Latinx short films will be a major part of the 2nd Annual Film Maudit 2.0 virtual film festival taking place Jan. 12-24. The Los Angeles-based fest was created to “showcase and celebrate new outré, unusual and startling films” that cover “socio-political issues and taboo subject matter.”
Inspired by the French Festival du Film Maudit (“cursed films”), Film Maudit 2.0 aims to “celebrate overlooked, shocking and experimental films.” This year, these films will include shorts that will screen in a section of the festival called “QLX: The Performance of Queer Latinx.”
The nine shorts that will be presented are: Noche de Travesuras, Al Otro Lado, La Sad Boy, Joyride, Mi Pollo Loco, Mexicali, Las Jornadas: An Excerpt of Encuentros Disidentes and Aspirational Markings: Project Rage Queen, Episode 2.
Dino Dinco, a performance artist and filmmaker, is one of the curators of the “QLX: The Performance of Queer Latinx” section of the festival. He says a film festival like Maudit 2.0 allows filmmakers to explore queerness with more diverse options.
“The world of film at large, contemporary and historical, provides ample material to explore this polemic…non-linear storytelling, and expanded cinema,” Dinco says in a statement. “[The festival] offers an unexplored context in which to consider a film.”
Dinco also explained why a term like “Latinx” as a “socio-cultural identifier” has been an issue many Latinos cannot agree on, and the challenges curators of the festival faced when choosing films to screen this year.
“The discussions that took place amongst my team illuminated some of the potential issues with Latinx,” he says. “Is it a linguistic gimmick? Some align Latinx with anti-Blackness and gendered violence and prefer instead the term Latine. Specific to film programming, are there geographical boundaries for films or filmmakers to be considered Latinx? What does Latinx mean outside of the United States?”
Along with Dinco, selections for “QLX: The Performance of Queer Latinx” were made by Clark Alcantara, Leslie Lopez-Santiago, Karina Magdaleno, Sol Martinez, Xelestiál Moreno-Luz and Ciara Vega.
To purchase tickets to Film Maudit 2.0, visit here.