Latin American Film and Art Festival Celebrates 2nd Successful Year

Latin American Film & Art Festival 2015
By Alejandra Vega

 “In Latin America, the marvelous is at every turn…”
-Alejo Carpentier

Latin America speaks with a loud and clear voice, scented by film, art and culture. It says many things. It tells stories to the wind, stories that, in collaboration with the clock and several adventures, have woven the patchwork of contrasting colors that the region is today.

Political effervescence, tangos, bipolar cities, brave mothers and violent men; triumphs and disasters; baseball feats and ballrooms: it all fits in Latin America. These stories were begging to be told, and they were finally narrated in California this November by the Latin American Film & Art Festival 2015, presented by the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences at CSUN, UNAM Los Angeles, and the Ingmar Bergman Chair in Film and Theater at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

The event took place at California State University, Northridge from November 12 through 15.

“The festival was a great opportunity to share the amazingly diverse culture of Latin America not only with CSUN students but also with the larger community in the San Fernando Valley area… and beyond,” said Ph.D. Patricia Juarez-Dappe, who participated in the coordination of the event. “It was also great to be able to work in close partnership with such an amazing institution as UNAM-LA.”

The festival was filled with movies, documentaries, art exhibitions and theatrical readings. All the events were free and open to the public. “I had not visited an art exhibition lately, so I decided to come—and I have no regrets,” says smiley Ruth Alvarado, who was struck by the half urban-half fantastic paintings created by artist Eva Malhotra. The opening reception took place at the lobby of Manzanita Hall on Friday, November 13. The white-walled hall opened its ears to the inaugural speeches addressed by representatives of the organizing institutions, and the feature function of the night was “Wild Tales,” black comedy film written and directed by Argentine Damian Szifron.

The festival was attended by prominent figures, among them, Carolina Vila and José Pulido, directors of the documentary La Hazaña del 41, which tells the story of the triumph of Venezuela in the World Amateur Baseball Championship 1941; Tenoch Huerta, actor in Güeros, award-winning film by Mexican director Alonso Ruizpalacios and road movie set in Mexico City in the late Twentieth Century; Jorge Pérez Solano, director of the acclaimed film La Tirisia, which counts with plenty of social and cultural metaphors; and Mexican actor José Pecina, star of “Tropical Carmine“, directed by Rigoberto Perezcano, in which the issue of community muxe in Juchitan, Oaxaca is discussed.

Festival-goers had the opportunity to exchange comments and ask questions to these personalities.

Other highlights of the festival were: the stage play Los Valientes, with actor Marcos Sotomayor and pianist David Berry; Bang, Bang! Painting exhibition by contemporary artist Eva Malhotra, who through the intricate strokes of her artwork raised her voice to make us reflect on the issue of borders and the divisions humans build, which continually lead to black holes of violence; and the theatrical readings, coordinated by Abril Alzaga and Abigail Sánchez Cue from UNAM’s Ingmar Bergman Chair in Film and Theater, readings in which attendees could approach drama in an unconventional way, participating in the texts and becoming actors for a brief, but magical moment.

Also worth mentioning is the presentation of the short films by students of UNAM and CSUN, result of the film workshop held last summer in Los Angeles. The screening happened in the Little Theatre during the activities of Saturday morning. Corre, by Robert Hovanisian and Elmer Zelaya, raised different reactions among the audience because it addresses a big issue: the growing-and worrying-human trafficking in the world.

Documentaries Gabo, on the life of Nobel Prize Winner and Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez, and The Suspended Time, the story of a woman and her tireless fight against forgetting State crimes perpetrated in Argentina during the 70’s, were also showed. And for young audiences, Anina, an animation that tells the story of a ten year-old girl trying to understand the world and her place in it, was projected. With four days full of activities, the Latin American Film & Art Festival, in its 2015 edition, greatly contributed to bring to mind and to the edge of our lips the wise and trusted words of writer Alejo Carpentier: “In Latin America, the marvelous is at every turn…”