Mickey, the acclaimed new feature documentary by award-winning trans Mexican filmmaker Dano García, will have its New York premiere at the 38th NewFest: The New York LGBTQ+ Film Festival, running October 15–25 in New York City.
Following its world premiere at the 2026 SXSW Film Festival, where it won the Global Audience Award, the film has enjoyed a successful international festival run, with screenings at BlackStar, Houston Cinema Arts, and Guadalajara, among others. The award marks García’s second Global Audience Award at SXSW, following the recognition of their debut feature, Kings of Nowhere.
Produced by Joceline Hernández, Indira Cato, Alejandra Guevara, and Christian Giraud, this Phototaxia Pictures production—filmed over ten years—centers on Mickey Cundapí (she/her), known artistically as Mis$ Mickey, a trans multidisciplinary artist who, alongside García, uses play and performance to reimagine the past and inhabit the present. Over the past decade, Mickey has navigated her transition within the conservative context of Mazatlán, a city known for its vibrant carnival traditions yet marked by persistent homophobia and transphobia.
Mickey and García first met at age 14 as students at the same Catholic school. Even then, Mickey's makeup and performances during mass scandalized priests. In a deeply collaborative process, the two revisited archival material from their childhood friendship, reconstructing a shared journey of gender transition and resilience while creating space for broader queer community support through the film itself.
Drawing from youthful footage, artistic reenactments, and intimate encounters, Mickey moves between tenderness and rage, transforming memory into an act of liberation. The film approaches the past not as fixed, but as fluid—a space for reimagining selfhood beyond punishment or shame.
With Mickey, García delivers a formally daring and emotionally intimate work shaped by sustained collaboration. Challenging cinematic conventions and expanding the language of trans representation, the film asserts trans cinema as both aesthetic innovation and political transformation.
