Kings for a Day is an intimate, immersive portrait of a living Maya tradition that exists simultaneously in the highlands of Guatemala and the streets of California. Anchored in Todos Santos, Cuchumatán, the film follows the 400 year tradition of the annual Skach Koyl horse race, a ritual of music, intoxication, costume, and chaos that becomes a rare moment of collective release and unity. Through dreamlike interviews and kinetic festival montages, the town reveals itself as both a real place and a shared memory: misty mountains, marimba music, and color. A homeland carried in the minds of those who have left and those who remain.
The film weaves together personal stories that reflect the fractured but resilient Maya diaspora. Jonathan, a U.S.-born son of Todos Santos, returns with his pregnant wife, determined to pass on a heritage he fears is slipping away. In Oakland, Damaso walks proudly through the city in traditional clothing, unafraid to be seen as Maya while helping others navigate the immigration system he once survived. The Maya dress can be dangerous in the current political climate, but to not wear them can be a forfeiture of cultural identity. Yasmine, undocumented and living in constant fear, works quietly in the shadows while sending money home to the children she left behind. These parallel lives reveal the cost of displacement, the violence of borders, and the quiet courage required to maintain identity in a world that punishes it.
At the heart of the film is Roberto, a master weaver whose loom predates war, migration, and modernity. Through his hands, clothing becomes more than fabric: it is memory, resistance, and survival. As the race concludes and the town gathers in the cemetery to honor the dead, the film confronts the full weight of loss: graves marked with Guatemalan and American flags, lives cut short crossing borders, families split across continents. Yet Kings for a Day ultimately affirms endurance and survival. Through ritual, dress, music, and remembrance, the Maya of Todos Santos declare who they are - not just for a day, but across generations, wherever in the world they may stand.
