United 2026

In their combined bid to host the 2026 FIFA World Cup, The United States, Canada, and Mexico announced the UNITED 2026 slogan as a message of international unity. This corporate messaging has clashed with the harsh realities of living under the United States current administration, whose aggressive and inhumane policies have torn apart families and communities all across the United States.

What is Unidos '26?

This fast paced, documentary styled short provides a biting commentary on the irony of a lucrative sporting event promoting unity whilst its host country reaps profits off division and hatred. Through the fast changing landscape of the community, we witness a group of teenage boys be thrust into adulthood and shocked out of their immature and apathetic attitudes.

The film follows the core cast of teenagers Ikal, Santi, El Güero, Rob, and Sebas, whose diverse immigrant experiences highlight the rich diversity within the Latine community. These teens and young adults are directly inspired by the different immigrant experiences of some of our closest friends and family members. These are your cousins, your friends, your neighbors, and classmates. The people in our communities whose lives are affected by our government's persecution.

Through quick snapshots of their lives, we witness the joyous group of friends spend their last days of adolescence playing soccer, eating, drinking, and driving across Los Angeles. 

However, looming over these joyous scenes, police activity increases dramatically around them. Political tension escalates with daily protests and arrests. Familiar corners of their community become marred by tension and paranoia. But the boys... remain apathetic. They ignore the signs as community members DISAPPEAR. Friends don’t answer the DOOR. The music STOPS. The street corners EMPTY. The color FADES.

Until finally, only two of the friends remain. Playing on an empty field. 

Ikal and Sebas walk home together, contemplating their broken group.  Afraid of the ongoing raids, Rob and his family have moved away. Living without a student visa, El Güero is afraid to go out. Santi’s mom was taken away and he is now fighting for her. And Ikal feels powerless. Guilty. Punctuating his guilt, he walks past a large advertisement for WORLD CUP 2026. CANADA. U.S. and MEXICO. 

Enraged, Ikal throws an empty COCA-COLA BOTTLE against the sign, kickstarting an END CREDITIS SEQUENCE depicting Ikal's political awakening and radicalization.

A last minute catharsis for all the anger built up against the injustices throughout the short, this end credit sequence mixes real life footage of protests with animated/ rotoscoped frames, punctuating important moments of resistance as Ikal joins protests, boycotts, and accepts his responsibility in fighting for his community. Reclaiming the corporate slogan of united to truly signify Unidos.

Why this film?

We wrote this film in the wake of the Los Angeles ICE raids last summer. As we witnessed my community be consumed by fear and paranoia, we wanted to create a tribute of hope to my affected friends and family as well as a call to action to those who may still feel politically apathetic or unmotivated.

At a personal level, this is a deconstruction of the political ambivalence many of us can feel, especially in our youth, when we believe that our specific circumstances make us immune to persecution. The story approaches these themes by deconstructing the myths of a monolith latine identity, exploring the nuances in latine culture and how different levels of privilege within our immigrant communities can breed apathy and further discrimination. 

On a broader level, the film takes aim at major organizations, such as international sports institutions, which profit off of marginalized communities yet fail to use their power and influence to protect these same communities. While major sports or corporate organizations utilize slogans to pander to Latine communities, these slogans are superficial and insulting when contrasted against the real harm these organizations enable or directly contribute to.

How YOU can help

This is a very ambitious film seeking to capture an authentic portrait of the communities most affected by the administration's persecution and discrimination. Everyone in our team has a personal connection to the message of the film and is volunteering a lot of their time and creativity to bring this story to life. This film is not made for profit and all proceeds from this fundraiser are going to compensate our crew as well as the community members who will be depicted in this film. Our first priority is to pay our crew, with additional funds being allocated for renting out equipment which can aid our creatives tell the most compelling and impactful version of this story. However, this story could be told through a phone if we need to. Our goal is to get the message out there while ensuring our community and team is fairly compensated for lending their skills, their experiences, and lives to telling this story. 

The fundraiser goal is the minimum amount of money we need to ensure every single person in our cast and crew is compensated for their work. Surpassing our goal would mean being able to not only improve the final quality of the film through post-production but also to increase the compensation for our crew who is already taking significant pay cuts from their usual professional rates in order to bring this story to life.