Thirteen percent of Philadelphia's population is now of Hispanic or Latino descent -- that's nearly 200,000 people within the city limits alone. The organizers of the third annual Filadelfia Latin American Film Festival (
FLAFF) -- the only annual festival of its sort in the Greater Philadelphia area -- have released the scheduled lineup for this three-day event, which runs April 25-27 at
The University of the Arts, the
Kimmel Center and
International House Philadelphia. This year's films represent a diverse range of Latin countries and include full-length features, documentaries, shorts and even a family-friendly animated film from Uruguay.
Standouts include
Cesar's Last Fast, a film about a one-man hunger strike held by Cesar Chavez in an effort to shine a light on the negative effects of pesticides, and
Yo, Indocumentada, an exploration of the Venezuelan transgender community.
According to FLAFF co-organizer Beatriz Vieira, "part of what we want to do [with FLAFF] is to make sure the audiences are being built very, very carefully." To that end, a fair amount of community engagement has been baked into the festival, she says, "to make sure [it] has a lot of relevance for the region."
For example, a student member of the
Welcoming Center for New Pennsylvanians will discuss the struggles of learning to read and write as an adult following the screening of
Las Analfabetas, a Chilean film about a middle-aged illiterate woman. FLAFF is also partnering with
The Food Trust and
Fair Food; representatives from both groups will discuss their work with the audience after the screening of
Cesar's Last Fast.
Click here to view film trailers or purchase tickets.
Writer: Dan Eldridge
Source: Beatriz Vieira, FLAFF