The Latin American Film Festival is a celebration of our cultural diversity through the great stories told in this selection of movies. Proudly presented by the Department of Spanish and Latin American Studies in collaboration with the Kitchener Public Library and the Spanish Film Club, the festival provides KW audiences with an opportunity to experience a dynamic selection of contemporary Latin American films that celebrate the rich and diverse cultures of the region.
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We are excited to present our movie line up for this year:
- A Bruddah's Mind Live Screening: Wednesday, January 18, 2023
- Yvy Maraey, Land Without Evil Live screening: Wednesday, February 1, 2023
- Miriam Lies Live screening: Wednesday, February 15, 2023
- Nudo Mixteco Live screening: Wednesday, March 1, 2023
- Nobody's Watching Live screening: Wednesday, March 15, 2023
A Bruddah's Mind
Live Screening: Wednesday, January 18, 2023 at 7:00PM EST at the Kitchener Public Library theatre (KPL Central Branch, 85 Queen Street North)
(Available January 16-25, 2023)
Event ended. See below for next film premiere.
Film Synopsis:
"Based on real events, this political drama fuses Brazilian history with international anti-racist movements. Saulo, a black introvert student and fan of the Black Panther Movement, challenges his school in the largely white city of Fortaleza.
After Saulo’s reaction to a racial insult from a classmate, his teachers describe him as a young delinquent and swiftly attempt to expel him ignoring his usually calm and articulate demeanor. Outraged, Saulo refuses to leave the school until justice is done. His solitary occupation ends up challenging the school’s board and mobilizes the entire community. The students did not anticipate, however, the principal’s extreme reaction.
Echoing events from around the world, A Bruddah’s Mind effectively calls out racism, misogyny, and militarism. It reminds us about the importance of activism, political engagement, and the sacrifices that come with it." - PRAGDA
Yvy Maraey, Land Without Evil
Live screening: Wednesday, February 1, 2023 at 7:00PM EST at the Kitchener Public Library theatre (KPL Central Branch, 85 Queen Street North)
Event ended. See below for next film premiere.
Film Synopsis:
"Bolivian filmmaker and a Guaraní Indian travel together through the forests of southeastern Bolivia to make a film about the Guaraní people. The starting point is a 1911 film by Swedish explorer Erland Nordenskiöld. But today’s reality turns out to be much more intense than the nostalgia for a lost world. In Yvy Maraey, the white man (the director) and the Indian create and interpret their own characters, walking the thin line between documentary, fiction, and performance. Far from observing another culture, we are watched and questioned about our identity in a country undergoing enormous social, political, and historical change as it struggles to create an intercultural society. Yvy Maraey is a quest for the knowledge within, seen through the eyes of the other. Here learning comes from another form of seeing—listening. The film combines reality with the epic tale of a heroic indigenous nation."- PRAGDA
Miram Lies
Live screening: Wednesday, February 15, 2023 at 7:00PM EST at the Kitchener Public Library theatre (KPL Central Branch, 85 Queen Street North)
(Available February 15-22, 2023)
Event ended. See below for next film premiere.
Film Synopsis:
The first dramatic feature by documentary duo Natalia Cabral and Oriol Estrada centers on a quinceañera celebration and shows how racial prejudices affect a teenage girl’s choices.
“Miriam Lies is the latest in an exciting and refreshing new wave of cinema from the Dominican Republic. For sensitive teen Miriam (Dulce Rodriguez), life really shouldn’t be much more than sunny afternoons spent with best friend Jennifer, talking about boys and making preparations for their upcoming shared quinceanera, an event celebrated mainly by upper-middle-class society in Santo Domingo. The product of a short, troubled mixed-race marriage, the shy teen is often made to feel like an outcast within her own working-class family for being darker than the rest, leading her to find comfort in an online relationship with sympathetic suitor, and potential quinceanera date, Jean-Louis.
When Jean-Louis reveals himself to be black, Miriam feels the weight of a badly broken society bear down on her young shoulders, driving her to create a web of tall tales, excuses, and deepening cover-ups. With a cast that delivers some incredibly natural performances, this powerful debut feature from co-writer/directors Natalia Cabral and Oriol Estrada shoots sharp criticism at the heart and mind of Caribbean society with a treatment as subtle as it is demolishing.”- Hebe Tabachnik, Seattle International Film Festival
Nudo Mixteco
Live screening: Wednesday, March 1, 2023 at 7:00PM EST at the Kitchener Public Library theatre (KPL Central Branch, 85 Queen Street North)
(Available Mar.1-8, 2023)
Event ended. See below for next film premiere.
Film Synopsis:
"Taking place in a rural Mixtec village in Oaxaca, southern Mexico, Nudo Mixteco follows the return of María, Esteban, and Toña, each from a different direction. Each of them has a different reason for coming back, just like each had a different reason to leave in the first place. However, all three face a confrontation that will force a turning point in their lives.
María buries her mother, her father rejects her, and in uncertainty, she asks her childhood love, Piedad, to leave with her. Esteban returns after three years to discover that Chabela, his wife, is living with another man. Enraged he calls the village people to prosecute her in an assembly. Toña, faced with her daughter’s abuse, relives her own pain when she returns to confront her family to protect her.
Narrated from the point of view of the women, the three stories momentarily intersect with each other and together paint an exceptional picture of the local culture, in which filmmaker Ángeles Cruz herself grew up. Festivities, rituals, and a village council that acts as a tribunal – these elements make up the fabric of a community that should offer protection, warmth, and security. However, the fates of the three protagonists will reveal a constant fight against age-old patriarchal power and prejudice."- PRAGDA
Nobody's Watching
Live screening: Wednesday, March 15, 2023 at 7:00PM EST at the Kitchener Public Library theatre (KPL Central Branch, 85 Queen Street North)
(Available March 15-22, 2023)
Register here for the live screening: Nobody's Watching
Film Synopsis:
"What happens when a man who is accustomed to being the centre of attention finds himself becoming invisible? When a life busked from cash in hand jobs trips into freefall? Julia Solomonoff’s delicately textured character study follows Nico, the former star of an Argentinian soap opera, who trades autograph hunters for anonymity and moves from Buenos Aires to New York to take a role in an indie movie. When the project stalls, he chooses to stay believing that his talent will help him find success. Too blond to play Latino and his accent too strong to play anything else, Nico falls through the cracks and must juggle odd jobs to survive. Unwilling to return home and be seen as a failure, Nico manages to stay afloat thanks to his ability to pretend to be something he isn’t.
Nobody’s Watching is a fresh and unexpected take on the immigrant tale, where the journey is not to get a Green card but confronting the true reasons for leaving home, and redefining one’s identity in one’s own terms." - PRAGDA
The Spanish Film Club series was made possible with the support of Pragda, and the Embassy of Spain in Washington DC, Spain-USA Foundation. Special thanks to the Secretary of State for Culture of Spain.