Programming
New Plaza Cinema hosted us again on Sunday, October 27th, 2024, for a screening of Diego Quemada-Diez's film THE GOLDEN DREAM, a vivid portrayal of three young people's journey to cross the Mexican border into the U.S.
The film was introduced by artist and activist One Rad Latina. In addition to the film, we hosted an Artist Flea Market, featuring Latin American Immigrant artists, in light of the film's theme. The participating artists included Pilar Lagos, Zelene Suchilt, Lau Nató, Lina Montoya, Javier Piñero, and Kariny Padilla.
On June 29th, 2024, we were hosted by Village East Angelika for a special screening of Robert Rodriguez's iconic 1993 debut micro-budget film EL MARIACHI. The film, made with a $7,000 budget and intended for the home video market at the time of its release, ended up revolutionizing the landscape of independent cinema for generations of filmmakers to come.
We were joined post-flm by the film's lead actor and producer, Carlos Gallardo, for a Q&A hosted by Jacqueline Pereda - comedian, writer and producer with the Latino Filmmakers Network.
The Latin American Film Center hosted a special screening of TIME TO DIE; a pivotal work by the Godfather of Indie Mexican Cinema, director Arturo Ripstein. The screening took place on May 11th, 2024 at 7:45pm at Roxy Cinema, in Lower Manhattan.
Following the screening, we were joined by LA-based film critic and journalist, Carlos Aguilar, who shared his insights on Ripstein's legendary career, delving into his profound impact on Mexican cinema.
On Friday, March 22nd, 2024, we teamed up with New Plaza Cinema to host a screening of Felipe Cazals' CANOA: A SHAMEFUL MEMORY, a film often regarded as the pinnacle of Mexican political cinema. The film is based on harrowing true events that occurred on September 14, 1968, just weeks before the infamous Tlatelolco massacre in Mexico City, where government forces suppressed student protests.
The film was introduced by writer and film programmer, Steve Macfarlane, who had interviewed Cazals in 2021, before the director's passing. The film was followed by a talk with author and historian Gema-Kloppe Santamaría.
The Society of Illustrators graciously hosted the LAFC to showcase the hidden gem of Brazilian stop-motion animation, Bob Spit: We Do Not Like People, directed by Cesar Cabral in 2021.
Following the screening, Dr. Bruno Guaraná of Boston University led a Q&A session, discussing the profound impact of the legendary political cartoonist Angeli, upon whom the film is centered.
In conjunction with the screening, we organized a Cartoon Fair, featuring the works from eight Latin American Illustrators: Nate Garcia, Julio Anta, Sandy Jimenez, Mark Saldana, Daisy Ruiz, Pepita Sandwich, Jose Berrio, Carlo Quispe. The Cartoon Fair also hosted the Oto Reifschneider Art Gallery, featuring original Brazilian art. Nate Garcia crafted the flier as an original piece for the event. The screening took place on February 3rd, 2024 at 6pm.
The LAFC teamed up with the BronxArtSpace for a screening of Chilean animator and director Hugo Covarrubias' three short films. Covarrubias' first two shorts draw from unsettling narratives by Latin American literary luminaries: Horacio Quiroga in EL ALMOHADÓN DE PLUMAS (THE FEATHER PILLOW) and Julio Cortázar in LA NOCHE BOCA ARRIBA (THE NIGHT FACEUP). In his 2021 Oscar-Nominated short, BESTIA (BEAST), Covarrubias delves into the world of a secret-police agent navigating life in Chile during the military dictatorship. We were joined by Covarrubias himself for a virtual post screening Q&A. The screening took place Saturday, December 9th, 2023 at 7pm.
On September 29th, 2023 at 7pm at MoMI (36-01 35th Ave, Queens, NY) the LAFC screened the stop-motion animated film La Casa Lobo (The Wolf House, 2018). The film was followed by a Q&A session featuring the film's director, Cristóbal León, and moderated by acclaimed journalist Michael Gingold. The screening coincided with the month of September marking the 50th anniversary of the 1973 Chilean coup-d'etat.
As the final installment of our Third Cinema Series, The Latin American Film Center was thrilled to present a special screening of De Cierta Manera (One Way or Another), by the pioneering Afro-Cuban filmmaker Sara Gómez.
The screening was followed by a post-film discussion with documentary filmmaker Sisa Bueno, performer and academic Yesenia Selier, and moderated by Director of NYU'S MIAP program Juana Suárez.
The screening took place on Saturday, June 17th at 5:00pm at Metrograph.
For the second installment in our Third Cinema Series, we proudly presented PURA SANGRE, in partnership with Spectacle Theater.
We were joined by the film's artistic director, Karen Lamassonne, who engaged in two post-film Q&As with writer and filmmaker Steve Macfarlane.
The screening took place on Thursday, May 11th, with showings at 7:30pm and 10pm.
For our first film of our Third Cinema series, we proudly screened Memories of Underdevelopment.
Our guest speaker was Edmundo Desnoes, the screenwriter of the film, as well as the author of the original novel. Hugo Perez, who filmed an interview with Desnoes last year and has directed and produced several films and documentaries of interest, hosted the Q&A.
The screening was on Wednesday, March 29th at 6:30pm at Film Noir Cinema.
The Latin American Film Center presented its Surrealism Series in October 2022 through February 2023, with the presentation of four films; featuring the likes of Luis Buñuel, Lucrecia Martel, Alejandro Jodorowsky, and Juan López Moctezuma, as exhibited below.
The selection of films displays surrealist storytelling-techniques to achieve satire as a vehicle for commentary on colonialism and the hypocrisies of the Catholic Church. The films were accompanied by speakers who ranged from cinematic experts, to those who depicted the beloved and complex characters in which were screened. We were fortunate to be able to partner with New York’s supportive community of independent theaters, including Film Noir Cinema, Stuart Cinema, and the IFC Center.
We look forward to announcing the next installments of Latin American film, which will dive deeper into what the region has to offer cinematically, highlighting its filmmaking pioneers of past and present.
For the final installment in our Surrealism Series, The Latin American Film Center exhibited the theatrical premiere of a new digital restoration of the Mexican horror film Alucarda. The 1977 film was directed by Juan López Moctezuma, and written by Juan López Moctezuma and Alexis Arroyo. The film was performed by Tina Romero, Susana Kamini, Claudio Brook, and David Silva.
We were joined by Alucarda herself, Tina Romero, who flew out all the way from Mexico City to introduce the film and engage in a post-film discussion, moderated by writer and curator, Anthony Chassi. The screening was put on in collaboration with The IFC Center as our first screening of the year 2023, and took place Wednesday, February 15th.
Fifteen years after Alejandro Jodorowsky's EL TOPO and THE HOLY MOUNTAIN unlocked our collective third eye, the legendary provocateur made his ‘80s comeback with this staggering odyssey of ecstasy, anguish, belief, blasphemy, beauty and madness.
On December 18th, 2022 as part of the Latin American Film Center's Surrealist Series we brought you the Chilean-French director Alejandro Jodorowsky's 1989 film, SANTA SANGRE. The screening was in tribute to the recently passed Axel Jodorowsky, who portrays Felix in the film. The screening was held at the Stuart Cinema & Cafe in Brooklyn.
Accompanying us for this screening we had Abraham Castillo Flores, Guest Programmer of the Mexican Horror Film Series, Mexico Maleficarum, and Instructor at Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies. In making his return to NYC after 20 years, the genre film historian aided us in recognizing Axel, through analysis of the film, anecdotes, and a lively Q&A session.
As part of our surrealist series, on November 12th, 2022, at 7:00pm, we screened our second film Zama by Lucrecia Martel (2017). The presentation was held at the Film Noir Cinema.
Our guest speaker was Seth Fein, historian, filmmaker and founder of Seven Local Film
For our first Latin American Surrealism series, we proudly presented the film directed by Spanish-Mexican director Luis Buñuel, Simon of the Desert (Simón del desierto), released in 1965. This is an early surrealist classics by a master of the genre. The screening was held at the Film Noir Cinema on October, 15th,2022 at 7:00pm.
Our guest speaker was Professor Elizabeth Scarlett of the University of Buffalo, a Professor of the Romance Languages and Literature and a specialist on religion and Spanish film.
On Thursday, June 23rd, 2022, at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens we at the Latin American Film Center, Inc. initiated our screening series for 2022, with the presentation of the Peruvian film Retablo. The 2017 film was directed by Alvaro Delgado-Aparicio, was written and performed in Ayacucho Quechua, and explores perceptions of gender in traditional communities in Latin America.
The film premiered at the 2017 Festival de Cine de Lima, where it won the award for Best Peruvian Film. It had its international premiere at the 2018 Berlin International Film Festival, where it won a Teddy Award as the best LGBTQ-themed debut film of the festival. In 2019 it won the Havana Star Prize for Best Film (Fiction) at the 20th Havana Film Festival New York and was selected as the Peruvian entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 92nd Academy Awards.
The screening was followed by a panel discussion featuring Professors Amalia Cordova, Odi Gonzales, Dante Salazar, and Gabriela Chacon-Ugarte from Columbia University and New York University, alongside the film’s Director, Alvaro Delgado-Aparicio.
“A Cop Movie” - online discussion with Pablo Piccato and Director Alonso Ruizpalacios
On November 18, 2021 an online discussion of Alonso Ruizpalacios’ recent film “A Cop Movie” (Una película de policías) was conducted, in which Pablo Piccato, professor of history at Columbia University and a member of the Board of Directors of LAFC, interviewed Mr. Ruizpalacios. The film is a docu-drama in which a couple of professional actors join the Mexico City police force and discover how it works. Professor Piccato’s interview was co-sponsored by LAFC, Columbia’s Institute of Latin American Studies and its Center for Mexico and Central America. To see a recording of the discussion, please click
In late 2019 and early 2020, the LAFC presented five screenings of Latin American movies at the CInépolis Chelsea theater, in New York. The films were examples of recent films that touched on common themes of Latin American contemporaneous reality: the memory of political violence, the effects of environmental transformation, the changing realities of gender and sexuality, the experience of migration. They were discussed by experts and filmmakers, creating a new forum to enjoy and develop audiences for Latin American film in New York City.
Bringing together academics and artists to screenings at Cinépolis Chelsea, Screening América provided a unique space to enjoy and discuss recent Latin American films that address the contemporary reality of the region. We focus on “América” as a region encompassing North, Central and South America (and the Caribbean), and on the merging of different spaces and societies through the imagination of filmmakers. Together, these films offer a glimpse of the possibilities of cinema as a dynamic and creative medium in Latin America--one that the Latin American Film Center hopes to promote and preserve for audiences from New York City and beyond.
Our plans for future screenings have been suspended because of the Covid-19 pandemic, but we expect to resume public screenings as soon as conditions permit. In the meantime, we will be creating links on our website to additional information and materials related to the films shown as part of the Screening América series – as well as to other films we will be highlighting on our website as important in expanding our understanding of the history, society and culture of the region.
Below each description below of films that were part of the Screening América series, you will find examples of the kinds of links we plan to create. We invite you to let us know of additional information and materials that will help to enrich our understanding of these and other films, and we will do our best to include, through these kinds of links, as many of such contributions as we can.
LA BODA and ROCÍO
The Wedding (La boda), directed by Hannah Weyer (Mexico, 2000), and Rocio, directed by Dario Guerrero and released in 2019. The first of these movies is a documentary about a wedding in an immigrant family following the preparations of the marriage through the eyes of Elizabeth Luis. Rocío follows the last months of the director’s mother and weaves it with footage about the family’s history as immigrants in the US. The panel discussion was led by Richard Peña, Professor of Film Studies at Columbia University and formerly a member of our Board of Directors, and Philip Cartelli, current co-director of the Film and Media Studies program and chair of the Visual Arts department at Wagner College.
INVASIÓN
Invasion (Invasión), directed by Abner Benaim (Panama, 2014), and We Waited Until Nightfall (Esperábamos a que anocheciera), directed by Wendy Muniz and Guillermo Zouain and released in 2019, both screened on February 4, 2020. The first film is a historical documentary on the US invasion of Panama in 1989 that returns to those events through enactments of social memories. We Waited Unitl Nightfall is a short documentary on the memories of former film palaces in the Dominican Republic. The panel discussion was led by Ms. Muniz, who is also an Assistant Professor of Social Science and Cultural Studies at Pratt Institute, and Mr. Zouain, a director and producer who is from the Dominican Republic but is now based in New York.
SURIRE
Surire, directed by Iván Osnovikoff and Bettina Perut (Chile, 2015), shown on January 28, 2020. This documentary set in the salt flats of Surire, Chile, follows an Aymara community and portrays a landscape defined by industrial extraction and the surviving environment of the area. The panel discussion was led by Jens Andermann, Professor of contemporary Latin American cultural studies at New York University, and Carl Fischer, Associate Professor of Spanish at Fordham University.
TATUAGEM
Tatuagem (Tattoo), directed by Hilton Lacerda (Brazil, 2013), screened on December 16, 2019. The movie explores the intersection of sexuality and dictatorship in 1970s Brazil. For the panel discussion following the film, the panelists were Paula Halperin, the chair of the School of Film and Media Studies at Purchase College, and our Board member Barbara Weinstein, Professor of History and former chair of the History Department at New York University.
THE MILK OF SORROW
The Milk of Sorrow (La teta asustada), directed by Claudia Llosa (Peru, 2009) was shown on November 25, 2019. The film explored the traumatic effects of the violence suffered by women as a result of the insurgency of the Sendero Luminoso in 1990s, Peru. The panelists were Professor Kimberly Theidon, a medical anthropologist and the current Henry J. Leir Professor of International Humanitarian Studies at The Fletcher School of Tufts University, and author of a book that inspired the film; and Professor Ulla D. Berg, an Associate Professor at the Department of Latino and Caribbean Studies and the Department of Anthropology, and the Director of the Center for Latin American Studies at Rutgers University.
For supplemental information on The Milk of Sorrow, click here.