Candid footage captured by Selena’s sister is the treasured heart of a new documentary about the late singer

By Sofía Hanalei Sanchez

(CNN) — First, there was the 1997 Gregory Nava biopic starring Jennifer Lopez. Then, there was the scripted Netflix series that came out in 2020. Now, the late Queen of Tejano music, Selena Quintanilla Perez, is having her story told directly by her family and bandmates.

In many ways, we have her sister Suzette Quintanilla to thank for “Selena y Los Dinos,” the Netflix documentary debuting Monday.

“I was the annoying one with the camera, like, back in the day,” Quintanilla told CNN in a recent interview. “I have so much footage of all the guys giving me that look like, ‘Ugh, not again.’”

In the ‘80s and ‘90s, Quintanilla, now the CEO of her family’s entertainment company Q Productions, was the drummer in her family’s up-and-coming band, which serves as the inspiration for the documentary’s title. She had a camera and a desire to document her family and bandmates’ silly moments on the road.

“(I) wasn’t even thinking about creating (or) capturing these moments for what’s being showcased. It was just about documenting our life,” she said.

Those smile-stealing, off-the-cuff camcorder moments make what could have been a stale documentary into a much more personal portrait of the singer, who was killed in 1995. “Selena y Los Dinos” – inspired by the name of the band her father was in when he was a young musician – is packed with intimate glimpses of treasures from the family’s personal trove of video, photos and other never-before-seen footage.

“There’s a part in the documentary where I’m reading a letter that she wrote to me,” the late singer’s bandmate and eventual husband Chris Perez told CNN. “I was just happy to be a part of it and have the crew come over here and talk to me in that kind of respect.”

Between home videos, deep-cut interviews, love letters – and even looks at Quintanilla Perez’s handwritten study notes from when she was learning Spanish to better connect with her Mexican audience – the documentary reminds viewers of the person behind the star’s story, which ended too soon.

The documentary details the Texas-born singer’s triumphs and struggles in equal measure – like how she broke through sexism, racism and poverty in the male-dominated Tejano music scene in the late 1980s to become one of the first American musicians of Latino descent to cross over from the Spanish to English market. Her fifth studio album – featuring her two widely known English hits, “Dreaming of You” and “I Could Fall in Love” – was released after her death.

In 1995, at the age of 23 and already a Grammy winner, Quintanilla Perez was shot and killed by her fan club president Yolanda Saldívar, who was denied parole earlier this year. Still, in her short life, she refracted light, relatability and charisma that continues to capture millions today.

To put it all into context, before there was Bad Bunny-mania, there was Ricky Martin’s Latin Explosion. And before that, there was Selena Quintanilla Perez.

While all the fame, glory and tragedy is implicit in Selena’s story, the director of the new documentary was going for something more.

“(The documentary is) not the ‘Hollywoodification’ of their story, it’s them telling their stories to you directly,” director Isabel Castro told CNN’s host of “First of All,” Victor Blackwell. “ It was really important to us that we make something that felt different from things that have been made in the past.”

Some of those differences include a more complete picture of Quintanilla Perez as an empowered and empowering female artist in the early ’90s. In one archival snippet, an older, male host asks the young singer – wearing a scarlet red bustier and matching leggings – to do “a turn” for the audience. After doing a quick, elegant twirl, she requests the same of him, even encouraging the audience to egg him on. He does not spin, but her point was made.

There are also candid moments from her childhood, including interviews in which she speaks honestly about the pressure on her and her siblings to financially deliver for the family.

Directed by Castro and executive produced by siblings Suzette and AB Quintanilla III, the project captures Quintanilla Perez and her band’s rise and her ultimate triumph: a global legacy beyond her lifespan.

The ‘real’ Selena

Quintanilla Perez is not at risk of being forgotten any time soon, of course. Her name seemingly still carries the crowd-gathering power it did at the height of her popularity.

When MAC Cosmetics launched a makeup collection inspired by the star, it sold out within a day. The ceremony revealing her pink star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame attracted a record-breaking attendance. And when Texas grocery store chain H-E-B released a limited quantity of special-edition reusable bags lines honoring the singer, the website crashed and stores were sold out for weeks.

For Quintanilla, though, honoring her sister in the documentary was about highlighting the human more than the hype.

More recently, the lasting interest in Quintanilla Perez has collided with more advanced tools, like artificial intelligence, in tributes that may give her a voice again in some ways, but still miss the resonant mark, according to Quintanilla.

“Honestly, I do see the AI stuff,” she said. “Some of the stuff is just incredible, but the beauty of what she brings as a person and as an artist, AI can never replicate that. They can emulate her physical look, but there ain’t nothing better than the real thing.”

In true Mexican tradition, the “Amor Prohibido” singer’s story is being told – and retold – to new generations in hopes of her life never being forgotten.

“It’s basically taking this time capsule and bringing it to 2025. I do understand the significance of the younger fan base that’s searching Selena and wanting to know more about her,” said Suzette Quintanilla. “And throughout the years, things have been blurred.”

She added: “ I think that’s one of the reasons why this documentary is extremely important because if anybody is new that’s discovering Selena, they’re not discovering an AI version. Clearly, this is the real Selena.”

The-CNN-Wire
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