Michaela Woodward – Staff Writer
It was a big week for movie lovers on campus, as the Oscars took place on Sunday and the second film in the 6th Latinx Film Festival series was screened on Monday.
An audience of students and faculty gathered in Wallenberg Auditorium Monday evening to view Los Territorios, a 2017 film from Argentina directed by Iván Granovsky. This is the second screening in this year’s film series, a festival that started in 2013 and is held biennially. In 2021 the film festival was held virtually.
Organizer of the Latinx Film Festival and Associate Professor in Spanish, Darío Sánchez-González, is thrilled to be able to host the festival in person again this year.
“It’s great to have screenings like in person again – it’s something that, in 2020, seemed impossible to have again,” Professor Sánchez-González said.
The film series is supported by the Pragda Institute from Spain’s Ministry of Culture. Though screenings are open to the public, they do coincide with a class in the Spain department.
“It’s connected to one of our courses, Spanish 390, which is the course centered on film in the Spanish major. Five of the films in our syllabi will correspond to five screenings, which will take place on campus. We basically integrate those films into the syllabus and we also do the screenings with guests occasionally,” Professor Sánchez-González said.
Professor Mimi Gerstbauer from the Political Science department introduced the film and led the Q&A for Los Territorios on Monday.
Senior Keely Schuck is a student in Spanish 390 and has enjoyed the diverse films that the Latinx Film Festival has brought to campus.
“I have been enjoying [the class] so far. It has given me opportunities to expand my range and experience international film. So far, in this class, we have watched films that have taken place in Paraguay, Brazil, Argentina, several regions in Spain (Asturias, Madrid, and Catalonia), and much more. I was excited to see the return of the Latinx Film Festival. I attended several virtual screenings and Q&A sessions in 2021, so I was looking forward to this series. I have enjoyed having Professor Darío Sánchez-González in class and learning from the discussions that we have after watching the films in the festival,” Schuck said.
Schuck also wrote a review for the first film screening, Bacarau (Brazil, 2019) which can be read on the MLLC blog.
“I would say we started with a bang. Bacarau is a thriller, a very violent movie for starters, but it is also a very, very politically engaged movie that connects with a lot of issues that we have in the U.S. like school shootings, police violence, racism, etc.,” Professor Sánchez-González said.
The Latinx Film Festival showcases movies from Spanish-speaking and non-Spanish-speaking Latinx American countries, as well as Spain.
“I always tell both my students in the class and the audience that these films were not made for you. That is not a bad thing. That means that, thankfully, more than ever, probably after the pandemic, we are being exposed to media that doesn’t quite correspond with our usual field of interest. So, the way in which we can start, especially in places where film is consumed critically, like college campuses, to diversify those offerings that we have,” Professor Sánchez-González said.
Though the films are screened live on campus, movies can be accessed for one week after they screen on https://pragda.com/sfc-event/gustavus-adolphus/ with the username SFC@GustavusAdolphusCollege and password FilmFestGustavus23.
The next film, El Viaje De Monalisa, will screen on March 27 at 6:30 p.m. in the Wallenberg Auditorium.
“The next film, El Viaje De Monalisa, chronicles the experience of a gender-fluid Chilean [undocumented] immigrant in New York who’s also a drag performer who has a separate persona called Monalisa, who is like this glamorous blonde woman that does what she wants. [It] clearly posits a contrast with their current life as an undocumented immigrant in the U.S. It’s really a trip and that’s what the film conveys. The later two films talk about migrations, which is a big tagline of this festival, though, by no means the only one,” Professor Sánchez-González said.
All interested Gusties are welcomed and encouraged to attend the film screenings if they are able or to watch the film virtually after they screen on campus.