Things You Should Know About...Inspiring US Afro-Latinxs
Changing the world in everything from Poetry to Baseball, from Politics to Hollywood, here, in no particular order, are just some of the US Afro-Latinos who have helped shape the American landscape and who you should definitely…
Myth or Reality, and Does it Matter?
Supposedly based on a true story about Basque farm lad, who started to grow uncontrollably to became Europe’s tallest man, reaching a height of 2,42m, Handia swept the boards at the 2018 Goya Awards, winning 10 out of their 13…
Madame Satã - A Gem from the Archives
The debut feature of celebrated Brazilian writer/director Karim Aïnouz, ‘Madame Satã’ was selected from the BFI archives for the 2022 BFI Flare Film Festival. Based on real events, this film reveals the unusual and dramatic life…
LATIN LONDONER #22 Thiago Soares - Principal Dancer
Brazilian dancer Thiago Soares, is a former Principal Dancer of The Royal Ballet. Soares was born in Rio de Janeiro and joined the Royal Ballet in 2002 after receiving many prizes, including silver medal at the 1998 Paris…
Latin Londoner #38: Nicole Castillo-Mavromatis, Dancer, Choreographer and Actor
Raised in East London Nicole Castillo-Mavromatis is a queer dancer, actor, choreographer and proud afro-Latina from Dominican Republic. Starting out as a dancer including on an international tour with artist Wizkid and on the…
Latin Londoner #38: Nicole Castillo-Mavromatis, Dancer, Choreographer and Actor
Raised in East London Nicole Castillo-Mavromatis is a queer dancer, actor, choreographer and proud afro-Latina from Dominican Republic. Starting out as a dancer including on an international tour with artist Wizkid and on the…
YERMA Poisoned Blood and the Aesthetics of Anguish
YERMA at the Cervantes Theatre, presented in both Spanish and English versions, is the last of the powerful ‘Rural Trilogy’ written by Federico Garcia Lorca and here directed by Jorge de Juan. The first was ‘Blood Wedding’, then…
Between Land and Sea - an interview with Cuban artist Armando Mariño
One of Cuba’s most well-known contemporary artists, Armando Mariño studied in Havana, now lives and works in New York and exhibits all over the world. Now in London showing his large scale works rooted within the stories of…
‘RITA MORENO: JUST A GIRL WHO DECIDED TO GO FOR IT’ (2021)
“What a Journey! In the end it’s [about] who you really are!” This lively documentary biopic of Rita Moreno directed by award-winning Mariem Pérez Riera, entertains and fascinates at every turn.
Films to Watch Before You Die #2 - 'El Mismo Amor, la Misma Lluvia' by Juan Jose Campanella
OLIVETTI BLUES – A two-hour journey into the beauty of love, passion and dreams.
LA SINGLA (2023) by Spanish writer/ director Paloma Zapata
“She understood music because she was born with it within her.” This drama documentary, part-fiction, part reality, reveals the astounding story of a young girl, who despite being profoundly deaf, became one of Flamenco’s most…
Iphigenia: Crash Land Falls on the Neon Shell that was once her Heart (A Rave Fable)
A challenging multi-media and a multi-layered play by Caridad Svich, an Argentine- American playwright, with a richness of references that are not entirely lost even to those who never read the Greek Myth. It debued at The Clumsy…
“…And Some Have Greatness Thrust Upon Them.”
‘Argentina 85’ directed by Santiago Mitre and starring Ricardo Darín and Peter Lanzani, is a taut, fact-based courtroom drama that is as suspenseful as it is intense. It tells the story of how Julio César Strassera and his…
‘FOGARÉU’ (2022) directed by Flávia Neves
“When a baby is born it is thrown into the air, if it flies it is a bat, if it falls it is a fool”. ‘Fogaréu,’ is the story of a wealthy Brazilian family that interweaves overt class struggles with intimate family strife in wild…
"Critics in Chile Did Not Consider Me a Writer"
Isabel Allende is one of the Spanish-speaking world’s most widely read authors. The award-winning Chilean novelist has written over twenty books, which have gone on to sell over 74 million copies worldwide and be translated into…
Brazilian film ‘BABY’, by Marcelo Caetano to be screened at the BFI London Film Festival 2024 for the 63rd ‘Semaine de la Critique’ at Cannes 2024
“I did not run away from home; they ran away from me”. After two years and barely 18, Wellington emerges from a youth detention centre to find his family have disappeared. Lost and homeless in the streets of São Paulo, he meets…
PIGGY (CERDITA) Dir. Carlota Pereda
The 18th 2022 London Spanish Film Festival ended with the screening of the excellent film ‘Piggy' by Spanish director Carlota Pereda where it was awarded a Special Mention. Pereda has created a complex and harrowing tale of…
‘I'm No Longer Here' Dir Fernando Frías de la Parra
Selected to represent Mexico at the 93rd Academy Awards this debut from Fernando Frías de la Parra is profoundly accomplished, bringing a new and highly original voice to Mexican cinema. Garlanded at multiple festivals, the film…
Between Poetry and Politics - an interview with Gael García Bernal
GAEL GARCÍA BERNAL gets on a roll about poetry, fascism, idealism and power as he talks to Latinolife about the times we live in…oh, and his latest film, NERUDA.
Cause and Effect in Bolivian Art
In the first ever show of Bolivian Contemporary Art in London featuring four Bolivian artists - painters Ivan Benítez and Marcelo Rodríguez and photographers Javier Molina and Fabiola Retamozo - ‘Analogue Intercourse‘ refers to…
“I always dreamt of making movies in Hollywood”: An Interview with Eugenio Derbez
This hard-to-resist family-friendly comedy paints Mexico in a bright shade of flamingo pink. Its star and one of the most famous Mexican faces in show business, Eugenio Derbez, speaks to Latino Life about his Apple TV+ series…
The Good Boss (El Buen Patrón 2021) by Spanish director Fernando León de Aranoa
The delightful comedy 'The Good Boss' is being screened at the Riverside Cinema from July 15th- 2022. It was shown at the 2021 BFI London Film Festival following its première at the 2021 San Sebastian International…
The Films of Armando Bó
In the first of our 'Memorable Film' series on Latin America and Spain’s most memorable films and directors, Latinolife’s film editor, Corina Poore, profiles the ground-breaking Argentine director Armando Bó
Things That Matter to...Nestor García Gonzalez
32 year old Mexican Nestor Garcia Gonzalez has been working as a professional break-dancer for the last 9 years. In Mexico he was flexing his amazing talent in international touring shows, such as the Michael Jackson tribute and…
Carla Simón - The New Female Face of Spanish Film Making?
The 61st BFI London Film Festival in 2017 has attracted over twenty films from Luso-Hispanic film directors. Among them are various offerings from Catalonia, including Carla Simón’s delightful SUMMER 1993, which has been awarded…
Films To Watch Before You Die #3 - Alfonso Cuaron's 'Y Tu Mamá Tambien'
A CHRONICLE OF REALITY – A Journey across life and natural and political landscapes, an emotional kick and a box-office success. Alfonso Cuarón’s 2001 film Y Tu Mamá También (And Your Mom Too) is the third entry in our series of…
Spirits, Birds, Omens, Dreams and Death.
Ciro Guerra & Cristina Gallego talk about their film ‘Birds Of Passage’, which relates the extraordinary narrative of how the incipient and often casual trade of Marijuana lead to the notorious drug’s trade in Colombia and…
Mexico Dances
Celebrating its 56th year, Mexico´s most important and largest dance company, performs in London for the first time in 2 decades. We caught up with Salvador López, Director of Ballet Folklórico de México, in Mexico D.F. before…
Latin Londoner #36: Blanca Huertas, Senior Curator, Natural History Museum
Born in Bogotá, Blanca Huertas is Senior Curator of the Lepidoptera collections at the Natural History Museum. She is responsible for the direct care, development and access of the world’s largest and oldest collection of…
The UK's Top Colombian Creatives
The contribution of Colombian immigration to UK culture is impossible to ignore. As far back as 1975, Guardian writer Richard Williams described the Monday night when salsa king Héctor Lavoe took to the stage in a grotty London…
The UK's Top Colombian Creatives
The contribution of Colombian immigration to UK culture is impossible to ignore. As far back as 1975, Guardian writer Richard Williams described the Monday night when salsa king Héctor Lavoe took to the stage in a grotty London…
Uncovering The Invisible - Mexicans in the UK
At a time when Britain's immigrant community is increasingly falling under an unfriendly spotlight, 'Uncovering the Mexican Community in the UK' is a welcome photography exhibition and important reminder of the…
Brazil: Pixacao Sao Paulo’s Urban Calligraphy
Although present in many different Brazilian cities, pixação (often spelt ‘pichação in official accounts) is most closely identified with São Paulo. In this ‘city of walls’, pixação is everywhere. No building or wall is…
'Sin Señas Particulares' Dir. Fernanda Valadez
The Devil is Alive and well on the Mexican Border in ‘Sin Señas Particulares’ (Identifying Features - 2020), one of the Latino highlights at the 2020 BFI London Film Festival - a moving, multi-award-winning Opera Prima from…
'Tu Casa Mi Casa' by Enrique Olvera
Enrique Olvera, the world-renowned chef behind Mexico City’s Pujol and New York’s Cosme, has collaborated with three Mexican chefs for his first home cooking book “Tu Casa Mi Casa”. Marketed as “Mexican recipes for the home cook…