Throughout the months of February and March, Gustavus is hosting the fourth Latinx Film Festival to showcase films from different spanish countries like Cuba, Argentina, and Mexico.
Darío Sánchez-González, an Assistant Professor in Modern Languages, Literature, and Cultures; Spanish; Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies; and LALACS at Gustavus, suggested the idea of making the film festival a series, continuing from the first festival in 2013, the year before he was hired.
“The idea comes from a few years before I came to Gustavus. I actually had proposed to make it a series based off of films I teach in a film course,” Sánchez-González said.
According to Sánchez-González, five films are chosen from the class and shown to the Gustavus community, as well as the general public, for free.
“When it comes to this festival, I always take risks. Normally when I choose the films back in November, one of the rules is that they better be new. So in many cases I go and choose films that I’ve never watched,” Sánchez-González said.
The first film, shown on February 25, was called Tempestad (Tempest) by Mexican film director Tatiana Huezo. Huezo’s first film was El lugar mas pequeno, a 2011 documentary about the Salvadoran Civil War. This film was awarded internationally, according to her biography.
This film, Tempestad, “is the story of two women who suffer the consequences of human trafficking in Mexico. It received the 2016 Fénix Award for Best Documentary,” her biography stated.
On March 4 the film El futuro perfecto (The Future Perfect), by Nele Wohlatz will be shown. Her independently-directed film received multiple awards, including Best First Feature at the Locarno Film Festival.
Carla Simón’s film, Estiu 1993 (Summer 1993), will show on March 11. Que horas ela volta? (The second Mother) by Anna Muylaert will show on March 18.
The final film, a Cuban comedy called El techo (On the Roof) by Patricia Ramos, will show on March 25. All films will be shown in Wallenberg Auditorium at 7 p.m.
The Spanish Film Club is an association that “provides us the films free of any distribution and projection issues and we get a grant where we basically just pay half the cost. It’s always a new adventure to search a catalog and then choose the films,” Sánchez-González said.
Sánchez-González grew up going to film festivals and gaining an appreciation for film and the community built through them.
“I didn’t really have a lot of means when it comes to personal access to books or films. I got that access with film festivals, so I share in that community of film festival goers,” Sánchez-González said.
Sánchez-González’s goal is to “bring something fresh” and to entertain.
“All of these films I aim to be somewhat entertaining, but I also aim for them to be challenging. There is a lot of pondering moments, a lot of thinking to do,” Sánchez-González said. “You will leave the film with your brain on fire.”
All of the films shown this year are directed by women and are “known to be very risky,” according to Sánchez-González.
The film festival takes place every two years and show five films from countries all over the world.