If you’re in New York, you might want to stop into the Official Latino Short Film Festival. Founded in 2015 by Panamanian-Mexican-American Danny Hastings, the fest will include 128 films, panel discussions and a section of shorts written, directed, and produced by women.
This year’s crop of movies feature several from directors in the United States and the international community. Highlights include Daniela Riojas’ Standing Rock: A New Nation about the 2016 protest of the Dakota Access Pipeline and how a peaceful protest threatened to turn violent. Standing Rock: A New Nation hopes to show the site as a “birthplace for new ideas on how to transform our global and local communities into those which honor water and all inhabitants of the earth.”
Alfonso M. Rodriguez’s The 3rd Try is an LGBTQ drama about “an emotionally unstable lesbian couple tries to find solace after experiencing a traumatic loss” and how “the two agree to embrace this hardship in hopes of moving forward.”
Adel L. Morales’ Lucy Barron is a sci-fi drama about a mother’s quest to absolve herself of her guilt after the loss of her daughter and “driven to the point of obsession.” If you’re looking for something wackier in mind you’ll want to seek out Mariachi Madness from Nadia Zoe. The flick is a madcap father-son adventure involving a lost cat, relationship problems, and a mariachi group reuniting for one last adventure.
And Cuban-Guatemalan director Wesley Rodriguez will be screening his drama Palante, the story of “Estrella and her grandfather, an impoverished Cuban family, [who] prepare for a journey of a lifetime” after winning the “Cuban-US immigration lottery.”
The 3rd Annual Official Latino Short Film Festival takes place October 6 – 8 at the Teatro LATEA in New York City. You can learn more about the films screening and purchase tickets via their website.