and H3 models that were...

 limousine
Limousine
A limousine is a luxury sedan or saloon car, especially one with a lengthened wheelbase or driven by a chauffeur. The chassis of a limousine may have been extended by the manufacturer or by an independent coachbuilder. These are called "stretch" limousines and are traditionally black or white....

. But when her father discovers she is pregnant and refuses to believe the incredible truth — she is still a virgin — Magdalena moves in with her elderly Uncle Tomas (Chalo González) and black sheep cousin Carlos (Jesse Garcia). Her newfound family is soon put to the test when an unexpected crisis threatens to tear them apart, and Magdalena learns what it truly means to come of age.

Exhibition and responses

The film was first shown at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival
2006 Sundance Film Festival
The 2006 Sundance Film Festival was held from 19 January to 29 January 2006. It was held in Park City, Utah with screenings in Salt Lake City, Utah; Ogden, Utah; and the Sundance Resort. It was the 22nd iteration of the Sundance Film Festival, and the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the...

, where it won both the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award in the 'Independent Film Competition: Dramatic' category. It was selected to play in the 2006 Berlin Film Festival. It was distributed in the US by Sony Pictures Classics
Sony Pictures Classics
Sony Pictures Classics is an art-house film division of Sony Pictures Entertainment founded in December 1991 that distributes, produces and acquires specialty films from the United States and around the world. Its co-presidents are Michael Barker and Tom Bernard...

.

Cast

  • Emily Rios
    Emily Rios
    Emily Clara Rios is an American actress and model.Rios, a Mexican American, was born in Los Angeles, California. She was raised as a Jehovah's Witness in the city of El Monte, California. Rios was discovered while shopping in an area shopping mall. She has appeared in the short For Them and...

     — Magdalena
  • Jesus Castanos-Chima — Ernesto
  • Jesse Garcia
    Jesse Garcia
    Jesse Garcia is an American actor.Garcia starred in the award-winning film Quinceañera, written and directed by Wash Westmoreland and Richard Glatzer with executive producer Todd Haynes, which won both the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival in the Dramatic...

     — Carlos
  • Alicia Sixtos — Eileen
  • J.R. Cruz — Herman
  • Chalo Gonzalez — Tio Tomas
  • David W. Ross
    David W. Ross
    Born in rural England, David W. Ross moved to London at the age of 17 and sought work as a film extra. His photo was spotted by Ian Levine, a boy band producer, and Ross was signed to A&M Records U.K., as one of the four members of Bad Boys Inc...

     — Gary
  • Jason L. Wood — James
  • Rebecca Lopez - Wendy

Review

  • On his MySpace.com page, Jesse Garcia (Carlos) wrote: "Quinceañera is a look at what happens when teenage sexuality, age-old rituals, and real-estate prices collide. It is a reinvention of Kitchen Sink drama, fueled by the racial, class, and sexual tensions of a Latino neighborhood in transition."
  • In www.slantmagazine.com Ed. Gonzalez wrote (16/O3/2006): "Quinceañera is too jejune and precious in spots to ever earn comparisons to the films of Ken Loach
    Ken Loach
    Kenneth "Ken" Loach is a Palme D'Or winning English film and television director.He is known for his naturalistic, social realist directing style and for his socialist beliefs, which are evident in his film treatment of social issues such as homelessness , labour rights and child abuse at the...

      or Mike Leigh
    Mike Leigh
    Michael "Mike" Leigh, OBE is a British writer and director of film and theatre. He studied theatre at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and studied further at the Camberwell School of Art and the Central School of Art and Design. He began as a theatre director and playwright in the mid 1960s...

    , but there is a lyricism to the film's carefree swathes of incident from the lives of its 3 main characters. And Ross and Garcia achieve an intimate chemistry rarely seen on a film."

External links

Quinceañera is a 2006
2006 in film
- Highest-grossing films :Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top-grossing films that were first released in the United States in 2006...

 American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...

 film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

 written and directed by Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland. It was released as Echo Park, LA in UK. Set in Echo Park, Los Angeles
Echo Park, Los Angeles, California
Echo Park is a hilly neighborhood in Los Angeles, California, northwest of Downtown Los Angeles and southeast of Hollywood.-History:At the end of the 19th century, when the hills were still covered with native vegetation, a horse-drawn streetcar line served the dirt road that is now Echo Park Avenue...

, the film follows the lives of two young Mexican American
Mexican American
Mexican Americans are Americans of Mexican descent. As of July 2009, Mexican Americans make up 10.3% of the United States' population with over 31,689,000 Americans listed as of Mexican ancestry. Mexican Americans comprise 66% of all Hispanics and Latinos in the United States...

 cousins who become estranged from their families: Magdalena
Magdalene (given name)
Magdalene, Magdalen, or Magdalena is a female name used in many countries including Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Romania, Germany, Greece, Poland, Spain, Scandinavia, Slovakia and Slovenia and may refer to:...

 because of her unwed teenage pregnancy
Teenage pregnancy
Teenage pregnancy is a pregnancy of a female under the age of 20 when the pregnancy ends. It generally refers to a female who is unmarried and usually refers to an unplanned pregnancy...

  and Carlos because of his homosexuality
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...

. The third issue entered upon by the film is the gentrification
Gentrification
Gentrification and urban gentrification refer to the changes that result when wealthier people acquire or rent property in low income and working class communities. Urban gentrification is associated with movement. Consequent to gentrification, the average income increases and average family size...

 of a populous district of Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

, and the resultant culture clash.

The film is spoken in the mixture of English and Spanish ("Spanglish
Spanglish
.Spanglish refers to the blend of Spanish and English, in the speech of people who speak parts of two languages, or whose normal language is different from that of the country where they live. The Hispanic population of the United States and the British population in Argentina use varieties of...

") used by bilingual people who switch easily from one tongue to another; some of the humor is best appreciated by bilingual viewers.

Plot

As Magdalena's (Emily Rios) 15th birthday approaches, her working-class family prepares for the important Quinceañera
Quinceañera
Quinceañera , sometimes called "Fiesta de quince años", "Fiesta de Quinceañera", "Quince años" or simply "quince", is the celebration of a girl's fifteenth birthday in parts of Latin America and elsewhere in communities of immigrants from Latin America...

, a lavish coming-of-age celebration. To help with expenses Magdalena is forced to wear a hand-me-down party dress and abandon her dream of arriving in a Hummer
Hummer
Hummer was a brand of trucks and SUVs, first marketed in 1992 when AM General began selling a civilian version of the M998 Humvee. In 1998, General Motors purchased the brand name and marketed three vehicles: the original Hummer H1, based on the Humvee; and the H2 and H3 models that were...

 limousine
Limousine
A limousine is a luxury sedan or saloon car, especially one with a lengthened wheelbase or driven by a chauffeur. The chassis of a limousine may have been extended by the manufacturer or by an independent coachbuilder. These are called "stretch" limousines and are traditionally black or white....

. But when her father discovers she is pregnant and refuses to believe the incredible truth — she is still a virgin — Magdalena moves in with her elderly Uncle Tomas (Chalo González) and black sheep cousin Carlos (Jesse Garcia). Her newfound family is soon put to the test when an unexpected crisis threatens to tear them apart, and Magdalena learns what it truly means to come of age.

Exhibition and responses

The film was first shown at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival
2006 Sundance Film Festival
The 2006 Sundance Film Festival was held from 19 January to 29 January 2006. It was held in Park City, Utah with screenings in Salt Lake City, Utah; Ogden, Utah; and the Sundance Resort. It was the 22nd iteration of the Sundance Film Festival, and the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the...

, where it won both the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award in the 'Independent Film Competition: Dramatic' category. It was selected to play in the 2006 Berlin Film Festival. It was distributed in the US by Sony Pictures Classics
Sony Pictures Classics
Sony Pictures Classics is an art-house film division of Sony Pictures Entertainment founded in December 1991 that distributes, produces and acquires specialty films from the United States and around the world. Its co-presidents are Michael Barker and Tom Bernard...

.

Cast

  • Emily Rios
    Emily Rios
    Emily Clara Rios is an American actress and model.Rios, a Mexican American, was born in Los Angeles, California. She was raised as a Jehovah's Witness in the city of El Monte, California. Rios was discovered while shopping in an area shopping mall. She has appeared in the short For Them and...

     — Magdalena
  • Jesus Castanos-Chima — Ernesto
  • Jesse Garcia
    Jesse Garcia
    Jesse Garcia is an American actor.Garcia starred in the award-winning film Quinceañera, written and directed by Wash Westmoreland and Richard Glatzer with executive producer Todd Haynes, which won both the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival in the Dramatic...

     — Carlos
  • Alicia Sixtos — Eileen
  • J.R. Cruz — Herman
  • Chalo Gonzalez — Tio Tomas
  • David W. Ross
    David W. Ross
    Born in rural England, David W. Ross moved to London at the age of 17 and sought work as a film extra. His photo was spotted by Ian Levine, a boy band producer, and Ross was signed to A&M Records U.K., as one of the four members of Bad Boys Inc...

     — Gary
  • Jason L. Wood — James
  • Rebecca Lopez - Wendy

Review

  • On his MySpace.com page, Jesse Garcia (Carlos) wrote: "Quinceañera is a look at what happens when teenage sexuality, age-old rituals, and real-estate prices collide. It is a reinvention of Kitchen Sink drama, fueled by the racial, class, and sexual tensions of a Latino neighborhood in transition."
  • In www.slantmagazine.com Ed. Gonzalez wrote (16/O3/2006): "Quinceañera is too jejune and precious in spots to ever earn comparisons to the films of Ken Loach
    Ken Loach
    Kenneth "Ken" Loach is a Palme D'Or winning English film and television director.He is known for his naturalistic, social realist directing style and for his socialist beliefs, which are evident in his film treatment of social issues such as homelessness , labour rights and child abuse at the...

      or Mike Leigh
    Mike Leigh
    Michael "Mike" Leigh, OBE is a British writer and director of film and theatre. He studied theatre at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and studied further at the Camberwell School of Art and the Central School of Art and Design. He began as a theatre director and playwright in the mid 1960s...

    , but there is a lyricism to the film's carefree swathes of incident from the lives of its 3 main characters. And Ross and Garcia achieve an intimate chemistry rarely seen on a film."

External links

Quinceañera is a 2006
2006 in film
- Highest-grossing films :Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top-grossing films that were first released in the United States in 2006...

 American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...

 film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

 written and directed by Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland. It was released as Echo Park, LA in UK. Set in Echo Park, Los Angeles
Echo Park, Los Angeles, California
Echo Park is a hilly neighborhood in Los Angeles, California, northwest of Downtown Los Angeles and southeast of Hollywood.-History:At the end of the 19th century, when the hills were still covered with native vegetation, a horse-drawn streetcar line served the dirt road that is now Echo Park Avenue...

, the film follows the lives of two young Mexican American
Mexican American
Mexican Americans are Americans of Mexican descent. As of July 2009, Mexican Americans make up 10.3% of the United States' population with over 31,689,000 Americans listed as of Mexican ancestry. Mexican Americans comprise 66% of all Hispanics and Latinos in the United States...

 cousins who become estranged from their families: Magdalena
Magdalene (given name)
Magdalene, Magdalen, or Magdalena is a female name used in many countries including Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Romania, Germany, Greece, Poland, Spain, Scandinavia, Slovakia and Slovenia and may refer to:...

 because of her unwed teenage pregnancy
Teenage pregnancy
Teenage pregnancy is a pregnancy of a female under the age of 20 when the pregnancy ends. It generally refers to a female who is unmarried and usually refers to an unplanned pregnancy...

  and Carlos because of his homosexuality
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...

. The third issue entered upon by the film is the gentrification
Gentrification
Gentrification and urban gentrification refer to the changes that result when wealthier people acquire or rent property in low income and working class communities. Urban gentrification is associated with movement. Consequent to gentrification, the average income increases and average family size...

 of a populous district of Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

, and the resultant culture clash.

The film is spoken in the mixture of English and Spanish ("Spanglish
Spanglish
.Spanglish refers to the blend of Spanish and English, in the speech of people who speak parts of two languages, or whose normal language is different from that of the country where they live. The Hispanic population of the United States and the British population in Argentina use varieties of...

") used by bilingual people who switch easily from one tongue to another; some of the humor is best appreciated by bilingual viewers.

Plot

As Magdalena's (Emily Rios) 15th birthday approaches, her working-class family prepares for the important Quinceañera
Quinceañera
Quinceañera , sometimes called "Fiesta de quince años", "Fiesta de Quinceañera", "Quince años" or simply "quince", is the celebration of a girl's fifteenth birthday in parts of Latin America and elsewhere in communities of immigrants from Latin America...

, a lavish coming-of-age celebration. To help with expenses Magdalena is forced to wear a hand-me-down party dress and abandon her dream of arriving in a Hummer
Hummer
Hummer was a brand of trucks and SUVs, first marketed in 1992 when AM General began selling a civilian version of the M998 Humvee. In 1998, General Motors purchased the brand name and marketed three vehicles: the original Hummer H1, based on the Humvee; and the H2 and H3 models that were...

 limousine
Limousine
A limousine is a luxury sedan or saloon car, especially one with a lengthened wheelbase or driven by a chauffeur. The chassis of a limousine may have been extended by the manufacturer or by an independent coachbuilder. These are called "stretch" limousines and are traditionally black or white....

. But when her father discovers she is pregnant and refuses to believe the incredible truth — she is still a virgin — Magdalena moves in with her elderly Uncle Tomas (Chalo González) and black sheep cousin Carlos (Jesse Garcia). Her newfound family is soon put to the test when an unexpected crisis threatens to tear them apart, and Magdalena learns what it truly means to come of age.

Exhibition and responses

The film was first shown at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival
2006 Sundance Film Festival
The 2006 Sundance Film Festival was held from 19 January to 29 January 2006. It was held in Park City, Utah with screenings in Salt Lake City, Utah; Ogden, Utah; and the Sundance Resort. It was the 22nd iteration of the Sundance Film Festival, and the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the...

, where it won both the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award in the 'Independent Film Competition: Dramatic' category. It was selected to play in the 2006 Berlin Film Festival. It was distributed in the US by Sony Pictures Classics
Sony Pictures Classics
Sony Pictures Classics is an art-house film division of Sony Pictures Entertainment founded in December 1991 that distributes, produces and acquires specialty films from the United States and around the world. Its co-presidents are Michael Barker and Tom Bernard...

.

Cast

  • Emily Rios
    Emily Rios
    Emily Clara Rios is an American actress and model.Rios, a Mexican American, was born in Los Angeles, California. She was raised as a Jehovah's Witness in the city of El Monte, California. Rios was discovered while shopping in an area shopping mall. She has appeared in the short For Them and...

     — Magdalena
  • Jesus Castanos-Chima — Ernesto
  • Jesse Garcia
    Jesse Garcia
    Jesse Garcia is an American actor.Garcia starred in the award-winning film Quinceañera, written and directed by Wash Westmoreland and Richard Glatzer with executive producer Todd Haynes, which won both the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival in the Dramatic...

     — Carlos
  • Alicia Sixtos — Eileen
  • J.R. Cruz — Herman
  • Chalo Gonzalez — Tio Tomas
  • David W. Ross
    David W. Ross
    Born in rural England, David W. Ross moved to London at the age of 17 and sought work as a film extra. His photo was spotted by Ian Levine, a boy band producer, and Ross was signed to A&M Records U.K., as one of the four members of Bad Boys Inc...

     — Gary
  • Jason L. Wood — James
  • Rebecca Lopez - Wendy

Review

  • On his MySpace.com page, Jesse Garcia (Carlos) wrote: "Quinceañera is a look at what happens when teenage sexuality, age-old rituals, and real-estate prices collide. It is a reinvention of Kitchen Sink drama, fueled by the racial, class, and sexual tensions of a Latino neighborhood in transition."
  • In www.slantmagazine.com Ed. Gonzalez wrote (16/O3/2006): "Quinceañera is too jejune and precious in spots to ever earn comparisons to the films of Ken Loach
    Ken Loach
    Kenneth "Ken" Loach is a Palme D'Or winning English film and television director.He is known for his naturalistic, social realist directing style and for his socialist beliefs, which are evident in his film treatment of social issues such as homelessness , labour rights and child abuse at the...

      or Mike Leigh
    Mike Leigh
    Michael "Mike" Leigh, OBE is a British writer and director of film and theatre. He studied theatre at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and studied further at the Camberwell School of Art and the Central School of Art and Design. He began as a theatre director and playwright in the mid 1960s...

    , but there is a lyricism to the film's carefree swathes of incident from the lives of its 3 main characters. And Ross and Garcia achieve an intimate chemistry rarely seen on a film."

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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