Bachata leaves the clubs and dance floors to tell a story of identity, dreams and generational change in AGRIDULCE, the new documentary by director Frank Pavich, known for Jodorowsky’s Dune. The film will have a screening in New York as part of the New York Latino Film Festival (NYLFF).
The documentary will be screened on Saturday, September 19 at 4:30 pm at Regal Union Square, where the public will be able to get up close and personal with a new generation of young musicians from the Dominican Republic who find in bachata a way to understand love, life and their own future.
Pavich followed a group of children and adolescents for five years in Cabarete, Dominican Republic, a place where bachata is part of daily life and not just nightly entertainment. Through their experiences, AGRIDULCE shows how music accompanies their journey towards adulthood as they try to find their own path without losing the link with a tradition they inherited.
One of his main mentors is Mártires de León, guitarist, arranger and music producer linked to Romeo Santos. De León has also promoted collaborations with artists such as Bad Bunny, Justin Timberlake, Julio Iglesias and Rosalía.
His work as a teacher takes on special importance within the Bachata Academy, an institution founded in 2013 that offers free musical training to hundreds of children and young people in Cabarete. The program seeks to keep alive a Dominican tradition that for years was marginalized from formal musical education spaces.
Bachata was born in marginalized neighborhoods in the Dominican Republic and for decades faced censorship and prejudice. Over time, its guitars, Afro-Caribbean rhythms and lyrics about love and heartbreak crossed borders to become one of the greatest Dominican cultural expressions internationally.
AGRIDULCE explores precisely that transformation: while young musicians learn from those who came before them, they also question what place they want to occupy within that history.
The film had its world premiere at SXSW and was subsequently selected by festivals such as the Guadalajara International Film Festival (FICG). Now it arrives in New York, a city where bachata is also part of the cultural identity of millions of Latinos.
AGRIDULCE will be presented on September 19 at 4:30 pm at Regal Union Square, during the New York Latino Film Festival.
