A revelation about Oscar Torres, her unknown and once world-famous queer filmmaker cousin, sends Victoria down a path of self-discovery through reconstructions of his intimate memories living in the 1950s authoritarian Caribbean, as Victoria leads re-enactments of his unproduced screenplays with the family who erased him.

Dir. Victoria Linares Villegas - 84min - 2022 - Dominican Republic, USA

"a cinematic excavation...poses questions about the Dominican Republic’s political history, transgenerational memory, and queer erasure. A film full of heart, It Runs in the Family is a bold first feature from an exciting voice in nonfiction." - True/False

"A visually intriguing exercise in memory...A bold and heartfelt tribute to a talented filmmaker and a queer man vanished from a family’s history. It Runs in the Family is a sincere queer-to-queer conversation between two filmmakers across time and memory" - Global Queer Cinema

"The deeper she delves into the life of the queer filmmaker the more self-reflective Linares becomes. In re-evaluating the past of her family she begins to question her own place in the unit. Inward-looking with metatextual resolve, It Runs in the Family is an account of identity meditation that is resoundingly profound, even for its personal specificity." - Little White Lies

"heartfelt tribute from one film-maker to another....dreamlike and offbeat...individual cinema with its own distinctive voice." - Guardian

"Memory is the dominant theme in a film that, though lighthearted, deals with heavy topics of generational secrecy, queer erasure, politics and more. Villegas’ quest to rediscover Torres through her family’s memories of him feels like a way to ensure she herself is not forgotten in the same way." - VOX Magazine

"deeply personal, richly-textured" - Hollywood Times