Join us for a screening of Backside followed by a conversation with the filmmaker, Raúl O. Paz-Pastrana.

Backside offers an intimate portrait of the migrant workers who endure long hours and often dangerous working conditions year-round to prepare polished horses for “two minutes of glory.”

With the support of an all Latinx team of talented filmmakers and groom experts, Backside took five years to make. The film peels back the layers of Churchill Downs’ barns in Louisville, Kentucky, known as the “backside,” patiently revealing the symbiotic relationship between human and animal labor. Across a full racing season, the expertise and grit of the workers are juxtaposed against the wealth and pageantry of the Derby, exposing entrenched disparities of race and class that remain very much a part of the fabric of the United States.