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writing for godot

2017 San Diego Latino Film Festival The Week Starts…

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Written by Mukul Khurana   
Thursday, 23 March 2017 23:29

Making movies without a political and/or social message can in itself be a message.  Likewise, as viewers, we can choose to watch (and thus support) movies that don’t have political and/or social messages.  However, a festival usually has more than enough choices to satisfy all tastes.  So far, I have mentioned the “fun” and entertaining movies, as we naturally tend to gravitate in the direction of “light” and not “heavy.”  That is not to say that “heavier” fare is not in evidence during these eleven days of offerings.

Had you listened to the background news on Todo Los Demas (Mexico/USA, 98 min.), it would have been clear that Doña Flor is a sort of uncaring bureaucrat.  But Natalia Almada, the director, wants you to sense that she too is a victim of the system.  This is Doña Flor’s attempt to join the human race in her own way.  Hanna Arendt made the point after WW II that bureaucracy (what the Nazi system demanded of its citizens) is the kind of violence required to make certain things happen.  This is a point worth revisiting in our present climate.

Likewise, La Casa Rosada (Peru, 106 min.) shows on the screen what happens when an authoritarian system is in place.  The civilian population becomes a target—minorities are targeted.  But more than that, the definition of terrorism changes.  This brave movie, directed by Pallto Ortega Matute, shows us what happened in the 1980s in Peru when the army was at great odds with a Shining Path insurrection.  The town in this case is Ayacucho.

El Malquerido (Venezuela, 120 min.) is a movie of a different kind—though rich in social commentary, it makes a point about fame (regardless of time and place).  We have our crooners.  Venezuela and Latin America has singers of Boleros.  One of the best known was Felipe Perila.  This is a biopic of his life.  Fame means ups and downs—both are shown in this film.

Shorts are an amazing way to learn about trends and emerging artists.  Frontera Filmmakers (115 min.) is a collection of films from the San Diego-Tijuana region.  In A Parallel World, directed by Mario Genel, tells the story in a world where roles are reversed.  It is an interesting exploration into the motivations behind immigration.  Mextasy is a work directed by Osiris Luciano.  It is a new TV series looking for a home.  Mexican culture and its influence on American culture is explored.  Another short worth mentioning, Our Barrio, directed by Ryan Casselman, tells the heartwarming story of a Mexican family and its neighborhood.

Totally in a different vein, the feature by the name of Histeria (Mexico, 81 min.) gives an insight into modern society in a big city.  This movie follows the life of Federico who is a nice and mild-mannered architect trying to make it in order to make a nice living.  Unfortunately, the odds are against him.  Corruption and aggression keep on escalating until Federico can take no more.  I think “Rage” would have been a better title.  There must have been a good reason to title it the way it was presented.

Mukul Khurana has been writing about the art and culture scene in San Diego for over a decade.  He specializes in film and theater reviews as well as film festival coverage in general.

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