After a series of announcements, the 41st Chicago Latino Film Festival today unveils its full program of 51 features and 30 shorts from Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain, Portugal and the United States that will screen at the Davis Theater (Opening and Closing Night), 4614 N. Lincoln Ave., Instituto Cervantes (Centerpiece), 31 W. Ohio St., and the Landmark Century Centre Cinema (the rest of the program), 2828 N. Clark St.. 

Tickets for all screenings are now available to be purchased online: chicagolatinofilmfestival.org

Out of the 51 feature selections, seven are World, 12 North American and five U.S. Premieres; of the 30 shorts, six are World Premieres and eight are North American Premieres. Seventeen features are by first-time filmmakers or documentary filmmakers who are making their feature fiction debut. More than a third of the entire program consists of films directed or co-directed by women: 21 features and 12 shorts. Around 50 filmmakers are expected to attend the Festival and participate in the post-screening Q&A sessions; a full list of guests will be published online in the days leading up to Opening Night.

“This year we have a larger number of premieres as well as films directed by women than we did last year which continues to speak to the breadth and quality of the films coming out of the Latino diaspora. As the longest continuously running Latino film festival in the country, we keep our eyes open and our ears to the ground year-round in search of those films that will play well in our Festival and our city,” said Pepe Vargas, Executive Director and Founder of the International Latino Cultural Center of Chicago, producers of the film festival.

“This year’s program is as diverse in its themes, genres and cinematic approaches as the countries they come from. Chances are strong that, for most of these films, our Festival will be the one and only time they are shown theatrically in Chicago. So, I invite you all to join us for this unique opportunity,” concluded Vargas.

Building on the success of last year’s screening of The Wingwalker written and co-starring Chicago actor Max Arciniega, this year’s Festival has a strong Chicago component that includes the previously announced World Premiere of José Pérez’s What Rhymes with Magdalena?, and the shorts Hair from Teatro Vista Artistic Directors Lorena Díaz and Wendy Mateo, featuring an all-star cast of Chicago’s Latina actresses; Jorge Arana’s Dirty Business (which Arana and his team wrote, shot and edited in 48 hours as part of a competition); and the world premiere of Chicago Fire’s Joe Miñoso’s directorial debut Paper Flowers, the story of a 10-year-old dreamer tasked with the care of his younger sister as they navigate through their family’s immigration struggles.

Alongside those three Chicago-made shorts, the Festival’s shorts program features a dazzling selection of stories across all genres and forms including the Mexican-French co-production As If the Earth Had Swallowed Them Up, winner of the Short Film Jury Award: Animation at this year’s Sundance Film Festival; Fever, a documentary about the Elevate Baseball Academy in the Dominican Republic; and Paris 70, Dani Feixas Roka’s moving film about an Alzheimer’s patient and her caregiver, nominated this year to the Goya Award for Best Fiction Short Film. Each short has been thematically paired with a feature in what is now a trademark of the Festival.

Additional feature film highlights include:

  • The first Chicago theatrical presentation of Jayro Bustamante’s latest horror film, Rita (currently streaming on Shudder), based on one of Guatemala’s most harrowing tragedies, an orphanage fire that claimed the lives of 41 girls. The country’s official entry to the Academy Awards for Best International Feature follows Rita, a 13-year-old girl who is placed at a government-run orphanage after escaping an abusive household. The girls inside share a prophecy that an angel-like being will rescue them from the orphanage’s abusive employees. 
  • The Jane Fonda, Naomi Klein and Gustavo Santaolalla-produced documentary Norita about Nora Cortiña, co-founder of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo.
  • The Freshly Cut Grass, executive produced by Martin Scorsese and co-starring Mexican actress Marina de Tavira (Roma), Celina Murga’s latest film tells the parallel stories of two fortysomething university professors who are engaged in extramarital affairs with two of their students.
  • Costa Rican director Antonella Sudassassi Furniss’ Memories of Burning Body, winner of the Audience Award last year at the Berlinale’s Panorama program, which distills the experiences of three women in their 60s and 70s in one composite character embodied by three actors of different ages. 
  • The remarkably timely The Last, Paraguay’s official selection for this year’s Academy Award for Best International Feature, is the story of two scientists who are invited by director Sebastián Peña Escobar to film the threatened forests of Chovoreca, to find an immense wildfire sweeping through the area.
  • Icíar Bollaín’s (Rosa’s Wedding, Yuli) new film I Am Nevenka, the story of the first woman in Spain to take a politician to court for sexual harassment marking the beginning of the #metoo movement in Spain long before the term was coined.

OPENING, CLOSING AND CENTERPIECE SELECTIONS

The 41st Chicago Latino Film Festival previously announced the North American Premiere of Dear Gentlemen, actress and novelist Patricia Castañeda’s feature debut about the fight of Colombian women to win the right to vote, as the Opening Night selection (Thursday, April 3rd) and the selection of Reinas, Peruvian-Swiss director Klaudia Reynicke’s poignant tale about a father trying to earn his daughters’ love back after being absent from their lives for too long, for its Closing Night gala (Monday, April 14th). Both galas will take place at the Davis Theatre, 4614 N. Lincoln Ave. Doors open at 5:00 p.m. and events will start at 6:00 p.m.. The events will conclude with a post-screening party at DANK Haus German American Cultural Center, 4740 N. Western Ave..  

The Festival also previously announced the North American premiere of Alberto Morais’ The Black Land starring Sergi López (Pan’s Labyrinth) as its Centerpiece selection; it will screen at the Instituto Cervantes, 31 W. Ohio St., on Wednesday, April 9. The event starts at 6 p.m. with a pre-screening reception followed by the film at 7 p.m. and a post-screening Q&A with director Morais. 

TICKET INFORMATION

Tickets to each regular screening at the Landmark Century Centre Cinema are: $16, general admission; $12 (with valid ID), ILCC members, students and seniors. Festival passes worth 10 admissions are: $140 for the general public and $110 for ILCC Members, students and seniors.

Monday and Tuesday night specials at the Landmark Century Centre Cinema: all films, $12.

Tickets to the Opening and Closing Night screenings at the Davis Theater and after party at DANK Haus German American Cultural Center are $75 general / $65 for ILCC members. Cocktail attire is strongly encouraged.
Tickets for the special screening of The Black Land at the Instituto Cervantes on Wednesday, April 9 are $30 general / $25 for ILCC members.