The 29th Annual Chicago Latino Film Festival Begins

By Chuck Sudo in Arts & Entertainment on Apr 11, 2013 7:00PM

Pablo Trapero's 2012 drama Elefante Blanco (White Elephant) screens April 19.

The 29th annual Chicago Latino Film Festival kicks off tonight and runs through April 25 with a lineup of over 100 films from the U.S., Spain, Portugal and Latin America, nearly all of them screened in their original language with English subtitles.

Most of the festival’s screenings are at AMC-Loews Theatres (600 N. Michigan) with special events held at AMC River East 21 (322 E. Illinois St.) and the River East Art Center (435 E. Illinois St.). Free screenings at area colleges and Marcus Theatres in Elgin have been funded by a grant from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. (For a full list of those free screenings, click here.)

Cuban actor and director Jorge Perugorria is the recipient of this year’s Gloria Award. Perugorria starred in the 1993 film Fresa y Chocolate, the first Cuban film to be nominated for an Academy Award, and will receive the award at an April 19 “Tribute to Argentina” black tie gala that includes a screening of the 2012 drama Matrimonio, a drama about finding love in middle age, inspired by James Joyce’s Ulysses and set in Buenos Aires.

Another highly regarded Argentine film playing at the festival is Elefante Blanco (“White Elephant). Directed by Pablo Trapero, the film is about a pair of men whose friendship is tested with their differences in how to handle a drug war that breaks out in the shantytown where they’re building a hospital.

The festival also hosts retrospectives looking at American films made with a Latino perspective, films that celebrate the connections between Mexican and Jewish culture, the growing number of Latina women in film, Chilean cinema, the study of LGBTQ issues in Latin cinema, and the Life Reimagined Film Series, a project sponsored by AARp that explores films people rediscovering their talents and abilities late in life.

The festival is produced by the International Latino Cultural Center, a pan-Latino, nonprofit, multidisciplinary arts organization dedicated to developing, promoting and increasing awareness of Latino cultures among Latinos and other communities.

For a full lineup and to buy festival passes or tickets to individual screenings, click here.