By Dennis O’Neil
The annual Latin American Film Festival has kicked off another year with a collection of films representing a wide range of Hispanic countries and cultures, including Cuba, Peru, Ecuador, Brazil and Argentina. The Latin American Film Festival began on Sept. 14, and will run through Oct. 20, with a new film showing every week. Each film will screen at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday nights as well as a noon screening on the following Friday. The screenings will be held at the Chao Auditorium on the bottom floor of Ekstrom Library. Admission is free. The festival is being organized and programmed by Dr. Manuel Medina, a professor of Spanish in the Classical and Modern Languages Department, who began the festival in 1995 and has been its central forerunner ever since. Medina wanted to start the festival because there was very little representation of and education about Latin American cinema in place when he began teaching at the University of Louisville. The festival came together with the help of a connection Medina had to the University of North Carolina, who first helped him acquire and present the earliest films. “I wanted people in the Spanish classes to be able to watch movies in Spanish,” said Medina. “That was the original idea. But it quickly became something where people in the whole community could get together and watch movies from Latin America and be exposed to different cultures.” Funding and support were very difficult to come by in the festival’s earliest stages, but it has now become a cornerstone event in the university’s quest for diversity. The festival is able to show more films now and sports a long list of sponsors, such as the Lewis Fund, the Modern Languages Fund and the Latin American Studies program. “It is much easier to get funding now,” said Medina. “In the beginning, it was very hard to convince people to help us. We had an article in the Courier-Journal that made people realize how important the festival is. As we have gone on, we have gotten more people to help out and we have more films to show.” The films for this year’s festival cover a broad range of interesting themes and are from a wealth of different cultures. One such film is “Abril Despecadado,” directed by Walter Salles (“The Motorcycle Diaries”), which tells the story of a blood feud in Northeastern Brazil in which a young man must choose whether or not to avenge his brother’s death at the hands of a rival family. Another film being shown is Felipe Degregori’s “Ciudad de M,” which takes place in Lima, Peru, and tells the story of a lower class young man who must choose between a life of poverty or a life of crime for survival. The films, which were selected by Medina and fellow Spanish professor Dr. Lisa Wagner, appear to paint a vivid picture of Latin American cinema as well as the cultures from which the films spring. “This year we really tried to pick the best Latin American films of the year and then present them,” Medina said. “We usually try to find a loose fitting theme to tie each set of films together. This year I think the theme is nostalgia concerning the migration experience in each particular culture.” Even after the Latin American Film Festival wraps up, there is still more to come as the Latin American Jewish Film Festival will begin on Nov. 6 and run through Nov. 11. The films will pertain to the Jewish experience in Latin America and will feature films from Uruguay, Mexico and Argentina. Medina is also one of the central figures behind “Living La Vida Loca 2006,” which has been happening since 2001 and celebrates the Mexican holiday of “The Day of the Dead,” similar to how it is celebrated in Mexican culture. “It is by far our biggest event,” said Medina. “Everyone is involved and every faculty member collaborates on ‘Living La Vida Loca.’ It has become huge.” For more information about the festival or the films set to be shown, visit the festival’s website at http://www.modernlanguages.louisville.edu/filmfestival.
