The 23rd San Diego Latino Film Festival Gears Up for a New Season In New Digs
By Rebecca Romani
It’s that time of year again, when the San Diego Latino Film Festival rolls out the red carpet and showcases work from around the Latino and Spanish-speaking world. This year, the Festival celebrates its 23rd year at its new location in The Fashion Valley Mall. Festival goers will be able to experience the festival in top screening venues and enjoy guest performers in the top floor theater near the food court.
This year’s SDLFF promises a wide variety of films, including some unusual pieces such as Lo que lleva el río (What Rises from the River) from Venezuela, in indigenous languages.
The SDLFF, one of the oldest such festivals in the US, usually features the cinema of one major film producing Latino country. This year, the spotlight is on Colombia, whose rising film industry has garnered major awards, including an Oscar nomination for Embrace of the Serpent. This year, two particular films stand out as pieces not to be missed. Bastards y Diablos, a narrative, follows two half-Colombian brothers as they travel to Colombia to honor their father’s last wishes, only to find themselves on an amazing journey that will bring them closer to Colombia and to each other. Like Bastards y Diablos, La Ciénaga, entre el mar y la tierra, is about family; however, this documentary looks more to the past. Filmmaker Daniela Abad looks into the public assassination of her grandfather, a well-known doctor and human rights activist, to understand how Colombia’s history has affected the county and her family.
The festival sets out its selections in various showcases with something for everyone, from films that lean toward the strange or supernatural to touching documentaries to crazy stories about love. In between, showcases also focus on film made along the Mexico-US Border (Frontera Filmmakers), programming about the Latino American experience (Latino Americans) and the often poignant and profound LGBTQ experience (Cine Gay), now in its 11th year as a showcase.
Landfill Harmonic, from Paraguay, is one of the more moving documentaries in the substantial documentary showcase. This documentary follows one of the more unusual orchestras in the world, the Recycled Orchestra of Cateura, in Paraguay, who play on instruments made entirely out of garbage. The young musicians live in the poor neighborhoods near the dump from which their instruments come. When a natural disaster strikes their region, the orchestra director has to find a way to keep his musicians and their instruments together.
From the El Corazon Showcase comes the intriguing Como gagnar enemigos in which a young lawyer meets a woman, takes her home, and finds himself cleaned out in the morning. Luckily for him, he has been reading detective novel voraciously, and he decides to see if all those techniques he has been reading about work.
The nexus between the US and Mexico has long been a special interest of the SDLFF. This year’s Frontera Filmmakers Showcase has several surprising and insightful films. If you’re a budding foodie, you don’t want to miss Baja Taste as it follows four chefs working to turn border cuisine into a global phenomenon. There is also something for all those soccer fans out there, especially those who miss Messi, Club Frontera takes a closer look at how one Tijuana soccer team, the Xolos, is giving fans on both sides of the border something to cheer about.
Looking to put a little horror into your hours at the festival? The Film Geeks have you covered with The Curse of the Werewolf, set in Spain. When a man can no longer contain his macabre and violent urges, he takes off, terrorizing the Spanish countryside. And if it’s more diversity in your monsters that you want, Selma Hayek is back in Tale of Tales, a visual feast of witches, ogres, fairies, rulers and courtesans who cross paths in a more adult version of fairytales.
For kids, there are free screenings for their schools and several films, including La Fórmula del Dr. Funes (Dr. Funes’ Formula), about a gifted scientist who invents an age-reversing formula. However, instead turning himself 20, he ends up an adolescent and needs to overcome his rival researcher in the race to an antidote.
As in past years, the SDLFF offers much more than films. Festival goers can meet and listen to presentations by leads and directors of various films as well as experience daily mini-concerts from Flamenco to Indie to Boleros to Danza Azteca. Those 21 and up can celebrate the festival with a choice of several parties over the course of the festival run.
The San Diego Latino Film Festival runs from March 10 – March 20, at the Fashion Valley Mall. Please see The San Diego Latino Festival page at http://sdlatinofilmfestival.com/ for times, prices, and additional information.
IMAGE: “La Vida Buena”
