Film Festival Brings Latino Experience Into Focus

Ethan van Thillo can recall a time when his discussion of Latinos in film prompted mentions of Edward James Olmos and iconic aspects of Chicano culture, but left out virtually every other country and ethnic tradition.

“Olmos and low-rider culture and east L.A.—that was the definition of Latino cinema 18 years ago,” said the founder and executive director of the San Diego Latino Film Festival.

Since the first festival in 1994, however, a significant number of Latinos, from Javier Bardem to Guillermo del Toro, have joined Olmos in establishing successful Hollywood careers, not just in front of the camera, but also behind it.

When the film festival opens its 10-day run Thursday at UltraStar Mission Valley Cinemas, it will feature films from 20 countries, and showcases that focus on Tijuana, family-friendly fare, and Jewish and gay segments of the Latino experience.

The highlights include:

• Two films that soon will be in wide release. Go For It! stars Aimee Garcia (of the ABC drama Off the Map) as a dancer divided by her ambitions and loyalty to her family; it screens on the festival's opening day. The thriller Carancho, Colombia’s 2011 entry for Best Foreign Film at the Academy Awards, will be shown on the festival's final day, March 20.
• A spotlight on Brazilian films, Cinema Brasileiro. It includes Besouro, a revenge fantasy that features Capoeira, the country's famed martial-arts discipline, and Elvis e Madona, a romantic comedy set in Rio de Janeiro.
• Two new tracks, Documania, featuring more than a dozen documentaries, and the Jewish Latino Film Showcase, offering eight features, documentaries and shorts. The Leitchtag Family Foundation of Carlsbad is supporting the Jewish showcase.

Isaac Artenstein, a Tijuana native who lives near Mission Bay, is returning to the film festival on March 19 with Imagining Tijuana, his study of the talented people who have been honored as part of the Paseo de la Fama, the city's Walk of Fame.

The producer of the 2004 satire A Day Without a Mexican interviewed 50 people about their accomplishments and thoughts about the future of the city. One participant called it “a pressure cooker of ideas.”

Artenstein, who has taught film at UC San Diego, started the project before the wave of drug violence that has enveloped Mexico. The issue came up among his subjects, he said, but it's far from the only thing they discussed.

“The situation with crime is not the only thing happening in Tijuana,” he said. “It's such a dynamic, vibrant city.”

A festival world premiere also deals with another issue making headlines, this time in Arizona. Precious Knowledge follows Tucson teens enrolled in Chicano studies classes that are now being targeted for elimination by the state.

Eren McGinnis, an Imperial Beach native who went to high school in El Cajon and graduated from San Diego State University, produced the film with longtime partner Ari Palos. McGinnis, now based in Tuscon, will attend the March 18 premiere, along with Palos and seven of the students, teachers and administrators featured in the film.

The story has changed so much since she and Palos began the project in 2008 that she is planning to provide online updates as the situation in Arizona continues to shift. An unabashed supporter of the students' right to maintain access to the classes, she also is bracing for blowback as her film receives more attention, particularly in the superheated political atmosphere in her home state.

“I’m really wanting people to tone down some of that rhetoric and think about what this movie is about,” McGinnis said.  “It’s about high school kids, and maybe someone who's watching it will say, ‘Hey, that girl’s like my daughter.’ ”

The San Diego Latino Film Festival, including screenings, workshops, music, art exhibits and parties, begins Thursday and continues through March 20. All screenings will take place at UltraStar Mission Valley Cinemas, 7510 Hazard Center Rd., San Diego. Festival passes cost between $35 to $180. Individual films cost $8-$10.