The Chicago Latino Film Festival comes to NU to educate students about Latino culture

The Chicago Latino Film Festival brings Latino culture to the Northwest through cinema in a two-day event Tuesday and Thursday.

The film festival is a 40-year-old tradition based in Chicago that showcases new voices of Ibero-American cinema, documenting the history of its art form and encouraging cultural expression in a week-long event downtown.

Its influence extended to NU in 2018, when the Department of Spanish and Portuguese contacted the festival. This is the second time the festival has been held at the University after an interruption due to the COVID-19 pandemic and financial reasons.

The department brought the festival to campus to provide an event for those interested in Spanish culture, said Spanish professor Reyes Morán, a member of the NU initiative committee.

They also found connections between the films and the department's curriculum.

“It fits well into a lot of our curriculum,” said committee member and Spanish professor César Enrique Hoyos Álvarez. “So this is a way for students to also see how these films are sort of related or connected to the topics that they're covering in class.”

The films presented at NU are the documentary “Water for Life” and the drama “Allà, cartas al corazón”. It's a “rare” selection that viewers won't be able to see elsewhere, said committee member and lecturer Isabella Vergara Calderon.

The NU committee selected two of the festival's 50 feature films and 35 short films that they believed would be best received on campus, Calderon said.

“They are asking us to choose two films that resonate best with our students on campus as well as the community off campus and connect the two spaces together,” she said.

But the festival can't be held on campus every year, and the committee doesn't know if NU will host it in 2025, Calderon said.

The department's ability to host the festival depends on its budget to purchase the film rights and the availability of theaters, Calderon said.

Fundraising is an important factor in financing films, and there is a collaborative effort between various organizations to fund the festival, including the Department of Radio, Television and Film, the Latin American Studies Program and Caribbean, the Language Resource Center and the Alice Kaplan. Institute of Human Sciences.

The festival is not limited to NU Spanish students. The intention was to open it up to the community and anyone who wanted to know more about the films and their themes, Hoyos Álvarez said, and Tuesday's film attracted about 30 people.

“Water for Life” tells the story of three individuals in Honduras, El Salvador and Chile who refused to let government-backed industries and transnational corporations take their water. After the film, director Will Parrinello participated in a Q&A event.

Evanston resident Mary Lucas attended Tuesday's film with her husband Isidro Lucas, a former Chicago Latino Film Festival board member. Mary Lucas said she loved the film and thought the photography was “outstanding”.

Isidro Lucas agreed.

“It was very, very good,” he said. “The pacing is great, the personalities are highlighted and the images are extremely convincing. »

The festival will present the Mexican drama “Allà, cartas al corazón” on Thursday in the Lutkin Hall at 5:30 p.m., with opening remarks by director Montserrat Larqué and a closing reception.

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