Vistas 2022
Vistas
Houston Latino Film Festival celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month
The Houston Latino Film Festival is celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month with VISTAS, an online exclusive collection of short and feature films as we honor both Hispanic and Latinx cultures and traditions. The theme highlights the diversity of “views” represented by the films from various spanish-speaking countries such as Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central and South America.
VISTAS pertains to showcase the artistic visions of local and international filmmakers of the Hispanic and Latinx community that highlight multicultural experiences through their work. The program also offers an opportunity to remember, reflect and celebrate our heritages by bringing communities together to discover our shared experiences through cinema.
Houston Latino Film Festival will observe Hispanic Heritage Month from September 19 through October 19. VISTAS will begin streaming online on September 19. An online All Access pass will be available for only $5 on HLFF+, our video on-demand platform, giving you access to 10 short films and 5 feature films (film lineup below) until October 19.
Program
THE GREAT MOVEMENT (El Gran Movimiento)
Written and Directed by Kiro Russo
2022 / Drama / 85 min (Bolivia)
Synopsis:
A young man and his companions arrive in La Paz, Bolivia,and seek work at the mine. The young man's health starts to deteriorate, and a woman brings him to a mysterious witch doctor to cure him.
THE LAST ARCHER (El Último Arquero)
Directed by Dácil Manrique de Lara Miralles
2021/ Documentary/ 74 min (Spain)
Synopsis:
Founder of the Archer art movement, Alberto Manrique is one of the Canary Islands’ most innovative 20th-century artists. As he approaches his later years, his memory is beginning to fade, and with it, a lifetime of stories may be lost. The painter’s granddaughter, director Dácil Manrique, returns to her grandparents’ home to help Alberto recover the memories of his life and career. As she sifts through old Super 8 footage and diaries, she discovers a beautiful love story between her grandparents and the magical world they created together.
TOMORROW'S GAME
Directed by Jonathan Coria and Trevor Wilson
2022 / Drama-Comedy / 85 min (USA)
Synopsis:
A coming-of-age story about Daniel, a Dominican teenager who belongs to a long lineage of baseball royalty, but has never appreciated the sport. After accidentally destroying his Uncle's priceless heirloom and scrambling to fix it, Daniel finds himself stuck in 1950s Los Angeles. With the help of his new crush Sally, he must navigate the culture shock of time travel and break into the guarded halls of a beloved LA stadium. Adventure ensues and the duo finds a way to restore his family's legacy, and rewrite baseball history.
FEARLESS
Directed by Wojciech Lorenc
2021/ Documentary / 88 min (USA-Houston)
Synopsis:
An intimate portrait of a boxing gym in a small town of Conroe, Texas. The film is constructed as an allegory for the challenges faced by people of color and immigrants in the US.
LA CASA DE WANNSEE
Directed by Poli Martinez Kaplun
2020 / Documentary / 70 min (Argentina)
Synopsis:
After her son decides to celebrate his Bar mitzvah, filmmaker Poli Martínez Kaplun starts digging into the history of her ancestors, German Jews who were forced to go into exile in order to escape Nazism. This search takes her on a journey to Europe. On the outskirts of Berlin, she visits the house that used to belong to her great-grandfather, philosopher and psychologist Otto Lipmann. Through photographs, documents and interviews with family members, Martínez Kaplun rebuilds her family’s history and reflects on issues such as discrimination, identity and memory.
DISRUPTED BORDERS
Directed by Alejandra Aragon
2021 / Documentary / 19 mins (USA)
Synopsis:
This is a coming-of-age story about two best friends living on the US-Mexico border in a scarred landscape of racial tensions, family wounds, and lack of opportunities as they embark on their extraordinary journeys in 3D innovation and artistic creativity to heal themselves, their families, and their community.
MISS FLORES
Directed by Juliana Toloza Serna
2021/ Documentary - Animation / 8 min (Colombia)
Synopsis:
A fiercely protective mother, Miss Flores (Pseudonym), recounts when she fled from her unstable life in Nicaragua across the U.S.-Mexico border while she was pregnant.
TOUCH THE SKY (Tocar el Cielo)
Directed by Marco Cano
2021 / Drama / 21 min (Mexico)
Synopsis:
In a small town in Mexico Miguel, a 26-year-old disabled guy, lives isolated from the world because of his overprotective mother. Miguel starts to grow interest for the most beautiful girl in town, and it is just then when he discovers the real cost of his freedom.
WARREN?
Directed by Juan Linares
2021 / Comedy / 14 min (Puerto Rico)
Synopsis:
Annoyed with people constantly mispronouncing his name, a white-passing Latino must assert his identity.
ÉCHALE GANAS: The Villa’s Tacos Story
Directed by Shirley Yumeng He
2021 / Documentary / 30 min (USA)
Synopsis:
Échale Ganas: The Villa’s Tacos Story is a documentary that spotlights the faith and perseverance of community leader Victor Villa and his tight-knit immigrant family in Los Angeles.
A BACKYARD FOR MY CHILDREN TO PLAY
Directed by Pedro Moreno
2021 / Documentary / 8 min (Venezuela)
Synopsis:
Having fled Venezuela, my partner and I find ourselves in a poor-conditioned boarding house. Along with recently-arrived Graciela & Maria Martha, we explore how it feels to live in a place where no one wants to be.
STRONG
Directed by Jean Lee
2021 / Sci-fi / 10 min (USA)
Synopsis:
With the help of her A.I. dog, a sixteen-year-old girl must get her sick mother to another planet where a better life awaits.
MUSEUM OF FLEETING WONDERS
Directed by Tomás Gómez Bustillo
2020 / Comedy / 12 min (USA)
Synopsis:
Everybody experiences moments where something feels strange and uncanny: a fluke, a glitch in the matrix, a chance incident where we are unsure if we should believe what we are seeing, where our perspective on the very nature of our world is for an instant, incomprehensible, mysterious.
GUANAJUATO NORTE
Directed by Ingrid Holmquist & Sana A. Malik
2019 / Documentary / 23 min (USA)
Synopsis:
Migrant farmworker Winny Contreras contends with being away from his family to help support their dreams and build a new life for them in their hometown in Guanajuato, Mexico.
TONY'S CAKES
Directed by Tony Holman and Vida deKayla
2021 / Documentary / 12 min (USA)
Synopsis:
A man with a troubled past finds redemption in building his own bakery.