The seventh annual edition of the Chicago Latino Film Festival, produced by Chicago Latino Cinema and Columbia College, runs from Friday, September 27, through Sunday, October 6. An opening reception starts at 5:30 tonight at the First Chicago Center Theater, Dearborn and Madison, with a screening of What Happened to Santiago to follow at 7:30; tickets are $25. Film and video screenings after opening night will be held at the Three Penny Cinema, 2424 N. Lincoln; at Facets Multimedia Center, 1517 W. Fullerton; at the Chicago Historical Society, Clark at North; at the Instituto del Progreso Latino, 2570 S. Blue Island; and at several libraries. Ticket prices per program are $6 for adults, $4 for students, senior citizens, and handicapped persons, and $3 for Facets and Chicago Latino Cinema members. (Tickets for Chicago Historical Society and video screenings are $3; library screenings are free.) Festival passes, good for all screenings except opening night, are $60, $40 for Facets and Chicago Latino Cinema members. For information call 431-1330.
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 27
COLOMBIAN FILMS The late Jorge Silva’s last film, Love, Women and Flowers (1988), is an hour-long look at exploitation in the flower industry; it was completed by Silva’s widow, Marta Rodriguez. Dario Sanmiguel’s Don’t Touch My Rug (1990) is a half-hour fiction film about the problems encountered by a suburban Colombian American who moves to Chicago, and Richard Rostrepo’s 15-minute Maria, Take Two features an amateur filmmaker describing his problems making a film about a murder in which the camera is the sole witness. (Facets Multimedia Center, 7:00)
WHAT HAPPENED TO SANTIAGO See Critic’s Choice. (First Chicago Center Theater, 7:30)
MARIA ANTONIA Adapted from Eugenio Hernandez’s play, this Cuban feature by Sergio Giral, set in Havana in the 50s, concerns a beautiful and rebellious young woman taken to a high priest by her godmother (1990). (Facets Multimedia Center, 9:00)
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 28
HELLO HEMINGWAY In 1956 in Havana, a poor high school student (Laura de la Uz) who’s a neighbor of Ernest Hemingway dreams of attending college; she reads The Old Man and the Sea and finds herself identifying with its protagonist. Fernando Perez directed this Cuban feature from a script by Mayda Royero; with Marta del Rio, Jose Antonio, and Raul Paz (1990). (Three Penny, 3:00)
U.S. SHORTS Carlos Avila’s Distant Water (1989), a Peruvian short about a Mexican American boy growing up in Los Angeles in 1943; Severo Perez’s Dreams of Flying (1989), about a young Latina’s efforts to persuade her father to let her attend an out-of-town college on a scholarship; and Georges Nahitchevansky and Helena Pollack Sultan’s Refugees in Our Backyard (1990), an hour-long documentary about recent immigrants to the U.S. from Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua, narrated by Sigourney Weaver. (Facets Multimedia Center, 3:00)
WHAT HAPPENED TO SANTIAGO See Critic’s Choice. (Three Penny, 6:30)
TOFFEE OR MINT A Chilean feature by Gonzalo Justiniano, who will be present at the screening, about the tenement subculture and criminal street life of Santiago; some of the actors are nonprofessionals (1990). (Three Penny, 7:00)
RIO NEGRO A Venezuelan feature about power and exploitation in the jungles of the Rio Negro, directed by Atahualpa Lichy, and starring Frank Ramirez, Angela Molina, and Marie-Jose Nat (1990). Lichy will be present at the screening. (Facets Multimedia Center, 7:00)
SANDINO A Spanish-Nicaraguan feature by Miguel Littin, who will be present at the screening, about the Latin American revolutionary leader of the 20s. With Kris Kristofferson, Joaquim de Almeida, Dean Stockwell, Angela Molina, and Victoria Abril (1990). (Three Penny, 8:45)
THE SPIRIT OF KUNA YALA and MARTIN CHAMBI AND THE HEIRS OF THE INCAS Andrew Young and Susan Todd’s documentary is about Panama’s Kuna Indians; Paul Yule and Andy Harries’s 1989 documentary is about Indian photographer Martin Chambi’s documentation of Peru’s wealthy European families and rural Indians in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. (Facets Multimedia Center, 9:00)
LORALDIA, TIME OF FLOWERS A middle-aged Spanish writer leaves the Basque country for his Argentinean birthplace in a film described as an “experimental journey” (1990). Director Oscar Aizpeolea and actor Juan Martin del Valle will be present at the screening. (Three Penny, 9:30)
MARIA ANTONIA See listing under Friday, September 27. (Three Penny, 11:00)
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 29
RIO NEGRO See listing under Saturday, September 28. (Three Penny, 3:00)
U.S. SHORTS See listing under Saturday, September 28. (Facets Multimedia Center, 3:00)
SUPPORTING ROLES Orlando Rojas’s Cuban feature about an aging stage actress who postpones her retirement, after a career of small parts, to star in a romantic tragedy (1989). (Three Penny, 3:00)
A STORY OF A BILLIARDS TEAM A disenchanted politician in a remote Latin American village invents a new kind of billiards and organizes a team, but can’t hold the team together because of a new entertainment arcade in town. A Soviet-Spanish-Austrian coproduction (1988), directed by Sebastian Alarcon and starring Sergei Gazarov, both of whom will be present at the screening. (Three Penny, 6:00)
FRIDA KAHLO: A RIBBON AROUND A BOMB and DIEGO RIVERA: I PAINT WHAT I SEE Ken Mandel’s Frida Kahlo (1990) is an hour-long U.S. film about the famous Mexican painter; Cora Cardona stars. Mary Lance’s U.S. documentary Diego Rivera (1989) concerns the career and political murals of Kahlo’s famous husband. Cardona will be present at the screening. (Facets Multimedia Center, 6:00)
AN AVENUE CALLED BRAZIL Octavio Bezerra’s feature-length documentary about Rio de Janeiro, with Brazilian radio announcers and music used to supply a running commentary (1989). Bezerra will be present at the screening. (Three Penny, 6:30)
LORALDIA, TIME OF FLOWERS See listing under Saturday, September 28. (Facets Multimedia Center, 8:30)
VIOLIN SOLO Monique Rutler directed this Portuguese feature about a newspaper heiress in the early 20th century who falls in love with her young chauffeur and is committed to a mental hospital by her husband, the newspaper’s editor, who wants to assume control of her fortune. Rutler will be present at the screening. (Three Penny, 8:30)
TOFFEE OR MINT See listing under Saturday, September 28. (Three Penny, 9:00)
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 30
FRIDA KAHLO: A RIBBON AROUND A BOMB Ken Mandel’s hour-long U.S. film about the famous Mexican painter starring Cora Cardona, who will be present for a discussion following the screening. (Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington, 5:00,744-6630)
NEITHER WITH GOD NOR THE DEVIL The arrival of terrorists fulfills the awful vision of a village sorcerer. A Spanish-language film to be shown in video. (McKinley Park Public Library, 2021 W. 35th St., 6:30,747-4050)
TO DIE IN THE GULF Alejandro Pelayo’s Mexican feature concerns a power struggle between a landlord and a small-town politician and his beautiful wife that’s sparked by a plan to attract tourists (1989). Actress Blanca Guerra will be present at the screening. (Three Penny, 6:30)
DIEGO…IN AMERICA and FRIDA KAHLO: A RIBBON AROUND A BOMB Video screenings of U.S. documentaries about the famous Mexican painters–the first directed by Rick Tejada Flores (1989), the second directed by Ken Mandel (1990). (Instituto del Progreso Latino, 7:00)
VIOLIN SOLO See listing under Sunday, September 29. (Facets Multimedia Center, 7:00)
FLAMING KNIVES A Venezuelan film by Roman Chalbaud about a boy who joins a circus after his mother is savagely murdered and learns to throw knives while plotting his revenge (1990). Chalbaud will be present at the screening. (Three Penny, 7:00)
LA SEGUA Set near the end of Spanish colonial rule, Antonio Yglesias’s Costa Rican feature focuses on the legendary two-faced witch of the title, whom a town believes is responsible for the madness of a king’s lieutenant (1985). Actor-producer Oscar Castillo and actress Blanca Guerra will be present. (Three Penny, 9:00)
AN AVENUE CALLED BRAZIL See listing under Sunday, September 29. (Facets Multimedia Center, 9:00)
SANDINO See listing under Saturday, September 28. (Three Penny, 9:30)
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 1
WOODEN TOWN Juan Antonio de la Riva’s Mexican feature about two children visiting a lumber town in the mountains of Durango during their school vacation (1990). Actor Ignacio Guadalupe will be present at the screening. (Three Penny, 6:30)
BORDER BRUJO and THE NEW TIJUANA Video documentaries by Isaac Artenstein, about the Mexican-American border, and by Frank Christopher, about the Mexican border city (1990). (Instituto del Progreso Latino, 7:00)
ALONE WITH YOU A Spanish thriller about naval espionage directed by Eduardo Campoy, with Victoria Abril and Imanol Arias. Arias will be present at the screening. (Three Penny, 7:00)
LA SEGUA See listing under Monday, September 30. (Facets Multimedia Center, 7:00)
JULIANA A Peruvian feature by Fernando Espinosa and Alejandro Legaspi about a 13-year-old girl who escapes from her abusive stepfather by posing as a boy in a group of runaways who make money by singing on buses (1988). Espinosa will be present at the screening. (Three Penny, 9:00)
TO DIE IN THE GULF See listing under Monday, September 30. (Facets Multimedia Center, 9:00)
FLAMING KNIVES See listing under Monday, September 30. (Three Penny, 9:30)
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2
COLOMBIAN FILMS See listing under Friday, September 27. (Chicago Historical Society, 2:00)
GENTILLE ALOUETTE Geraldine Chaplin stars as a Spanish movie star in Paris who’s trailed by a member of the secret police (Hector Alterio), a former lover who suspects her of antigovernment activities. A Chilean feature, written and directed by Sergio Castilla (1985). Castilla will be present. (Three Penny, 6:30)
FLAMING KNIVES See listing under Monday, September 30. (Conrad Sulzer Regional Library, 4455 N. Lincoln, 7:00,747-4050)
MARIA’S STORY and A QUESTION OF CONSCIENCE A documentary about a Salvadoran guerrilla leader, directed by Monona Wall and Pamela Cohen (1990), and a docudrama by Ilan Ziv about the slaying of six Jesuit priests and two women at a San Salvador university (1990). Both will be shown on video. (Instituto del Progreso Latino, 7:00)
JULIANA See listing under Tuesday, October 1. (Three Penny, 7:00)
ALONE WITH You See listing under Tuesday, October 1. (Facets Multimedia Center, 7:00)
CONFESSING TO LAURA Colombia during the violent aftermath of the assassination of Jorge Elieser Gaitan in 1948, as experienced by three neighbors, is the subject of this fiction film directed by Jaime Osorio Gomez (1990). Osorio Gomez and writerproducer Alexandra Cardona Restrepo will be present. (Three Penny, 9:00)
THE VOICE A Chilean-German production directed by Gustavo Graef-Marino about five men and a woman who are mysteriously trapped in a floating discotheque docked in a European harbor (1989). Graef-Marino will be present. (Facets Multimedia Center, 9:00)
WOODEN TOWN See listing under Tuesday, October 1. (Three Penny, 9:30)
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3
FRIDA KAHLO: A RIBBON AROUND A BOMB Ken Mandel’s hour-long U.S. film about the famous Mexican painter starring Cora Cardona, who will be present for a discussion following the screening. (Toman Branch Library, 4005 W. 27th St., 7:00, 744-6630)
HANGING WITH THE HOMEBOYS This wonderful picture is opening commercially this week; see the capsule in the regular listings. Writer-director Joseph B. Vasquez will be present at the screening. (Three Penny, 6:30)
VIDEO DOCUMENTARIES Georges Nahitchevansky and Helena Pollack Sultan’s Refugees in Our Backyard, about Latin American immigrants (1990); Sharon Genasci and Dorothy Velasco’s Troubled Harvest, about female migrant fruit harvesters on the Pacific coast (1990); Chill Out, about teenage suicide and gangs; and How Many Stars, How Many Stripes (1990), about an innovative method of teaching English and civics to former illegal aliens. (Instituto del Progreso Latino, 7:00)
CONFESSING TO LAURA See listing under Wednesday, October 2. (Facets Multimedia Center, 7:00)
RED SUNRISE Originally banned in Mexico when it was completed in 1989, Jorge Fons’s fiction feature dramatizes the impact on a middle-class family of the massacre of 400 people at Three Cultures Plaza in Mexico City shortly before the beginning of the 1968 Olympics. Actress Maria Rojo and actor-coproducer Hector Bonilla will be present. (Three Penny, 7:30)
ALIAS, LA GRINGA The exploits of a charismatic and ingenious criminal, who outwits a warden while joining forces with a professor wrongly convicted of terrorism, is the subject of this Peruvian feature; directed by Alberto Durant. Durant will be present at the screening. (Three Penny, 9:00)
A SPANISH ACTRESS FOR A SOVIET MINISTER A Russian gym teacher pretending to be the minister of Soviet cinema meets a Spanish actress pretending to be her country’s most famous film star at a film festival. A Spanish-Soviet production, directed by Sebastian Alarcon (1990). Alarcon and actor Sergei Gazarov will be present at the screening. (Facets Multimedia Center, 9:00)
SUPPORTING ROLES See listing under Sunday, September 29. (Three Penny, 9:30)