The Chicago Latino Film Festival launches its 32nd festival this week with a lineup of 74 feature films and 42 short films from Latin America, the U.S., Spain and Portugal. The festival opens Friday with a screening of Roberto Girault’s comedy,
Illusions, S.A., at the AMC River East 21, and closes Thursday, April 21, with Ariel Winograd’s latest comedy,
Sin Hijos (No Kids) at the Chicago History Museum.
From Kartemquin Films' "In the Game."
The festival will also celebrate the 50th anniversary of Chicago’s Kartemquin Films with a screening of Maria Finitzo's documentary
In the Game, at 6pm Tuesday, April 19. Finitzo and Gordon Quinn, artistic director of Kartemquin Films, will introduce the film. A question and answer session will follow the screening.
Other festival highlights include:
- Our Last Tango, a documentary produced by Wim Wenders about legendary tango dancers María Nieves Rego and Juan Carlos Copes;
- Land and Shade, César Acevedo’s feature film debut, winner of the Camera D’Or at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, about an old farmer who returns to his family after abandoning them 17 years ago;
- The Farm, Angel Manuel Soto’s portrait of Puerto Rico’s economic collapse, winner of the Opera Prima award at the recent Guadalajara International Film Festival;
- From Afar, the first Latin American film to win the Venice Film Festival's Golden Lion;
- Karadima’s Forest, the story of Father Fernando Karadima, the pastor of Chile’s most powerful church and one of Chile’s worst sexual predators;
- Murder in Pacot, Raoul Peck’s drama about class resentment in the aftermath of the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti.
The festival is conducted by the
International Latino Cultural Center of Chicago. All films will be shown in their original language with English subtitles. Local and international filmmakers will be present after most screenings for audience discussions. The CLFF is a noncompetitive festival but audience members vote for their favorite films in several categories. Winners will be announced on April 24.
See the complete film
schedule. All screenings will be at the AMC River East 21, 322 E. Illinois St., except for the closing night showing at the Chicago History Museum, 1601 N. Clark St.
Tickets to each screening are $13 general admission with $10 tickets available for some groups; festival passes also are available. Tickets can also be purchased at the CLFF Box Office at the theater lobby, which opens one hour before first show of the day.
