FESTIVAL GROWS WITH BOOMING LATIN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES
Cuba the timely featured nation in annual event that will screen 69 films from 17 countries
Since it began 15 years ago, the Vancouver Latin American Film Festival has pursued its mission statement to promote the cinematic expressions of Latin America. To represent the nations of North, Central and South America and the island nations of the Caribbean is a demanding job. While some countries boast vibrant and active film industries, others are rarely producing work.
Festival artistic director Christian Sida-Valenzuela and the staff at VLAFF have developed a wideranging network of contacts that has enabled the festival to feature 69 films from 17 countries throughout the region, as well as have an annual guest country. This year’s guest country is Cuba. Since the death of Fidel Castro, and with the recent American election, the tiny island is back in the news and it appears to, once again, be a focus of international politics. The Cuban Classics section of the festival should be fascinating. Other feature sections include International Hits, New Directors, the popular Short Film Competition, Canada Looks South, Indigenous Film from B.C. & Beyond and Women in ¡Activismo!
Sida-Valenzuela expanded on the festival in a phone interview:
Q: What’s new at the VLAFF this year?
A: Last year was the first year we had activism as a theme and this year we introduced Women in ¡Activismo!, which focuses on films made by women or with a woman protagonist, as well as making sure there is an equal number of female and male directors in the New Directors section. There is also a feature talk about film archives with a representative of the Mexican film archives discussing the classic 1972 film The Castle of Purity by Arturo Ripstein and how the restored copy we are screening was achieved.
Q: Is the film industry across the region still booming?
A: Most certainly, this is a trend that is continuing and expanding annually. Due to the increases
in state funding, you see huge increases in Mexico, Brazil, Colombia and Chile. Chile, we must say, has a lot of support for distributing and promoting its cinema around the world and you really see that Chilean films are being featured all over and winning awards because of this expanded exposure.
Q: Given the focus of the Women in ¡Activismo! section, it seems a bit odd that there is an American film directed by a man in the screening series. How did Dolores make the cut?
A: This is an amazing film about the Mexican-American woman activist Dolores Huerta, who, alongside Cesar Chavez, transformed the U.S. labour movement by creating the United Farmworkers Union in the early ’60s. Yes, it’s an American film and directed by a man, but the subject matter couldn’t be more appropriate to the series.
Q: How do you arrive at finalists of the New Directors section?
A: This is certainly the most curatorial section of the VLAFF, where we really go through a great number of submissions to select the finalists from all over the region. In other sections such as International Hits, you can make pretty obvious choices about what films will be in after they win major awards at major festivals around the world. But the New Directors puts us in the position of having to really do our work as film programmers, and I’m always very excited about it because non-established directors take more risks, pursue unique visions and create unencumbered by the demands of big budgets, producers, companies and so on. It’s one of the most interesting parts of the festival.
Q: Cuba is the guest country and has been a major contributor to the festival for many years. How do you select films to present an overview of the guest country?
A: We are showing a retrospective of works from the International Film School in Cuba, which was founded by the writer Gabriel Garcia-Marquez and others and has been one of the most prestigious and important film schools since its founding. We also are showing classics such as Strawberry & Chocolate, Playing Lecuon and Memories of Underdevelopment. This last film is one of the most important films in global cinema’s history. And we are also closing the festival with Santa & Andres by director Carlos Lechuga, which had its premiere at the Toronto Film Festival last year. The film was banned by the Cuban Film Institute and removed from the Havana Film Festival, as well as the Havana Film Festival in New York, because — according to the institute’s director — it “presents an image of the revolution that reduces it to an expression of intolerance and violence against culture, makes irresponsible use of patriotic symbols and makes unacceptable references to Fidel Castro.” We are very happy to be showing it.
Q: What is the meaning of the term Participatory Film in your Indigenous Film section?
A: That refers to the nature of how the films were made. Everyone played a part in working on them and it’s a process different from the usual creative model.
Q: There are no films from Central America this year. Is
it really hard to source movies from the region?
A: Owing to the political realities and ongoing problems — with the exception of Costa Rica, which is like a separate continent — it is very hard to find films. Very few are made and many of them aren’t very good. Last year, we had two excellent Central American films and, sadly, this year we have none.
Q: Is there one “must-see” film at the Vancouver Latin American Film Festival?
A: If I had to pick one, it would have to be The Untamed by director Amat Escalante. This film from Mexico won the Best Director at the Venice Film Festival last year and, for me, it’s the best film of the festival.
Due to the increases in state funding, you see huge increases in Mexico, Brazil, Colombia and Chile.