OLA Eastern Long Island is kicking off its annual Latino Film Festival tonight with Blue Beetle at Guild Hall. The festival will feature three Spanish-language films with themes of heroism, resilience, and strength.
“We want people to walk out of our films this year feeling that they are not only enough, they are more than that, they are their own heroes,” said Minerva Perez, the executive director of OLA.
The other two films are Daughters of Rage, which will be screened tomorrow at Sag Harbor Cinema, and the animation Vivio, which will be screened Sunday at Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center, and this upcoming Thursday at North Fork Arts Center.
“The North Fork showing wasn’t in the original plans for the festival this year,” Perez said. “But we love the care they have for their community, and we wanted to start our partnership sooner rather than later.”
Perez said the OLA Film Festival provides an opportunity for the community to gather and learn more about each other’s different cultures and traditions.
“We have people [and films] that represent many different Spanish-speaking countries, territories, and islands and we want to make sure that those stories can be shared with each other,” Perez said.
Daughters of Rage is a Nicaraguan film directed by Laura Baumeister de Montis. It follows the trials and tribulations of an 11-year-old girl navigating her life in Nicaragua's largest landfill. The screening will be sandwiched between a cocktail hour and an open question-and-answer discussion with the director.
“There is nothing obvious about this story, and it stirs up a lot of interesting dynamics, it’s really a deep dive into empathy,” Perez said. “How she needs to gather up all of her superpowers and still find joy in this experience is the type of hero we want to highlight in this festival.”
The annual festival has evolved greatly over the 21 years since it began. According to Perez, OLA fostered new collaborations and partnerships to not only support the festival but also aid and celebrate the Spanish-speaking communities on Long Island.
The festival also has gotten more popular and drew in more engagement in the community. This year, OLA had to review over 50 films to select for the festival.
“While developing relationships with the directors and filmmakers, we are also developing relationships with the local community,” Perez said. “It’s about recognizing and celebrating them.”
OLA’s newfound partnership with the North Fork Arts Center led to the center’s Latino Cinema Sundays, which will begin Sept. 20. Six of the six films were ones OLA submitted to them for review.
“The film festival, for us, is also a way to create that welcoming space so people can feel that these iconic special venues are their own,” Perez said. “The festival is really a bridge for the community.”
More information about the festival, such as ticket pricing, can be found on their website.
