2020 Program

Due to ongoing health concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s festival was presented virtually. All films and discussions were streamed online. As always, all LIFFY events were presented free of charge. All films were screened in their original languages with English subtitles.


2020 LIFFY PROGRAM

Click here to view and download the official 2020 Latino & Iberian Film Festival program in .pdf format.


SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

Monday, November 9

ALL DAY

SHORT FILMS (Block 1) 

Four short films made during the COVID-19 pandemic by film students from InCine, Quito, Ecuador

Waka, Karen Guazco. 15:21 min. (fiction) 

Amarak, a young indigenous man, goes in search of a cure to save his sick father. Along the way, the spirit of his sister Sisa and the spirit Supay will help Amarak to find the medicine, but the power of the goddess of death, Waka, will prevent the cure from working, causing Amarak to give him the soul of his family.

Lilith, Iván Paredes. 15:27 min. (fiction)

Lilith works in a textile factory under an oppressive foreman, all the while dreaming of being a boxer. Her brother Equis fights in an important underground boxing championship, in which he has bet his and his sister’s money. When Equis is seriously injured Lilith must replace him in the grand finale, thus becoming the first female competing and winning against a man.

Volver a casa, Lucía Berro & Luisanna Lozada, Argentina, Ecuador. 11:43 min. (documentary)

Volver a casa (Returning home) is a short documentary about Luisanna and Lucía, two film students who must return home due to a stay-at-home order imposed in Ecuador due to the Covid-19 virus pandemic. Upon arrival, each one must face their new reality.

¿Qué pasa ahí adentro?, Ana Belén González. 8:43 min. (documentary)

The COVID-19 pandemic reaches Ecuador which makes the authorities decree a state of emergency and the country enters mandatory quarantine. This short film explores the experiences and feelings of different students, their perspectives in this moment of history and their personal journey through the 70 days of confinement.

Audience members who have registered before 9:00 am on the day they will be presented will receive an email with a private YourTube link to view that block at 9:00 am. Audience members who register after 9:00 am will receive an email with the private YouTube link after the registration closes at 5:00 pm..

1:00pm

FILMMAKER CONVERSATION

“Making a film during the pandemic/El proceso de creación durante la pandemia,” A Conversation (in Spanish) with the directors from InCine, Quito, Ecuador. Karen Guazco, Iván Paredes, Lucía Berro, Luisanna Lozada y Ana Belén González.

4:00pm

FEATURE DOCUMENTARY

El hombre que siempre hizo su parte, Orisel Castro & York Neudel. Ecuador, 2018. 94 min. plus a short video message from the director (U.S. PREMIERE)

Dr. Rota, a 78-year-old man, scientist and writer is full of conflicts, illusions of fame and conspiracy. He deals with the obstacles of trying to publish his book and to get surrounded by people, aiming for their recognition. After having lost contact with the world, he wants to exhibit his legacy and fight his loneliness. This portrait speaks about the contradictions and struggles that we encounter in life and brings us closer to a man who always did his part. View the trailer.

7:00pm

OPENING FEATURE

La otra Penelope, Bladimir Abud. Dominican Republic, 2019. 79 min.

The film screening will be followed by a live Q&A with the director.

Set in Santo Domingo in 1968, at the beginning of the dictatorship of the “12 years of Balaguer”, this film tells the story of Félix Marcel, a former constitutionalist combatant from the “April War”, who tries by all means necessary to get away from politics and the subversive groups, but an affair with the mistress of a government henchman leads him to make decisions that turn his world upside down. View the trailer.


Tuesday, November 10

ALL DAY

SHORT FILMS (Block 2)

Short films from Spain

Desaparecer, Diego Llorente. Spain, 2019. 13 min.

Lucia and David’s relationship comes to an end. Their relationship is guided by monotony, and the only thing that alters it is David moving from Gijón to Madrid for work reasons, which will end up completely ending their relationship.

Un coche cualquiera, David P. Sañudo. Spain, 2019. 13:42 min.

Manuel wants to get in his car but three bullies prevent him. “What have you done inside that nightclub?”

Umbral, Jelena Dragas. Spain, 2019. 16 min.

Mar and Adrián are locked in her bedroom to spend an intimate evening without disturbances from the outside world. Mar always finds the time available for being together and wishing a deeper relationship with Adrian. However, the night will be disturbed by neighbors. It won’t be an ordinary night for them either.

Echoes, Diana Acién Manzorro. España, 2019. 6 min. (animation)

Echoes tells the story of a depressed factory worker who suffers a dissociation episode.

Audience members who have registered before 9:00 am on the day they will be presented will receive an email with a private YourTube link to view that block at 9:00 am. Audience members who register after 9:00 am will receive an email with the private YouTube link after the registration closes at 5:00 pm.

ALL DAY

SHORT FILMS (Block 3)

Short films from Portugal and Brazil

Now (post mortem), Fernando Jose Pereira. Portugal, 2019. 35 min. (documentary, U.S. PREMIERE)

A simple news, a pretext: the shipyards of São Jacinto, or what remains of them, will be transformed into a luxury condominium. With council approval and everything from this observation so common in our time, a narrative was built that focuses on the echoes of individual and collective memories that accompany us throughout history. A crossing of events that are entangled in each other and that in doing so bring another dimension to the present. A gift, inhabited there only by ruins, specters and silence. But, all these elements find us and we meet them, that is, the various dimensions of time: past, present and future, are in this place in the process of disappearing and that, however, and, perhaps because of that, majestically affirms itself as a kind of representative of that past so despised and that deserves, at least, an intense questioning. To realize our present and to prepare for the future. This is his testimony and also ours. At least our attempt to build the film as an active testimony. With everything that this condition contains important. Hence its title “Now (post mortem)”. As you hear in the film: it is not too much to ask, it will not be too little. It is enough for us.

Terra Ardida, Francisco Romao. Portugal, 2018. 13 min. (documentary)

After all the fires that ravaged Portugal in the year 2017, there was one that personally touched me. The fire that partially destroyed a small village called Fajão, in Pampilhosa da Serra, north of Portugal. This is my grandmother’s village, a place where I have been vacationing since I was a child, and until this year had been spared the immense fires that the inhabitants attribute to Our Lady of Guia, a Catholic invocation that is said to have protected the village several times. In what state will the village now be and how will the few inhabitants be? Why did faith fail this time?

Extratos, Sinai Sganzerla. Brazil, 2020. 8 min. (documentary)

Extratos (Extracts) is a short film with images from 1970 to 1972 in the cities of Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, London, Marrakech, Rabat and the Sahara Desert region. The images were filmed by Helena Ignez and Rogério Sganzerla in exile, in the “leaden years” of the military dictatorship. The film is also about hope. Something affable is possible even when there are indications of the contrary.

Amnestia, Susanna Lira. Brazil, 2019. 16 min. (documentary)

The short Amnestia elaborates a sensitive re-assembly of the pardon requests sent out by the “Amnesty Caravans” to all those whose lives were affected by Brazil’s Military Dictatorship. The work is entirely composed of archive material and is narrated by Paulo Abraão, former National Secretary of Justice.

Osmildo, Pedro Daldegan. Brazil, 2019. 26 min.  plus a short vide message from the filmmaker (documentary).

Grandson of India Regina, the only remnant of the runs that occurred in the region in search of rubber, Osmildo fights for the rescue of Kuntanawa origins, such as his mother tongue, the differentiated indigenous school, sacred rituals, traditional medicine and his demarcated land.

Audience members who have registered before 9:00 am on the day they will be presented will receive an email with a private YourTube link to view that block at 9:00 am. Audience members who register after 9:00 am will receive an email with the private YouTube link after the registration closes at 5:00 pm.

6:00pm

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

Todo lo que se olvida en un instante, Richard Shpuntoff. Argentina, 2020. 72 min. plus a short video message from the director 

Todo lo que se olvida en un instante (Everything that is forgotten in an instant) is a documentary essay on the construction of identity, and in particular the American identity. Woven from black and white 16mm images that the filmmaker filmed over the past 16 years after moving to Buenos Aires – workers rebuilding a sandbox in a plaza, marches and protests, the city seen from the window of a bus, family life –, and interviews that he recorded with his father in Hi8 video in the Lower East Side of New York, where he grew up during the Great Depression, the documentary aims to construct a bridge between his two worlds: Argentina and the United States, Buenos Aires and New York. View the trailer.

8:00pm

FEATURE FILM

Mirando al mar, Ángel Puado. Spain, 2019. 90 min. plus a short video message from the director

Mirando al mar (Looking at the Sea) is a film about two lives that meet at the end of the road to begin to undertake it again. Ángel is a man from Madrid who is going to spend a few days in Alicante and meets Chelo, who will turn his life upside down. Between the two a romance is born that Ángel sees as his last chance to be happy. View the trailer.


Wednesday, November 11

ALL DAY

SHORT FILMS (Block 4)

Happy Birthday or Felicidades, Jared Jacobsen. USA/México, 2020. 21:09 min. (fiction)

A struggling mother takes her twins on a chaotic birthday road trip. As a Tijuana cop becomes an unwitting participant in the adventure, lines are blurred between what is real and what isn’t. Addiction, illness, and human compassion traverse borders on a steamy summer afternoon.

Amar el Mar, Jared Jacobsen. USA/México, 2020. 3:17 min. plus a short video message from the filmmaker (fiction)

A surfer faces great challenges in an attempt to reach her favorite surf break.

Three Shorts About the Pandemic, Catherine French Castellanos. Colombia, 2020.

“Art is the only thing that saves and heals us. Under this premise is born my need as -Creator- to approach my trade, to turn thoughts into material without subjecting those thoughts to limitations that may arise (in this case the pandemic). Cinema starts from an idea, and it has millions of ways to expressing one’s self this is how these films were born.”

La cuarentena no tiene quien le escriba 1:55 min.

Mixing reality with fiction, Virginia manages to cope with the dead hours of a seemingly endless quarantine. Routine consumes her evenings while her memories waver between dreams and the unbearable.

Voces 1:22 min.

She stares at the camera. She represents all women. She is a silenced scream. She is a symbolic cut that cries out for freedom.

Woman & Cinema, 1:31 min.

Taking as a muse the goddess of cinema, Agnés Varda and the characters main of his films Vagabond, La Pointe Courte, Cleo de 5 a 7, and Una canta la otra no this film is a love letter to cinema and to women.

Audience members who have registered before 9:00 am on the day they will be presented will receive an email with a private YourTube link to view that block at 9:00 am. Audience members who register after 9:00 am will receive an email with the private YouTube link after the registration closes at 5:00 pm.

ALL DAY

SHORT FILMS (Block 5)

Mama, Eduardo Vietez. España, 2018. 8 min. (fiction)

Life can change in a blink of an eye, a thin line separates heaven from hell. You never know when you may have to leave your safe zone until you get the hit and everything used to be there, is gone in next minute. Now, it is your time to keep breathing until you feel alive again. This is the story of a Syrian refugee girl, who crossed that thin line and everything in her life changed suddenly.

MonstruosDiego Mezarina. Perú, 2020.  10:58 min. (fiction, U.S. PREMIERE)

In an indolent city, a mother and her little girl will have to see their lives affected, in the most radical way. View the trailer.

El reportero, Jorge Villareal. México, 2020. 6:55 min. (fiction)

The film takes place in 1968’s Mexico telling the story of Alejandro, a young journalist who witnessed the Tlatelolco massacre where the Mexican government killed thousands of innocent people during a peaceful protest. After the massacre, the government managed to sweep everything under the rug, buying off or killing anyone that spoke out about the massacre. Alejandro however, is on the run towards the U.S. as the Mexican government is trying to hunt him down, and kill him.

Donde reside la esperanza, Adrián González Camargo. México, 2018. 3:03 min. (fiction)

As Elsa moves out of her house, she comes across an important part of her past in the way of moving forward.

Haiti a Tijuana, Jared Jacobsen. USA/México, 2019. 10:42 min. plus a short video message from the filmmaker (documentary)

A historian, the director of a shelter, and a Haitian immigrant cross paths in Tijuana.

Audience members who have registered before 9:00 am on the day they will be presented will receive an email with a private YourTube link to view that block at 9:00 am. Audience members who register after 9:00 am will receive an email with the private YouTube link after the registration closes at 5:00 pm.

ALL DAY

SHORT FILMS (Block 6)

Mitayo, Marco Alvarado. Perú, 2020. 16:12 min.(documentary, U.S. PREMIERE)

Mitayo is an indigenous word from the Amazon region that describes the fishing season in a village called Aguanomuyuna in the district of Chazuta in the city of Tarapoto of the San Martín region of the Peruvian jungle. The Shapiama Inuma family invites us to “mitayar” (to go fishing with them).

Arqueología de la dignidad trabajadora, Uli Stelzner. Guatemala, 2020. 31:18 min. plus a short video message from the director  (documentary, U.S. PREMIERE)

Are trade unions and workers’ rights an issue for archaeologists? A lost memory of times gone by? Guatemala is one of the countries with the most murdered trade unionists and where the labor rights of workers are permanently denied and violated. The film portrays a surviving unionist and delves into the disturbing working conditions in the sugar cane fields, maquilas and informal markets. With the unexpected onset of the pandemic, the consequences for workers are even more devastating. View the trailer.

Audience members who have registered before 9:00 am on the day they will be presented will receive an email with a private YourTube link to view that block at 9:00 am. Audience members who register after 9:00 am will receive an email with the private YouTube link after the registration closes at 5:00 pm.

1:00pm

FILMMAKER CONVERSATION

Meet the members of the 2020 LIFFY Jury, Bea Gallardo (Guatemala), Víctor Gaviria (Colombia) & Cynthia Sabat (Argentina). This panel discussion will be in Spanish

6:00pm

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

Hasta el fin de Delfín, Fernando Mieles. Ecuador, 2020. 54:13 min. (documentary)

Hasta el fin de Delfin is a musical documentary that tells, to the rhythm of Andean tecnofolclore, the attempts of Delfin Quishpe Apugllón, musician and celebrity of social networks since he uploaded the video clip of his song “Torres Gemelas”, to recover the love of his wife and continue his life as a musician. Told from the perspective of the character and his daily life, it shows us other processes of musical production and the value of the community and roots in the face of the transience of fame in social networks of a globalized world. View the trailer.

8:00pm

FEATURE FILM

El desentierro, Claudio Perrin. Argentina, 2019. 105 min. plus a short video message from the director  (fiction, U.S. PREMIERE)

A Latin American road movie headed to the typical Humahuaca Carnival where this ancient festivity held by the native people, will change the life of a couple and a child. View the trailer.


Thursday, November 12th

ALL DAY

SHORT FILMS (Block 7)

El macho así entendido, Mónica Neguerela. Spain, 2018. 5:12 min. (fiction)

When Raquel gets home she’s met with bad news: her dog has thrown himself out of the window.

La mujer del espejo, María Barragán. Spain, 2017. 3:45 min. (fiction)

Sometimes, you can lose yourself by comparing yourself to others. Only when you find yourself, when you acknowledge and embrace yourself, can you be happy.

Grito, Pili Cabrera. Argentina, 2020. 3:05 min. (documentary)

Marlene Wayar, Argentine trans activist, defender and fighter for Human Rights and author of the book “Transvestite a Good Enough Theory”, expresses her disappointment and anger towards a society that permanently persecutes and stigmatizes transvestite / trans people. In a succession of photos and video fragments, Marlene Wayar demands that the state and society “Tell the Truth.”

La Flaca, Adriana Barbosa & Thiago Zanato. USA/Brazil/México, 2018. 20:01 min. (documentary)

Arely Vazquez is a Mexican transgender woman and leader of the Saint Death Cult living in Queens, New York. During her yearly celebration to “La Flaca” (The Bony Lady), as she likes to call her, Arely faces a lot of challenges to fulfill a promise she made ten years ago.

El despertar, Juan Pablo Gelvez. Colombia, 2020. 27:46 min. (fiction)

Cristian, a 17-year-old university student, begins to doubt his sexual orientation after meeting a fellow student. His upbringing and his social circles have not prepared him to understand whether his feelings are real or not. View the trailer.

Audience members who have registered before 9:00 am on the day they will be presented will receive an email with a private YourTube link to view that block at 9:00 am. Audience members who register after 9:00 am will receive an email with the private YouTube link after the registration closes at 5:00 pm.

ALL DAY

SPECIAL SCREENING FOR NEW HAVEN PUBLIC SCHOOL STUDENTS

Terrible, Alejandro Malowicki. Argentina, 2018 (1hr.20min. Fiction)

In a peaceful town lives a puppeteer named Juan who had to abandon his performances because he is harassed by Terrible, one of his puppets. Terrible has transmuted into a dark humanoid who wants to spoil his shows and take revenge for having been created as a representative character of “Evil.”

New Haven Public School teachers and students may register to receive a link to view this film. A private YouTube link will be mailed to all registered audience members on Thursday, November 12 at 9:00 am and again at 5:00 pm The film will be available to view any time from 9:00 am on Thursday, November 12 to 9:00 am on Friday, November 13.

1:00pm

FILMMAKER CONVERSATION

Panel discussion with Women in the Film Industry

Mariluz Acosta (Dominican Republic), Orisel Castro (Cuba), Catherine French Castellanos (Colombia), Sonia Fritz (México/Puerto Rico), Frida Muenala (Ecuador), Gerylee Polanco-Uribe (Colombia), Sinain Sganzerla (Brazil), Pili Cabrera (Argentina), Cynthia Sabat (Argentina), and Bea Gallardo (Guatemala)

This conversation will be in both English and Spanish

5:00pm

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

Maria Luiza, Marcelo Diaz. Brazil, 2019. 80 min. plus a short video message from the director  (documentary)

Maria Luiza da Silva is the first transgender person in the history of the Brazilian Armed Forces. After 22 years working as a military, she was forced to retire due to disability. The movie investigates the motivations for her being prohibited of wearing the feminine uniform and portrays her trajectory as a transgender, military and Catholic woman. View the trailer. Please note: This screening is only accessible to viewers in the United States.

7:00pm

FEATURE FILM

Tu Dama de Hierro, Jorge Xolalpa, Jr. USA, 2019. 92 min.

A year in the life of Teresa: an immigrant mother of four who after being married for 22 years, decides to leave her abusive husband upon her arrival to the U.S. in 1998. View the trailer.


Friday, November 13th

ALL DAY

SHORT FILMS (Block 8)

El amanecer de los antiguos, Raúl Rodrigo Venegas. Chile, 2017. 20min. (fiction)

Nano is a young man who wanders along the shores of southern Chile. On his way he reaches the town of Cobquecura asking for a man whom no one knows. He enters a nearby tavern, where he engages in dialogue with an old solitary fisherman, Curtíao, who narrates some local myths about a mysterious cavern nearby. Nano, intrigued by the stories, follows and accompanies the old man to his house. The fisherman continues to narrate the myth of the cave called The Stone Church, where legend tells of the burial of gold and silver lost many years ago. Nano decides to go visit it and asks Curtíao to guide him. The old fisherman accepts and waits for the tide to come down. At dusk the men leave the hut and arrive at The Stone Church. Nano with an improvised torch slowly enters the imposing cave. The old man follows him from afar. No precaution will be enough to elude the terror and fate of the daring visitors to The Stone Church. View the trailer.

El ritual, Alberto Zúñiga Rodríguez. México, 2018. 16:33 min (fiction)

It’s 6:45 in the morning. Inés gets up -once again- to do what she does from Monday to Saturday: spy on her neighbors on the top floor. She knows them extremely well. Inés does not lose any detail and with them, keeps a very important secret.

Yantar, Alberto Zúñiga Rodríguez. México, 2019. 3:00 min. (fiction)

ANA is a young woman who reflects on the meaning of the verb eat and what we are and have been based on what we eat … a deep approach, all in close up. Ana tells us that: ‘It is the history of humanity that we eat. It is the people’s struggles that we digest in each food. We are what we eat.

El Alquimista. Rodrigo Sánchez del Valle. México, 2019. (15 min fiction)

Year 2070, Doctor Karl Reissender must find the way to time travel to the past in order to save the last alchemist. By doing so, he will save his beloved daughter an also prevent de planet from self-destruction.

Audience members who have registered before 9:00 am on the day they will be presented will receive an email with a private YourTube link to view that block at 9:00 am. Audience members who register after 9:00 am will receive an email with the private YouTube link after the registration closes at 5:00 pm.

ALL DAY

SHORT FILMS (Block 9)

Avec Le Temps, Eva Urrutia. Argentina 2019. 32 min. (fiction)

Estela begins to see her dead son in dreams, forcing her to face a painful past. She feels compelled to talk to her daughter about a long-forgotten trauma that turned their strained relationship into an ever-deepening abyss of silence

Pasos, Gilberto Polo Pacheco. Venezuela, 2018. 2:00 min. (documentary, U.S. PREMIERE)

Pasos (Steps) is a fleeting documentary that shows the walk of the walker, are those steps that speak of the acceleration of life, that is fading between its asphalt, and that are impregnated between the skin of a shoe that fades like the passing a traffic light.

Los tiempos están cambiando, Augusto González Polo. Argentina, 2019. 27 min. (fiction)

Two musicians partners, Telésforo and Melitón, continue taking their chamamé songs to remote places in the countryside, where they find that the scarce audience hardly looks up from their smartphones, to attend social networks to the only events they call and they pay for the zone, the acts of two opposed politicians. View the trailer.

Sombras chinescas,Roberto Medina. Argentina, 2019. 15:30 min. (fiction)

Subjected to TV and cell phones, Vicente and Fabián have forgotten Lucía’s birthday. The visit of Franco, the eldest son, will confront them with a present without the apparatus that dictates their reality, forcing them to decide between waking up or staying asleep. View the trailer.

Audience members who have registered before 9:00 am on the day they will be presented will receive an email with a private YourTube link to view that block at 9:00 am. Audience members who register after 9:00 am will receive an email with the private YouTube link after the registration closes at 5:00 pm.

ALL DAY

SHORT FILMS (Block 10)

Los Reyes Cantores, Joelle González Laguer. Puerto Rico, 2020. 13:38 min. plus a short video message from the filmmaker (documentary)

With vibrant cinematography, the documentary narrates the historical facts of the 3 Kings or the Epiphany. The visual extravaganza is intertwined with the annual tradition by La Casa de la Cultura Isabela of the apparition of the Wise men in the town’s square.  The peculiarity of the story serves as the title, The Singing Kings. For 24 years the 3 kings have delighted many with a 2-day celebration for the enjoyment of many people young and old alike. 

La Charada Teatro - Puppeteers in Guatemala, Robert Flanagan. Guatemala, 2019. 13:53 min. plus a short video message from the filmmaker.  (documentary)

La Charada Teatro is a video portrait of Rodolfo de León and Larraitz Iparragirre, puppeteers in Guatemala. The documentary follows the artists as they make their own puppets, write their own scripts and perform. Their themes are drawn from the classics of puppetry, local Guatemalan legends and history. They are at once humorous and socially aware.

Mariachis con pantalones, Sonia Fritz. Puerto Rico, 2020. 28:03 min. (documentary)

Two women mariachis from the group Flor de Toloache are followed for three years as their career flourishes and the group’s popularity grows in a genre historically dominated by men. View the trailer.

Audience members who have registered before 9:00 am on the day they will be presented will receive an email with a private YourTube link to view that block at 9:00 am. Audience members who register after 9:00 am will receive an email with the private YouTube link after the registration closes at 5:00 pm.

7:00pm

FEATURE DOCUMENTARY

En tránsito, Liliana Hurtado y Mauricio Vergara and produced by Gerylee Polanco-Uribe. Colombia, 2020. 81 min. plus a video message from the directors (U.S. PREMIERE)

Months before developing leukemia, dreams had begun to nest like ominous birds in Liliana’s psyche.  The disease launches her to undertake a journey through a dream world, her childhood photographs, her medical exams, and meetings with friends, family and doctors; while Morris, her husband, reconnects with his past, when he accompanied his mother in a depression that led to her death. The disease illuminates the meaning of their lives. View the trailer.

9:00pm

FEATURE FICTION FILM

Vivir ilesos, Manuel Siles. Perú, 2018. 79 min. plus a short video message from the filmmaker. (U.S. PREMIERE)

Two small-time scammers are taken down by a man, who kidnaps the woman and leaves the young man. “Living Unscathed” (“Vivir Ilesos”) portrays some of the most powerful impulses of our time–the lack of meaning in life and the idea that the moral status quo can be overcome. But the forces of social consensus respond strongly, and nobody is left unharmed. View the trailer.


Saturday, November 14th

ALL DAY

SHORT FILMS (Block 11)

Short films from Cuba

Atardecer en el trópico, Marta María Borrás. Cuba, 2019. 18:41 min. (fiction)

This is the story of my father and me. Two different generations united by one home, one song, one country, and our love. Each of us settles for the life we’ve chosen for ourselves whilst longing for a better life for the other. Is that even possible? View the Trailer.

El Artesano, Adrián Cárdenas. Cuba, 2019. 12 min. (fiction)

Daniel, a local artisan, meanders through the tight-knit community of Gibara, Cuba, encountering many locals who collectively help him confront his loss.

Arsenio, Sueños de Revolución, Fernando Mercado. Cuba, 2018. 15 min (documentary)

Arsenio, a 96-year-old Cuban who participated first-hand in the revolutionary feat, today earns his living by selling little bags on a street corner. With the love of his family and the forgetfulness of society, he transits the twilight of his life with his ideals intact.View the trailer.

Margarita, Jorge Molina. Cuba, 2018. 45:18 min. (fiction)

Havana 2016. Molina, a former university professor of Marxism who lives in total isolation from a society that  he constantly questions but does not leave, is what you might call a super fan of Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones. An upcoming concert of his “satanic majesties” in Havana is the most important event of his life. On the day of the concert, minutes before Molina was about to leave, Margarita, a young exile who was his student twenty-three years earlier and with whom he had a short-lived love story, suddenly reappears at his door.  Their relationship had been cut short partly because of her fault, partly because of the situation in Cuba in the 90s.

Audience members who have registered before 9:00 am on the day they will be presented will receive an email with a private YourTube link to view that block at 9:00 am. Audience members who register after 9:00 am will receive an email with the private YouTube link after the registration closes at 5:00 pm.

3:00pm

FEATURE DOCUMENTARY

La amable euforia de la danza, Miguel Castañet. USA, 2019. 48:34 min.

This documentary was made to showcase the life work and legacy of Pedro Pablo Peña, Founder and Artistic Director of the International Ballet Festival of Miami, the Miami Cultural Arts Center and the Cuban Classical Ballet of Miami, and his role as an artistic model of Miami Culture. View the trailer.

5:00pm

FEATURE FILM 

Historias de ajedrez, Emmanuel Martin Hernández.Cuba, 2018. 77 min.  plus a short video message from the director (fiction)

Santiago de Cuba, 1966-2018. Three stories about chess: “The teacher”, “National Chess Championship (W)” and “Diabetics.” Chess as education, competitive sport and as a hobby. View the trailer.

7:00 pm

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE 

Natalia, Ernesto Daranas. Cuba and Spain, 2019. 72 min. (documentary, U.S. PREMIERE)

This documentary focuses on Natalia Bolívar Aróstegui, notable Cuban intellectual and one of the most important ethnologists and folklorists of America.  She is currently writing her autobiography with the assistance of her daughters. This special moment allows the director to document some of the episodes that have marked her life. View the trailer.

9:00 pm

FEATURE FILM 

Malpaso, Héctor Valdez. Dominican Republic, 2019. 79 min. 

Candido and Braulio are brothers growing up near the border of Haiti in the Dominican Republic. While Candido stays home secluded due to his albinism, Braulio helps his grandfather sell coal in the market. Their life takes a turn for the worst and Braulio will need to look after his brother after the unexpected death of their grandfather by making ends meet in Malpaso, the border market, while Candido dreams of the return of their absent father. View the trailer.


Sunday, November 15th

2:00pm

FEATURE FILM

Buscando al Zorro. Wigner Duarte. Dominican Republic, 2019. 86 min. plus a video message from producer/actor Mariluz Acosta

In a small village in the outskirts of the Dominican Republic, Pablo, is offered a job by a local wealthy rancher that requires him to travel away from his home. Unable to leave his nine-year-old son alone, Pablo decides to take him on the journey with him. Being a single father and raising his son on his own, Pablo must answer his son’s questions, as he is beginning to be curious about his mother’s whereabouts. Feeling pressured, Pablo starts to rely more and more on alcohol during the journey. The farther away they travel, the further apart they become. In a moment of rage his son blames him for his mother’s disappearance. Their fragile relationship starts to weaken and now they must find a way to reconnect with each other. View the Trailer.

5:00pm

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE 

Warmi Pachakutik /Tiempo de Mujeres, Frida Muenala. Ecuador, 2020. 56 min.

Warmi Pachakutik is an approach to the creativity of a new generation of Kichwa women who, through their activism, generate changes and questions about the meaning of belonging, roles and thought. View the trailer.

7:00pm

CLOSING NIGHT FEATURE, LIVE Q&A, AND CLOSING CEREMONY

El Encanto, Juan Pablo Sasiaín y Ezequiel Tronconi. Argentina, 2020. 77 min. (INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE)

A live Q&A session will follow the screening and the prizes will be announced at the end of the Q&A.

Bruno and Juliana have been a couple for many years. She wants to be a mother, he’s not sure it’s the right time. He is afraid of losing the freedom of his present life. A friend tells him that children “erode you,” however his father clarifies that children “enlarge you,” they complete you. Enmeshed in his insecurities, he will start to make a series of bad decisions that will lead him to put the future of the relationship at risk. View the trailer.