Jaripeo
[SYNTH MUSIC BEGINS]
A Toyota truck drives down a thin road flanked by greenery, with mountains in the background.
SPEAKER #1 (in subtitled Spanish voiceover): So why did you bring us here?
[HORSE NEIGHS]
[CAMERA SHUTTER NOISE]
Back view of two people wearing wide-brimmed hats, one with their arm around the other’s shoulder.
Back view of two people standing against a railing, with their elbows resting on the metal rail.
Close-up on a mouth as the tongue protrudes slightly.
SPEAKER #2 (in subtitled Spanish voiceover): So you can see a little bit of what it’s like...
Close-up on a bearded mouth, laughing. The camera pans up briefly to the person’s full face.
Back view of two people behind railing watching a horse.
A person wearing a cowboy hat rides a bull in an arena as a crowd of people, some sitting, some standing, and some perched on the railing, watch.
SPEAKER #2 (in subtitled Spanish voiceover): ...to be a young queer ranchero.
View of a person’s torso and bottom, wearing jeans, a printed shirt and a studded belt, perched on metal railing.
Cut to black.
The “Official Selection 2026 Sundance Film Festival” laurels on a black background.
[MUSIC SHIFTS, PULSING BEAT BEGINS]
Flashes of a person in a cowboy hat dancing appear against the black background and quickly fade.
The logo for the 76th Berlinale (the silhouette of a bear beside cursive text “Berlinale” and text “76. Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin | Berlinale Panorama) appears in front of a black background.
Flashes of a person’s bottom as they dance.
[SYNTH DANCE MUSIC BEGINS]
A group of roughly five people ride horses in an arena, chasing a group of smaller horses.
Back view of two people in cowboy hats in the audience, looking out onto the arena where people ride horses.
Three people stand in the arena holding lassos, standing a short distance away from a bull as an audience looks on.
A person with long blonde hair, wearing a wide-brimmed straw hat, blows a kiss and waves slightly.
SPEAKER #3 (in subtitled Spanish voiceover): To grow up in a village...
A bull inside of a metal enclosure struggles.
A person wearing a white t-shirt and cowboy hat walks through tall wheat. A profile view of this person shifts to a front facing view of the person walking through the wheat.
SPEAKER #3 (in subtitled Spanish voiceover): ...to grow up in a small town...
A person wearing a white cowboy hat rides a bull in an arena as a crowd looks on.
SPEAKER #3 (in subtitled Spanish voiceover): ...and start to discover that you like men...
Four people, two of them wearing white cowboy hats, and all of them wearing black and red button-up shirts stand in a semi-circle and talk.
A person with partially blonde bleached hair, wearing a black and red button-up shirt, stands by the arena railing and looks up.
SPEAKER #3 (in subtitled Spanish voiceover): ...comes with a sense of guilt.
[PULSING BEAT ENDS, MUSIC SWELLS DRAMATICALLY]
Back view of a person in a cowboy hat looking at a sunset. Their figure is silhouetted against the increasingly dark sky, which glows in the middle of the frame.
SPEAKER #3 (in subtitled Spanish voiceover): Then comes a rush of adrenaline.
Another person enters the frame from the right, tipping their cowboy hat.
A person riding a mechanical bull in a field with railing and two trees in the background.
[PERCUSSIVE SOUNDS, THEN HORN HEAVY MUSIC BEGINS]
Text “Dirígido por Efraín Mojica | Rebecca Zweig” appears over this image.
Text “Directed by Efraín Mojica | Rebecca Zweig” appears over the same image, as the person continues to ride the mechanical bull as it circles.
A bearded person wearing large sunglasses, a wide-brimmed hat, a long skirt, and leather purse stands on a dirt road beside a platform elevated with columns and looks back.
SPEAKER #4 (in subtitled Spanish): Hurry up!
Th bearded person, now in a rodeo audience, chants along with the rest of the crowd.
CROWD OF PEOPLE: Chug! Chug! Chug!
A person in the arena leans back and breathes out a large flame of fire. This is partially obscured by the cowboy hat of someone in the foreground.
A person in a room with red painted walls stands and applies make-up to a person sitting in a chair.
SPEAKER #4 (in subtitled Spanish): My brief relationships...
The person applying make-up stops applying eye make-up and lifts their hands up.
SPEAKER #4 (in subtitled Spanish): ...are always with straight men.
Close-up on a bare chest and nipple.
Close-up on a metal belt buckle featuring an elaborate illustration of a bull rider.
A person in a cowboy hat rides a horse inside of an arena.
Close-up on the eyes of a person with thick eyebrows.
Close-up on two people holding hands.
SPEAKER #3 (in subtitled Spanish): We don’t talk about it at home.
A person wearing a wide-brimmed hat and white t-shirt stands in a makeshift kitchen which has a microwave, various condiments on top of the microwave, and plastic buckets hanging from the ceiling. They are in profile, holding a glass bottled beer.
SPEAKER #3 (in subtitled Spanish): We don’t discuss the subject, that’s it.
Two shadow figures on dry grass approach one another and embrace.
[HORSE WHINNIES]
A person on a horse at early evening, nearly silhouetted against the light blue sky.
[MUSIC ENDS]
SPEAKER #3 (in subtitled Spanish): What are they going to say when they see your film?
[MUSIC BEGINS AGAIN]
A bearded person wearing a glittery turtleneck, large shiny earrings, and a cowboy hat bedazzled with rhinestones dances in front of a large disco ball with their arms extended. The light renders them pink.
[SYNTH DANCE MUSIC KICKS IN]
A person riding a bull is jettisoned into an arena in front of a crowd.
A different person riding a bucking bull is flung off, and they are captured falling in mid-air.
Close-up on the leg of a person riding a horse.
SPEAKER #2 (in subtitled Spanish): It’s a bit of camouflaging yourself in the space.
Back view of a person wearing a large white cowboy hat makes their way through a crowd.
Shot of a person’s legs, wearing jeans, dancing on a dirt surface.
A person wearing a cowboy hat dances in a dark nightclub.
SPEAKER #2 (in subtitled Spanish): Of what people believe to “be a man.”
Two more people wearing cowboy hats dance in a dark nightclub that is partially illuminated by yellow lights.
A large crowd in a club, illuminated by red lights and nearly all wearing cowboy hats, dance.
Close-up on the face of a bearded person wearing a cowboy hat.
Speaker #4 applies eye make-up while looking in a mirror.
A shirtless person standing partially inside a parked car with its door open looks into a compact mirror and applies lipstick.
Two people wearing cowboy hats embrace and dance in a crowd outside.
Flashes of people, many wearing cowboy hats, dancing in a dark nightclub that is illuminated with red lights.
[PULSING BEAT ENDS]
The text “Jaripeo” appears in bold red letters on a butter yellow background.
[THE MUFFLED SOUND OF PEOPLE SPEAKING]
The butter yellow background turns black.
The silhouetted outline of a person wearing a large, wide-brimmed hat stands outside in the dark, slightly illuminated by a purple background.
[MORE MUFFLED SOUNDS OF AN ANNOUNCER TALKING]
The bolded white text “Proximamente” appears on screen along with credits reading: A co-production of ITVS with funding provided by The Corporation for Public Broadcasting in association with Arte France – La Lucarne; Survivance; Fiasco; Terminal; Misfits Entertainment; Chicken + Egg Films and The Sundance Institute. Documentary Film Program with support from Open Society Foundations & Sony Music Group’s Global Social Justice Fund .A film by Efraín Mojica and Rebecca Zweig. “Jaripeo.” Director of Photography Josue Eber Morales and Gerardo Guerra. Editor Analia Goethals. Composer Emilia Ezeta and Márton Móra. Executive Producers Carrie Lozano Lizzle Gillet and Ian Bonhôte. Produced by Sarah Strunin Efraín Mojica and Rebecca Zweig. Directed by Efraín Mojica and Rebecca Zweig.
The text “Proximamente” becomes “Coming Soon.”
[MUSIC AND TALKING ENDS]
Cut to black.
Sunday, May 3, 2026
5 pm | LeFrak Theater
New York Premiere
Director in Attendance: Efraín Mojica, Rebecca Zweig
2026 | 70 min | Mexico, USA, France
Playfully reworking the iconography of masculinity, Jaripeo travels to the rodeos of Michoacán, where queer desire and belonging simmer just beneath the surface. With intimate, observational sensitivity, the film follows riders and performers whose lives shimmer with pleasure, style, and resilience across richly textured landscapes. Set against the figure of the bull, a symbol of will and defiance, an unexpected, vibrant portrait of queerness and community emerges.
Check out the full Margaret Mead Film Festival schedule or get a ticket to see Jaripeo.