NO TRAILER: WHEN LATINO CINEMA REVOLTS

NO TRAILER is an online Latinx film platform streaming trailers for movies that don’t exist—imagined by Latinx writers, directors, and performers—and paired with conversations with filmmakers, artists, activists, and scholars.

The project draws inspiration from the legendary 1970s East L.A. Chicano performance art collective ASCO and their “No Movies” project, in which artists staged scenes from films that didn’t exist to confront the near-total absence of Latinos in Hollywood. NO TRAILER carries that spirit into the digital era. Instead of film stills, we create trailers—glimpses into the films Latinxs might be making if the industry actually allowed our stories to exist. The idea for NO TRAILER first took shape through a live sketch show whose sold-out run demonstrated how hungry audiences are for a radical reimagining of Latino representation in film and media. Now we are expanding the concept into an online cinema and cultural platform.

Before Donald Trump called Mexicans “criminals and rapists,” Hollywood had already spent decades portraying Latinos as criminals, narcos, and threats. Before I.C.E. raids disappeared people from our streets, the entertainment industry had already erased us from its screens. Latinos make up nearly one in five people in the United States but appear in less than 5% of Hollywood media—and when we do appear, it is often through stereotypes. This absence shapes how our communities are seen, understood, and treated in public life.

NO TRAILER asks a different question: what films would exist if we told our own stories? By imagining a parallel universe of cinema—one where our histories, humor, politics, and futures are fully alive—the platform reclaims the power of storytelling for Latinx creators and audiences.

NO TRAILER is led by organizing core comprised of Chicago Latinx entertainment veterans and upstarts including Dr. Ricardo Gamboa, Jessi Realz, Dr. Angelica Davila, and David Zepeda, among others. Working with filmmakers and actors from Chicago’s Latino creative community including local organizations like Antojitos Improv, Chicago Creatives Collective, Free Street Theater, and the Latina Comedy Festival, this group will oversee the production of trailers and interviews and launch of the NO TRAILER platform.

The NO TRAILER platform will launch Spring 2027 with its first series of trailers and interviews. This free platform will feature two major components: a cinemateca to stream trailers and a foro featuring interviews with Latinx filmmakers and media activist and scholars. Live events and screenings will occur alongside the launch to bring people together in radical co-presence and celebrate this radical endeavor. 

Funding from this campaign will support the first phase of the project including production and editing of the first set of fake trailers, artist and collaborator fees, recording conversations with filmmakers and scholars, and designing and launching the NO TRAILER online platform.

By supporting NO TRAILER, you are helping build a platform where Latinx creators reclaim the power to imagine—and share—the stories Hollywood has refused to tell.