The Discovering Latin America Film Festival (DLAFF) has been showcasing a kaleidoscope of feature, experimental and short films in tandem with documentaries, retrospectives, master classes and discussions at various central venues in London for the best part of the decade.
The DLAFF aims to go beyond enriching the cultural horizon of Londoners or visitors to the capital. It is organised by a charity, Discovering Latin America, that seeks to alleviate poverty, illiteracy, sickness and distress in Latin America by sharing the best of Latin American culture with other countries. All the funds raised through this year’s festival will go to support Peruvian children with special needs through the Kiya Survivors organisation.
In cinematic terms, the festival opened on a violent, visceral note with Jorge Navas’s dark yet equally poetic and alluring Blood and Rain. The film focuses on a fragile male taxi driver seeking revenge for his brother’s murder and a deceptively strong, sensation-seeking sensual girl meet one rainy night in Bogota. Colombian director Navas has been hailed by his country’s press as an emerging filmmaking talent, who has broken away from the passive traditions of Colombian cinema. This manifests in Blood and Rain, his third film, where he explores the violence of Bogota with refreshing honesty and humanity.
Colombia and its capital have been suffering for more than half a century from a fraught civil war. Navas feels his interpretation of Colombia is in stark contrast to the caricature-like, superficial and trivialising way in which violence and crime are dealt with by the nation’s soap operas. He believes that with his unabashed portrayal of violence, albeit none of it gratuitous, he is also challenging the way Colombian newspapers cover-up and censor its true violent reality.
Another defining moment of the festival was the UK premiere of Mexican filmmaker Amat Escalante’s award-winning Los Bastardos at Tate Modern, which was a highlight of the festival’s thematic retrospective Immigration Tales; an array of stories about Latin American immigrants and their destinies in the US and Europe. The film documents 24 hours in the lives of two undocumented Mexican day labourers in Los Angeles. Intimately studying the pair’s daily routine, the film observes the immigrants as they stand on the corner at a Home Improvement store, waiting for work to arrive.
Following the screening Escalante shared some revealing insights with the audience in a discussion and Q &A session conducted by producer Ignacio Duron (Like Water for Chocolate). The Mexican-based filmmaker explained how he had deliberately used real-life Mexican labourers rather than actors because of his frustration with stereotypical images of “Mexican immigrants”. The destructive natures of the protagonists also deliberately broke with the stereotype of the good immigrant lost in a hostile jungle.
Escalante also spoke about how his own experience had shaped the film. His father is a Mexican who illegally crossed the border and eventually married an American woman that became Escalante’s mother. Born in Spain, Escalante has also lived in Mexico and the USA. He always knew that one day he would make a film about immigration. Los bastardos reflects the director’s belief and is supported, he feels, by history in that every exploitation (in this case of immigrant labour) always results in some kind of violent, explosive reaction.
This year the DLAFF made a concerted effort to not only cover socio-political dramas but to broaden its gambit to include films of all genres, including comedy. There is something for all tastes and what’s more you’ll be helping out vulnerable children as well.
If your appetite has been whetted go to discoveringlatinamerica.com for more information about this unique festival. Check back soon for an exclusive interview with Colombian director Jorge Navas.
