Food for the Dead (and) La Pinta

Food for the Dead is a satirical comedy explores the Mexican “Day of the Dead” tradition of putting up an altar with food for the deceased. The story centers around a Mexican-American family’s reunion on Halloween night. Candela has been mourning her husband for nine years and is finally going to say goodbye to him and hello to her new life. Her children are very supportive of their new and improved mother. Unexpectedly, Jesus, her youngest son, brings home his best friend, an Anglo who doesn’t speak Spanish and keeps interrupting all their rituals. As the dinner progresses, Jesus reveals to his family that he is gay and all hell breaks loose—literally! Candela’s dead and very virile husband, Ruben, escapes from hell to beat the gay out of his son. Candela is so happy he has returned she regresses to being the submissive wife. However, she insists on knowing how Ruben died and what he did to end up in hell. Ruben finally confesses that he died of a heart attack while having sex with his cousin, Ramon. Candela, devastated, takes control of her life by accepting Jesus and sending Ruben back to hell.

La Pinta is a comedy about two Latina best friends. Truvi is a sociology major at UCLA and Deedee is a striving cosmetology student. When violence breaks out at a protest they attend, Deedee tries to rescue Truvi from the clutches of a policeman, only to discover that Truvi wanted to get arrested to make the 6 o’clock news. The two friends get arrested and quickly realize they have drifted apart.