Synopsis
English and Spanish with English subtitles
With Harry Gamboa Jr., Patssi Valdez, Gronk, Willy Herrón, Zoe Saldaña, Michael Peña, Pilar Tompkins Rivas, Sean Carrillo, Bibbe Hansen, Teressa Covarrubias, Humberto Sandoval, Rafa Esparza, Nao Bustamante, C. Ondine Chavoya, Carolina Miranda, Ruben Ulises Montoya Rodriguez, Chon Noriega, Cecilia Fajardo-Hill, Dorian Wood, Gabriela Ruiz, Maria Maea, San Cha, Fabi Reyna
Why will your students love ASCO: Without Permission? Because it captures the rebellious energy of a Chicano art collective that refused invisibility and reshaped the cultural landscape from the margins. Because its form is as radical as its subject, blending documentary and performance to echo ASCO’s own defiance of artistic boundaries. And because it provides scholars and students with a rich lens for exploring the intersections of art, politics, representation, and culture in late 20th-century America.
Executive produced by Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna, filmmaker Travis Gutiérrez Senger‘s propulsive documentary chronicles the rise of underground Chicano art collective ASCO throughout their prolific punk uprising during the 1970s–80s.
ASCO: Without Permission challenges the limits of documentary conventions to tell the story of a revolutionary Chicano art group who turned 1970s Los Angeles into their defiant canvas. Merging activism with radical art-making, ASCO challenged the established order of Hollywood, museums, and media. Unrecognized by mainstream institutions during their time, they are now considered among the 20th century’s most significant artists.
Gutiérrez Senger mirrors their boundary-pushing spirit through a groundbreaking cinematic approach, weaving nonfiction and fiction together with a new generation of Latinx artists. The result is more than a profile—it’s a genre-defying reimagining of what’s possible in contemporary art and cinema, celebrating iconoclasts who were decades ahead of their time.
Press
“ASCO still packs a punch today… When the past doesn’t feel all that different from the present.” – Maximilíano Durón, Artnews
“Vibrantly pieced-together… superbly edited portrait.” – Ryan Lattanzio, Indiewire
“ASCO is taking control of Latino storytelling.” – Katie Campione, Deadline
“Multigenerational.” – Cerys Davies, LA Times
Notes on the Film
“I hope that the film becomes a manifesto, the ASCO manifesto, for the next generation of the Chicano and Latinx community, as well as any marginalized group that wants to take from ASCO’s playbook. We need stories with different types of protagonists. We have to create our own reference points. ASCO shows us that Chicanos are not a monolith and that we can collaborate and offer immense creativity. The next generation of artists, actors, and activists, along with the creatives on this project, remind us of that.
I hope the film inspires people to be daring and take risks, to be open to working and trusting one another. I’m honored to tell their story and help open the next chapter of Latinx history where our stories and work can be as bold and electrifying as ASCO’s.”
“ASCO were geniuses at creating counter-narratives. If the dominant culture suggests you don’t belong in a museum, make the museum your own piece of conceptual art. If Hollywood excludes you and defines you by derogatory stereotypes, create your own films through stills—explore and reimagine genre in your own likeness. If that is a slasher, sci-fi, romance film—make it your own. If the news media creates false narratives about your culture by exclusively sharing criminal stories about a small percentage of your people—infiltrate and usurp the media coverage with your own story.”
– Travis Gutiérrez Senger, Director
