Film Festival puts South America on screen

Moviegoers who are looking to turn up the heat this fall should head south of the border — or at least go downtown. The Arts Council of the Valley will warm up the screen with the first annual Latino Film Festival, beginning tonight at Court Square Theater in downtown Harrisonburg.

The festival will feature four feature-length films from Spanish-speaking countries in an effort to bring more-appealing entertainment to the large Latino community within the Harrisonburg area, according to Jon Meyer, Court Square Theater manager. "With such a large Latino community in town, it's important that our non-Latino patrons and community have ways of learning more about and appreciating the Latino culture," Meyer said.

The idea for the festival originated from foreign language professor Karina Kline-Gabel, a member of the Arts Council of the Valley and chair of Court Square Theater's Independent and Foreign Film Committee. The festival serves as a way to bring more diverse events to this area, according to Kline-Gabel.

"We're in our first year and hope to make this an annual event," Kline-Gabel said. "Next year, I'd like to include more films, and also a short documentary film contest for local youth focusing on diversity in our community."

The four films presented in this year's festival were chosen by Kline-Gabel, based on their varied content and geographical location. Showing first is "La Fuga" ("The Escape"), a film from Argentina about several inmates who managed to escape from the National Penitentiary in Buenos Aires in 1928, according to the official Latino Film Festival Web site, www.hanskline.com/lff.htm.

The film narrates the fate of each of these runaways in search of their destiny. This film was the winner of Spain's 2002 Goya award — Spain's version of the Oscar — for Best Picture. The film is rated "R," and its running time is about 2 hours.

The second film, "Habla Con Ella" ("Talk To Her"), directed by Pedro Almodovar, was the 2003 Academy Award Winner for Best Foreign Language Film.

"‘Talk to Her' combines improbable melodrama — gored bullfighters, comatose ballerinas — with subtly kinky bedside vigils and sensational denouements and yet, at the end, we (the audience) are undeniably touched," according to Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun Times. The film is rated "R," and the running time is 1 hour 52 minutes.

"El Crimen del Padre Amaro" ("The Crime of Father Amaro") is a controversial drama that was a box office smash in Mexico, according to Kline-Gabel.

The film tells the story of a young priest who succumbs to temptation and corruption and stars actor Gael Garcia Bernal ("Y Tu Mama Tambien.") The film is rated "R," and the running time is 1 hour 59 minutes.

"Atletico San Pancho" ("Never Too Young to Dream") is a family film from Mexico about a group of kids who start up a soccer team, despite the principal's dissaproval and other various obstacles. The film is rated "G," and runs for 1 hour and 41 minutes.

The festival may encourage viewers to learn about a culture that may be unfamiliar, yet surrounds them here in Harrisonburg, according to Meyer.

"I believe [the Latino Film Festival] is a great way to include the JMU community in the broader Harrisonburg community," Meyer said.

Latino Film Festival tickets are $5 for adults and $3 for students, per show. Tickets can only be purchased on the day of the show.