Virginia Film Festival

After school at Edinburg North High School, the halls are filled with the sounds of blaring trumpets, strumming guitarróns, and feverishly strung violins. This is the world of competitive scholastic mariachi, where high school musicians from the South Texas borderlands reign supreme. Filmmakers Alejandra Vasquez and Sam Osborn focus their documentary on Edinburg North’s Mariachi Oro, a relatively new team whose sights are solely set on the state championship.

Coach Abel Acuña guides the varsity band members through an intense competition season and a pivotal year as teenagers. Going Varsity in Mariachi is a nostalgic coming-of-age story featuring a fresh take on the familiar tale of underdogs determined to make their mark in a contest that may have counted them out too soon.

Discussion with producer Julia Pontecorvo. Moderated by David Phillips (Awards Daily).