Spanish Film Festival
Holyoke Community College will present five weeks of Spanish language films during its annual Spanish Film Festival, which runs from Sept. 11, to Oct. 9, coinciding with national Hispanic Heritage Month. All films are free and open to the public and will be screened in HCC's Leslie Phillips Theater in the Fine & Performing Arts building with the exception of the Sept. 18 film.
All the films are in Spanish with English subtitles and sponsored by HCC's Language and Latinx Studies Department and the Community College Public Humanities Center at Holyoke Community College.
The festival opens Wed., Sept. 11, at 7 p.m., with El Despertar de Camila (Camila's Awakening), about a 17-year-old girl and champion swimmer, who suffers a brain injury that forces her to reinvent herself.
Below are full descriptions and trailers:
Wed., Sept. 11, 7 p.m., Leslie Phillips Theater: El Despertar de Camila (Camila's Awakening), Rosario Jimenez Gili, Chile, 2018, 88 minutes.
At 17, Camila got too used to winning. She loves swimming and doesn't know failure. However, the water that has given her success in the recent past now leads her to the biggest setback of her life: a cerebrovascular accident (CVA) that will force her to reinvent herself with courage, humor and love. https://pragda.com/film/camilas-awakening/?sfc=1
Wed., Sept. 18, 11 a.m., KC 301: Yo no me llamo Ruben Blades (Ruben Blades is not my name). Abner Benaim, Argentina/Colombia/Panama, 2018,85 minutes
Latin American icon Rubén Blades, whose "thinking man's salsa" has earned him praise as the Bob Dylan of Latin America, was at the center of the New York Salsa revolution in the 1970s. Featuring electrifying footage from his final tour, a lively and candid walk through his Chelsea, New York, home and neighborhood, plus testimonials from such icons as Paul Simon, Sting, Francisco "Bush" Buckley and Junot Díaz, Rubén Blades is Not My Name is a testament to a rare talent whose restless heart has indeed helped change the world. https://pragda.com/film/ruben-blades-is-not-my-name/?sfc=1
Wed., Sept. 25, 7 p.m., Leslie Phillips Theater: Todos lo saben (Everybody Knows). Asghar Farhadi, France/ Spain/Italy, 2018, 132 minutes
This story follows Laura (Penélope Cruz), a Spanish woman living in Buenos Aires, who returns with her children to her hometown outside Madrid for a wedding. The mood is festive, and many faces from the past are present for the nuptials, including Paco (Javier Bardem), a longtime friend of the family. When Laura's daughter goes missing, and text messages arrive asking for ransom, the happy reunion takes a hard turn into nightmarish territory, bringing secrets into the open. https://pragda.com/film/everybody-knows/?sfc=1
Wed., Oct. 2, 7 p.m., Leslie Phillips Theater: Un Traductor (A Translator). Rodrigo Barriuso/ Sebastián Barriuso , Cuba/Canada, 2018, 107 minutes.
Based on the little-known true story of how 20,000 Chernobyl victims were eventually treated in Cuba in 1989, Un Traductor unfolds as a tale at once historical and personal, brought to life in crisply shot, beautifully realized period detail of a Havana on the brink of economic crisis. The story follows professor Malin, who acts as a translator between Cuban doctors and the families of young patients from the Chernobyl disaster. https://pragda.com/film/a-translator/?sfc=1
Wed., Oct. 9, 7 p.m., Leslie Phillips Theater: My llamaban el Rey Tigre (They Called Me King Tiger: A Biography of the Chicano Malcolm X). Angel Estrada Soto, Mexico, 2017, 88 minutes.
Dubbed "King Tiger" and "the Malcolm X of the Chicano Movement," Reies López Tijerina inspired Mexican-American college students of the late 1960s and early 1970s to start the Chicano Civil Rights Movement that stressed ethnic pride, ethnic studies and opposition to police brutality. Tijerina was a Mexican-American radical and civil rights activist who led a land-grant movement in northern New Mexico from 1956 to 1976. He organized hundreds of Chicanos to demand repatriation of land confiscated by Anglo surveyors. https://pragda.com/film/they-called-me-king-tiger-the-chicano-malcolm-x-biography/
