The Cuban film Juan de los Muertos / Juan of the Dead directed by Alejandro Brugués will open the 10th edition of the Vancouver Latin American Film Festival to take place from August 31 through September 9 in the Canadian city. Brugués film tells the story of Juan, a man who starts his own business as a zombie slayer with the motto "Juan de los Muertos will kill your loved ones."
For years, the Vancouver Latin American Film Festival has strived to advance the public’s understanding and appreciation of Latin American Cinema. Several categories in the festival include first-time directors, documentary, and short films.
As part of its 10th year celebration, the festival had chosen to spotlight Argentine Cinema, featuring films from first time Argentine directors, historic shorts from the National School of Cinematographic Experimentation and Direction, all culminating in a retrospective on the work by directors Mariano Cohn and Gaston Duprat and the screenwriter Andrés Duprat.
Special sections included in the festival are Casa Comal, which includes work from the School of Film and Television in Guatemala, Indigenous Short Films from British Columbia and beyond, Young Woman in Film, a selection from the Mexico City Women Film Festival. Other sections include Canada Looks South, dedicated to Canadian and Latin-Canadian filmmakers who explore Latin American subjects, and Queer Latin Cinema, a section in collaboration with the Premio Maguey (Queer Award at the Guadalajara Film Festival).
Closing the festival is the Canadian premiere of Argentine Sebastían Borensztein’s Un cuento chino / Chinese Takeaway, the story of Roberto, a lonely man who lodges a Chinese boy in his house despite comical cultural differences.
