Beginning Sunday, May 29th through Sunday, June 5th, the Philadelphia Latino Film Festival (PHLAFF) will return in-person for local and regional audiences. This year's festival will feature films that explore the experiences of African Descent (afrodescendientes) and/or the Afro-Latino Diaspora. About 250 submissions were received and 70 projects were chosen to be displayed throughout the week, many of which have directorial debuts.
Since 2012, PHLAFF has been bringing the community together with screenings, conversations (both virtual and in person), workshops and special events. Founded by David Acosta & Beatriz Vieira, PHLAFF celebrates diversity and innovation while promoting Latinx filmmakers.
“After the past two years, we are so excited to reconnect with local and regional audiences in-person while continuing to reach international audiences virtually, uniting all to build community, lift our stories and celebrate Latinidad,” says festival director Marángeli Mejía-Rabell.
Official selections include:
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- 8 Cuentos sobre mi hipoacusia (8 Stories About My Hearing Loss), an Argentinian-Uruguayan production documenting personal tales of the losses and joys of deafness. (International Premiere)
- Bantú Mama, a drama about a French-Cameroonian woman who escapes imprisonment and finds refuge with three children in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. (Philadelphia Premiere)
- Mal de caña (Sugar Cane Malice), documenting the enslavement-conjuring conditions of migrant sugar cane farmworkers in the Dominican Republic.
- La Pampa (The Invisible Girl). Reina, a refugee from human trafficking, and Juan, a fugitive from justice, unite in search of Reina’s family in a crime-devastated area of the Peruvian Amazon. (World Premiere)
- Querida Nancy (Dear Nancy), an homage to widely forgotten LGBTQ+ champion Nancy Cárdenas, who, in the 1970s, elevated a then-invisible Mexican community. (U.S. Premiere)
- 130 Hermanos (130 Children). Melba's family has not stopped growing, taking in more than 130 children over 40 years. Today, some seek paths to adulthood as a new child enters the family. (East Coast Premiere)
- Serán las dueñas de la tierra (Stewards of the Land), documenting the production of healthy food for local consumption in Puerto Rico—an economically depressed and highly vulnerable to natural disasters U.S.-territory. (World Premiere)
Five LOLA shorts nominees highlight rich Afro-Latino experiences:
- Fuego, the story of an isolated Afro-Cubano who finds hope in an unlikely location. (U.S. Premiere)
- La Ciguapa Siempre, wherein the legendary Dominican monster appears within a modern romance. (Philadelphia Premiere)
- Los Patines (The Roller Skates), a poignant dramatization of the true story of a parentless Afro-Colombian girl enslaved to a white woman. (Philadelphia Premiere)
- Ni Aquí / Ni Allà, a conversation between trans filmmaker Ley Comas and their religiously conservative Dominican mother. (Philadelphia Premiere)
- The Ritual to Beauty (La belleza ritual), a poetic documentation of the relationships
three generations of Dominican women have with Black hair. (Philadelphia Premiere)
