San Diego Latino Film Festival celebrates 32 years with bold, diverse lineup

The San Diego Latino Film Festival (SDLFF) kicks off Wednesday with a condensed five-day showcase of films at two venues.

A rich history

SDLFF has a rich history that executive director Ethan Van Thillo has been a part of since the very beginning.

"We started this as a small student film festival, and now look at us. Thirty-two years later, we have our own nonprofit organization. We have our own movie theater. We teach kids how to make films all year round. And we're expecting over 120 movies at this upcoming film festival, with close to 100 actors and filmmakers coming from all over the U.S., Mexico and Latin America. I’m super excited to once again bring Latino cinema to San Diego."

I was fortunate to attend that first student version of the festival, and witness it grow and evolve over the decades. San Diego is blessed with multiple outstanding film festivals helmed by fabulous executive and artistic directors, but Van Thillo has been the one with the grandest vision and takes the most active role in seeing that vision through.

His vision created the Media Arts Center San Diego, which provides classes and helps foster a new generation of filmmakers. His desire to create a community cinema showing films daily led to the Digital Gym Cinema (which is the home base for Film Geeks SD, where I volunteer to program events) first on El Cajon Boulevard and now in East Village.

Charlotte Radulovich

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KPBS

The thing that struck me about Van Thillo from the moment I met him was that his heart was always in the right place and he was always eager to support art and culture in San Diego. You will see him throughout the festival and across social media commenting on posts about the festival as well as other arts events.

Rebel spirit

The festival may be 32 years old, but it still has the spirit of a rebellious teenager refusing to follow any rules or conform to any conventions. It gets that spirit from both its founder and its artistic director María Paula Lorgia Garnica, who recently joined to continue its bold, fearless programming.

I love that the first film she recommended for me this year was an audacious selection from the Dominican Republic Showcase. "Bionico’s Bachata" opens with the startling image of a man literally falling out of the sky and landing on Earth with a thud. But he brushes himself off and takes us on a trippy trek of love and addiction. Director Yoel Morales endows the film with vibrant energy and intoxicating visual flair. Also from the Dominican Republic Showcase, the glorious animated "Olivia and the Clouds" defies visual boundaries to weave a surreal tale about the complexities of love and relationships.

And the film "¡Aoquic iez in Mexico! ¡Ya México no existirá más! (Aoquic iez in Mexico! Mexico Will No Longer Exist!)" defies genres and challenges viewers with a sensory overload of feverish images colliding like atoms to spur a reaction in viewers.

You can feel an experimental energy bursting from the screen in many of the films. But the festival also embraces rom-coms, emotional dramas and documentaries.

There is also room for filmmakers premiering their first feature films. One of those films is in my favorite sidebar of the festival, Un Mundo Extraño, which showcases genre-driven cinema. Fernando A. Fisher shared a screener for his film "Entre las cuerdas (Amongst the Ropes)" and detailed the challenges he faced in making it — from budget constraints to personal tragedies within his cast. But whatever challenges were happening behind the scenes, they did not impact the film visually or narratively. The film looks great, has solid action and compellingly explores themes of grief. The film also shifts from emotional drama to revenge.

Alejandro Montoya Marin

Another feature directorial debut can be found in the Hay que reírse sidebar, programmed by Luis Martinez (who also programmed this year's Un Mundo Extraño) and dedicated to finding humor in everyday life as well as in extraordinary circumstances. Those circumstances unfold in Alejandro Montoya Marin's "The Unexpecteds," about a group of friends who get scammed and decide to get revenge.

The festival also features documentaries across multiple showcases. Among the feature documentaries I recommend are "Surgencia," an unexpected tale of food, community and place; and "American Agitators," a powerful reminder about protest and never being a silent bystander. Outstanding short documentaries include "Kumeyaay Land" and "The Park on the Dragon's Tail" (about Friendship Park).

Bella Boo Productions

Challenging stereotypes in a new era of moviegoing

The festival presents wildly diverse films, but they all share a common goal: to offer a diverse and honest portrait of the Latino and Latinx community.

"We're just constantly hearing the negativity and the stereotypes about the Latino community, about immigration, about the border," Van Thillo said. "I really try to always have a film festival that really shows a more accurate portrayal of Latinos and a more accurate portrayal of our border. I want the festival to break down walls, break down barriers, invite people in to learn about each other, watch these incredible movies that we have from all over Latin America, Mexico and the U.S."

This year the festival is shorter than usual — just five intense days — primarily because of construction near the AMC Mission Valley Theatres where films will be screened. It’s also re-evaluating its role in a changing moviegoing landscape dominated by streaming platforms.

"We want to really encourage people to celebrate a movie-going experience," Van Thillo said. "See it on the big screen with a wonderful sound, and not only see it on the big screen, but also meet filmmakers. So this film festival is going to include many filmmakers coming from around the world to be here, to be a part of Q&As."

Frontera filmmakers

Charlotte Radulovich

One of the festival’s key sidebars is the Frontera Filmmakers Showcase designed to support local artists like Giancarlo Ruiz, who has been screening his work at the festival for more than two decades.

"I would say that for me, this festival is like home field advantage," Ruiz noted.

Ruiz was part of a new wave of Tijuana filmmakers pushing the envelope at the start of the new millennium.

"So we were really like a wild bunch down there in TJ," Ruiz explained. "I think it was the city itself. I think Tijuana is a very, in a sense, experimental; I think it's in its DNA. It's always evolving. There's a lot of things happening, and it's a city full of chaos as well. There's nothing in order. So that idea of nothing in order — nothing, like here in San Diego — allowed you so much freedom also that we would shoot without permits. So that freedom, I think, also allowed us to experiment with the medium and try to find our own unique voices."

This year Ruiz does not have a film he directed in the festival but is on hand to support one he stars in, "Broken Borders."

"It's directed by Rodrigo Alvarez Flores. He's also a filmmaker from Tijuana," Ruiz said. "It's a story about a family and their own personal lives outside the house. So the story is told in three points of view, basically. So it's a mother and two kids, and you see what happens to them during their day individually. Very nonlinear, very interesting points of view. I think it's very fresh."

At 32 years old, the San Diego Latino Film Festival remains as fresh and vibrant, providing the city with a cultural celebration that’s more important than ever at this moment in history.