A Charming and insightful comic drama about Latino culture, Quinceanera won both the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. I hope that this terrific little movie catches on and becomes the hit that it deserves to be.

A natural young actress named Emily Rios stars as Magdalena, a 14- year old who becomes pregnant before her Quinceanera and is thrown out of the house by her religious father. In a plot twist that should make right-wing conservatives shudder, our heroine moves in with her grand-uncle and her gay cousin, who attempt to form one of those progressive, 21st century families that George Bush is so afraid of.

Both Rios and Jesse Garcia, the actor who plays her queer cousin, Carlos, give standout performances as young Latinos struggling with the values of their traditional families. (There’s a funny scene between Rios and the actor who plays her father, who can accept her back into the family only after he decides that her pregnancy is some sort of “immaculate conception.”) Gay co-directors, and life partners, Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland (formerly known as Wash West when he was directing gay porn) show remarkable sensitivity to the cultural issues in the script, especially considering they’re both Caucasian. Their lack of condescension and their respect for Latino culture is particularly felt in the sub-plot involving Carlos and his gay landlords, who are not portrayed in a flattering light but as shallow, Yuppie creeps.

The story takes place in the Echo Park neighborhood of Southern California, where affluent gay men and women, and other real estate speculators, are apparently responsible for gentrification in the area. The depiction of Carlos’ gay neighbors, who get him drunk, seduce him, and later in the film evict him and his family-members, is daring coming from two queer filmmakers.

Hopefully, gay viewers have reached a place where we can accept a wide spectrum of gay stories and characters on screen, warts and all. There are, of course, older gay men out there who do prey on the young, vulnerable members of their own flock, and I applaud the makers of Quinceanera for having the guts to show the pain that can result from that sort of irresponsible behavior.