LA Latino Intl FF 2011 Celebrates Quinceañera

Details

Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Wednesday, 13 July 2011 05:00

Written by L E Shannon

The 15th Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival is screening July 17 - 25, 2011 at the Egyptian Theatre, Hollywood, California.

The Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival (LALIFF) was founded in 1997 by producer/director/actor and activist Edward James Olmos and independent producer Marlene Dermer. LALIFF is a non-profit 501c(3) organization with the mission to support the development and exhibition of diverse visions by Latino filmmakers.

LALIFF 2011 celebrates its quinceañera with feature films, documentaries, shorts, and special screenings, with selected musical events. There will also be conversations with artists and panels presented by the Writers Guild of America, West and Directors Guilds of America.

The GABI Award was created in 1997 to honor legendary Mexican cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa, the first Mexican cinematographer to be nominated for an Oscar for his work in Night of the Iguana.

This year, LALIFF presents the Gabi Lifetime Achievement Award to Academy Award winner Guillermo Navarro. Navarro‛s work includes:

• The recently completed The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn
• I Am Number Four
• Hellboy II: The Golden Army
• The Devil‛s Backbone
• Pan‛s Labyrinth, for which he won the Oscar for Best Cinematography.

Film highlights are:

Without Men
directed by Gabriela Tagliavini
based on Tales from the Town of Widows by Colombian novelist James Canon
starring Eva Longoria, Kate Del Castillo, Maria Conchita Alonso, Christian Slater, Monica Huarte
All of the men in a small, remote Latin American mountain village are recruited to go fight in the country’s civil war. Left to fend for themselves, the women of the town evolve from their supporting roles as wives and daughters to "become unwitting founders of a remarkable new society: an all-female utopia. When the men, led by an American reporter, return to try to reclaim their power, a clash of sexes ensues with unsuspected consequences."
 
All She Can
directed by Amy Wendel
starring Corina Calderon, Jeremy Ray Valdez, Joseph Julian Soria
Known at Sundance as Benavides Born, this retitled film is the story of a young girl‛s attempts to outgrow her small South Texas town by becoming a powerlifting champion. 

Maya Entertainment, a distributor that caters to Latino and multicultural audiences, acquired the film for US theatrical release. Recut after its Sundance debut, the film will be released under the title All She Can.

Harlistas: an American Journey
directed by Alfredo de Villa
A documentary about the Latino Harley-Davidson culture.

Hidalgo, La Historia Jamás Contada / Hidalgo, The Never Told Story
directed by Antonio Serrano (Mexico)
starring Demián Bichir, Ana de la Reguera
From his jail cell at Chihuahua's Military Hospital, Hidalgo begins to remember moments of his life.

A Tiro de Piedra / A Stone’s Throw Away
directed by Sebastián Hiriart (feature debut) (Mexico)
"A shepherd in the north of Mexico one day finds a keychain. Seeing it as a sign, he will undertake a trip that will take him on a journey of hundreds of miles."

La Vida De Los Peces / The Life of Fish
directed by Matías Bize (Chile)
starring Santiago Cabrera (Heroes), Blanca Lewin, Antonia Zegers
A journalist returns to his home and re-discovers the past he had chosen to forget.

Post Mortem
directed by Pablo Larraín  (Chile)
starring Marcelo Alonso, Alfredo Castro, Amparo Noguera
In 1973 Chile, during the last days of Allende's reign, a morgue employee falls for a burlesque dancer who mysteriously disappears.

Todos Tus Muertos
directed by Carlos Moreno  (Chile)
starring Fernando Lara, Alvaro Rodríguez
A peasant gets up and goes out to work on his land as usual. He finds a pile of corpses in his crops, and runs to tell the authorities. But it‛s Sunday, Election Day, and nobody seems to care.

Los Colores De La Montaña / The Colors of the Mountain
directed by Carlos Arbeláez  (Chile)
starring Genaro Aristizábal, Natalia Cuéllar, Hernán Méndez
A 9-year-old boy dreams of becoming a great goalkeeper in football.

La Hora Cero
directed by Diego Velasco (Venezuela)
starring Zapata 666, Amanda Key, Erich Wildpret
This action thriller follows a hitman trying to save his pregnant girlfriend during a health care strike in 1996.

Boleto Al Paraíso / Ticket to Paradise
directed by Gerardo Chijona (Cuba/Spain/Venezuela)
This film explores the journey of two runaways -- one escaping sexual abuse, the other running from the law. They decide to take refuge in an AIDS hospice.

La Mirada Invisible / The Invisible Eye
directed by Diego Lerman (Argentina)
Set against the backdrop of Argentina’s military regime of the 1980s, a lonely and deeply repressed assistant teacher at an elite Buenos Aires private school becomes obsessed with one of her students, despite "the school's rigid code of conduct and proud identification with the nation state."

La Maleta Mexicana / The Mexican Suitcase
directed by Trisha Ziff
This unique documentary tells of three lost boxes found in a closet in Mexico City in 2007. They had disappeared in the chaos in Europe at the beginning of World War II. The contents were 4,500 unique negatives by some of the world’s greatest photographers: Robert Capa, Gerda Taro and David "Chim" Seymour. A story of how these radical journalists united to fight fascism with their cameras, changing the way war is reported today.

Chico & Rita
directed by Fernando Trueba, Javier Mariscal, Tono Errando
This award winning animated story takes place in late 1940s Cuba. "Chico is a young piano player with big dreams. He meets Rita a beautiful singer with an extraordinary voice. Music and romantic desire unites them but their journey brings heartache and torment. A gem of a film with music by Cuban maestro, Bebo Valdez."

Also included in the Festival is 100 Sones Cubanos, by Grammy nominated composer Edesio Alejandro. This is a "wonderful journey of music and history of the Son through Cuba’s countryside and cities."

Some of the panels are:

The Business of Entertainment – Breaking in and Succeeding
Presented by Creative Artists Agency (CAA)

The Tricky Business of Making Movies and Television in L.A. – Why the Challenge Won’t Go Away
Presented by LA Business Today

New Modes and Old of Distribution for Latino Films
Moderated by: Sydney Levine, indieWIRE, SydneysBuzz

Conversations in the Filmmakers Café, "Café Con…" are with:
Guillermo Navarro, Award winning Mexican Cinematographer and this year’s LALIFF GABI Award Recipient
Sandie Viquez Pedlow, New Executive Director of Latino Public Broadcasting (LPB)
Showtime’s Dexter, Presented by the Writers Guild of America, West

For more information, visit www.latinofilm.org.

Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival
July 17 - 25, 2011

Egyptian Theatre
6712 Hollywood Blvd.
Hollywood, CA

• < Prev
• Next >