Cine+Más SF presents the 11th San Francisco Latino Film Festival
SAN FRANCISCO / OAKLAND / BERKELEY
Sept 20-29th, 2019
About the San Francisco Latino Film Festival: SFLFF is a volunteer run and produced program. Its mission is to showcase the work of emerging and established filmmakers from the US, Latin America, and the Iberian Peninsula; increase cultural opportunities for the Latino community, as well as create a cultural dialogue amongst Latinos and non-Latinos to discuss universal cross-cultural experiences. For additional program information please visit www.sflatinofilmfestival.org or call 415-754-9580. Join us on Twitter @SFLatinoFilm, Facebook @LatinoFilmFestival or Instagram @SFLatinoFilm
The SFLFF program includes award winning and critically acclaimed documentary, narrative, feature and short films from throughout the Americas, the United State and Spain. Local and visiting filmmakers from around the country and Latin America will be in attendance.
The festival is proud to open this year at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco. Additional venues include the Alamo DraftHouse Theater (SF); the Museum of African Diaspora (SF); the San Francisco Public Library, Civic Center; Eastside Cultural Center (Oakland), BrasArte Casa de Cultura (Berkeley). Additional venues/dates and full program to be announced.
SFLFF opens this edition of the festival with YULI, (SPAIN/CUBA), Bay Area premiere, directed by Icíar Bollaín, from the BAFTA-winning writer of I, DANIEL BLAKE, Paul Laverty. YULI had its World Premiere at the San Sebastian Film Festival, where it won the Best Screenplay Award. It has gone on to receive five nominations for the Spanish ‘Goya’ awards including Best New Actor for Carlos Acosta, Best Cinematography and Best Adapted Screenplay. Based on Carlos Acosta’s autobiography NO WAY HOME – A CUBAN DANCER’S STORY, it is his own story about growing up in Cuba, becoming a dancer, moving to London and his relationship with his father, his family and his country. The cast includes Carlos Acosta playing himself and introduces Edilson Manuel Olbera playing Carlos as a boy, Keyvin Martinez who plays Carlos as a young man and Santiago Alfonso as his father. “A flamboyantly affirmative true story that’s bound to have balletophiles and biopic fans reaching for their hankies” – Screen
“The festival’s mission is to build community through film, while educating, entertaining, and recognizing the work of Latin American, Spanish and US Latino filmmakers which otherwise may not be seen in San Francisco. Now more than ever it is important for our communities to come together to see images that are both culturally affirming and of artistic merit.” said festival co-director Lucho Ramirez.
This year the festival will have a spotlight on films from the US and an Environmental program including DECADE OF FIRE, directed by Gretchen Hildebran, Vivian Vazquez, which tells the story of the 1970’s Bronx fire. Abandoned by city government, nearly a half-million people were displaced as their close-knit, multi-ethnic neighborhood burned, reducing the community to rubble. While insidious government policies caused the devastation, Black and Puerto Rican residents bore the blame. In this story of hope and resistance, Bronx-born Vivian Vazquez exposes the truth about the borough’s untold history and reveals how her embattled and maligned community chose to resist, remain and rebuild. DECADE OF FIRE tells the story of the South Bronx that you’ve never heard before, and offers us a roadmap for building the communities we want and truly deserve.
From our Southern California neighbors in Los Angeles, the festival is proud to feature the documentary CARLOS ALMARAZ: PLAYING WITH FIRE, written and directed by Elsa Flores Almaraz and Richard J. Montoya. A look at the life and work of the late Los Angeles artist Carlos Almaraz. From the lens of an immigrant child coming to this country to live his American Dream of becoming a famous artist. Carlos Almaraz was one of Los Angeles’ leading contemporary artists when he met his untimely death to aids in 1989. Born in Mexico City, he moved to Chicago, then to Los Angeles as a young boy where Hollywood and Walt Disney sparked the wonder, the quality of light and color pallet that would later define his artistic vision. The film also shines a light upon the insidious dimensions of the aids epidemic during the 80’s. With full access to the Almaraz estate, much of the narrative is told through Almaraz’ own voice utilizing vintage footage, poetry, interviews and journal readings by iconic voices like Zack de la Rocha (rage against the machine), Edward James Olmos and an interview with Bay Area’s recently departed “godfather of art & community”, Rene Yañez. Artist Louie Perez (Los Lobos) composes the music.
A partial list of local films and /or filmmakers include: BRING ME AN AVOCADO, directed by Maria Mealla, originally from the Andes Mountains of Bolivia. She was raised by storytellers that encouraged her to pursue the arts, a path that led her first to study theater in Austin and eventually landed her in San Francisco pursuing the art of film. When a violent encounter leaves Robin in a coma, her family struggles to maintain a life while managing their grief. Coming out of a year of personal tragedy that shook the director’s family to the core, she wrote BRING ME AN AVOCADO to tackle the human experience of grief and trauma. Mealla uses the magic of narrative film to pull the curtain back on the harder parts of grief and hopefully, with this sincere portrayal, encourage people to feel more compassion for others living through tragedy.
BATHROOM STALLS & PARKING LOTS, directed by Brazilian-born Thales Corrêa, an award-winning Director, Writer, and Producer based in Los Angeles. BATHROOM STALLS & PARKING LOTS explores dating in today’s hook-up culture. It analyses how dating apps have turned relationships into disposable and meaningless experiences through times. Studies have shown how it can alter our psychological associations with men, sex, and love in general. The movie examines the subjects of expectations versus reality, emotional intelligence, and availability. It also questions love being as real as sex, and whether it has the same rules or not. It takes a closer look at the culture of romantic relationships among gay/bisexual male youth in the Castro District of San Francisco.
COLLISION, directed by Richard Levien. The cast includes Jesse Garcia (Quinceañera), Izabella Alvarez (Westworld), Ana de la Reguera (Narcos) and Jason Garcia (Girlfriends Day). Twelve-year-old Itan’s promising life in San Francisco is turned upside down when she comes home from school, with her younger brother, to find her apartment ransacked and her mother missing. Suddenly she must rely on her estranged uncle, a big rig truck driver. Itan manipulates him into taking them across the country in his truck, trying to find her mother and stop her deportation. As an immigrant himself, from New Zealand originally, Levien is drawn to immigrant stories, which always start with separating oneself from family to follow a dream. His wife and co-producer Zareen Levien teaches at an elementary school with a vulnerable Latino population. Levien’s met a girl in Zareen’s class whose father had just been deported. She agreed to be interviewed about her experience for his research. Her bravery was profoundly moving for him, and a huge inspiration to make “Collisions”. Their goal with “Collisions” is to humanize the immigration debate now raging and have the families affected to become real for our audience, not just statistics.
About Cine+Más SF Cine+Más SF contributes to the Bay Area’s active and diverse arts scene through the San Francisco Latino Film Festival, year round programming and special events centered on the celebration of Latino arts including the visual, performance, and literary arts. The Cine+Más San Francisco Latino Film Festival is made possible with the generous contributions of sponsors and their continued commitment to Latino arts in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Cine+Más SF is community supported by individual donors and sponsors. A short list of partners include CBS, KQED, KPFA, XFINITY, ViendoMovies, HBO, Delta Air Lines, iHeartRadio, Toyota, the Alamo DraftHouse, and the Roxie Theater.