Documentary Features

from 28th San Diego Latino Film Festival Souvenir Program

3/17 / 7:15 PM / Virtual Screening

To reflect on the 500-year anniversary of the Spanish conquest of Mexico in 2021, director Reyes offers a bold hybrid cinema experience exploring the brutal legacy of colonialism in contemporary Mexico.

CACHADA Dir. Marlén Viñayo

(El Salvador, 81 min., 2019, Spanish w/ English subtitles, Documentary)

3/16/2021 / 6:30 PM / Virtual Screening 3/20/2021 / 4:15 PM / Virtual Screening

Five Salvadoran street vendors and single mothers form a theatre company to bring their harsh life stories to the stage. During the rehearsal process of their play, they will discover themselves as victims and victimizers in a cycle of violence that has persecuted their families for generations.

18TH & GRAND: THE OLYMPIC AUDITORIUM STORY Dir. Stephen DeBro

(USA, 83 min., 2021, English; Spanish w/ English subtitles, Documentary)

3/19/2021 / 6:30 PM / Virtual Screening 3/21/2021 / 5:00 PM / Virtual Screening

18th & Grand: The Olympic Auditorium Story chronicles the turbulent history of Los Angeles through the story of the Olympic Auditorium—a 10,000-seat fight palace—and the remarkable woman who ran it.

BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB Dir. Wim Wenders

(United States, 105 min., 1999, Spanish w/ English subtitles, Music Documentary)

3/20/2021 / Around 8:30PM / Drive-In Screening - Westfield Mission Valley

Traveling from the streets of Havana to the stage of Carnegie Hall, this revelatory documentary captures a forgotten generation of Cuba’s brightest musical talents as they enjoy an unexpected encounter with world fame

DREAMS OF CHONTA Dir. Monica Cohen

(Colombia / USA, 87 min., 2020, Spanish w/ English subtitles; English, Music Documentary)

3/13/2021 / 4:15 PM / Virtual Screening 3/16/2021 / 5:45 PM / Virtual Screening

Diego Obregón, an Afro-Colombian undocumented musician, sacrifices everything to achieve his dreams becoming an ambassador of his culture and rarely heard rhythms in

New York City. 12 LANDFALL Dir. Cecilia Aldarondo

(Puerto Rico, 91 min., 2020, Spanish w/ English subtitles, Documentary)

3/14/2021 / 4:15 PM / Virtual Screening 3/20/2021 / 5:45 PM / Virtual Screening

A kaleidoscopic portrait of Puerto Rico in the wake of Hurricane María, LANDFALL investigates a storm of much greater magnitude: the economic crisis crippling the island long before María arrived.

LUCINDA URRUSTI. PINTORA. Dir. Juan Francisco Urrusti

(Mexico, 90 min., 2020, Spanish w/ English subtitles, Documentary)

3/14/2021 / 3:30 PM / Virtual Screening 3/17/2021 / 5:45 PM / Virtual Screening

Lucinda Urrusti, the acclaimed painter, arrived in Mexico as a child, with her parents and brother, as refugees from the Spanish War (1936-1939). Art and her family are for her the most important things in life. This is a testimonial documentary, in her words, which also offers a critical analysis of her works by Eduardo Espinosa Campos, Jaime Moreno Villarreal and Manuel Felguérez.

MAIJA AWI. CONCIERTO CAMPO ALASKA Dir. Ángel Estrada

(Mexico, 42 min., 2020, Concert Film)

3/14/2021 / 5:00 PM / Virtual Screening

Pepe Mogt, the celebrated Mexican electronic musician and founder of the Nortec Collective, returns to MUTEK with the presentation of a concert film that captures an audiovisual installation and performance filmed in the Baja Californian desert. Inspired by the Yuman legend of the Maija Awi snake, the founding myth of the Kumiai people of this region, Pepe Mogt creates an ethnographic and auditory journey that transits the textures and colors of the La Rumorosa region, culminating his presentation within a Museographic space called Campo Alaska, where ambient music, electronic rhythms, kraut beats and monolithic illuminations flood the sky and the night of the Baja California desert.

MAREA VERDE Dir. Angel Giovanni Hoyos

(Argentina / Chile / Bolivia / Colombia, 75 min., 2020, Spanish w/ English subtitles, Documentary)

3/13/2021 / 5:45 PM / Virtual Screening 3/19/2021 / 5:45 PM / Virtual Screening

MAREA VERDE is a stunning, clear-eyed, and unforgettable documentary about the fight for safe and legal abortion rights in South America.

MIGUELITO - CANTO A BORINQUEN Dir. Sam Zubrycki

(Australia / Puerto Rico, 94 min., 2019, English, Spanish w/ English subtitles, Music Documentary)

3/12/2021 / 5:00 PM / Virtual Screening 3/21/2021 / 2:00 PM / Virtual Screening

Travelling through Latin America, Miguelito traces the unexplained disappearance of an eleven year old Puerto Rican salsa singer in 1973 and the rediscovery of his life, his music, and the world he inhabits decades later.

MISSING IN BROOKS COUNTY Dirs. Lisa Molomot, Jeff Bemiss

(USA, 81 min., 2020, English, Spanish w/ English subtitles, Immigration Documentary)

3/13/2021 / 2:00 PM / Virtual Screening 3/21/2021 / 6:30 PM / Virtual Screening

70 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border lies Brooks County, Texas, a haunted place where thousands of migrants have gone missing over the past decade.

MULHERES DE HAVANA Dir. Gabriela Mo

(Brazil / Cuba, 75 min., 2019, Spanish w/ English subtitles, Documentary)

3/12/2021 / 5:45 PM / Virtual Screening 3/15/2021 / 5:00 PM / Virtual Screening

MULHERES DE HAVANA is a documentary film that intends to authentically show the lives of women living in Havana, Cuba. In a poetic tone, we visit their houses, schools and cultures, and ask the following question to viewers: is the fight for women’s rights in other countries the same as that of women who live in Cuba?

NEGRA Dir. Medhin Tewolde Serrano

(Mexico, 72 min., 2020, Spanish w/ English subtitles, Documentary)

3/18/2021 / 7:15 PM / Virtual Screening 3/21/2021 / 8:00 PM / Virtual Screening

I was about 7 years old the first time someone called me “black” on the street. That day I understood I was black, and the laughter it caused among the people nearby made me think being a black person wasn’t that great… Was this only happening to me? Or did it happen to other black women? NEGRA tells the story of five afro-descendant women from southern Mexico, exposing racism, resistance and processes of self-acceptance, strategies for transcending stereotypes, and the celebration of their identity.

DOCUMENTARY FEATURES

OFF THE ROAD Dir. José Permar

(Mexico / USA, 2020, 78 min., Spanish w/ English subtitles, Documentary)

3/15/2021 / 7:15 PM / Virtual Screening 3/20/2021 / 3:30 PM / Virtual Screening

A group of young musicians sing the deeds of three men who live in the most isolated region of the Baja California Sur desert. As the “Baja 1000”, the world’s largest annual all-terrain car race, takes place crossing the Mexican-US border, these men look for an opportunity to be a part of it and escape the apparent monotony of their small communities.

RITA MORENO: JUST A GIRL WHO DECIDED TO GO FOR IT Dir. Mariem Pérez Riera

(USA, 90 min., 2021, English, Documentary)

3/13/2021 / 6:00 PM / Virtual Screening

“Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go For It” illuminates the humor and the grace of Moreno, as well as lesserknown struggles faced on her path to stardom, including pernicious Hollywood sexism and abuse, a toxic relationship with Marlon Brando, and serious depression a year before she emerged an Oscar winner.

TRULY TEXAS MEXICAN Dir. Aníbal Capoano

(USA, 90 min., 2021, English, Food Documentary)

3/13/2021 / 2:45 PM / Virtual Screening 3/18/2021 / 5:00 PM / Virtual Screening

The Native American roots of Texas Mexican food serve up tacos, feminism and cultural resistance.

YIB Dir. Ozan Mermer

(Mexico / Germany, 65 min., 2019, Spanish w/ English subtitles, Documentary)

3/15/2021 / 5:45 PM / Virtual Screening 3/20/2021 2:45 PM / VIrtual Screening

In an autonomous Mayan zone on the border between Mexico and Guatemala, two young girls with indigenous roots try to give their lives a new direction through music.