Filadelphia Latin American Film Festival Round Up

Tony
Award Winner Lemon Anderson and Renowned Filmmakers Gloria Moran and
Sonia Fritz appear at the 2nd Annual Filadelfia Latin America Film
Festival

By Christopher
“Flood the Drummer”® Norris

Growing from one feature film to
nine, the Filadelfia Latin American Festival (FLAFF) opened its second year
this weekend at the International House with a presentation of
Filmmaker Gloria Moran’s “The Unique Ladies,” San Diego’s
only all women’s lowrider car club. 

The event also featured the
Philadelphia Premiere of “Violeta Went to Heaven,”
a Sundance winning film that tells the extraordinary story of
Violeta Parra, a folksinger and pop culture icon.
Expressing the soul of her nation through song and protesting
social injustice wherever she saw it, “Violeta Went to Heaven”
traces Violeta’s evolution from impoverished child to international
sensation to Chile’s national hero, while capturing the swirling
intensity of her inner contradictions, fallibilities, and passions. 

With over 15 hours of film being shown during the two day period, the
latter being held at Gershman Hall, University of the Arts, FLAFF
spotlights the struggle, oppression, marginalization, and hope that
are not unique to the Latin American culture, but are present in
other cultures as well. 

 A
curator, poet, writer and activist, David Acosta has been involved
with art and activism in Philadelphia for over a decade. Choosing to
focus his efforts on utilizing art to draw attention to social,
political, and cultural issues by creating conversations between
artist and their communities, Acosta – noticing not only the growth
of film being produced out of Latin American countries, but the
discrimination the producers faced at cinema houses – saw the need
to create an infrastructure that supports the wide ranging artistic
endeavors of his people. “We started the Filadelfia Latin American
Film Festival because we felt there was a need to showcase the
breadth and scope of Latin American cinema, most of which doesn’t
get shown in venues and art house cinemas in Philadelphia.” 

 “This year’s
program offers an assortment and timely selection of both new and old voices. This year’s line-up goes beyond telling Latin American
stories; they narrate the human experience,” said Beatiz Vieira,
co-Founder of FLAFF.

Tony Award winning playwright and poet
Andrew “Lemon” Andersen, the Brooklyn native that rose to fame as
a part of the Broadway cast of “The Russell Simmons Def Poetry
Jam,” was in attendance for Sunday’s screening of “Lemon.”
“Lemon” follows Andersen when he winds up living back in the
projects and strives to stage a comeback in the world of Spike Lee
and the Public Theater. Lemon’s life personalizes the anguish of
men fighting for something more. The film features music by Kanye
West, Mos Def, Talib Kweli and Aloe Blacc. (Laura
Brownson and Beth Levison/2011/USA/83 min.)

Lemon is working
on a new project wherein the blaxploitation character “Dolomite”
is placed in Attica during the uprising. The three-time felon and
former drug dealer became a victim to his circumstances at a younger
age; however, he now fully understands the transformative power of
the arts and is part of a movement to bring more Latin American
stories to the stage.

Yareli Arizmendi,
who was casted in “America” as a nanny, tells Daily News
columnist Tirdad Derakhshani that films by Lations continue to be
ignored by the Hollywood elite. She goes on to say that the problem
isn’t that there’s not enough talent, it’s that there needs to
be “more latinos in position of power who can greenlight projects.” 

Renowned Filmmaker Sonia Fritz is
responsible for Yareli Arizmendi’s, who’s referred to as “The
grand dame of Latin cinema,” return to the big screen in the highly
anticipated movie America; also staring Edward James
Olmos, Limary Nadal and Yancey Arias. Based on the book by Esmeralda
Santiago, America is a story about a young woman (same name) living
in Vieques, P.R. during the American Naval occupation of the island.
She is constantly physically, sexually and mentally abused by her
husband Correa. Determined to change her life and save her child, she
decides to move to New York where she will raise money working as a
nanny and eventually be able to send for her daughter.

“Her relationship was mirroring the
colonial relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States. The
bombing was happening because of the colonial situation in Puerto
Rico. So many people have cancer, the island has been polluted and
the fishing is terrible, all because of the military occupation. Even
tho they (military) left, there are still life bombs and they haven’t
cleaned up as they should do. So in a way, the abuse portrayed in the
film was a metaphor for the abuse the island suffered, and still
suffers,” explained Fritz.

Award winning
Yareli Arizmendi is best known for her tour de force performances in
motion pictures such as “Like Water For Chocolate” and “A Day
Without a Mexican” which she co-wrote with Director Sergio Arau. 

After touring
Montreal, Morocco, Mexico and Turkey, America will make its
first commercial opening on the East Coast debut in Bridgeport, CT.,
at the Bijou Theater.

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This sizzling hot weekend wouldn’t have been possible without the generous support
of: The Philadelphia Foundation, The University of the Arts, Greater
Philadelphia Film Office, International House Philadelphia, Case de
Duende, Leewawy Foundation, Congreso, Health Partners and Bread and
Roses.

Thanks for reading. Until
next time, I’m Flood the Drummer® & I’m Drumming for
JUSTICE!™

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