Quinceanera

Wash Westmoreland and Richard Glatzer’s tale follows teenage cousins struggling with love and sexuality in L.A.’s predominantly Latino Echo Park, while also weaving in stories of the hood’s gentrification and a home-owning gay couple not unlike the filmmakers themselves. The movie won a Grand Jury Prize and an Audience Award at Sundance this year, and though the duo — who moved to Echo Park five years ago — were thrilled, they were just happy not to have pissed off their neighbors. According to Westmoreland, ”We wanted to celebrate aspects of the neighborhood that gentrification was pushing out.”