Running from April 4-16, 2008, the Festival will showcase more than 100 feature and shorts films from Latin America, Spain, Portugal and the United States. The programming represents the broad diversity of themes and genres in Latino filmmaking.
The two-week Festival will also feature opportunities for audiences to participate in discussions with directors at screenings as well as at a series of special events highlighting Latino culture.
ABOUT THE FESTIVAL
The International Latino Cultural Center of Chicago (ILCC) in cooperation with Columbia College Chicago produces the Festival. A part of ILCC‘s mission, the Festival serves as a vehicle to break down cultural barriers and to excite audiences through exposure to a world that is so near and yet so far away.
“We are extremely proud of the response by Chicago audiences that have sustained the Festival for more than two decades,” says ILCC director, Pepe Vargas. “This is not only the nation’s largest Latino film festival but also Chicago’s largest and most diverse Latino cultural event.”
OPENING NIGHT
The Festival will begin at 6:00 p.m. Friday, April 4 with a screening of the Spanish film, “El Prado de las Estrella/The Field of Stars” --Interconnected stories centered on a meadow, remembered by some as the paradise of their childhood, and representing for others a chance to make money by developing into a housing project. The viewer gets to know the protagonists’ aspirations, past histories, and the conflicts between the older life styles and the new. All this, in the midst of breath-taking scenery.
The film will be at the AMC River East 21 Theaters (334 East Illinois St.) The Opening Night Party will immediately follow the screening at River East Art Center (435 East Illinois St.)
MEXICAN NIGHT
The excitement of Mexico will arrive with the Festival’s Noche Mexicana, beginning with a 6:00 p.m. reception on Wednesday, April 9 (Thorne Auditorium, Northwestern University, 740 N. Lake Shore Drive in Chicago). The program will feature the Mexican comedy, El Viaje de la Nona. Grandma Maria has been promised over and over, by her late husband of 55 years, that he will take her to visit his homeland in Italy. Instead of that trip, the lady gets a set of surprises that also touch the lives of her children and grandchildren.
Its director, Sebastián Silva, will introduce the film at 8:00 p.m. Tickets for the film only at $15, will go on sale at the door at 7:00 pm.
CLOSING NIGHT
The Festival concludes on Wednesday, April 16 at Thorne Auditorium, Northwestern University. This special evening includes a 6:00 p.m. cocktail reception and the presentation of the Gloria Career Achievement Award to Puerto Rican comedian, actor and film director Jacobo Morales. Followed by the screening of Morales’ latest film, Angel. In the film, Mariano Farias is freed from penitentiary after 13 years. He maintains his innocence and asserts that Angel, a police investigator, fabricated evidence against him. During Mariano’s absence, his wife has died, and it seems that Angel was culpable. Now Mariano has evidence that implicates the original prosecutor and Angel's close collaborator, José Villanueva. Will justice be served this time?
Tickets for the film only at $15 will be available at the door at 7:00 pm.
SPECIAL FEATURES
* The Made in Chicago Segment features 12 films by directors residing in Chicago, including Chasing the Law, Dream Havana, Carnival Blues, May 1st, Love: Biological Need, Community Alert, Tal Como Somos/Just As We Are.
* The Women in Film Segment includes 14 feature and short films directed by women, Via Lactea (Brazil), Una Novia Errante/Stray Girlfriend (Argentina), Que tan lejos/How Much Further (Ecuador), Siete Mesas de Billard Francés (Seven Table of Billiard (Spain).
* Student Segment. In collaboration with Latino Art Beat, the Festival will once again show works by aspiring Chicago filmmakers. Films range from abstract subjects to animations and stories of growing up, which address the sometimes-taboo topics of drug abuse and peer pressure.
* The Gay and Lesbian Segment includes films from Spain (Barcelona), Mexico (Quemar las Naves/Burn the Bridges), Puerto Rico (Manuel & Manuela), from Chicago (Just as We Are/Tal como Somos.)
LOCATIONS AND RESOURCES
This year’s films will be shown in the following theater venues: Landmark Century Centre at 2828 N. Clark Street, AMC Pipers Alley at 1608 N. Wells Street, and Instituto Cervantes at 31 West Ohio Street. The full film schedule can be found on the ILCC website at
As of March 24, a daily schedule of films will be available on the ILCC hotline at (312) 409-1757.
Ticket prices: General admission is $10; students, seniors & disabled $9; ILCC members $8. Festival passes, good for 10 admissions, are $80 (or $70 for members).
Tickets for Special events can be purchased in advance by calling (312) 431-1440.
Corporate sponsors of the 2007 Chicago Latino Film Festival include:
Platinum: Telemundo, NBC5, American Airlines, Univision Chicago.
Gold: CITGO, American Family Insurance, Verizon Wireless, Chicago Latino Network, La Raza, WTTW 11, CTA, Piñata Graphics, WYCC TV-20, La Kalle,, La Que Buena, Passion, Hoy/Chicago Tribune, Zocalo Restaurant & Tequila Bar.
Silver: Seneca Hotel, AARP, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts And Science, and Tourist Office of Spain.
Contributing: Aetna, Illinois Film Office, Good Group LLC, Tequila Sauza, Budweiser, Prado & Renteria Accountants, and State Farm Insurance.
Additional Support: Banco Popular, American Latino, Extra Newspaper, and Baker & McKenzie.
With additional funding providing by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs (City Arts Program 3), the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, the MacArthur Fund for The Arts and Culture at Prince, and the Illinois Arts Council.
For more information on the 24th Chicago Latino Film Festival or to obtain a film schedule, please visit www.latinoculturalcenter.org or call (312) 431-1330.
For tickets to special events, please visit www.ticketweb.com or call (312) 431-1330.
History
What began in 1985 as 14 films projected onto a concrete wall for 500 viewers at Saint Augustine College has grown into a premiere Latino cultural organization with year-round, multi-arts programming. The success of the Chicago Latino Film Festival, which attracted more than 3,500 moviegoers the second time around in 1986, warranted Pepe Vargas to found Chicago Latino Cinema in 1987, the nonprofit organization presenting and coordinating the annual Festival.
Recognizing the success of the Festival and to meet the demand of the ever growing audience for cultural programming, Chicago Latino Cinema began producing events on a year-round basis, including film screenings, theatrical productions, musical concerts, visual art exhibitions, comedy shows, lectures, etc. The organization built more than 15 years of cultural programming experience.
In July of 1999, in order to more accurately depict the multi-arts programming of the organization, and in preparation for its future plans to build a multi-arts facility, Chicago Latino Cinema changed its name to the International Latino Cultural Center of Chicago (ILCC).
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