Category Archives: Film Festivals

Celebrating its 13th edition, the New York International Latino Film Festival begins this coming Monday, August 13 and runs through Sunday, August 19. This annual showcase celebrates the work of Latino/a talent both behind and in front of the camera, and was a regular partner of NewFest when I ran that event, co-presenting programs of interest to both communities.

This year’s lineup presents more than thirty features and thirty shorts, of which five are feature documentaries, including the closing night gala, Laura Brownson and Beth Levison’s portrait of a Puerto Rican slam poet and ex-con, LEMON. Artistic expression is also at the heart of another doc, Daniel Fridell’s EL MÉDICO: THE CUBATÓN STORY, about a young Cuban doctor who really wants to be a popstar (which I wrote about previously here). Diego Graue and Raymundo Marmolejo’s WAITING FOR THE BEATLES (ESPERANDO A LOS BITLES) picks up on the music theme by focusing on present-day Beatlemania in Mexico. The final two docs both involve personal quests – María Paz González’s DAUGHTER (HIJA) follows the filmmaker and her mother on a road trip in which each woman searches for missing parts of her past, while Andrés Pardo’s intriguing LOOKING FOR LARISA (BUSCANDO A LARISA) (pictured) details an investigation into the origins of a roll of found Super 8 footage from the 70s and the haunting woman it pictures.

The Film Society of Lincoln Center’s annual showcase of recent Latin American cinema, Latinbeat, begins this Friday, August 10 and runs through Thursday, August 23. The 13th edition features 19 feature-length films – six of them documentaries, including the closing night film – as well as a special panel on New Mexican Cinema.

The documentaries cover a wide range of subjects – father and son directors Jaime Roos and Yamandu Roos’ closer, 3 MILLION (3 MILLONES) (pictured above), follows the Uruguayan national soccer team to the World Cup to explore the love of soccer; Eduardo Coutinho’s SONGS (AS CANÇOES) features interviews with Cariocas about their favorite Brazilian songs; and Alysa Nahmias and Benjamin Murray’s UNFINISHED SPACES revisits Cuba’s would-be utopian National Art Schools. Three Argentinian docs are also included: Celina Murga’s cinema verité NORMAL SCHOOL (ESCUELA NORMAL) returns to the filmmaker’s public school to observe modern youth; Nicolas Prividera’s FATHERLAND (TIERRA DE LOS PADRES) (pictured) reconstructs Argentina’s history through the words of its now-deceased national heroes, set in the necropolis of a Buenos Aires cemetery; while Mariano Aiello and Kristina Hille’s AWKA LIWEN confronts viewers with an alternative history of the nation through the lens of the 19th century extermination of its indigenous communities.