(Cuba, 2018) Dir. Hannah Smith-Yen, Miranda M. García, Miri de Villers, Olivia McAuliffe
Synopsis:
(Curacao, 2017) Dir. Elizabeth Francisco
Synopsis: We are immediately drawn to the humming of a young girl. We see her uncovering the past through old memorabilia belonging to our protagonist Flor Marie. This work of fiction takes us on a reflective journey around the true events on the morning of November 6th of 1967 in Curacao.
(Mexico, 2016) Dir. Christian Cornejo
Synopsis: It is the last day of testing to enter the 3rd Division soccer team. After a long journey to the field, Emiliano is intercepted by “El Tierrablanca” and Ricky, who take off his football shoes so he won’t be able to test. Emiliano manages to make the test and is selected. Now he is looking for revenge and a new pair of soccer shoes.
(México, 2016) Dir. Alejandro Male García Caballero
Synopsis: A demon discovers the gift of creation, by combining animals with surprising effects.
(Mexico, 2017) Dir. Dan Chávez
Synopsis: Joan is about to begin his adult life leaving behind everything he knows, including his mother. The imminent separation causes their emotions to collide constantly, everyday, with the certainty that nothing will be the same again. As the tension between them increases, so does the dripping of the kitchen faucet seemingly announcing that all that accumulated tension will; at some point, explode.
(Jamaica, 2018) Dir. Rajeev Pollard
Synopsis: 25 year old Ernest uses his older brother’s advice to avoid a love life predicament.
(México, 2016) Dir. César Cepeda
Synopsis: In an old mexican neighborhood, Elena is alone in her world. Felix brings her a miracle when he comes into her life and shows her how to access other universes. Sharing those secret spaces with him allows Elena to recognize that her world can be much more larger and with more depth than previously imagined and that a blind child, like Felix, is much more than his visual impairment.
(Mexico, 2017) Dir. Montserrat Larqué
Synopsis: Armed with plenty of defiant optimism, this elderly woman prepares a birthday party, grapples with her husband and even rescues a wedding that is about not to happen.
(Mexico, 2016) Dir. Lucía Carreras
Synopsis: Sebastian, a young Swiss, comes to live in Mexico with his exciting manly boyfriend Juan. During the glamorous welcome dinner, he will discover a new side of his loved one and the very particular relation he has with his mother.
(Mexico, 2016) Dir. Samantha Pineda Sierra & Davy Giorgio
Synopsis: Nisroc is a low class demon whose destiny is about to change by a mysterious epidemic that strikes Hell City.
(USA, 2018) Dir. Guy Ragosta
Synopsis: Join Joe Isaacs (aka Drummie One), and the other remaining original members of the Kingston, Jamaica Studio One (1965-1968) rhythm section ‘The Soul Vendors’ (aka Sound Dimension, aka Soul Brothers): Brian Atkinson (bass player), and Hux Brown (guitarist) as they tell the story of how Rock Steady began in 1966 at Studio One. Also starring Bunny Wailer, Earl ‘Chinna’ Smith, Stranger Cole, Lester Sterling, Otis Gayle, The Heptones, Jack Radics, Ken Boothe, The Melodians, Willi Williams, and more. This film introduces the last living original creators of a genre of music that has spread around the globe over the last 50 years and has spawned multiple record empires using the Soul Vendors beats without recognition.
(Panamá, Argentina, Colombia, 2018) Dir. Abner Benaim
Synopsis: Latin American icon Ruben Blades was at the center of the New York Salsa revolution in the 1970’s. His socially charged lyrics and explosive rhythms brought Salsa music to an international audience. Blades has won 17 Grammys, acted in Hollywood, earned a law degree from Harvard and even run for President of his native Panama. He lives in NY, where he granted us exclusive access to his life at home and on tour. Critically acclaimed director Abner Benaim takes us on a journey through Ruben’s 50 year career, revealing that Ruben might still have both musical and political ambitions. This is a film about a living legend and his struggle to come to terms with his legacy.
(Venezuela, 2016) Dir. Miguel Delgado
Synopsis: During a political and economic transition at the end of the 19th century in Venezuela, the young Pedro Pérez Delgado (Maisanta), becomes the man of the house after the death of his father, Colonel Pedro Perez Perez. To help support his mother and his sister, Pedro starts working for Colonel Macías but the Colonel betrays his trust and dishonours the family name by daring to court his sister Petra while still married. Shaped by these bitter experiences, the white boy with yellow hair, whom many called “The American” embarks on a journey to become a leader of a revolution of the poor against the newly installed “progress” where Pedro Pérez Delgado would – along with his war cry ¡Maisanta! – become a legend.
(Mexico, 2017 ) Dir. Ludovic Bonleux
Synopsis: In the state of Guerrero, Mexico, forty-three students of Ayotzinapa teachers school are kidnapped by the police. The film follows three activists protesting the disappearances; rebelling against the injustice regardless of the sacrifices and risks – even mortal ones – their struggles may bring. Coni seeks an equitable social structure in the chaos of injustice. Juan, after losing his best friend, goes into hiding for fear of his life. Mario looks for his missing brother to find closure for his mother devastated by the absence of her son.
(Belize, Jamaica, Japan, USA, Ethiopia, 2017) Dir. Hiroki Sugino
Synopsis: Freedim is the result of 13 years of filming Rastafarian people living in Ethiopia, Jamaica, Belize, Los Angeles, and Japan and their unique way of life and thought. The principal idea of the Rastafari movement was originally raised by Marcus Garvey in early 1900 and it attracted African people who were brought to foreign lands as slaves who started considering Ethiopia as their spiritual home. Legendary Reggae artists, such as Bunny Wailer, Luciano, John Holt, Dean Fraser and Triston Palma apper throughout the film as Reggae music spread their ideas and culture throughout the world and became one of the most influential music genres nowadays.
(USA, 2017) Dir. Christopher Coppola
Synopsis: Clara grew up in the jungles of Belize but was sent to live in San Francisco after a mysterious childhood trauma. Her charming, older boyfriend, Gabriel, wanting to help her heal from the past, encourages a joint trip back to her jungle home. Once arriving, the familiar faces and beautiful tropic environment fills Clara with hope for a brighter future. But, she is soon reminded that the jungle has a dark side and begins to realize that Gabriel may have an even darker one himself.
(Nicaragua, 2017) Dir. Rossana Lacayo
Synopsis: The women of the Wangki, indigenous to the Miskito and Mayangna ethnic groups, live on the lush banks of the northern Nicaraguan Coco River – or Wangki in the Miskito language. They have historically suffered violence and marginalization on three fronts, for being indigenous, poor and women. Faced by the unregulated advance of the agricultural frontier, the women of the Wangki are confronting the struggle to stand united and empowered despite their surroundings of hostility and machismo. Together, the women of the Wangki preserve their identity, maintain their ancestral customs and uphold their pride in respecting and defending the environment.
(Cuba, Venezuela, UK, 2018) Dir. Rosana Matecki
Synopsis: In the city of Santa Clara, Cuba, three elderly musicians drift between present and memory to relate their undying passion for what keeps them alive: music. Zaida sings her tired heart out, Bringuez struggles to play the saxophone again, and Cándido, with an impressively athletic form, uses old photographs and magazine clippings to convey his tireless love for life. The Oldies takes a look at the daily work and will of those who were once at the heart of Cuba’s rich musical scene. This film uncovers the young souls of the artists who shaped the country’s culture and offers an intimate and compassionate perspective on life in old age.
(Trinidad & Tobago, 2017) Dir. Emilie Upczak
Synopsis: After being smuggled into Trinidad and Tobago to be with her brother, Zhenzhen, an illegal Chinese immigrant, discovers the true cost of her arrival.
(Dominican Republic, 2016) Dir. Yanillys Perez
Synopsis: Jeffrey, a 12-year-old who works as a traffic light windshield wiper somewhere in the Dominican Republic, introduces us to his reality. And he does so displaying a near preternatural self-consciousness about his social situation. Along with his brothers, Jeffrey stands for a whole generation of children that struggle in the midst of a deeply unbalanced economic system to attain a dreamed-for future, to sustain his current present, and to leave their past behind. Through music and reggaeton rhyming, Jeffrey copes with his all-too-adult responsibilities, facing a society that constantly fails to answer his needs.
