Ronstadt, Los Cenzontles documentary comes to the big screen
The award-winning documentary “Linda and the Mockingbirds” — featuring the legendary Linda Ronstadt and the Bay Area’s own Los Cenzontles — is finally set to get its theatrical debut.
The film hits the big screen Sunday at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco. But it’s a one-shot deal, not an extended run. The documentary follows Ronstadt, fellow musician Jackson Browne and young performers from the Richmond-based Los Cenzontles Cultural Arts Academy (Cenzontles is Spanish for mockingbirds, thus the film’s title) on a bus ride to the small town of Banámichi in Sonora, Mexico, which is where Ronstadt’s father was born.
The film also addresses the acclaimed singer’s long friendship with Eugene Rodriguez, “a third-generation Mexican American and musician who founded Los Cenzontles 30 years prior with the mission to reconnect working-class kids with the dignity and beauty of their ancestral music and culture,” according to a news release.
“Linda and the Mockingbirds” originally premiered in October on streaming services while most in-person movie theaters were still shuttered due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Roxie screening is a co-production of Los Cenzontles Cultural Arts Academy and McEvoy Foundation for the Arts in San Francisco. McEvoy is also hosting a related exhibition, “Next to You,” celebrating “the joy, vitality, and healing power of the performing arts through partnerships and events with dynamic Bay Area cultural organizations,” according to a news release. The exhibit continues through Dec. 4; mcevoyarts.org.
Details: “Mockingbirds” screens 2 p.m. Sunday; 3116 16th St., San Francisco; $10 general admission, $9 seniors, free for children 11 and under; roxie.com.