The Disco Shines

Five very different characters are thrown together in one weird, mashed up day. It started out like any other, but 24 hours later everything had changed. South West 9 takes you through the windscreen of the new millenium. The death of idealism, capitalism, religion and hippies. Even the drugs don't work anymore. The 'summer of love' generation have come down and they're ready to riot. Seattle. Stockholm. Paris. Genoa. May Day riots.

Freshman high-school student Melinda has refused to speak ever since she called the cops on a popular summer party. With her old friends snubbing her for being a rat, and her parents too busy to notice her troubles, she folds into herself, trying to hide her secret: that star senior Andy raped her at the party. But Melinda does manage to find solace in her art class headed by Mr. Freeman.

It's not easy to be Barry. An earthworm gets no respect. He lives at the bottom of the food chain. But one day, an old disco record turns his life upside down. Suddenly he sees before him his own destiny, the star of the world's greatest disco band: Sunshine Barry & The Disco Worms! Okay, he's got no arms, no rhythm and no band. But as Barry says: "We'll do it anyway!"

The rise and fall of salsa singer, Héctor Lavoe (1946-1993), as told from the perspective of his wife Puchi, who looks back from 2002.

A coming-of-age story centered around a small-town singer brokenhearted by the death of her brother in a car crash, who had secretly submitted her for a summer session at a performing arts academy in Los Angeles. In the academy, she experiences a whole new way of life in the big city, far from the small town lifestyle she's used to.