LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A series of films that explore social issues in Guatemala will be shown Sept. 14 through Oct. 2 as part of the University of Louisville’s annual Latin American Film Festival.
All films and events related to this year’s festival — named “Reel Guate” — are free and open to the public. There will be ten full length films and five short films shown in Spanish with English subtitles.
An opening night reception for the festival will be at 6 p.m. Sept. 15 in the Chao Auditorium, Ekstrom Library. Guatemalan film director Julio Hernandez will attend the event and one of his films, “Marimbas del Infierna (Marimbas from Hell),” will be shown immediately after the reception.
Manuel Medina, who chairs the festival committee and is a UofL faculty member in the Spanish section of the Department of Classical and Modern Languages, College of Arts and Sciences, said most of the films focus on the Guatemalan urban landscape and address current social issues in that country.
This is the 16th year for the Latin American Film Festival, which is organized by Medina and his colleagues in collaboration with Bellarmine University, Murray State University, Al Dia en America (a Louisville-based Spanish newspaper) and other community members.
Medina said that Luis de León, a local freelance journalist, has been instrumental in helping to pull the event together and by making contacts with filmmakers and actors in Guatemala.