The 38th annual edition of CineFestival starts Friday with Mi Familia/My Family and ends Saturday, February 27 with Bordertown. Next week, the Current will feature my take on what the festival has and what it needs. For now, here’s a partial list of the key films to watch, in chronological order.
All movies at the Guadalupe Theater, 1301 Guadalupe. Complete schedule and tickets available at here. Individual tickets $8, festival pass $50, festival pass + Opening Night $65.
19
OPENING NIGHT
Mi Familia/My Family “family reunion”
If this hasn’t sold out by the time you read this, hurry and get your tickets. Gregory Nava’s epic, three-generation story of a Mexican-American family in East LA earned a well-deserved Oscar nomination for Best Make Up and is CineFestival’s greatest bet in the bring-on-the-stars department: cast members Esaí Morales, Jacob Vargas and Elpidia Carrillo will be present to talk about the film, in a chat moderated by local acting hero Jesse Borrego. 7pm Fri.
20
No más bebés (No More Babies)
In the late ’60s and early ’70s, some women (mostly Latinas and African Americans) went to the hospital to give birth—they came out of it with their tubes tied. This excellent but deeply disturbing film centers on four of the Mexican women who gave birth at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center where, unable to speak English, minutes before surgery were shown with papers that told them that unless they signed, the doctors couldn’t proceed. Besides the victims, the big hero of this story is then-26-year-old attorney Antonia Hernández, who in 1975 convinced the women to tell their stories and sued those responsible for this flagrant human rights abuse. Spoiler alert: they lost the trial, but won history. The trial paved the way for new, basic woman safety laws that today we take for granted. But there is another hero in the story: Dr. Buddy Rosenfeld, the whistleblower who, as a young resident at LAC+USC, provided Hernández with the information that took hospital authorities to court. He’s now practicing in Houston, specializing in, guess what: reversing tubal ligations. 7pm Sat.
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Las Tesoros de San Antonio
WORLD PREMIERE
With all due respect to the Mi Familia reunion and other highly recommended films on this list, Las Tesoros de San Antonio is the movie to watch at this year’s CineFestival. There is nothing technically impeccable about this film, an obvious labor of love by director Jorge Sandoval, but he did get the most important thing right: the story and ranchera-fueled music of Las Tesoros is one worth filming, watching and hearing. The lives of Rita Vidaurri (“La Calandria,” 91), Beatriz Llamas (“La Paloma del Norte,” 79), Blanca Rosa, and Janet Cortez (“Perla Tapatía,” who passed away in 2014 at age 83) are united by a music career cut short under different circumstances—Vidaurri lost her three sons to illness and the war; Llamas lost her husband/manager at the height of her career, Blanca Rosa left music to pursue nursing, and Perla Tapatía was diagnosed with throat cancer in 1973 at age 41 and told she’d never sing again (she did, and her first performance was singing “Happy Birthday” to her doctor). The movie has each tesoro (treasure) telling their story, and the big climax comes with amazing footage of their historic show at the Guadalupe in 2011, superbly accompanied by local all-female Mariachi Mujer Internacional. The four had never sang together until the Esperanza’s Graciela Sánchez suggested they form a quartet in 2010. In an era when we remember broke or neglected legends after they die, it is refreshing to see the three surviving Tesoros with passion, sacred inner fire and vocal ammunition intact. I was there at the Guadalupe in 2011 and, after exchanging a few words with Perla Tapatía, I left wondering how she would be able to sing—after 39 throat surgeries, she was all whispers. Well, she blew everyone away, but so did the other three. The film perfectly captures that moment, and this screening offers us another opportunity to see (three of) them in action, on and off the screen: they’ll perform a short concert after the movie. Here’s an instant local classic that deserves a packed house. If you can’t make it, you better have a good reason. in Spanish and English with English subtitles. 5pm Sun.
21
Maracaná
You don’t have to be a soccer fan to enjoy the sport’s ultimate triumph-of-the-underdog story. On July 16, 1950, tiny Uruguay stunned heavily favored giant Brazil (which only needed a draw to become World Champion) in the World Cup final’s biggest upset ever. The Brazilians had built the Maracaná, the world’s largest stadium (a monstrous crowd of 199,854 attended the game) to properly host the Brazilian team, “who undoubtedly will be crowned champions in a few minutes,” as the Rio de Janeiro Mayor said right before the game. “I built the stadium. Now you do your part.” Everything was ready for a big carnival following the game, and the day of the game, one of the major dailies published a photo of the Brazilians under a huge headline: “THESE ARE THE WORLD CHAMPIONS.” The Uruguayans didn’t like that, so they spoiled the party and, instead of a carnival, there were tears and even suicides. Paradoxically, the game changed the countries’ fortunes forever: Two-time champion Uruguay never won another World Cup (a fourth place in 1954, 1970 and 2010 was as close as they would get), and Brazil would finally win it eight years later, the first of five World Cups (more than any other country). The Brazil/Uruguay co-production, co-directed by Sebastián Bednarik and Andrés Varela, features never-before-seen, remastered, HD footage of games (also featuring England, Bolivia, Mexico, Sweden, Spain, and others), interviews with players, and the political context of it all. Full disclosure: I convinced Varela to waive licensing so CineFestival could screen the movie. You’re welcome. 1pm Sun.
25
THROWBACK THURSDAY
Frontierlandia
The winner of CineFestival’s 1996 Jury Prize, this is the biggest trip you can have at this year’s fest. At times straight-ahead documentary, at times travelogue, this unpredictable, highly entertaining Culture Clash-meets-Monty Python experimental extravaganza explores border life, the spirit of Aztlan, Mexican death metal and features Guillermo Gómez Peña as a talking cockroach and Chicano rap fiery trio Aztlan Underground as… Aztlan Underground, which no es poca cosa. The film will be preceded by Femina-X’s “Frida’s Heart” video, directed by Laura Varela and Daniela Riojas, who will be in attendance along with Frontierlandia co-director Rubén Ortiz-Torres. 6:30pm Thu.
25
Washington Heights
Austin Film Festival-winning, well-acted 2002 film set in the New York neighborhood of the same name and based on a story co-written by director Alfredo De Villa and a young(er) Junot Díaz. Need I say more? Only this: If you’re from the Dominican Republic, you’ll like it even more. 8:30pm Thu.
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Cantinflas
I was never able to document its veracity, but there is a famous old quote by Charles Chaplin, who knew a thing or two about comedy: “Cantinflas is the greatest comedian alive.” I couldn’t agree more. Mario Moreno “Cantinflas” (1911-1993) was Mexico’s ying to rival Tin-Tan’s yang, but his impact was such that, in 1992, Spain’s Royal Academy included three new words in its dictionary: cantinflear (“to speak in an absurd manner without saying anything”), cantinflada (“a person who does or says something that Cantinflas, Mexican actor, would do” and cantinflas (“A person who talks or acts like Cantinflas”). He won a Golden Globe as Best Actor (Comedy or Musical) for Around the World in 80 Days (1956), but this 2014 biopic directed by Sebastián del Amo was panned by critics (I predict it’ll be better treated by future generations). The one thing everyone agreed on: Cantinflas’ portrayal by Óscar Jaenada is so good that you won’t even notice the dude’s from Spain. It’s a masterful, dead-on impression I won’t mind watching again and again. This morning senior screening is FREE and open to the general public. 9am Fri.
And I can’t resist sharing a sample of cantinfleo by the original, the one and only Cantinflas, in this case explaining us what the Atom Theory is (sorry, Spanish only):
26
600 Miles
Tim Roth as an ATF agent on the hunt of illegal gun smugglers moving assault rifles from Arizona to Mexico, but when he’s about to catch the Mexican kids, he’s kidnapped by them instead. But… surprise! He kind of befriends his captor and… Familiar, right? Not only that: director Gabriel Ripstein (the son of Mexican director Arturo Ripstein) didn’t have a better idea than to name Roth’s ATF agent “Hank” (any Breaking Bad fan will get my point). Fortunately, the movie is not nearly as bad as its plot, and it deservedly won Best First Feature at the Berlinale in 2015. “This isn’t a gangster thriller,” Ripstein rightly told The Hollywood Reporter upon winning. “It’s a much deeper and more involving drama than the plot summary would suggest.” 7:30pm Fri.
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Los Punks: We Are All We Have
Backyard Latino punk in East L.A., South Central, Watts and Boyle Heights. Mexicanos making noise at home and in Black neighborhoods. A must-see documentary about one of the wildest, loudest underground scenes in L.A. 9pm Fri.
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The Other Barrio
Richard Montoya was always my favorite member of Culture Clash, the San Francisco-based Chicano comedy team. In this neo-noir directed by Dante Betteo and co-written by him and Montoya based on a story by 2012 SF poet laureate Alejandro Murguía, Montoya shines as a housing inspector and gets a chance to shows all his range. Music by five-time Grammy nominee producer Greg Landau, who also scored La Mission. 4pm Sat.
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CLOSING NIGHT
Bordertown
I must confess I stopped watching after the first two episodes of Fox’s new animated series about Border Patrol agent Bud Buckwald and Mexican next-door neighbor Ernesto González, but I’m not ready to completely give up on Mexifornia, the fictitious town where the action takes place. Reviews have been mixed, yet it’s too early to dismiss the series created by Family Guy writer Mark Hentemann and executive-produced by Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane. That’s why I want to see these two brand new episodes at CineFestival, complete with an extended Q&A with series writer and consulting producer Lalo Alcaraz (the cartoonist behind La Cucaracha) and SA actor Nicolás González (“the future of Latino acting in the U.S.A.,” says CineFestival director Jim Mendiola), who voices Ernesto. Too bad the other consulting producer, Gustavo Arellano (of Ask a Mexican! fame), couldn’t make it, but Lalo’s presence guarantees lethal comebacks whenever a bigot heckles from the audience. 7:30pm Sat.
Now, if you’re wondering where the SA films are, go to the next page.
SA, etc.
Besides some shorts and Las Tesoros de San Antonio, CineFestival will feature a Pepe Serna tribute day on Wednesday, February 24 with the screenings of Aguruphobia (comedy, 6:30pm) and the World Premiere of Aaron Lee López’s Gino’s Wife (8:30 p.m.), shot in SA and starring Jesse Borrego.
It’s a well-deserved homage to Serna, a fine, under-recognized actor who is in top form in López’s crime drama. But CineFestival won’t just show SA films for the sake of showing SA films. The good news is that SA today is very similar to the Austin Richard Linklater found when he did Slacker, and the city is ready for a new generation of filmmakers with actually something to say.
“I came to Austin 16 years ago,” Linklater told The New York Times in 2000. “My rent was $133 a month, all bills paid, and I could live on $3,500 a year. So I spent all my time watching movies, editing, shooting. Film students are like, How do you do it? I don’t know. If you have to work all day just to pay your rent, I don’t know. If I was just starting out now? I might go to San Antonio.”
Sixteen years have passed, and SA is still not known as a city where great movies come from. There is only one way to change that.
“[Linklater] set out to do an original film instead of following Hollywood formulas,” said Mendiola. “I think that’s the approach SA should have.”
But everything starts with a good screenplay, and local Latino auteurs and writers should take advantage of next year’s CineFestival’s Latino Screenwriting Project, organized in conjunction with the Sundance Institute. It will be the fifth consecutive year of the screenwriter’s lab.
“[This year] we had over 100 screenplays submitted and chose only four,” said Mendiola.
So, c’mon, guys. Less talking about lights and lenses and cameras, and more attention to screenwriting. Don’t procrastinate and go to latinoscreenwritingproject.com now so you can land one spot in next year’s screenwriting workshop.
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This article appears in Feb 17-23, 2016.