Hummingbirds by Silvia del Carmen Castaños and Estefanía ''Beba'' Contreras
This years’ AFI Fest in Los Angeles boasts an exciting lineup of films from across Latin America and from Latinx filmmakers based in the diaspora. The festival will be exclusively in person with screenings at the TCL Chinese Theatre and the TCL Chinese 6 Theaters located in Hollywood, California and run from October 25 to 29.
Among the festival’s astounding selection are the academy submissions of three countries from Latin America: Chile’s The Settlers / Los colonos is a visually striking debut film by Felipe Gálvez; the Brazilian documentary Pictures of Ghosts / Retratos Fantasmas, is an infectious personal essay by the director of Bacurau, Kleber Mendonça Filho; Mexico’s Oscar submission, Tótem by Lila Avilés, is a powerfully emotional family tapestry.
The World Cinema section of the festival includes the most recent film by renowned Mexican filmmaker Amat Escalante, Lost in the Night / Perdidos en la noche. Also in the World Cinema section is The Buriti Flower / Crowrã, a spellbinding blend of ethnography and narrative filmmaking from the Brazilian directors João Salaviza and Renée Nader Messora that was shot over the course of 15 months in four different villages within the Krahôlandia Indigenous Land of Brazil.
Also in the documentary section at AFI Fest, is Going Varsity in Mariachi, directed by Alejandra Vasquez and Sam Osborn, about a passionate group of student musicians of varying experience levels from a south Texas high school’s mariachi team. The acclaimed Mexican filmmaker, Tatiana Huezo, makes a visually arresting return to nonfiction filmmaking with The Echo / El eco, an immersive portrait of multi-generational family life in the remote Mexican highlands.
The festival also includes a selection of films in its Special Screening section. Memory, the latest film by Mexican director Michel Franco, is a heart-wrenching melodrama featuring the award-winning performance of Peter Sarsgaard and Jessica Chastain. The Uruguayan/Spanish film Society of the Snow / La sociedad de la nieve, directed by Spanish director J.A. Bayona, tells the tragic, true story of Uruguayan Flight 571. A chartered flight filled with members of the Old Christian Club Rugby team en route to a match in Santiago, Chile that crashed in the cold depths of the Andes. The 29 survivors face hunger and extreme environmental elements; they're forced to make some terrifying choices if they want to stay alive.
The Colombian film La perra, will have its premiere in the shorts section “Animation 2.” In a beautiful journey without dialogue directed by Carla Melo Gampert, a bird-girl in Bogota leaves behind the family home, her domineering mother and a faithful dog to go and explore her sexuality.
