Hispanic Film Festival
Thursdays in October / November 2023 / 6:30 p.m. Lindsay Young Auditorium—Hodges Library
Contact Film Festival organizer Betsabé Navarro
Join us for the fourth edition of the Hispanic Film Festival on the UT campus featuring independent award-winning films in Spanish with English subtitles, and introductory talks by UT professors.
Free admission
Every Thursday from October 12 to November 9, 2023
Film Schedule
Pelo malo (Bad Hair) (Venezuela, 2013, Mariana Rondón) October 12
A nine-year-old boy’s preening obsession with straightening his hair elicits a tidal wave of homophobic panic in his hard-working mother, in this tender but clear-eyed coming-of-age tale. Junior is a beautiful boy, with big brown eyes, a delicate frame, and a head of luxurious dark curls. But Junior aches to straighten those curls, to acquire a whole new look befitting his emerging fantasy image of himself as a long-haired singer. As the opportunity approaches to have his photo taken for the new school year, that ache turns into a fiery longing. Junior’s mother, Marta (Samantha Castillo), is barely hanging on. The father of her children has died, she recently lost her job as a security guard, and she now struggles to put a few arepas on the table for Junior and his baby brother.
Junior doesn’t even know yet what it means to be gay, but the very notion prompts Marta to set out to “correct” Junior’s condition before it fully takes hold. This is a story of people doing what they feel they have to, partly out of fear, but also out of love.
Xquipi’ Guie’ Dani (Guie’Dani’s navel) (Mexico, 2019, Xavi Sala) October 19
In a star-making performance, Sótera Cruz brings razor-sharp intensity to her portrayal of Guie’dani, a Zapotec girl determined to fight for her dignity.
Guie’dani is dragged to Mexico City by her mother to help in her work as a housekeeper for an upper-middle-class family. There, the subtle psychological subjugation inflicted by the white family functions as a metaphor for the oppression of the old world by the new. Yet, Guie’dani rejects the life of servitude and seeks her own identity through a friendship with another rebellious teen.
A striking contrast to Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma, Guie’dani’s Navelis a unique coming-of-age narrative exploring the racism inflicted on indigenous people in Mexico and the empowerment of a new generation that refuses to accept it silently.
I am from Chile (Chile, 2013, Gonzalo Díaz Ugarte), October 26
A coming of age story, I Am From Chile draws from the director’s personal experiences to tell a different kind of immigration story.
I Am from Chile is the story of Salvador, who moves to London from Chile to study English and travel around Europe at his parents’ expense. He stays with his aunt María (acclaimed Chilean actress Paulina García of Gloria, Illiterate), who makes a rather decent living renting the rooms of her house to other immigrants. But when a financial crisis back home leaves Salvador with no resources of his own, he has no other choice but to make ends meet with the help of María and his roommates (including a Russian drug dealer and his Japanese girlfriend), taking on a series of short-term, and at times, dangerous jobs. Difficult and challenging situations will force Salvador out of his protected bourgeois reality and into the real world.
El buen patrón (The Good boss) (Spain, 2021, Fernando León de Aranoa) November 2nd
A smash hit in Spain starring Academy Award® winner Javier Bardem, The Good Boss is an acerbic character study and a darkly funny social satire of the workplace.
Blanco, the charismatic owner of a family-run factory, is under pressure as he covets a local award for business excellence. Everything needs to be perfect! But the veneer of the perfect company cracks as Blanco has to deal with a vengeful fired worker, a depressed supervisor, and an infatuated ambitious intern. To win the competition, the manipulative “good boss” shamelessly meddles in his employees’ private lives and crosses every line imaginable, unknowingly starting an explosive chain reaction with wild consequences.
El olvido que seremos (Memories of my father) (Colombia, 2022, Fernando Trueba), November 9th
Based on the legendary book Oblivion: A Memoir by the Colombian writer Héctor Abad Faciolince, and directed by Academy Award® winning director Fernando Trueba (Belle Époque), the film tells of the life of the prominent doctor and human rights activist, Héctor Abad Gómez (Javier Cámara), a father who is concerned about both his children and children from less favored classes.
After a devastating loss in the family, Héctor gives himself to the greater cause of public health programs for the poor in Medellín to the consternation of the city’s authorities. The film straddles two eras: Faciolince’s adolescence in Medellín in the 1970s, and his young adulthood in the ’80s up until 1987 when his father was assassinated.
Warning: Films may contain adult content and some degree of violence.
Parking Information
- The G17 Garage at 1800 Lake Ave, free parking to the general public beginning at 6pm weekdays (no overnight parking 3am-6am)
- The Vol Hall Garage at $1 per ½ hour
- Regular street parking in the Fort Sanders area
Pictures courtesy of Pragda. The Spanish Film Club series was made possible with the support of Pragda, SPAIN Arts & Culture, and the Secretary of State for Culture of Spain. Warning: Films may contain adult content and some degree of violence.
Speakers
- Dawn Duke
- De Ann Pendry
- Solange Muñoz
- Alfonso Hernanz
- Laura Trujillo
Sponsors
- Pragda (SFC)
- Department of World Languages and Cultures
- Cinema Studies
- Department of History
- Department of Sociology
- Division of Diversity and Engagement
- Multicultural Student Life
- Latin American Studies