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Please note: this is an off-site, ticketed screening at the Palace Theatre in downtown Los Angeles. Tickets are available on the Los Angeles Conservancy website.
Mi Vida Loca
U.S./U.K., 1994
Set in Echo Park, Mi Vida Loca consists of several anecdotes about Latina teenagers who are “homegirls,” or girlfriends to gang members. The first story is about “Sad Girl” and “Mousie” whose friendship is tested when they both become pregnant by “Ernesto.” The brief second story is about Ernesto training the quasi-comic character “Whisper” to become a drug dealer. The third story is about “Giggles,” a symbol of female empowerment, who leaves prison after serving time for her now-deceased boyfriend and is now determined to leave the gang life behind for something better. The last story is a tender love story about Sad Girl’s sister “La Blue Eyes” who falls for a man in prison. Director Allison Anders’ film debuted at the Cannes Film Festival in 1993 and was released to acclaim in 1994, with critics applauding its realism. Anders worked with non-actors and Echo Park community members to create this realistic, difficult story about sisterhood and sacrifice, and it has since become a cult classic. Mi Vida Loca was nominated to the National Film Registry in 2023.
Note: This film has an R rating and includes scenes of graphic violence.
35mm, color, 92 min. Director: Allison Anders.
Print courtesy of the Allison Anders Collection at the UCLA Film & Television Archive.
