Chicago Latino Film Festival
The 12th annual edition of the Chicago Latino Film Festival, produced by Chicago Latino Cinema and Columbia College, runs from Friday, April 19, through Monday, April 22. Film and video screenings will be at the Village, 1548 N. Clark; at Facets Multimedia Center, 1517 W. Fullerton; at First Chicago Center Theater, Dearborn at Madison; at Columbia College Residence Hall, 731 S. Plymount Ct.; at Spanish Coalition for Jobs, 2011 W. Pershing; and at Casa de Arte y Cultura, 1900 S. Carpenter. Tickets are $6, $5 for students, senior citizens, disabled persons, and Chicago Latino Cinema members. A few special events cost more, and some screenings are free. Festival passes, good for all screenings except closing night, are $60, $50 for students, senior citizens, disabled persons, and Chicago Latino Cinema members. For more information call 431-1330.
FRIDAY, APRIL 19
Videos 9
Videos from the U.S., Puerto Rico, and Chile. (Facets Multimedia, 5:30)
Nude With Oranges
A Venezuelan feature by Luis Alberto Lamata, set in the 19th century and loosely based on a Robert Louis Stevenson story, about a romantic couple struggling with their destiny. (Village, 6:15)
Eagles Do Not Hunt Flies
A man tries to discover who his real father was in a 1995 Colombian feature by Sergio Cabrera. (Village, 6:15)
Signs of Fire
A love story set in Portugal during the 30s by Luis Felipe Rocha. (Village, 6:30)
Videos 3
Documentary videos from El Salvador and Cuba. (Casa de Arte y Cultura, 7:00)
American Purgatory
A U.S. documentary by Rafael Oller about the flight of Cubans to the U.S. in 1994. (Facets Multimedia, 7:00)
Walk, Run, Fly
A young couple who meet by chance are forced to go underground in a 1995 Peruvian-German production by Augusto Tamayo. (Village, 7:00)
Videos 7
Videos from Mexico and the U.S. (Columbia College, 7:00)
At Your House at 8 O’clock
A 1995 Chilean feature about adultery directed by Christine Lucas. A reception will be held at 6:00. (Spanish Coalition for Jobs, 7:00)
Mala sangre
The title of this feature from Uruguay (1995) by Ricardo Islas means “bad blood,” and it sounds like an offbeat thriller involving sexually transmitted disease and death. To be shown on video. (Facets Multimedia, 7:30)
Houses of Fire
An Argentinean biopic by Juan Bautista Stagnaro about Dr. Salvador Mazza, who devoted his life to finding a cure for the Chagas disease. (Village, 8:30)
Jonah and the Pink Whale
A 1995 Bolivian-Mexican production directed by Juan Carlos Valdivia, about lovers in Bolivia in 1984. (Village, 8:30)
The Edge of the Earth
A 1994 Mexican feature by Ignacio Ortiz Cruz about men who leave their mountain village because they’ve been offered work in the U.S. (Village, 9:00)
Short Films 6
Shorts from the U.S., Peru, and Colombia. (Facets Multimedia Center, 9:00)
The Nutty, Nutty Boy: The Movie
A 1995 Brazilian feature by Helvecio Ratton about a middle-class boy during the 60s. (Village, 9:00)
SATURDAY, APRIL 20
Short Films 5
Shorts from Chile and Nicaragua. (Facets Multimedia Center, 4:00)
Videos 6
Two hour-long documentaries–one from the U.S. and Colombia, the other from the U.S. and Mexico. (Facets Multimedia Center, 5:30)
I, the Worst of All
The fifth feature (1990) of Argentinean director Maria Luisa Bemberg (Camila, I Don’t Want to Talk About It), based on a book by Octavio Paz about Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, a 17th-century nun, poet, and feminist who managed to be outspoken during the Inquisition. Assumpta Serna (Matador) stars as Sor Juana, and Dominique Sanda plays one of her friends. (Village, 5:30)
Eagles Do Not Hunt Flies
See listing under Friday, April 19. (Village, 5:30)
Walk, Run, Fly
See listing under Friday, April 19. (Village, 7:00)
At Your House at 8 o’clock
See listing under Friday, April 19. (Facets Multimedia, 7:00)
La negra ester
A video from Chile by Andres Perez Araya that adapts an autobiographical poem by Don Roberto Parra Sandoval written in 1971. (Casa de Arte y Cultura, 7:00)
The Edge of the Earth
See listing under Friday, April 19. (Spanish Coalition for Jobs, 7:00)
Videos 3
See listing under Friday, April 19. (Facets Multimedia Center, 7:30)
The Nutty, Nutty Boy: The Movie
See listing under Friday, April 19. (Village, 7:45)
Untamed Women
A 1994 Mexico feature by Alberto Isaac about a group of provincial Mexican women who decide to look for a better life in the U.S. (Village, 7:45)
Nude With Oranges
See listing under Friday, April 19. (Village, 8:30)
American Purgatory
See listing under Friday, April 19. (Facets Multimedia Center, 9:00)
New York
The tragicomic adventures of a country bumpkin from Santa Domingo who comes to New York is the focus of this feature from the Dominican Republic; Angel Muniz directed. (Village, 9:30)
Houses of Fire
See listing under Friday, April 19. (Village, 10:00)
Fallen From Heaven
An ambitious Peruvian feature (1990) spanning three generations and three social classes by the respected Francisco Lombardi. (Village, 10:00)
SUNDAY, APRIL 21
The Tombs
A 1991 Argentinean feature by Javier Torre about a 13-year-old juvenile delinquent in Buenos Aires. (Village, 4:00)
Queen and King
A 70-year-old widow in Havana has to choose between her beloved dog and moving to Miami in a 1994 Cuban feature by Julio Garcia Espinosa. (Village, 4:00)
Short Films 2
Narrative shorts from the U.S., Chile, Brazil, and Spain. (Facets Multimedia Center, 4:00)
Mexican Short Films
Five recent films. (Village, 4:30)
Videos 3
See listing under Friday, April 19. (Facets Multimedia Center, 5:30)
Eagles Do Not Hunt Flies
See listing under Friday, April 19. (Village, 5:30)
The Edge of the Earth
See listing under Friday, April 19. (Village, 6:00)
Signs of Fire
See listing under Friday, April 19. (Facets Multimedia Center, 6:30)
Celestial Clockwork
A Venezuelan bride abandons her groom at the altar to fly to Paris in hopes of becoming an opera singer; Fina Torres directed this 1994 Venezuelan-French production. (Village, 6:30)
Videos 4
Videos from the U.S., Spain, and Cuba. (Facets Multimedia Center, 7:30)
Nude With Oranges
See listing under Friday, April 19. (Village, 8:30)
Jonah and the Pink Whale
See listing under Friday, April 19. (Village, 8:30)
Houses of Fire
See listing under Friday, April 19. (Facets Multimedia Center, 8:30)
New York
See listing under Saturday, April 20. (Village, 9:00)
MONDAY, APRIL 22
Queen and King
See listing under Sunday, April 21. (Village, 6:15)
The Angel’s House
Scandalously neglected and all but forgotten in recent years, Leopoldo Torre Nilsson (1924–1978), perhaps the first world-class Argentinean director, enjoyed a certain vogue in this country in the early 60s, when the competition from France, Italy, and Japan in offering personal and stylistically expressive cinema was certainly stiff. Of his films that were distributed in that era, La casa del angel (1957)–also known back then as End of Innocence–is almost certainly the most impressive. It’s a Gothic tale about female adolescence with an arresting and original flashback structure and a Baroque visual style that seems worthy at times of Orson Welles (especially in his Ambersons mode). Like many of Torre Nilsson’s other major features, this haunting, captivating mood piece was written by his wife–novelist and playwright Beatriz Guido, here adapting one of her own novel. This film almost never turns up, so you shouldn’t miss it. (Village, 6:15)
Celestial Clockwork
See listing under Sunday, April 21. (Village, 6:30)
Jonah and the Pink Whale
See listing under Friday, April 19. (Village, 7:00)
Videos 10
Six videos from Mexico. (Columbia College, 7:00)
The Strategy of the Snail
A group of eccentric tenants in Bogota join forces to combat a greedy landlord who wants to evict them in a 1993 Colombian feature by Sergio Cabrera. This is the closing night film, and the program will include the awards ceremony; tickets are $15 and $20, which includes a reception at 5:30. (First Chicago Center Theater, 7:00)
Running Out of Time
A love story set in the underworld of Madrid, directed by Imanol Uribe (1994). (Village, 8:30)
Camila
A 1984 melodrama of doomed love in the tradition of Elvira Madigan and Mayerling, this is set in the Buenos Aires of the 1840s and follows a spirited upper-class girl (Susu Pecoraro) as she enters into a dangerous affair with the priest (Imanol Arias) who’s her confessor. Maria Luisa Bemberg’s film has a few wacked-out moments (Pecoraro bolting from the funeral of her beloved grandmother to visit her lover as he twists in a fever dream) that communicate a spirit of romantic transgression, but mostly it’s a very conservative, flatly shot rendition of the time-tested formula. With Hector Alterio. (DK) (Village, 8:30)
The Queen of the Night
Judging from what I sampled of this 1994 period melodrama from Mexico, about the loves and sorrows of a “Ranchero” singer before World War II, it’s well done but perhaps overextended; Arturo Ripstein directed. (Village, 9:00)
New York
See listing under Saturday, April 20. (Village, 9:00)