Program Special Shorts: Latin Film Series

In this series, Latin/Latinx American filmmakers create work in many genres with stories encompassing the past, present, or the future. The filmmakers unite in powerful artistry of portraying unique experiences. CONFESSIONS is a grounded, present-day, one-hour, supernatural thriller franchise, exploring the multi-layered facets of sin and atonement. After committing a sin in heaven, Manuel de Castillo, an angel and former Spanish conquistador, is banished and must roam the earth until fulfilling his penance, which is to compel sinners to carry out a penance of their own, to right their wrongs and cleanse their souls. Fallen angel Manuel has been earth bound for 500-years and today, he initially contacts sinners by using the one thing they all possess -- a phone. RAZÓN DE SER: LUIS C. GARZA is a documentary that chronicles the story of this rare Chicano photographer who uniquely documented activist movements on both coasts, and internationally, during the 1960s and 1970s. Perhaps best known recently for his work in co-curating the blockbuster LA RAZA exhibition at The Autry as part of The Getty's Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA, Garza's work spans from the Chicano civil rights movement in Southern California to New York where he captured scenes of his South Bronx neighborhood, demonstrations on women's rights, and rallies by the Young Lords Party who sought to empower Puerto Ricans and other colonized people. It also includes his 1971 travels to Eastern Europe for the World Peace Conference where, as a young Chicano student, he met renowned Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros. Currently, 80-year-old Garza is seeking an institution to properly archive his nearly 8,000 film negatives of his life's work. VIDA Los Angeles – 2053, After a bloody civil war, women of color are captured and sterilized as a form of population control. Vida and a group of resistance fighters are getting ready to escape, but suddenly one of their own is captured, and they’re forced to decide between saving themselves or saving her. ASI ES LA VIDA Danny has the worst day of his life at school. His uncles come over to console him with stories of their worst day. THE GIANT KILLER A Mexican American reporter uncovers a plot to resegregate just a few years after the Civil Rights Movement. His worldview is challenged as he is thrust into a conspiracy too large for him to handle alone. Adapted from the 1978 novel by Richard Vasquez.