Other filmmakers scheduled to attend include: Director Gustavo Fallas (Lazaro’s Daughter), Director Alberto Lecchi and actress Paula Sartor (Let’s Take a Walk, Valentina), director Ray Figueroa (Once Upon a Time in the Caribbean) and director Joanna Nelson (Hunger).
More than 90 directors, writers, actors and producers representing 85 short and feature-length films from Mexico, Central and South America, the Caribbean, Spain, Portugal, and the United States will attend the 40th Chicago Latino Film Festival, April 11th to April 22nd.
Leading the charge is Mexican actor, comedian, TV host and producer Omar Chaparro who will join director Alonso Álvarez-Barreda and Chicago actor and Teatro Vista Ensemble member Max Arciniega at the Opening Night screening of their joint collaboration, The Wingwalker. Opening Night will take place at the Davis Theatre, 4614 N. Lincoln Ave. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. and the event starts at 6:15 p.m. It concludes with a post-screening party at DANK Haus German American Cultural Center, 4740 N. Western Ave. Tickets are $75 general / $65 for ILCC members. A second screening of The Wingwalker will take place on Saturday, April 13th at 7 p.m. at the Landmark Century Center, 2828 N. Clark. Chaparro, Álvarez-Barreda and Arciniega will also be present at this screening.
Born in Chihuahua, Mexico and best known for his comedic skills, versatility and personality, especially in such Mexican comedies as La boda de Valentina (2018, co-written by a pre-Tigers Are Not Afraid Issa López) and No Manches Frida (2016), Omar Chaparro plays Julián in Alonso Álvarez-Barreda’s first feature film, a single father whose life takes an unexpected turn when he is deported to Mexico just as his daughter is about to receive a life-saving heart transplant. Omar appeared in Detective Pikachu (2019), sharing credits with Ryan Reynolds and Justice Smith, Blackout (2022) alongside Josh Duhamel and Nick Nolte, as well as in the remake of Overboard (2018) with Eugenio Derbez and Anna Faris. As a comedian and singer, Omar sold out over 50 cities in the US with his show Imparables, including The Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.
Additional filmmakers who will be present at the Festival include: director Gustavo Fallas (Lazaro’s Daughter, Costa Rica), Director Alberto Lecchi and actress Paula Sartor (Let’s Take a Walk, Valentina, Argentina), director Sean Mattison (Petro, Colombia/USA), director Ray Figueroa (Once Upon a Time in the Caribbean, Puerto Rico), director and writer Joanna Nelson (Hunger, Venezuela) and writer and director Laura González (Closing Night film Milonga, Uruguay).
A full list of visiting filmmakers can be found here; it will be updated daily until Opening Night.
Opening and Closing Night will be held at the Davis Theatre, 4614 N. Lincoln Ave. and a special event at the Instituto Cervantes, 31 W. Ohio St., with the rest of the Festival taking place at the Landmark Century Center, 2828 N. Clark St. For more information visit chicagolatinoculturalcenter.org.
The Paul M. Angell Family Foundation is a Presenting Partner of the 40th Anniversary of the Chicago Latino Film Festival.
AN ADDITIONAL WORLD PREMIERE
The 40th Chicago Latino Film Festival has added another world premiere to its list: Augusto Tamayo’s La herencia de Flora. After tackling the life of Saint Rose of Lima, the first Latin American to be canonized by the Catholic Church in Mystic Rose (an official selection of the 35th Chicago Latino Film Festival), Tamayo introduces audiences to the life and work of the 18th century Franco-Peruvian writer Flora Tristán. The film opens as Flora flees from the abuse of a violent husband by traveling to Peru with the goal of claiming her family inheritance. Flora perceives the overwhelming social differences between races and classes in both Arequipa and Lima, as well as the persistence of slavery in Peru. Upon returning to France, she uses her pen to fight for the rights of workers and women.
The Festival will be presenting nine World premieres, nine North American premieres and one US premiere.
SHORTS PROGRAMS
Unlike other film festivals, the Chicago Latino Film Festival pairs a short alongside a feature film paired based on themes, styles and subject matter. The shorts program this year includes such award-winning films as Leonardo Pirondi’s Visions of Paradise (Best Experimental Film at the Brooklyn Film Festival), José Cardoso’s What the Soil Remembers (Tiger Short Competition, Rotterdam International Film Festival), Guillermo García López’s Aunque es de noche (Best Short Fiction Film at the 2024 Goya Awards), and Aqueronte by Manuel Muñoz Rivas (KNF Award, Rotterdam International Film Festival).
SPECIAL SCREENING AT INSTITUTO CERVANTES
The Chicago Latino Film Festival and Instituto Cervantes Chicago will present a special screening of Violeta Salama’s Alegría on Wednesday, April 17th, starring Mexican actress Cecilia Suárez, whose acting career started in Chicago when she entered the Theater Faculty of the Illinois State University (USA) and graduated class valedictorian in 1995 to become a grantee of Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theater Company, where she worked with Frank Galati.
Suárez plays Alicia, a single mother who has returned to her family home in Melilla, an autonomous, multicultural Spanish city on Africa’s north coast, from Mexico where she has lived most of her life. Estranged from her Jewish roots, her life is suddenly turned upside down when her family decides to hold her niece’s Orthodox Jewish wedding at the house. The chance of reconnecting with her daughter may make things more tolerable for Alicia but as the wedding day approaches, old tensions emerge. Alicia will have to find a way to come to terms with her roots and her past.
Director Violeta Salama will attend the screening. The event starts with a reception at 6 p.m. followed at 7 p.m. with the screening and post-screening Q&A at the Instituto Cervantes, 31 W. Ohio St. A second screening has been scheduled for Thursday, April 18th at 8:15 p.m. at the Landmark Century Center. Tickets are $30 general / $25 for ILCC members.
SPONSORS
The 40th Chicago Latino Film Festival is sponsored by: Tito’s Handmade Vodka, Humboldt Park Health, US Bank, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Lopez & Co., The Whitehall Hotel, Wintrust Bank, Tristan & Cervantes, Illinois Film Office, Prado & Renteria, Azúcar Rococó and Instituto Cervantes
Media Sponsors: La Voz de Chicago, WTTW, CAN-TV, La Raza, Telemundo Chicago/NBC-5, Chicago Latino Network, Negocios Now, InSpanish Media, DBO Films
ADDITIONAL SUPPORT
The 40th Chicago Latino Film Festival receives additional support from: Chicago’s Cultural Treasures, Reva & David Logan Foundation, The Joyce Foundation, Gaylord & Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, The Field Foundation /MacArthur Foundation, Art Work Fund, DCASE (Chicago Dept. of Cultural Affairs and Special Events), and Illinois Arts Council
ABOUT THE ILCC
The International Latino Cultural Center of Chicago is a Pan-Latino, nonprofit, multidisciplinary arts organization dedicated to developing, promoting, and increasing awareness of Latino cultures among Latinos and other communities by presenting a wide variety of art forms and education including film, music, dance, visual arts, comedy, theater and culinary arts. The Center prides itself for its outstanding multidisciplinary local and international cultural programming which spans Latin America, Spain, Portugal, and the United States.
Born out of the Chicago Latino Film Festival, The International Latino Cultural Center of Chicago also produces other programs, including the Chicago Latino Music Series, which is celebrating its 18th edition this year; Film in the Parks, also
in its 18th season; the monthly Reel Film Club, already in its 16th year, the Chicago Latino Dance Festival and many others.
All in all, the audience has grown from 500 people in 1985 for the first Chicago Latino Film Festival to more than 70,000 (Latinos and non-Latinos) who enjoy the year-round multidisciplinary cross-cultural exchanges offered by the Center.
