In The Community
The 38th South by Southwest Film Festival, simply known as SXSW, left us with many Latino films to check out. This year, the lineup included many different movies from Latino directors or starring Latino talent that left quite an impression. Here are the top 10 Latino movies that made waves at the 38th SXSW Film Festival:
The In Between
"The In Between," was directed by Robie Flores and it was included in the SXSW Documentary Feature Competition. The film offers a poetic perspective of the coming-of-age experience while living on the U.S.-Mexico border, with Flores revisiting her hometown Eagle Pass after her brother’s death. The film paints a very personal portrait of growing up on the border and the rediscovery of joy after grief.
Bionico’s Bachata
“Bionico’s Bachata” is a Dominican movie by filmmaker Yoel Morales that explores themes like love, friendship, and addiction. Included in the SXSW Global category, this is an experimental comedy-drama that follows Bionico, a crack addict and hopeless romantic. Against the backdrop of a hostile Caribbean city, Bionico is struggling to stay clean while also trying to find a job and a house to start a new life when his fiancée, La Flaca, comes out of rehab.
Malta
“Malta” was directed by Colombian Natalia Santa and it follows Mariana, a young woman who wants to get away from her everyday life as a working girl in Bogotá. She chooses Malta as her destination but before she gets there, she meets Gabriel, who wiggles his way into her life with tough questions and bad jokes, forcing Mariana to look within herself and determine what she’s really running from. Included in the SXSW Global category, this movie explores love and self-discovery.
Música
Included in the SXSW Narrative Feature category, “Música” is the directorial debut of musician and actor Randy Mancuso of Italian-American and Brazilian descent. The film tells his coming-of-age story and it explores both how he deals with synesthesia, a condition in which one sense is experienced in combination with another sense, and the Brazilian-American culture he grew up with.
Cheech and Chong’s Last Movie
"Cheech and Chong's Last Movie" is the first authorized documentary by the duo and it was directed by American David Bushell. Included in the SXSW Documentary Feature category, this project relives the glory days of Chicano comedian Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong through archival material. It provides laughter and many insights while exploring themes like fame and friendship.
Y2K
“Y2K” is a disaster comedy film directed by American comedian Kyle Mooney and included in the SXSW Narrative Feature category. The film stars Rachel Zegler of Colombian and Polish descent as the lead, sharing the spotlight with Jake Gyllenhaal, Sydney Sweeney, Ryan Gosling, Anne Hathaway, and Dev Patel. The movie is set in 1999 and it follows two high school juniors who crash a New Year’s Eve party that ends badly.
Sing Sing
Directed by American filmmaker Greg Kwedar and included in the SXSW Narrative Feature category, “Sing Sing” is a drama film starring Afro-Latino star Colman Domingo. The film is based on real events at the famous Sing Sing prison, which uses theater as a part of their rehabilitation program. The story follows Divine G., a man imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit, as he finds his purpose through participating in the prison’s theater group. It explores themes of humanity, resilience, and the power of art.
Toll
“Toll” was directed by Carolina Markowicz, a Brazilian director and writer based in São-Paulo. The film follows a mother and toll booth attendant named Suellen as she gets involved with a gang of thieves to make extra money for her family. However, her main goal in raising money is to send her son to a gay conversion workshop.
Bob Trevino Likes It
Directed by American director and screenwriter Tracie Laymon, “Bob Trevino Likes It” is based on a true friendship that Laymon sparked with a stranger as she looked for her estranged father online. The film stars Barbie Ferreira of Brazilian descent and Colombian-American John Leguizamo and it explores friendship and familial connections.
Omni Loop
“Omni Loop” was directed by Brazilian Bernardo Britto and it’s a comedy, drama, and sci-fi movie starring Mary Louise Parker and Ayo Edebiri. The story follows Zoya Lowe as she gets diagnosed with a black hole in her chest and is given a week to live. However, this is an experience she has had many times before. Until she meets Paula, a young woman who studies time, and together they set out to solve time travel so Zoya can go back in time and live the life she’s always wanted.
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Frida Kahlo is a pop culture icon not just in Mexico but around the world. Her multifaceted, fiercely lived existence, depicted in her deeply personal paintings, has resonated with people from all walks of life, but especially Latinas, both inside and outside of the United States.
One of the countless Latinas touched by Frida Kahlo’s work is Carla Gutierrez, an Emmy and Eddie nominated documentary editor who developed a strong connection with the artist. In an interview with Luz Media through Zoom, Gutierrez said, “I discovered her really young. I was a new immigrant and I saw her painting Self-portrait on the Borderline Between Mexico and the United States, and I was like, “Who is this artist that’s showing my own feelings to myself? That was the beginning of my obsession with her.”
That emotional connection with Kahlo and her work continued throughout Gutierrez’s life and is now cemented in her latest project and directorial debut, “Frida,” a raw and intimate documentary that tells the artist’s story through her own words from diaries, letters, essays, and interviews. Kahlo’s words, which are delivered in heartfelt narration by Fernanda Echevarría del Rivero, are accompanied by photos and her unforgettable artwork, brought to life through lyrical animations that add movement and feeling.
When asked why she decided to make this documentary, Gutierrez explained, “One of the reasons is because I hadn’t seen a documentary really focus on her voice. When I started looking into the story, I saw that she actually had a lot to say about her own life, and her words were out there in archival material. So I saw that there was an opportunity to let her actually speak and tell us her own story.”
And that’s exactly what she accomplished.
“Frida” tells the story of her life in chronological order, covering her childhood, the devastating accident that changed her life, and her tumultuous relationship with the famed muralist Diego Rivera, all the way up to her death. However, the documentary goes beyond a simple biography by showing her internal, emotional journey into becoming the artist and icon that she is today, and it feels like she’s truly the one speaking.
It’s an intimate narrative that doesn’t shy away from what many may think of as the “ugly” parts of life and doesn’t try to embellish either. In watching this documentary, viewers will feel like they’re sitting down with Kahlo herself as she opens up her inner world to them, revealing her joy, pain, love of life, and shortcomings.
Gutierrez also shared that, due to finding Kahlo’s work at such a pivotal time in her life, she developed an emotional connection with the artist. “Obviously, there’s millions of people in the world that have that emotional connection. So who am I [...] to say ‘Well then, I’ll tell her story’? But I was coming to her with that emotional connection and emotional understanding of the Latino culture, [...] and a lot of experience as a documentary editor putting these stories together [...], so I felt like I could bring something into this story,” she explained.
“Frida” is a project fueled by passion, creativity, and a desire to amplify the real voice of Frida Kahlo. As Gutierrez put it, “The aim is [...] how do we show somebody beyond the icon image we have of them? Which is kind of reduced and flattened. I think a lot of people see Frida as very empowered and she knew herself, but we really wanted to show the complexity and messiness that we all have.” Gutierrez continued by saying, “She [Frida Kahlo] guided us. In all the writings that we have of her, she’s not describing the things that happened; she’s telling us how she felt.”
The project is also fueled by Latino talent, as almost everyone who worked on it, from production and sound effects to animations and additional crew, is Latino, based in the U.S. and Mexico. As a predominantly Latino and female production, something Gutierrez is very proud of, the team was particularly passionate about honoring Kahlo and her art.
Portrait of Carla Gutiérrez, the director of the documentary "Frida"
Like many artists, Frida Kahlo’s recognition started growing after she died in 1954, so the world didn’t have the opportunity to dissect and understand her work with her. The iconic status that she gained after her death is still an amazing achievement, but there’s a tendency to separate her from her legacy.
“Frida” shows us that we can, indeed, understand the artist and her work with her. She left her feelings in her paintings and her words for us to find. This documentary unearths Frida Kahlo in a fresh, intimate way, allowing us a precious glimpse into who she really was as a woman. In showing us the depth and nuance of Kahlo, the documentary leaves viewers with valuable insights about resilience, vulnerability, womanhood, and more.
We asked Gutierrez what she hopes Latinas get out of this earnest documentary and she said, “In general, I want everybody to find the courage in what Frida did in expressing herself at her most intimate through her art. It was a process of catharsis for her and, in a way, it was therapy. What she lost in life, she kinda found in the creative process, and she did it with a lot of honesty and rawness.”
She continued, “I want Latinas to be inspired by that because sometimes in our culture, that’s not necessarily an important thing. Especially for women. To talk about how we feel, our heartaches, our experiences. They’re the most important things to speak about with honesty and it’s something that can help you and also the person listening.”
Viewers of this movie might be inspired to take a page out of Frida Kahlo’s book and live life as authentically, fiercely, and loudly as possible. “Frida” released March 14, 2023 on Prime Video.
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María Félix, also known as “La Doña” or “María Bonita,” is one of the most iconic Mexican actresses to grace the silver screen during the golden age of Mexican cinema, achieving international fame and diva status. Her perception as an icon goes beyond her fantastic work as an actress, though. She was a larger-than-life figure who, with her talent, strong will, femininity, progressive mindset, and unapologetically lived life has inspired generations of Latina women.
Whether you know a little or a lot about María Félix already, we bring you 8 little-known facts about the famed actress.
8 Little-Known Facts About María Félix
1. María Félix didn’t chase stardom, stardom found her
Whether you believe in fate or not, sometimes it’s very difficult to deny its magic. It seems that María Félix experienced some of that magic because she didn’t pursue stardom, it pursued her. Her entire career stemmed from a chance encounter on Palma Street. It was 1941 and Félix was just window-shopping for antiques when she was approached by Fernando Palacios, a Spanish movie director, with the suggestion that she should be a movie star. He eventually took her to Los Angeles to the Metro Goldwyn-Mayer studio and though they offered a debut in Hollywood, she decided to start her career in Mexico. The rest, as they say, is history.
2. She was an avid antique collector
Speaking of antiques, María Félix was an avid antique collector. Throughout her life, she amassed a vast collection that included Jacob Petit ceramics, sketches by Christian Dior, portraits of herself signed by different artists, sets of sheets, carpets, textiles, tableware, handbags, and shoes. This obsession with antiques goes back to 1925 when she was 11 years old and her brothers gifted her a Jacob Petit porcelain box. That would be the first piece of her nineteenth-century collection, which she treasured.
3. She unknowingly ate human flesh
In 1951, María Félix was filming “La Corona Negra” (“The Black Crown”) in Morocco. The film was made by Jean Cocteau and her character was tangled up in a detective plot. While in Morocco, the local Sheikh of Chefchaouen invited Félix, Cocteau, and others from the crew to a banquet. Later in life, in an interview with Mexican journalist Ricardo Rocha, Félix revealed that she tried the food without knowing what it was. After tasting it, she was told the meat was human. “I became an anthropophagist, but not voluntarily,” she said. Conversely, that was her last interview before she died in 2002 at the age of 88.
4. Her first husband kept her locked away
María Félix’s first marriage happened when she was only 17 years old and she wanted to be free from the control of her parents. She married Enrique Álvarez, a sales representative of Max Factor, and they moved to Guadalajara. However, her husband was deeply insecure and jealous, so she spent most of her time at home. It’s reported they only went out to the movies and he made sure they arrived when the movie theater was already dark and left right before the movie ended so no other man saw how beautiful she was. Félix finally left him in 1937 when she discovered he had an STD and was cheating on her.
5. María Félix was proposed to by a king
At one of the highest points of her fame, when everyone was enchanted by her personality and talent, María Félix got an indecent proposal from King Farouk, the King of Egypt. Reportedly, he offered her the crown of Nefertiti, one of the things he treasured the most, for just one night with her. Though Félix was known for her passion for jewelry and antiques, it seems she didn’t accept that royal offer.
6. She predicted the rise of feminist movements
In 1996, when she was on the TV show “La Tocada,”, María Félix spoke one of her many iconic quotes by saying, "When women are in the majority, we will rule." In that interview, she was very open about how unhappy she was about the injustices that she saw Mexican women facing at that time. She talked about how laws would be created to defend women and asserted that machismo was one of the greatest evils in the world. Essentially, she predicted women’s rise on a big scale, and her words have been proven right by the actions and achievements of feminist movements.
7. Mattel made a tribute Barbie for her
In 2023, Mattel created a collectible Barbie paying tribute to María Félix. The beautiful doll, which captures Félix’s beauty and features, as well as her fashion style, fierceness, and female power, was designed by Carlyle Nuera. The doll is part of the Tribute collection, which honors many amazing women from all over the world, exposing them to wider audiences. The collection includes other Latina figures, such as Celia Cruz, Frida Kahlo, and Gloria Estefan.
8. People thought María Félix made a deal with the devil
We often hear this kind of speculation about rock bands like Led Zeppelin, but it was also said of María Félix. Her beauty was such and she rose to fame so quickly that many thought she sold her soul. In hindsight, these rumors were likely the result of misogyny. After all, Félix refused to conform to gender roles and she lived life on her terms without apology. Back then, instead of being admired for that, she was accused of satanism and dealing with the occult to obtain her charm and success.