The Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival returns from July 31 through Sunday, Aug. 4 to the TCL Chinese Theatres in Hollywood.
And while the “International” in the event’s title still applies, the emphasis this year is on U.S. Latinx filmmakers.
“We’ve gone into the community in the United States and looked for the films that are coming out,” explains Edward James Olmos, the L.A.-born actor (“Stand and Deliver,” “Battlestar Galactica”) who co-founded LALIFF in 1998. “We will continue to bring product from around the world, but in essence we are also looking very direct and strongly toward the up-and-coming filmmakers that we have here in the United States that happen to be of Latino origin. The base of it is to create a place where our community can be exhibited.”
The festival opens July 31 with “The Infiltrators,” Cristina Ibarra and Alex Rivera’s multiple Sundance Film Festival prize-winning documentary/narrative hybrid about a group of young Dreamers who get themselves arrested in order to check out a shady, for-profit detention center.
In all, 10 of the 15 features playing at LALIFF were made by U.S. Latinx filmmakers. Ten of them also had female directors or co-directors. Films produced or co-produced from Latin America, Europe and Lebanon will also be shown.
In addition, there’ll be 17 short films, five episodics and panels on animation, Latina TV representation and other topics. Plus lots of music, art and other surprises, Olmos promises.
“Last year was our first year back and it was so inspirational,” says the actor, who explains the festival’s absence for several years before 2018 was due to its parent organization, the Latino Film Institute’s, focus of energy and resources on its Youth Cinema Project. “There were a lot of tears, a lot of people in the community were so happy. Especially in today’s times, we really need an understanding of the unification of people around culture, especially the Latino culture with what’s going on in the political world today. It’s really needed.”
The Youth Cinema Project taught some 1400 students throughout the state about filmmaking this year.
“YCP brings professional filmmakers into Title 1 public schools and works with teachers to implement a challenging and standards-based curriculum to support students in some of the poorest and most linguistically diverse California communities,” a recent stakeholders report from the Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning and Equity says. The classroom teachers from where the programs are held have all been invited to the festival.
“We’re really trying very hard now to look at the development of the industry,” says Olmos.
For more information, full program and to buy tickets, go to www.latinofilm.org.
