Arriving for the second half of Hispanic Heritage Month, October brings seven Latinx and Latin American in-person, virtual, and hybrid film festivals offering hundreds of recent films to American audiences. Some of the film selections are are available to stream across the country, while others are geoblocked to the festival’s state boundaries. In addition to the online screening, some of these events are also presenting outdoor screenings, plus conversations with the guest directors and panels.
Check them out!
BOSTON LATINO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
Through October 3
The 2021 edition of the Boston Latino International Film Festival (BLIFF) will take place online for a second year in a row. Since its inception in 2001, BLIFF has been committed to using the power of film to break stereotypes, bring cultures and communities together and reveal the complex issues that affect the Latinx community in the United States, Latin America and Spain.
The 2021 virtual edition of BLIFF will be presenting nine feature films including Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It by Mariem Pérez Riera, My Darling Supermarket by Tali Yankelevich, Fruits of Labor by Emily Cohen Ibañez, and Perfume de Gardenias by Macha Colón.
GEORGIA LATINO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
Through October 3
The 10th edition of the Georgia Latino International Film Festival will take place in person in Atlanta with a commitment to community, bringing together Latino filmmakers, actors, writers and artists to share encourage, and challenge, while we inspire each other.
AFI LATIN AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL
Through October 13
In its 32nd edition, the American Film Institute (AFI) Latin American Film Festival presented by the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center is making a long-anticipated return to the big screen, cementing its reputation as one of the largest and long-running showcases of Latin American cinema in the United States, dedicated to presenting Latin America's prolific and versatile talent during National Hispanic Heritage Month. This year's wide-ranging selection of 49 films spans international festival favorites and award winners, local box-office hits and dynamic debuts from a new generation of Latin American filmmakers.
The Festival opens with Mexican director Alonso Ruizpalacios' Berlin-debuted A Cop Movie. Other Festival highlights include the U.S. premieres of several highly anticipated new works from up-and-coming and established Latin American auteurs, including Oscar-nominated Peruvian filmmaker Claudia Llosa's haunting eco-thriller Fever Dream; 7 Prisoners, Brazilian director Alexandre Moratto's powerful sophomore feature; and Costa Rican-Swedish director Nathalie Álvarez Mesén's buzzy, Cannes-premiered feature debut Clara Sola.
SAN FRANCISCO LATINO FILM FESTIVAL
October 1 - 17
Cine+Mas SF is back during Heritage Month to present the 13th San Francisco Latino Film Festival. This year it will be a hybrid online and in-person event with in-person screenings at the Roxie Theater. Some of this year’s highlights include the Puerto Rican comedy Perfume de Gardenias by Macha Colón, the documentary film On the Divide by Leah Galant and Maya Cueva, as well as a special 20th anniversary screening of the Argentine landmark film La Ciénaga, the debut feature by Lucrecia Martel.
NORTH CAROLINA LATIN AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL
October 7 - 18 & 31
After a tumultuous year in which past and present challenges touched us all (systemic racism, massive protests, and a global pandemic, among others), the 2021 edition of the North Carolina Latin American Film Festival will focus on some of these issues from the lenses of filmmakers and cultural activists. A selection of films directed and produced by Afro-Latin American directors (and by others on issues of the diaspora) will highlight the emergence of a generation of audiovisual producers in the region. Each feature will be shown along with a short film on race, youth, covid, and indigeneity.
NCLAFF Conversations will feature film directors, scholars, critics, and cultural leaders working on Afro-Latin American film and culture, advancing issues of Afro-Latin American and diaspora issues in the U.S. Some of this years’ highlights include the Colombian films Monos by Alejandro Landes and La Casa de Mama icha by Óscar Molina, and Stateless by Michèle Stephenson.
MILL VALLEY FILM FESTIVAL, ¡VIVA EL CINE!
October 7 - 17
Mill Valley Film Festival’s ¡Viva el cine! initiative is a showcase of Latin American, Latinx, and Spanish-language stories, connecting audiences with a diversity of cultures, identities, and histories explored through the magic of cinema. This year will include films from Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, and Spain, and we will celebrate the opening night of ¡Viva el cine! with the North American Premiere of La Civil, by Teodora Ana Mihai.
CINEMA TUCSÓN
Sunday, October 17
Cinema Tropical and the Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Arizona have announced the launch of Cinema Tucsón, a new cultural initiative featuring monthly screenings of Mexican films at the historic Fox Tucson Theatre, programmed by Carlos A. Gutiérrez and Vicky Westover.
The series continues on Sunday, September 19 with the screening of a new digital restoration of the Mexican campy 1968 movie The Batwoman / La mujer murciélago, a fascinating and fairly unknown addition to the already overwhelmingly superb Batman franchise. Under her cape, cowl, boots and bikini the gorgeous Maura Monti takes on the lead role of Batwoman in this 1968 Mexican version. With stunning beauty and crime-fighting finesse she is called to investigate an evil and whacked out scientist who is capturing wrestlers and using their spinal fluid to create a Gill Man.
