Hummingbirds by Silvia del Carmen Castaños and Estefanía ''Beba'' Contreras
NewFest: The 35th Annual New York LGBTQ+ Film Festival is taking place October 12-24 with in-person screenings in Manhattan and Brooklyn, and virtually across the US. This year’s selection includes several US Latinx and Latin American feature and short films, which are co-presented by Cinema Tropical.
Having its North American premiere is the Mexican coming of age drama All the Fires / Todos los incendios, the debut feature by Mauricio Calderón Rico. The film follows Bruno, who seems the only things he can control are the fires he starts. He is still grieving his father’s unexpected death, his mother has started a new relationship, and his best friend seems to have a crush on him. Confused and conflicted, Bruno escapes the city in search of a girl he met online. Although Bruno initially wants to pursue a romantic relationship with this alluring stranger, she ends up forcing him to confront the grief and pain he has been avoiding and address his burgeoning sexual identity. Writer-director Mauricio Calderón Rico paints a fittingly slow-burning portrait of young adulthood, queer identity, and lingering loss, in which the raging flame of adolescence is not just metaphorical.
The Argentine film Almamula by Juan Sebastián Torales tells the story of Nino and his family, who decide to spend the summer in a remote countryside house in Argentina, after experiencing relentless bullying, Nino and his family. This new location is surrounded by a mysterious forest and situated in a conservative Catholic town. Unfortunately, Nino finds himself unable to escape the suffocating grip of the traditions that drove him out in the first place.
All the while, Nino begins to see visions of the titular mythic monster who haunts the forest. With temptation and curiosity around every corner, Nino wonders how long it will take before this creature pushes his desires to the breaking point. Director Torales captures the turmoil of adolescence in Almamula with a dark sense of humor and unflinching honesty to produce a truly beguiling narrative.
Anhell69, a standout at SXSW and the recipient of Outfest LA’s Grand Jury Award, is a poignant docufiction that takes a candid look at the senseless violence affecting LGBTQ+ people in Medellín, Colombia. Blurring the lines between fiction and reality, director Theo Montoya creates a compelling portrait of a generation of artists pushing to be heard, battling for survival, and refusing to fade into obscurity. Anhell69 seamlessly melds the personal with the universal, the artistic with the confrontational, and despair with unwavering resilience. The film is both a heartfelt tribute to Montoya’s friends and a plea for the well-being of an entire community.
NewFest will also host the New York premiere of the documentary Hummingbirds by Silvia del Carmen Castaños and Estefanía ''Beba'' Contreras. Set on the Texas border, best friends Silvia and Beba dance, read tarot, make music, and savor the long summer nights of their youth. Yet, their carefree facades conceal a fragile future as they’re stuck in an endless immigration process in a politically divided America. Much like their hometown, they inhabit two worlds without truly belonging to either.
In this vigorous documentary — honored with the Jury Grand Prix at the recent Berlinale Generation 14plus — Silvia and Beba wield the camera, turning its lens on themselves and their surroundings. The result is a montage of home footage that captures the uncertainty of their predicament while highlighting the unwavering joy they carry with them through life’s ups and downs.
NewFest will also screen the shorts film Novena by Fernando López, in which a death in the family forces old friends back together where, over the course of a night, their relationship unravels into unresolved emotion; It Had to Be You by Juan Barquin and Trae DeLellis, about a couple that reminisces on the wild night on South Beach that kicked off their ten year relationship; and A History of Sitting in Waiting Rooms by Lorena Russi, a coming of age story you never knew you wanted. Meet Lorena: a rambunctious six-year-old with six cavities. One for each of the letters in her name no one can pronounce. Lorena is a butch Latina fighting to find herself in the cacophony of Queens, NY in the 90s. With the help of her imaginary best friend, Boo, a civil war ghost, Lorena will poorly navigate the drawn-out pains of puberty and the grief of adulthood.
Other short films in the lineup are Mikey’s Army by Andrew Keenan-Bolger, telling the story of 16-year-old Mikey Alvarez who finds himself at a pivotal moment where he must decide whether or not to be open and honest about what he is feeling inside; the Mexican short Ecstacy by Carolina Costa, a mystical sci-fi based on Saint Teresa de Avila’s writings; and Sam and the Universe by Alicia Ramírez, a queer sci-fi film about a non-binary person named Sam who goes on a birthday trip with friends, despite hating their birthday.
