The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced the presentation of From Latin America to Hollywood: Latino Film Culture in Los Angeles, 1967–2017, a series of film screenings, live conversations, oral histories, publications and a dedicated website exploring the shared influences of Latino and Latin American filmmakers and the work they created or presented in Los Angeles during the past half-century.
The screening series, running September 16, 2017 through January 18, 2018, is a part of the Academy’s participation in the Getty-led Southern California-wide arts initiative Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA.
Guest-curated by Oscar®-nominated documentarian Lourdes Portillo, From Latin America to Hollywood focuses on the social, cultural and political environment of the 1960s that sparked the Chicano and New Latin American cinema movements. The program highlights an extensive series of 25 oral histories of such notable Latino and Latin American filmmakers as Alfonso Cuarón, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Gregory Nava, Lucrecia Martel, Patricia Cardoso and Luis Valdez, offering a rare opportunity for audiences to experience their perspectives firsthand.
Some of the films to be screen include Real Women Have Curves (2001) by Cardoso, Zoot Suit (1981) by Valdez, Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985) by Hector Babenco, Y Tu Mamá También (2001) by Cuarón, La Ciénaga (2001) by Martel, Pan's Labyrinth (2006) by Guillermo del Toro, Strawberry and Chocolate (1993) by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea and Juan Carlos Tabío, Amores Perros (2000) by González Iñárritu, Deep Crimson (1996) by Arturo Ripstein, Danzón (1991) by María Novaro, and the 30th anniversary screening of Cheech Marin's Born in East L.A. and Valdez's La Bamba.
As part of the screening series, the directors’ films will be presented together with public conversations about filmmaking and, in some cases, will premiere new Academy Film Archive restorations. The Academy’s oral history interviews were filmed between May 2014 and September 2016 and can be viewed on the Academy’s website beginning in September.
The Academy’s publication for the project, titled From Latin America to Hollywood: Latino Film Culture in Los Angeles 1967-2017, explores the intersections, inspirations, and creative intentions of a wide-ranging group of Latino and Latin American filmmakers through the gathering, and close reading, of their oral histories, by an acclaimed group of scholars and writers.
In addition, From Latin America to Hollywood: A Public Symposium, will feature three panel discussions, “The Historical Latino in Hollywood,” “LA/LA and the New Cinema” and “How do Latinas Experience Hollywood?,” which will explore themes raised by the oral history subjects and publication contributors, including issues of origins and identity, borders and migration, choice of language, translation, and emerging voices.
