ZUMPANGO FILMS is a film and video production company. Based in the SF Bay Area, ZUMPANGO FILMS was established in 2006 by filmmaker Jesus Beltran.

Jesus Beltran is a self-taught writer-director whose work blends grounded realism, emotionally resonant performances, and original music to tell stories marked by honesty and cultural specificity. Raised by immigrant parents in Fort Worth, TX and trained as an engineer at Stanford, Beltran found his way to filmmaking outside traditional paths—learning by doing, driven by a belief that powerful stories often emerge from overlooked corners of American life.

His short films, including The Grass Grows Green and Motos, have screened at Sundance, SXSW, Cinequest, Indy Shorts, and other top festivals, earning acclaim for their nuanced portraits of immigrant characters navigating complex moral terrain. His feature script Americano was selected for the Sundance Producing Labs, further establishing him as a screenwriter crafting multicultural stories that reject both sentimentality and cliché. His films explore the quiet, often conflicted dignity of people living on the margins—while connecting broadly through emotional clarity, dark humor, and human-scale stakes.

Beltran is currently developing his first feature, There’s No Place, a road film about two estranged Mexican-American brothers in Silicon Valley that deepens his exploration of family, class, and survival in a country that rarely sees them clearly.

narrative films written & directed by Jesus Beltran

SHORT FILMS

MOTOS - 19 min
Official Selection of CINEQUEST, KC Film Fest, INDYSHORTS IFF, South Texas IFF, NY Latino FF, Orange County Latino FF, Seattle Latino FF & Santa Fe IFF

THE GRASS GROWS GREEN - 19 min
Official Selection of SUNDANCE, SXSW and over 30 Film Festivals
Winner Best Short Santa Cruz and Los Angeles Latino Film Festival

TWENTY BUCKS - 14 min
Official Selection of KC Film Fest, Oakland IFF, Urbanworld Film Festival, Cind+Mas SF Latino Film Festival, BendFilm Festival, California Independent Film Festival & Lone Star Film Festival
Winner Best Narrative Short Lone Star Film Festival

THE CHINA PROJECT - 14 min
Official Selection of Nashville Film Festival

FEATURE FILMS

AMERICANO - Feature Film Screenplay
One of 5 projects selected for 2010-2011 Sundance Creative Producing Labs.

THERE’S NO PLACE - Feature Film - In Development