Coming of age during an era of great change

PARK CITY, Utah — Wash Westmoreland and Richard Glatzer moved to Waterloo Street in Echo Park about five years ago, when real estate was reasonable and the working-class Latino area seemed on the verge of gentrification -- a great thing for a pair of filmmakers just moving in, a potentially disastrous development for the many immigrant families scratching to hold on.

The couple knew next to nothing about \o7quinceaneras\f7, the elaborate rites of passage for 15-year-old girls that are very much like groomless weddings. But they understood that something momentous was going on next door when they saw young couples practicing the courtly waltz that is part of the ritual. The neighbors, Jose and Maria Campos, knew the men were handy with cameras and asked them to photograph their daughter's ceremony and party.

What Westmoreland and Glatzer got was the inspiration for "Quinceanera," which will have its premiere Monday afternoon at the Sundance Film Festival. What Waterloo Street got was a starring role in a heartfelt story about -- as the filmmakers put it -- "what happens when teenage sexuality, age-old rituals and real-estate prices collide."

The film stars unknowns Emily Rios, a 16-year-old senior at West Covina High School, as Magdalena, the \o7quinceanera \f7of the title. A very tough Jesse Garcia plays her gay cousin, Carlos. (Garcia is also in Edward James Olmos' upcoming HBO film, "Walkout," about the 1968 Latino-power student movement in L.A.) The story centers on what happens when both cousins are kicked out of their homes -- Magdalena's preacher father explodes when she refuses to admit having sex even though she is pregnant; Carlos has committed a sin that becomes obvious as the story evolves. They are taken in by a kindly old great-uncle, played by Chalo Gonzales, who rents a cottage behind a home that has just been bought by an upwardly mobile gay couple, played by David W. Ross and Jason L. Wood.

In a refreshingly transgressive way, the gay men are the nominal villains of the piece. "We felt we could get away with that," said Glatzer, smiling. "Some of what they say [in the movie], we have been guilty of saying. We moved onto this block and housing was really cheap, and now everyone goes on about 'Oooh, what a great investment, and the neighborhood has so improved,' and it's really kind of Realtor-ese for a kind of racist take: We're booting the people who have lived here for so long."