San Diego Latino Film Festival Will Be Online And At The Drive-In

Speaker 1: 00:00 The San Diego Latino film festival kicks off tomorrow with films on two screens at the South Bay drive in, but the majority of films will be presented online. KPBS arts reporter, Beth Armando speaks with exhibitions manager, Moises Esparza about programming the festival, and he shares his top picks. Speaker 2: 00:19 My says a year ago, when I spoke to you, the festival was on it's opening night and had to cancel because of COVID. Now it appears that the festival is kind of more at the tail end of the pandemic. So what is this experience been like for you as someone programming the festival, Speaker 3: 00:40 Canceling the festival and its launch date last year was a bit traumatic to say the least now in retrospect, and kind of in the chaos of putting a stop to everything, it was hard for me to contextualize just how emotionally deprived I felt from not being able to launch a physical, additional to the film festival. We ended up launching a virtual edition in September, which was in a way a great trial run for this new edition of the festival, which is also mostly for patrol. But, you know, it's, it's a challenge. I think that film viewing is a communal activity. I think it deserves to be seen with friends, family, or with strangers in a movie theater. So we're still getting used to this virtual realm with that being said, I think what's important is that we as a festival stay true to our mission and continue championing Latin X cinema from all over the world, regardless of the exhibition platform, whether it's in theater or virtual, it's, it's weird. I feel we got canceled right. Or postponed, I should say right at the beginning of the pandemic and that I were doing this edition a year later, I almost see the light at the end of the tunnel with things relaxing and easing. So I feel like ever festival was maybe two months from now. We might have been able to be back in theaters. Speaker 2: 02:01 Well, another thing that impacts your festival more so than I think other festivals in San Diego is the festival. The in-person festival attracted a crowd from South of the border, from Mexico, from Baja and with the virtual festival, you are faced with what the distributors called geo restrictions, where you're not allowed to have people from outside of a certain geographical region purchase your film. So how has that impacted you in terms of the audience you can serve? Speaker 3: 02:34 We are in a way of binational film festival because we're so close to the border. So there are some films that our audience in Tijuana will not have access to because of this geo block restrictions. Prior to this virtual edition, we had individuals who would cross the border every day to watch films and they would come from even further South and sometimes, and it was just so impressive to see their commitment to attending the festival, watching these films. So in a way I think that these, while I understand the necessity of these geoblocking, I do think for such a regional festival, it's kind of a hindrance to us, um, in terms of access to our films and potential revenue streams. And so, yeah, there's, this geoblocking is, is a challenge. Let's talk about Speaker 2: 03:27 The programming a bit. I know that sometimes when you're programming films, the process of selecting them is when themes or trends seem to appear. And I'm wondering if during this pandemic year and looking at the films, if anything kind of seem to be a trend or a theme that came up Speaker 3: 03:48 You don't, it's really fascinating. And I think I could talk for hours about this topic is what I thought through. A lot of the submissions is, is reckoning with topic of colonialism. A lot of the films they thought were the reckoning with how colonialism has bred violence that still exists to this day. And I think that's a really important thing to take notice of as, as a programmer, the fact that this discourse seems to be happening amongst Latin X filmmakers, this idea that the trauma of generations pass gets passed down and it's, it's up to us to reckon with it. Speaker 2: 04:29 Are there any films you'd like to highlight for people who are looking to attend the festival Speaker 3: 04:33 At our festival? We tried to program with different themes in mind. So there's films about the immigrant experience. There's films about the LGBTQ experience, really just trying to champion as many different perspectives on what it means to be Latin X. And I think that some of the films that I can recommend the most deal with what I discussed earlier regarding this reckoning of the idea of the violence that colonialism has created. One of them is a documentary called 499 by [inaudible] who is master documentary. And he is just so skilled. I could creating in documentaries and this one is really form breaking and astonishing in the way it tells its story. It explores the idea that colonialism has to directly affect it. The violence in Mexico that's occurring in modern times. So he frames it within this context of a conquistador arriving on the shores of Mexico and modern time. Speaker 3: 05:38 One of the other films that deal with this reckoning of colonialism is a narrative film called Blanken Blanco directed by the court with [inaudible]. Who's one of the greatest actors working today, and what's really striking about this film is how it portrays, how history is captured and how the way that history is captured is the way we interpreted it as actually happening. I would say Beth, that blank and Blanco is one of the more provocative offerings the festival has to offer, but encourage audience members to take a chance on it because the reason to attend a festival in person or virtually is to watch films. You would not typically watch and to watch challenging films and subject matters that are sensitive, that it's part of the festival experience to expand horizons, to become a more learned film goer. So Blanca Blanco definitely gives audience members of fraternity to kind of embark on a truly film festival ask journey. I would say Speaker 1: 06:49 One of the things that's always key about your festival is discussions. So there will be a virtual discussion component to the festival again, correct? Speaker 3: 06:59 Correct. Absolutely. We are scheduling virtual Q and A's for many of her films, they'll start immediately after the posted duration of the film, but if you're not able to watch it live, you can tune in afterwards. So they'll be available on our social media channels, but I encourage film goers to watch these live because that's when you get to type out questions for the filmmakers. And we're trying to create a little bit of the festival and person magic in this virtual space, but something that's awesome is that I've gotten to speak with more filmmakers than ever. It's amazing and awesome for me. So the discussions are my favorite part of the festival. We were in person. And now that I get to talk with filmmakers from all over the world, I mean, it's just, it's almost maybe like as cheesy as it sounds a dream come true for me. Speaker 1: 07:50 I want to thank you very much for talking about the Latino film festival and as always, I look forward to Speaker 3: 07:54 It. Thank you so much, Beth. Speaker 1: 07:57 That was Beth haka, Mondo speaking with Moises Esparza. The San Diego Latino film festival begins tomorrow night and runs through March 21st, both online and, uh, to outdoor venues.