CineFestival en San Antonio, the nation’s original and longest-running Latino film festival, will celebrate its 35th anniversary February 23-March 2, 2013 with the screening of the LPB funded films ESCARAMUZA: RIDING FROM THE HEART, MARIACHI HIGH, REPORTERO, TALES OF MASKED MEN and CHILDREN OF MEMORY. We would like to congratulate director Carlos Avila whose film TALES OF MASKED MEN received the Best Documentary award at this year’s festival.
Eight days of the best in contemporary U.S. and International Latino films at the Historic Guadalupe Theater, in San Antonio. The program boasts current and relevant films but without pretense. Its grassroots history and approach provide community members immediate access to and interesting encounters with the artists that create beautiful films. Here, in a fertile and innovative climate, life-long learners, film-goers and community, are invited to honor and celebrate the presentation of Latino art. For more information and a complete schedule, visit the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center website.
ESCARAMUZA: RIDING FROM THE HEART
Director: Bill Yahraus
Producer: Robin Rosenthal
Documentary/60 minutes
Sunday, February 24th, 12:00 PM
Las Azaleas are the gutsy team of women rodeo riders vying to represent the U.S. at the National Charro Championships in Mexico, where “to be Charro is to be Mexican.” Escaramuza, or skirmish, describes both their daredevil horseback ballets, ridden sidesaddle at top speed, and the intensity of their competition season. Neither life-altering challenges at home nor cartel violence across the border can keep Las Azaleas from their goal.
MARIACHI HIGH
Co-Producer: Kelly Sheehan
Sunday, February 24th, 1:30 PM
Beginning with the beguiling awkwardness of high-stakes band auditions, through annual events like the Mariachi Vargas Extravaganza in San Antonio, and up to prom, graduation and a summer quinceanera,Mariachi High captures a year in the life of top-ranked student musicians in “Mariachi Halcon,” the varsity-level championship ensemble at Zapata High School on the border of South Texas. The film follows the students as they move from school to stage in competitions that are fierce battlegrounds filled with the flash and fire of musical virtuosity and traje de charro dress, from intimate scenes with family at home to auctioning their hand raised cattle at the annual Zapata County Fair.
REPORTERO
Directed by Bernardo Ruiz
Documentary/71 minutes
Tuesday, February 26th, 8:30 PM
Reportero follows a veteran reporter and his colleagues at ZETA, a Tijuana-based muckraking weekly, as they stubbornly ply their trade in what has become one of the deadliest places in the world to be a journalist. In Mexico, more than 40 journalists have been murdered or have gone missing since December 2006, when President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa came to power and launched a government offensive against the country’s powerful drug cartels and organized crime groups.
WINNER BEST DOCUMENTARY
TALES OF MASKED MEN
Director: Carlos Avila
Documentary/60 minutes
Friday, March 1st, 7:00 PM
Thought you knew everything about Lucha Libre? Think again. This dynamic and informative history of Mexican Wrestling goes beyond the kitsch and reveals the countless and meaningful ways in which the sport represents the essence of Mexican culture. Through interviews with wresters, fans, journalists, and hard-core aficionados, as well as amazing footage of colorful fights from Mexico City to Los Angeles, Tales of Masked Men constantly delights as it informs and entertains. From the award-winning director of the acclaimed PBS series “Foto-Novelas.”
CHILDREN OF MEMORY
Director: Maria Teresa Rodriguez
Documentary: 60 minutes
Saturday, March 2nd, 3:30 PM
The story of the search for hundreds of children who disappeared during the Salvadoran Civil War. Many were survivors of massacres carried out by the U.S.-trained Salvadoran army. Taken away from the massacre sites by soldiers, some grew up in orphanages or were adopted abroad, losing their history and identity. Niños de la Memoria weaves together three separate yet intertwined journeys in the search for family, identity and justice in El Salvador, and asks the larger question: How can a post-war society right the wrongs of the past?
2258 Views
