At the longest running Latino film festival in the United States, this year’s showcase is all about celebrating women.
Women’s contributions have been a fundamental part of every great film, whether it’s on-screen or behind the scenes. But of the 100 top-grossing movies last year domestically, only 11% were directed by women. Even fewer came from Latinos.
The 39th edition of the Chicago Latino Film Festival, produced by the International Latino Cultural Center of Chicago, begins Thursday, and it will be the largest since the height of the pandemic, when the festival was delayed, according to programming manager Andrea Florens. It has more films by women than ever before.
“That just goes to show how Latin America film is getting dominated by women, which I think it’s an incredible thing,” Florens said.
Of the 51 features and 35 shorts in the lineup, more than two dozen were directed or co-directed by women. Florens said that as the programming manager, it was her job to select not just the best films to feature, but the most broad, diverse and eclectic.
“We just want to get people excited again and remind them about who we are, why we’re here and that we can still throw a party,” Florens said.
In addition to an entirely in-person event, the festival will open and close with two large galas. This year, there will be a physical program guide, and more directors, actors and producers are expected to attend the screenings and galas. There will also be a cocktail reception on April 19 at Instituto Cervantes prior to a screening of “Facing the Silence,” a documentary by Spaniard Emilio Ruiz Barrachina. All of this is in preparation for next year, when the festival will turn 40 years old.
“I‘m really excited about reaching a younger audience (this year),” Florens said. “I think it’s going to be the best one.”
Founder Pepe Vargas said that CLFF’s main goal is to showcase the rich diversity of the Latin American diaspora. This year there are 12 languages and 23 countries represented, including Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador and more.
When he first arrived from Colombia many years ago, Vargas recalls reflecting on what it was like being an immigrant in the city and deciding to overcome discrimination and stereotyping by celebrating the various Latino communities of Chicago through art.
In 1985, after many discussions and a lot of help from others, the film festival was born. The first festival included 14 films projected onto a concrete wall to an audience of around 500 people.
Director Claudia Sainte-Luce’s film “Love and Mathematics” is opening this year’s festival. Written by Adriana Perlusi, it’s a dark comedy about Billy Lozano, a former boy band member trapped in a loveless marriage. When a fan named Monica moves in next door, she encourages him to pick up his guitar again.
The film gives signs that the two secretly yearn for each other while at a carne asada (barbecue) with their spouses and children. Billy’s marriage deteriorates as his musical career begins to flourish again in suburban Monterrey, Mexico.
As it’s one of those movies that leaves a lot up to interpretation, Sainte-Luce says that fans have asked her to explain why certain events unfold in the film. She replies with a simple “why do you think?”
This director doesn’t like film that’s overly explanatory.
“The cinema that I like the most is the kind that you feel why it is,” she said, adding that sometimes we settle for comfort over facing the difficulties in life.
Sainte-Luce says that she is pleased that audiences are appreciating the dark and at times horrific humor of the film.
“It makes me very happy that they can understand this comedy that is not just from a certain place in Monterrey,” Sainte-Luce said. She said it’s about relating to that place in life “when you are 40 and you feel that life has passed you by and you have not done what you wanted to do.”
In years past, the Mexican director’s films “Los Insólitos” and “La Caja Vacía” have made the CLFF lineup.
“Love and Mathematics” will screen as part of the Chicago Latino Film Festival’s opening reception, 5:30-9:30 p.m. Thursday at AMC River East 21, 322 E. Illinois St.
