Past Events

A daring, self-reflexive documentary on the extraordinary Mexican/Chicano performance artist Guillermo Gómez-Peña's 40-year career of radical artistic practice alongside his international troupe La Pocha Nostra. At a time when the mainstream media is filled with demonizing stories about the US-Mexico border, the film presents the philosophical frameworks of an artist with a sustained dedication to highly impactful, innovative artistic interventions on that border, and presents a unique portrait of his beloved troupe. Featuring exclusive footage from his personal archive, Gómez-Peña enacts his artistic interventions by reclaiming and "queering the border" as a laboratory for utopian ideas and artistic experimentation.

Lazaro and The Shark: Cuba Under the Surface is a feature documentary that brings us to the world of Conga competitions in the Carnival of Santiago de Cuba - one of the poorest Carnivals in the world. Lázaro, the leader of the Conga de Los Hoyos, is determined to win the coveted award granted to the neighborhood that presents the most spectacular Conga. Like leaders of rival congas, Lazaro must join with his neighbors and scour the strictly rationed marketplace to find the necessary materials to create a show-stopping performance. Director William Sabourin O'Reilly, an Afro-Cuban native to Havana, offers a rare window into communist Cuba. Ignore the oversimplified versions created by outsiders, and listen to the revealing words of Cubans, candidly shared with native filmmakers.

Singing Our Way to Freedom is a vibrant, multilayered look at the life of the Chicano musician, composer and community activist, Ramon “Chunky” Sanchez. As a young man in the 1960s, Chunky joined the picket lines in the California fields with Cesar Chavez, demanding justice and better wages for farmworkers. Early on, he discovered that the music he was creating could be a powerful weapon in creating social change and overcoming prejudice and racism. The film chronicles Chunky’s life from his humble beginnings as a farmworker in Blythe, California to the dramatic moment when he received one of his nation’s highest musical honors at the Library of Congress in Washington DC in 2013.

An evening of Cuban culture and music! As a result of the Haitian Revolution (1791-1804), many French settlers travelled to Eastern Cuba with African slaves to escape the revolt. The Tumba Francesa Societies, brotherhood and a mutual aid networks, emerged from these waves of slave migrations. Eventually, they became integral constituents of Cuban culture. La Tumba Mambi is a docu-fiction film based on the Tumba Francesa, La Caridad de Oriente, in the city of Santiago de Cuba. We meet Andrea and her daughter Queli, two charismatic knowledge keepers of their rich cultural traditions. The original film soundtrack, composed and produced by Cuban-based D.J. Jigüe, in collaboration with Tumba Francesa members, is a rhythmic and striking reminder that the present is grounded in a history of struggles for freedom.

Virtuoso Afro-Cuban-born brothers—violinist Ilmar and pianist Aldo—live on opposite sides of a geopolitical chasm a half-century wide. Tracking their parallel lives in New York and Havana, their poignant reunion, and their momentous first performances together, Los Hermanos / The Brother offers a nuanced, intimate and often startling view of estranged nations through the lens of music and family.

Street Heroines is an award-winning documentary celebrating the courage and creativity of women who despite their lack of recognition have been an integral part of the graffiti and street art movement since the beginning. With authentic cinema-vérité storytelling interwoven with interview-driven narrative, Street Heroines juxtaposes the personal experiences of three emerging Latina artists from New York City, Mexico City, and São Paulo as they navigate a male-dominated subculture to establish artistic identities within chaotic urban landscapes. Best Documentary Jury Award at the 2022 Portland Film Festival.