.png)
NEW YORK—In seven days, 125 films showcased a multi-layered stream of Latino voices. The event was the 10th annual New York Latino Film Festival, the program, which ended this past Sunday, included feature length and short films, documentaries, comedies, and horror films.
The films represent the directors’s response to both Latino and broad universal issues. The range of topics included border politics, immigration, education, and HIV, and demonstrated the fears, success, ambitions, and trickiness of modern life.
Book of the Border, a 28-minute film by director Andres Torres Vives, depicted the commitment and then infidelity of a Mexican migrant worker to his wife and young daughter. The film illustrated one family's love, vulnerabilities, and left tantalizing questions unanswered.
Red Mesa, a 17 minute film-short written and directed by Ilana Lapid, told the story of one woman’s choice to love and not tell. A Rancher’s granddaughter fears the consequences of confessing her romance with an illegal Mexican worker, and her silence leads to tragedy. It’s a powerful and romantic drama, grounded filmly in reality.
Lapid said her film was a fictional rendering her experiences as a Jewish/Israeli American in a relationship with a Mexican immigrant. She also said the film is intended to be humanistic, and show the complexities of Border disputes. In her research she spoke with Mexicans planning to cross illegally and with ranchers, who she said are upset about immigrants cutting their fences and leaving trash which makes their cows sick. She said she feels "it is important in any conflict to understand both sides."
After the screening, David F. Mewa, director of The Contract, a seven-and-a-half minute “dark comedy with a witty twist,” said he was gratified to hear the audience laugh in the right places. Mewa explained that The Contract is a mainstream story told with a Latino face. Lead actor, Alexis de la Rosa, commented that it is important for Latinos to be in movies and films that are not directly about being Latino.”
According to audience voting, the highest rated film in the festival, with a 4.9 out of five, was Cruzando (Crossing). Written and directed by Mando Alvarado and Michael Ray Escamilla, Cruzando is the story of a 26-year-old Mexican father-to-be whose own father is on death row. Cruzando follows the journey of one man to see his father. Cruzando also received acceptance in Seattle’s True Independent Film Festival, Filmfest DC, and Marfa Film Festival in Texas.
