Last weekend the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival (LALIFF) screened a diverse slate of feature films, both by U.S. Latino storytellers and those from Latin America, at the TCL Chinese Theatre complex in Hollywood. Conversations with visiting filmmakers, industry panels, multiple short film programs and the Youth Cinema Project showcase (which screened shorts made by California public school students in fifth through 12th grades) completed the expansive program highlighting Latino talent across the entertainment landscape.
Here are five films we enjoyed from the selection — and that are worth keeping an eye out for in months to come, as they (hopefully) become more widely available. Unresolved trauma involving parents and their children was the common thread among many of this year’s films at LALIFF.
Scene from “A Place of Absence.”
A Place of Absence
Searching for their missing migrant children, a caravan of Central American mothers traverses Mexico with tireless, even superhuman determination. In this heart-sore and compassionate investigation of unresolved pain, director Marialuisa Ernst makes a parallel between their plight and how her uncle’s disappearance during Argentina’s dictatorship affected her family. Testimonies from Ernst’s mother and countless other women — who now carry their loved ones’ photos around their necks as they seek for clues of their whereabouts — speak of a traumatic wound that has been part of the collective history of Latin America.
Scene from “The Broken R.”
The Broken R
Ecuadorean filmmaker Ricardo Ruales Eguiguren inherited his name from his father — as well as Treacher Collins syndrome. This affects his facial bones, his hearing and his speech, which for a long time, manifested in difficulties with pronouncing the letter R. Giving himself a voice and a mirror through this intimate self-portrait, the artist poses the questions he’d never dared ask his parents before. His raw and reflective narration meets evocative imagery to help him come to terms with his unique condition (for which he’s undergone numerous surgeries since birth), as well as his sexual orientation as part of a deeply religious family.
Scene from “The River Train.”
The River Train
Under the iron fist of his strict father, 9-year-old Milo (Milo Barria) is already an experienced malambo dancer in the Argentine countryside. As we follow him, what seemed like a close look at a regional folk dance soon reveals itself as a magical realist journey that’s both beguiling and amusing. Curious about the big city, Milo escapes on a train to Buenos Aires where he encounters a bizarre bevy of characters with big dreams of stardom, from competitive child actors to a roommate ready to try their luck in Hollywood. Co-directors Lorenzo Ferro and Lucas Vignale find a timeless and strikingly solemn protagonist in Barria, whose perceptive eyes take in the world while concealing his preoccupations.
Scene from “Three Years Gone.”
Three Years Gone
Offering a visceral performance, Julio Macias (“On My Block”) plays David, a Mexican American war veteran with Indigenous Yaqui roots whose actions on behalf of the U.S. Army in Afghanistan haunt him back home. When he kidnaps his 12-year-old daughter Maria (Elizabeth Phoenix Caro), the two embark on an eerie and dramatically charged road trip across the vast arid landscapes of the Southwest to unleash the otherworldly pain inside him. The young Caro matches the blistering energy that Macias puts forward for an impressive two-hander, while her character also experiences disturbing visions of the past.
Scene from “Traces of Home.”
Traces of Home
Born in the U.S. to a Palestinian father and a Mexican mother, who left their countries escaping violence, Colette Ghunim is a child of displacement and migration. In this openhearted, incredibly vulnerable filmic love letter to her family, she explores the meaning of “home”: whether that’s a physical location one can’t return to, or the relationships within a household. That her father made a living as a wedding photographer meant cameras were always part of her reality growing up; now she is the one aiming a lens at her loved ones during trips to the occupied town of Safed and Mexico City in search of lost memories. Actor and Palestinian rights advocate Melissa Barrera notably signed on as an executive producer for the project, telling De Los: “People don’t really think about the trauma that refugees carry and pass on to their children and grandchildren.”
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