Queens Launches New Immigrant Film Fest

Queens, with a population of over 2 million people of which 26.5% is of Hispanic descent, is the location of the new  The Other Side Film Festival, which is being billed as the first film festival for immigrants in Queens, focusing on Latin Americans and Latinos. The aim of the festival is to create a space for the invisible, the displaced— the immigrants to develop diverse initiatives that enrich and raise awareness about the audiovisual culture with a special focus on the cultural, political and social aspects of the diverse community of New York City, specifically in the distinct borough of Queens.

The non-competitive film festival which is organized by Momentos de Arte y Cultura, CUNY John Jay College of Criminal Justice and Movimiento Audiovisual Alternativo y Comunitario de Ciudad Bolivar (Bogota, Colombia) opened on Friday, July 27 and runs through Wednesday, July 31.

The festival features the work and talent of promising Latin American filmmakers from different countries including the United States, Spain, Mexico, and Ecuador, among others. The lineup ranges from animation, shorts and a special emphasis on films and documentaries that showcase the situations of the immigrants. Additionally, as part of the program "Semillero", a series to encourage filmmaking and production, there will be multiple workshops in different areas of audiovisual training. 

Actress Lupe Ontiveros Passes Away

Renowned Mexican-American actress Lupe Ontiveros, 69, passed away this Thursday evening in Los Angeles. For the U.S. Latino community, Ontiveros was one of the most recognized actresses in cinema. With films like Zoot Suit (Luis Valdes, 1981), and Real Women Have Curves (Patricia Cardoso, 2002), Ontiveros built her career on playing immigrant characters.

She gained attention with her performance in the 1983 film El Norte directed by Gregory Nava, with whom she worked with in his subsequent film My Family / Mi familia (1995), and Selena (1997) in which she played the role of Yolanda Saldívar, the convicted murderer of the famed Tejano singer.

She also worked with director James L. Brooks in the Academy Award-nominated As Good as it Gets (1997); with director Miguel Arteta in Chuck & Buck (2000) for which she earn a nomination for Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture at the Independent Spirit Awards; and with director Todd Solondz in Storytelling (2001).

According to reports, she suffered from liver cancer. The news of her death has unexpected shocked and sent waves through social media from the Latino community. The daughter of Mexican immigrants, Ontiveros was born in El Paso, Texas in 1942. When awarded the NALIP Lifetime Achievement award, actor Edward James Olmos described her as a prolific artist and “as good as it gets.” Ontiveros is survived by her husband and three adult children.

JUAN OF THE DEAD to Open Vancouver Latin American Film Fest

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.                                                                                                                        

NY Latino Film Fest Announces Lineup

The New York International International Latino Film Festival (NYILFF),  announced today its lineup for its 13th edition which will run August 13-19. Opening the festival is Youssef Delara and Michael D. Olmos' Filly Brown, starring Gina Rodriguez as a tough LA street poet, and closing with Laura Brownson and Beth Levison's Lemon the incredible story of three-time felon and one-time Tony Award-winner, Lemon Anderson.

This year, NYILFF will also include panel discussions and other activities in celebration of Latino films beginning with a presentation of Selena at Cinema Under the Stars, a free outdoor screening at St. Nicholas Park. Presenting Dominican Night, the festival will screen the winner of the Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival Audience Award, the heartwarming film Elliot Loves by Terracino, a story finding love in New York.

The World Premiere of The Girl is in Trouble, starring Wilmer Valderrama and Columbus Short, will screen with actors in attendance for a Q&A. Valderrama plays a bartender entangled in a murder mystery involving a desperate woman, a missing rug dealer and the scion of a powerful investment firm. NYILFF will also be presenting its in competition domestic and international features, documentaries and shorts, including Tom Gustafson's Mariachi Gringo, Winner of the prize for Best Mexican Film at the last edition of the Guadalajara Film Festival, Alejandro Bellame Palacio's El rumor de las piedras / The Rumble of the Stones from Venezuela, and Rodrigo Marín's Zoológico / Zoo from Chile. 

For complete lineup, click here.

Limited Latin American Representation at Venice

The Venice Film Festival announced today the full lineup for its 69th edition, which includes two Argentine feature films and some Latin American shorts. The festival’s more cutting-edge section, Orizzonti (Horizons), which features films screening both in and out of competition, will present Leones (pictured), an Argentinean production in partnership with France and the Netherlands, the debut feature film by Jazmín López.

Also from Argentina, documentary film El impenetrable (in co-production with France), directed by Daniele Incalcaterra and Fausta Quattrini is scheduled to screen as part of the special events screening out of competition. The Mexican documentary film Miradas múltiples by Emilio Maillé about the legendary cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa, will also be screened out of competition in the Venice Classics program.

Three Latin American shorts were also selected to compete in the Orizzonti section: Las manos limpias by Carlos Armella from Mexico, O Afinador directed by Fernando Camargo and Matheus Parizi from Brazil, and Resistente by Renate Costa and Salla Sorry from Paraguay (in co-production wth Denmark and Finland), becoming the first Paraguayan production ever to participate in the Italian festival.

The 69th edition of the Venice Film Festival will screen run from August 29th through September 8th.

Guanajuato Announces its 2012 Winners

The Guanajuato Film Festival (formerly Expresión en Corto) announced the winners of its 15th edition which runs July 20-25 in Guanajuato and San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. The prize for Best Mexican First Film was awarded to Hatuey Viveros for Mi universo en minúsculas / My Universe in Lowercase, while Sebastián del Amo's El fantastic mundo de Juan Orol / The Fantastic World of Juan Orol received a Special Mention in the same category.

The prize for Best Mexican documentary went to Flor en otomí / Flower in Otomi by Luisa Riley while Karla Castañeda's La noria received the awards for Best Mexican Short Film. The festival was inaugurated last Friday with the Mexican premiere of Michel Franco's Después de Lucía / After Lucía, winner of the Un Certain Regard section at the last edition of the Cannes Film Festival.

For a complete list of winners click here.