Hot Docs, Canadian International Documentary Festival has announced its lineup for its 2012 edition running April 26-May 6 in Toronto, Canada, and the festival includes nine films from Latin America and/or with Latin American themes.
The official lineup includes Colombianos, a Swedish film by director Tora Mårtens that tells the story of two vastly different Colombian brothers who were raised in Stockholm. One has returned to Colombia to study medicine, the other is still in Sweden, partying with his friends. Eventually, one brother convinces the other to come and live with him in Colombia to hopefully get him on the right track; Cuates de Australia / Drought by Mexican director Everardo González, a cinema verite portrait of families living communally owned land in Northeast Mexico; El Huaso (pictured) by director Carlo Guillermo Proto whose father moves back to Chile from Toronto to fulfill his childhood dream of becoming a Chilean cowboy.
The other Latino films in the selection are Abuelas/ Grandmothers by director 
Afarin Eghbal, the testimonies of four of the grandmothers of Argentina's Plaza de Mayo; Inocente by directors Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine that recounts the story of a 15-year old girl who has grown up homeless on the streets of San Diego and uses her art and amazing creative ability as an outlet for empowerment; Laura (pictured) by Brazilian director Fellipe Gamarano Barbosa that tells the story of a South American socialite not quite making it in New York, yet desperate to keep up her persona.
And rounding up the lineup are Thomas Riedelsheimer's Garden of Sea, a visually stunning documentary that follows Spanish artist Cristina Iglesias as she creates an underwater installation in Mexico’s beautiful Sea of Cortez; Wildness by Wu Tsang about the historic Silver Platter Bar in Los Angeles, a staple in the Latino-LGBT community since 1963; the short film The Relationship Doctrine of Don Blanquito by Roger Nyard about a Rio-based rapper and his rants on sex and love; and Con mi corazón en Yambo / With My Heart in Yambo by Ecuadorian director Maria Fernanda Restrepo who goes back in time to follow the painful personal story of the disappearance of her brothers at the hands of the Ecuadorian police.
