Summertime

Summertime

Premiering at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, Summertime is a vibrant, poetic mosaic of Los Angeles seen through the voices of its youth. Directed by Carlos López Estrada (Blindspotting), the film is a dynamic love letter to the city’s rhythms, frustrations, and dreams—told through the interwoven stories of twenty-five young Angelenos connected by poetry, music, and shared humanity.

Developed through a collaboration with real spoken-word artists from Los Angeles, Summertime blurs the boundaries between documentary and fiction, performance and reality. Across a single day, characters cross paths—skateboarders, fast-food workers, aspiring rappers, and lovers—each delivering lyrical reflections on love, identity, inequality, and belonging.

Estrada’s fluid direction and the film’s kinetic energy create an emotional collage that celebrates authenticity and diversity without sentimentality. Every vignette pulses with life and language, culminating in a portrait of a generation that refuses to be invisible.

Summertime is both a celebration and a conversation—a bold, joyful experiment in storytelling that captures the beauty and complexity of young voices reclaiming their city, their art, and their future.

Screening With:

A Broken-Hearted Solstice

Canadian Shorts Showcase

A professional mascot named Fauve gets dumped on the summer solstice, aka the longest day of the year. The icy storm she’s plunged into doesn’t quite fit with the current heatwave. French with English subtitles.

12 mins 22s
Canada, 2020
Dir. Fanny Lefort
Language: French