West Side Familia

West Side Familia is a feature documentary about an overlooked Puerto Rican community on Manhattan’s Upper West Side whose cultural and political influence helped shape New York City while remaining largely erased from its official history.

The film begins when director Taylor Hosking witnesses neighborhood elders scaling a traffic light pole to hang a Puerto Rican flag ahead of the annual Puerto Rican Day Parade, a decades-long tradition they continue to fight to preserve amid rapid gentrification. That moment launches a deeply personal investigation into the hidden history of the neighborhood and the generations of activists, artists, musicians, and community leaders who transformed it into a cultural force.

Centered around a legendary neighborhood biker crew and advocacy group founded in the 1970s, West Side Familia explores how communities protect memory, public space, and identity in the face of displacement. Through archival footage, intimate present-day vérité, and conversations with elders who lived the history firsthand, the film uncovers stories of resistance, celebration, and survival that connect the Upper West Side to broader movements across New York and the Puerto Rican diaspora.

At once cinematic, joyful, and politically urgent, West Side Familia is both a love letter to a disappearing New York and a living archive of the people determined to keep its spirit alive.

Thank you to our screening partners: Taller Puertorriqueno and Norris Square Neighborhood Project.