Nov. 21, 2007

Festival Celebrates Hispanic Cinema
Special from The Record

A scene from the film Soy Andina, directed by Mitch Teplitsky

The lives and experiences of Latin American New Yorkers come into sharper focus in a series of feature films and documentaries that Columbia will showcase in the coming week. From Leon Ichaso’s El Cantante, about legendary salsa singer Héctor Lavoe, to director Henry Chalfant’s documentary From Mambo to Hip Hop: A South Bronx Tale, which chronicles the borough’s critical role in popular culture, all the films celebrate the vastly different, thriving Latin communities of New York City.

Presented by Columbia and the nonprofit organization Instituto Cervantes, which promotes the teaching, study and use of Spanish as a second language, the 2nd Annual Hispanic Film Festival runs Nov. 27 to Dec. 1. Each screening – held on campus in Davis Auditorium and at Instituto’s midtown location – will be followed by a question and answer period with the directors of the films.

The festival, which will include seven films, is curated by Claudio Remeseira, director of the Hispanic New York Project of Columbia’s American Studies Program, in collaboration with Marcela Goglio of the Film Society of Lincoln Center.

“We’re trying to expand the connection between Columbia and the larger Latin American community outside of campus,” said Remeseira.

The other featured films are The Krutch, Two Dollar Dance, La Bruja: A Witch from the Bronx, Soy Andina and Washington Heights. For exact show times and locations, visit www.columbia.edu/cu/hnyff.

The Hispanic New York Project was established last year by Andrew Delbanco, director of the American Studies Program, which also put on a Nov. 14 literary panel discussion at the Journalism School featuring Latin American writers discussing contemporary Spanish language literature. The project is also organizing other events that bring together University colleagues who deal with Latin history and research, and cultural and educational institutions such as El Museo del Barrio and the Hispanic Society of America.

– Story by Melanie Farmer.