The Chicago Latino Film Festival kicks off its 41st edition next month and includes a handful of LGBTQ+-themed films.
The festival runs April 3-14 with a program of 51 features and 30 short films hailing from Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain, Portugal and the United States—and more than a third of the films are directed or co-directed by women.
This was part of a concerted effort among the programmers to make sure the festival reflects the diversity of the Latino community, said Pepe Vargas, executive director and founder of the International Latino Cultural Center of Chicago, which produces the fest.
“This year’s program is as diverse in its themes, genres and cinematic approaches as the countries they come from,” Vargas said.
Nearly all of the festival’s screenings will happen at the Landmark Century Centre Cinema, 2828 N. Clark St., aside from the opening and closing night programs at the Davis Theatre, 4614 N. Lincoln Ave., and the centerpiece presentation at Instituto Cervantes, 31 W. Ohio St. Tickets are available on the Chicago Latino Film Festival website.
In addition to the handful of LGBTQ+ films featured in the festival, there will be a selection of Chicago-made features and shorts and more than a dozen premieres, including six world premieres and eight North American premieres.
For many films, this is a rare opportunity to see them on the big screen.
“Chances are strong that, for most of these films, our festival will be the one and only time they are shown theatrically in Chicago,” Vargas said. “So, I invite you all to join us for this unique opportunity.”
LGBTQ+ films at the festival
This year’s Chicago Latino Film Festival includes several LGBTQ+ films, including one feature and four shorts.
Sandra Bernal, programming manager of the Chicago Latino Film Festival, said the team was intentional about making sure LGBTQ+ people were represented in the lineup of films.
“We want this festival to represent our society, and our society includes us all,” Bernal said. “So we have LGBTQ+ communities represented, as well as Afro-latina communities, different countries, women and men, and all kinds of genres. It was a clear choice to make this as representative as possible.”
The LGBTQ+ feature Clear Nights is a drama from Portugal that tells the story of two siblings trying to rediscover themselves while confronting problems like postpartum depression, divorce and coming to terms with bisexual identity. Directed by Pualo Filipe Monteiro, the story is mostly told through body movement and dance.
The screenings, which mark the North American premiere for Clear Nights, will happen April 5 and April 7.
The four LGBTQ+ shorts include:
- To Kill a Man, a Cuban film directed by Orlando Mora Cabrera
- Unless We Dance, a Colombian documentary directed by Hanz Rippe Gabriel and Fernanda Pineda Palencia
- The City We Occupy, a Guatemalan drama directed by Joaquín Ruano
- Come Again One Day, a film from uruguay directed by Catalina Torres
To Kill a Man, which screens alongside Clear Nights, follows the character of Javi, an erotic dancer whose final performance at a queer club goes awry when one of his regulars can’t handle the idea of him leaving.
“It’s a heartbreaking story because it highlights violence in an LGBTQ+ relationship, which is something that we don’t talk about very often,” Bernal said.
Unless We Dance screens April 11 and 12 and documents an Afro dance teacher’s efforts to rescue young people from a life of crime in Quibdó, Colombia, by forming a dance company where they can work through difficult social situations.
“The main character is not in the LGBTQ+ community, but it shows how some queer people in this city are living and found dance as the only way to survive,” Bernal said. “It’s a really beautiful way to highlight the LGBTQ+ representation.”
In The City We Occupy, screening April 8 and 10, a 35-year-old trans woman returns to her childhood home in Guatemala to take care of her aging father, who refuses to accept his deteriorating condition and is putting a strain on their relationship.
“It’s a beautiful film, despite how heartbreaking it is,” Bernal said.
The final short film, Come Again One Day, tells the story of an 83-year-old woman struggling with depression when she’s unexpectedly visited by someone from her past.
“The message under that short film is that the fight for LGBTQ+ rights is a situation that has passed through a lot of different generations,” Bernal said.
Opening and closing nights, plus other festival highlights
The festival also features a number of non-LGBTQ+ films that span genre, country of origin and other themes.
Opening Night—at the Davis Theatre—will feature the North American premiere of Dear Gentlemen, which is actress and novelist Patricia Castañeda’s debut film about Colombian women’s fight to win voting rights.
Closing Night will also happen at the Davis Theatre with a screening of Reinas, which tells the story of Peruvian-Swiss director Klaudia Reynick trying to earn his daughters’ love back after being absent from their lives.
For both presentations, doors open at 5 p.m. with the event starting at 6 p.m., followed by post-screening parties at DANK Haus German American Cultural Center, 4740 N. Western Ave.
The festival’s centerpiece presentation features the North American premiere of the Black Land, a drama following the return of character Ángel to his family’s industrial mill business, who hires a man to help out that the locals are suspicious of. It features actor Sergi López from Pan’s Labyrinth. That screening happens April 9 at Instituto Cervantes, followed by a Q&A with director Alberto Morais.
Other festival highlights include a handful of films made in Chicago, a Jane Fonda-produced documentary and other films spanning genres like horror, science fiction and genre, Bernal said.
“The entire team has been working so hard to make this happen, and we put a lot of love into this year’s program,” Bernal said. “Now our work is done and this festival belongs to the people.”