SYNOPSIS

La Madrina: The Savage Life of Lorine Padilla is a feature length documentary about a beloved South Bronx matriarch and former “First Lady” of the Savage Skulls gang struggling to remain visible in a rapidly gentrifying community she helped rebuild in the 1980s. With one foot firmly grounded in the outlaw life and the other as an activist and spiritual advisor, Lorine straddles the complexities of multiple worlds. Employing rich never-before-seen archives of the borough that gifted the world both salsa and hip-hop culture, we will go on a complicated and, at times, surreal journey through five decades of Bronx history and resilience in La Madrina’s own words.

La Madrina is available to stream on Showtime.

A Film By Raquel Cepeda
Executive Producers: Henry Chalfant, Sacha Jenkins
Editor: Sonia González-Martinez
Original Score: Bobby Sanabria