The decades-spanning art and activism of the Chicano collective ASCO — named after the Spanish word for “disgust” — gets a generously researched and superbly edited portrait in filmmaker Travis Gutiérrez Senger’s “ASCO: Without Permission.” This vibrantly pieced-together and well-sourced documentary, which premiered at SXSW, shows how a group of East Los Angeles Mexican-American artists reacted to the shifting social tides of the time, including racism and police abuse pressing force on their community.
The film features terrific archival footage of Los Angeles in the 1970s, when ASCO started, through the ‘80s, a city riven by protest and violence and a feeling of, well, disgust about the political moment. “Without Permission” captures a time and place when Chicanos were the invisible, inaudible minority covered as a mere fascination out of newscasts, and its community was being tear-gassed for protesting among other American catastrophes the Vietnam War.
Gutiérrez Senger interviews key members of the collective, from photographer Harry Gamboa Jr., who stared down police in riot gear, to Patssi Valdez, who defied people telling her to sit in a different section of the bus or that she would only ever be a cook or a cleaner.
The movement began as a magazine called “Regeneración” that promoted Chicano culture in Los Angeles, blending satire, pop culture, and absurdism, reflecting American art traditions through their own marginalized voice. A Christmas-themed Walking Mural from 1972, with the artists all in costumes and makeup they didn’t share with each other prior to the demonstration, shows how their ennui over the muralism movement in America could prove to be fodder for a more specific point of view. Think of the procession as a series of human floats disrupting the status quo, and expanding the notion of what was possible for Latino artists.
Also interviewed in the film are Guatemalan actor Arturo Castro (“Broad City”) and actor Michael Peña, whose parents emigrated from Mexico, to give the film a contemporary context and show how the Chicano uprising came to be reflected (or not) in Hollywood. There’s a great segue on how the film industry exploited the Chicano point of view and Latinos in general in its mainstream offerings, where the community itself was rarely visible.
The documentary looks at the stereotypes of the bandito, the maid, and the gangster — and gaffes like Marlon Brando in brownface as Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata in 1952’s “Viva Zapata!” Recent Oscar winner Zoe Saldaña also joins the chorus of talking heads to bemoan a lack of access to opportunities reflective of her culture (her father is Dominican and mother Puerto Rican). ASCO was along the way to take the movies back into their own hands, creating pastiche from Hollywood iconography.
The film’s editing team, Andres Arias and Casey Brooks, deftly blends rare archival footage (restored and remastered here to recapture often 35mm or 16mm recordings) with fictional flourishes of contemporary artists reenacting key ASCO moments. The filmmakers collaborated with three current multidisciplinary artists — Maria Maea, San Cha, and Ruben Ulises — to create a series of contemporary film pieces that honor ASCO’s iconic moments.
Though the film is more convincing when it sets these dramatic reenactments aside and lets the interviews and archival speak for themselves, Ricardo Brennand Campos’ dusky, neon-tinted visuals paint a striking vista of the Los Angeles skyline. “ASCO: Without Permission” is a powerful argument for the necessity of guerrilla art — and for elevating the work of artists often lost to time.
Grade: B+
“ASCO: Without Permission” premiered at the 2025 SXSW Film & TV Festival. It is currently seeking U.S. distribution.
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