Latin American Film Festival | Spanish and Latin American Studies

The 2021 Latin American Film Festival has just premiered the last film for the season but stay tuned to our website for more information on upcoming Film Festivals.

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, 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.

This year the Festival will be fully online and the films will be available to stream from a secure website for a period of one week starting from the opening date shown below.

Join Professor Mario Boido on the opening night of every film for a watch party and a post-screening (livechat) discussion (links to appear below closer to the dates shown).

Check out this year's exciting lineup!

Film	Date
Guie’dani’s Navel Event ended Film Synopsis: "In a star-making performance, Sótera Cruz brings razor-sharp intensity to her portrayal of Guie’dani, a Zapotec girl determined to fight for her dignity. Guie’dani is dragged to Mexico City by her mother to help in her work as a housekeeper for an upper-middle-class family. There, the subtle psychological subjugation inflicted by the white family functions as a metaphor for the oppression of the old world by the new. Yet, Guie’dani rejects the life of servitude and seeks her own identity through a friendship with another rebellious teen. A striking contrast to Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma, Guie’dani’s Navel is a unique coming-of-age narrative exploring the racism inflicted on indigenous people in Mexico and the empowerment of a new generation that refuses to accept it silently." - PRAGDA	January 27, 2021 (Available until February 4, 2021)
The Awakening of the Ants Event ended Film Synopsis: "For thoughtful, demure young housewife Isa, life in a lush, postcard-perfect Costa Rican seaside village is far from anyone’s idea of a dream. She is being pressured by her intrusive and loudly opinionated in-laws to have another baby – a boy – even as her already cramped household struggles to stay afloat. She tends to the needs of her husband and two daughters while her own desires remain distant and ignored. Isa finds herself suffocated by rigid gender roles and the cloistered, provincial thinking that comes with small-town life. Desperately imagining some other way of living—single, childless, desired—while growing increasingly tense towards those closest to her, Isa finds herself at a breaking point awakening to the possibilities of a life lived on her own terms, in this engrossing and intimate feature debut from writer/director Antonella Sudasassi Furniss." - PRAGDA	February 10, 2021 (Available until February 18, 2021)
Birds of Passage Event ended Film Synopsis: "Cristina Gallego and Ciro Guerra, the creative team behind Oscar®-nominated EMBRACE OF THE SERPENT(also available for your SFC festival), return with this inspired mob epic for the ages — a completely fresh take on the origins of the Colombian drug trade, far from Narcos and Escobar, as told through the story of an indigenous Wayúu family. In the 1970s, as an American-fueled marijuana boom hits Colombia, farmers quickly turn into seasoned businessmen starting a narco-trafficking era known as “la Bonanza Marimbera.” In the Guajira desert, one indigenous Wayúu clan takes a leading role. Guided by matriarch Ursula Pushaina, the “Birds of Passage”—drug runners—face the constant risk of violence and incarceration from the outsiders in Northern Colombia. The cultural differences between the native population and the newcomers begin a brutal war that threatens to destroy the Wayúu way of life. As greed, passion, and honor blend together over the decades, the family’s unity, their lives, and their ancestral traditions are all put at stake. A true story, the visually striking Birds of Passage is as much a thriller as it is an anthropological study on the consequences of outside influences to indigenous traditions." -PRAGDA	February 24, 2021 (Available until March 1, 2021)
Perro Bomba Event ended Film Synopsis: "Steevens is a young Haitian immigrant living a challenging, but somewhat stable life in Santiago de Chile: he has a construction job, a home, friends, and fun. This precariously balanced life is disrupted when Junior, a childhood friend from Haiti, arrives in Chile seeking assistance from Steevens to establish himself. Junior has entered Chile without papers and doesn’t speak any Spanish. Steevens does everything he can to support his friend and even manages to get him a job with his employer. When an incident at their workplace erupts racial tensions and stokes a large anti-immigration sentiment in the city, Steveens loses his working documents. Now without a job, Steveens has to vacate his home and is left to wander the city, looking for a chance to restart his life beyond the margins of society."- PRAGDA	March 10, 2021 (Available until March 16, 2021)
Neither Hero Nor Traitor Event ended Film Synopsis: "Buenos Aires, 1982. Matías (19) has recently finished his military service and dreams of going to Spain to study music far from a dictatorship. His problems come down to convincing his girlfriend to meet him there at a later date and to get around his father’s opposition. But the playing board changes completely when the Falklands War breaks out and he is drafted along with his friends. At first, Matías will agree to the call-up, but he will realize that he isn’t feeling this war – or maybe any war, to be honest, no matter how just the cause may seem to be. The fear to die but also the horror of killing, a Republican grandfather, friends turned strangers who point guns at each other, a shot in the foot as an act of friendship… his environment demands that he ‘mature.’ Will desertion be his first adult act? Treason and loyalty, fear, and braveness. The story of a deserter." - PRAGDA	March 24, 2021 (Available until March 29, 2021)

Film

Date

Guie’dani’s Navel

Event ended

Film Synopsis:

"In a star-making performance, Sótera Cruz brings razor-sharp intensity to her portrayal of Guie’dani, a Zapotec girl determined to fight for her dignity.

Guie’dani is dragged to Mexico City by her mother to help in her work as a housekeeper for an upper-middle-class family. There, the subtle psychological subjugation inflicted by the white family functions as a metaphor for the oppression of the old world by the new. Yet, Guie’dani rejects the life of servitude and seeks her own identity through a friendship with another rebellious teen.

A striking contrast to Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma, Guie’dani’s Navel is a unique coming-of-age narrative exploring the racism inflicted on indigenous people in Mexico and the empowerment of a new generation that refuses to accept it silently." - PRAGDA

January 27, 2021

(Available until February 4, 2021)

The Awakening of the Ants

Event ended

Film Synopsis:

"For thoughtful, demure young housewife Isa, life in a lush, postcard-perfect Costa Rican seaside village is far from anyone’s idea of a dream. She is being pressured by her intrusive and loudly opinionated in-laws to have another baby – a boy – even as her already cramped household struggles to stay afloat. She tends to the needs of her husband and two daughters while her own desires remain distant and ignored.

Isa finds herself suffocated by rigid gender roles and the cloistered, provincial thinking that comes with small-town life. Desperately imagining some other way of living—single, childless, desired—while growing increasingly tense towards those closest to her, Isa finds herself at a breaking point awakening to the possibilities of a life lived on her own terms, in this engrossing and intimate feature debut from writer/director Antonella Sudasassi Furniss." - PRAGDA

February 10, 2021

(Available until February 18, 2021)

Birds of Passage

Event ended

Film Synopsis:

"Cristina Gallego and Ciro Guerra, the creative team behind Oscar®-nominated EMBRACE OF THE SERPENT(also available for your SFC festival), return with this inspired mob epic for the ages — a completely fresh take on the origins of the Colombian drug trade, far from Narcos and Escobar, as told through the story of an indigenous Wayúu family.

In the 1970s, as an American-fueled marijuana boom hits Colombia, farmers quickly turn into seasoned businessmen starting a narco-trafficking era known as “la Bonanza Marimbera.”

In the Guajira desert, one indigenous Wayúu clan takes a leading role. Guided by matriarch Ursula Pushaina, the “Birds of Passage”—drug runners—face the constant risk of violence and incarceration from the outsiders in Northern Colombia. The cultural differences between the native population and the newcomers begin a brutal war that threatens to destroy the Wayúu way of life. As greed, passion, and honor blend together over the decades, the family’s unity, their lives, and their ancestral traditions are all put at stake.

A true story, the visually striking Birds of Passage is as much a thriller as it is an anthropological study on the consequences of outside influences to indigenous traditions." -PRAGDA

February 24, 2021

(Available until March 1, 2021)

Perro Bomba

Event ended

Film Synopsis: "Steevens is a young Haitian immigrant living a challenging, but somewhat stable life in Santiago de Chile: he has a construction job, a home, friends, and fun.

This precariously balanced life is disrupted when Junior, a childhood friend from Haiti, arrives in Chile seeking assistance from Steevens to establish himself. Junior has entered Chile without papers and doesn’t speak any Spanish. Steevens does everything he can to support his friend and even manages to get him a job with his employer. When an incident at their workplace erupts racial tensions and stokes a large anti-immigration sentiment in the city, Steveens loses his working documents. Now without a job, Steveens has to vacate his home and is left to wander the city, looking for a chance to restart his life beyond the margins of society."- PRAGDA

March 10, 2021

(Available until March 16, 2021)

Neither Hero Nor Traitor

Event ended

Film Synopsis:

"Buenos Aires, 1982. Matías (19) has recently finished his military service and dreams of going to Spain to study music far from a dictatorship. His problems come down to convincing his girlfriend to meet him there at a later date and to get around his father’s opposition. But the playing board changes completely when the Falklands War breaks out and he is drafted along with his friends.

At first, Matías will agree to the call-up, but he will realize that he isn’t feeling this war – or maybe any war, to be honest, no matter how just the cause may seem to be. The fear to die but also the horror of killing, a Republican grandfather, friends turned strangers who point guns at each other, a shot in the foot as an act of friendship… his environment demands that he ‘mature.’ Will desertion be his first adult act? Treason and loyalty, fear, and braveness. The story of a deserter." - PRAGDA

March 24, 2021

(Available until March 29, 2021)

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.