MAQUILÁPOLIS
September 12, 2026
The Roxie Theater
3125 16th Street
San Francisco, CA
MAQUILÁPOLIS [city of factories]
Celebrating a 20-Year Legacy
A piercing look at globalization through the eyes of women workers in Tijuana’s assembly plants, the maquiladoras.
2006 marked the premiere of an innovative, impact-driven documentary that uplifted the work of women on the U.S. – Mexico border. These factory workers sustained a globalized economy that changed both nations and rapidly changed their lives. Vicky Funari and Sergio De La Torre’s (2001 Creative Capital Awardees) groundbreaking film MAQUILÁPOLIS prioritized artful imagemaking and co-creative, community-based filmmaking. In the process, the promotoras whose stories are told in the film found new pathways for their activism and for telling their own stories. Twenty years later, we are celebrating the legacy of MAQUILÁPOLIS with screenings, events, and talks throughout 2026.
Sergio De La Torre
Maquilápolis
Sergio De La Torre (2001 Creative Capital Awardee) has worked with and documented the manifold ways by which citizens reinvent themselves in the city they inhabit, as well as site-specific strategies they deploy to move in and out of modernity. Sergio’s works invoke collaborations with his subjects and invite both intimate and critical reflections on topics related to housing, immigration and labor.
Vicky Funari
Maquilápolis
Vicky Funari (2001 Creative Capital Awardee) is a documentary filmmaker, editor, and teacher. She produced, directed, and edited the documentaries MAQUILÁPOLIS (2006) and Paulina (1998); and she directed and edited Live Nude Girls Unite! (2000). These critically acclaimed films have screened in preeminent film festivals, including Sundance, Locarno, Havana, Rotterdam, SXSW, and Tribeca.