‘El Norte’ Director Says His 1983 Sundance Classic on Immigration Reform Is ‘More Relevant Today’ | Video

The 2025 Sundance Film Festival chose to show writer-director Gregory Nava’s Oscar-nominated 1983 drama “El Norte” not only because of its important place in the festival’s history, but also because of the real-world political impact it had when it was released over 40 years ago.

“[‘El Norte’] was the very first film in the very first Sundance Directors Lab, and, of course, it became a huge success,” Nava recalled at TheWrap’s Sundance Studio presented by World of Hyatt. “It became instrumental in getting the United States to grant protective status to refugees from Central America, because it’s about the border and it’s about refugees. So it ended up saving thousands of lives. Today, it’s being shown here to celebrate the Sundance Lab, but also to focus on the border and immigration, because the message of the movie is really more relevant today than when it was originally made.”

“El Norte” follows a young Guatemalan brother and sister who flee their home country in the hope of finding a freer and more prosperous life in the United States. Their dreams fall apart when they realize the U.S. isn’t nearly as fair or idyllic as they’d imagined. It’s a difficult, grounded story, one that ends with Zaide Silvia Gutiérrez’s Rosa remarking that she and her brother may only find their real home after they’ve died.

“I think it expresses so much of what refugees today feel: lost and homeless,” Nava said, reflecting on the film and its themes.

The director insisted, however, that he didn’t make “El Norte” with any specific political goal in mind. “What I wanted to do with the film was bring a heart and soul to all those shadows that pervade our country and our city of Los Angeles [that are] doing all the work. To give a voice to the voiceless because I believed then, and I believe now, that we will never be able to deal with the [immigration] situation,” Nava explained. “We’ll never be able to manage it until we take the humanity of these people into consideration. Compassion is the way.”

His feature’s return to Sundance came at a time when President Donald Trump is aggressively following through on his mass deportation promises. Lifelong American activist and labor leader Dolores Huerta, who is the subject of Nava’s next movie and who accompanied the filmmaker to this year’s Sundance Film Festival, believes the current presidential administration’s border strategy is rooted in a fundamental misunderstanding of immigration.

“People don’t understand when we talk about immigrants. The true immigrants to the U.S. were from Europe,” Huerta told TheWrap editor-in-chief Sharon Waxman. “The indigenous people that are shown in ‘El Norte’ are the people that belong to this land: the North American continent, the South American continent. This is their land, and yet we treat them as if they’re strangers.”

Huerta’s message not only resonates in regards to “El Norte,” but Nava believes it is a vital one for all independent filmmakers to remember. “We brought Dolores to Sundance, and we did a big panel with all these young filmmakers,” Nava shared. “And Dolores spoke to them, because the importance of independent cinema is that it gives truth to power, brings light to the darkness. We need that in our country now more than ever.

“She had all of these young filmmakers on their feet saying, ‘Sí se puede, Sí se puede. Yes we can, yes we can.’ She’s an inspiration and a light,” Nava concluded.

Huerta, for her part, was quick to add that ‘Sí se puede’ actually has two meanings: yes we can and yes I can. “Every single person can become an activist,” Huerta pointedly noted. “Not only should they, but they can.”

Watch the pair’s full interview with TheWrap in the video above.

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