Latinx Films at The 37th BFI Flare Film Festival 2023
With an array of exciting films from 41 countries, as varied as Morocco & South Korea to Latin America, the biggest LGBTIQ+ film festival in Europe 1(5- 26 March) aims to expand our perspectives, not only with films, but also…
New Kid on the Block Enthralls with his Films
Chino Moya's ‘Undergods’ (2020) is an impressive sci-fi thriller opera prima that reveals much talent. It is a good omen that the Ridley Scott Creative Group have been supporting this production throughout, allowing Moya and…
'Mujer de Soldado' Dir. Patricia Wiesse Risso
In the sleepy Andean town of Manta in Peru’s Huancavelica province, the wounds of the internal civil conflict between the Shining Path, the paramilitaries and the armed forces continue to bleed. Mujer de Soldado is a documentary…
BELFONSO - A Story of Love and Betrayal
Belfonso is a powerful tableau-video tale of love, jealousy, rage and betrayal played out between three dwarf characters. It is the result of an artistic collaboration between Argentine painter Ricardo Cinalli and the Argentine…
Away from Tacos and Sombresos: CASA Latin American Theatre Festival
The CASA Festival remains the only theatre event dedicated to bringing Latin theatre to the UK. Now in it 5th year, this week the festival embarks on its usual ambitious feat of 45 events, seducing an eclectic London audience…
BELFONSO - A Story of Love and Betrayal
Belfonso is a powerful tableau-video tale of love, jealousy, rage and betrayal played out between three dwarf characters. It is the result of an artistic collaboration between Argentine painter Ricardo Cinalli and the Argentine…
Azor (2021) by Andreas Fontana
‘Smell Fear like a Dog’. Andreas Fontana’s film AZOR (2021) showing at the BFI London Film Festival is a slow-burning thriller that enters the murky waters of Private Banking in Argentina during the Dirty War.
BLACK ORPHEUS (Dir. Marcel Camus 1959 - new Blu-Ray release)
The classic 1959 Rio Carnival adaptation of the ancient Greek tale about Orpheus and Eurydice, two lovers meeting and falling in love, pursued by the macabre figure of Death, is brilliantly brought back to life in a new Blu-Ray…
Latino Short films at BFI FUTURE FILM FESTIVAL
This festival, despite being relatively modest, is sponsored by Netflix and has attracted 45 short films submitted to screen online on BFI Player (UK only). The Festival is highlighting an interesting selection of budding…
La Vida es Sueño (Life is a Dream) by Pedro Calderón de la Barca at the Barbican Theatre.
Just as William Shakespeare was revolutionizing theatre in England, Spanish writers like Lope de Vega and Pedro Calderón de la Barca were shining bright in the Spanish 'Siglo de Oro'. 'Life is a Dream' is one…
A Passion for Piazzolla
Astor Piazzolla has inspired many artists around the world, none more so than Ann Liebeck, creator of Violetta's Last Tango, the opera dance drama that premiered in Wilton’s Music Hall in 2017 and is streamed tonight. Here…
German Cornejo's Fantasy Island Tracks
If you were stranded on a desert island, which tracks would you absolutely need to get you through those times of despair? Our castaway, German Cornejo, choreographer and lead dancer of the smash hit dance show Tango Fire, is…
Pino Solanas - Film Director, Activist (1936-2020)
Fernando Ezequiel 'Pino' Solanas, charismatic and legendary filmmaker, politician, activist and father to filmmaker Juan Solanas (‘Nordeste’- 2005, ‘Que sea Ley -2019’) has died aged 84, on November 6th 2020, of Covid-…
LATIN LONDONER #16 Fernando Montaño - Royal Ballet Dancer
Originally from the city of Buena Aventura on the Pacific coast of Colombia, dancer Fernando Montaño is now a soloist with the Royal Ballet. Twice a winner of the LUKAS Personality of the Year (2013 and 2014), Fernando has…
'The Third Bank of the River' by Chris Feliciano Arnold (Picador)
A book which tells the story of the Amazon and its ports-towns near the frontier between Brazil, Colombia and Peru
BROKEN TOYS by Carolina Román at the Cervantes Theatre.
To celebrate PRIDE Month, the multi-award-winning play ‘BROKEN TOYS’ by Argentine-Spanish playwright Carolina Román, is playing until the end of June to enthusiastic audiences, at the Cervantes Theatre in Southwark.
Los Amantes Astronautas (The Astronaut Lovers-2024) by Argentine Marco Berger
Prolific Filmmaker Marco Berger (Absent 2011/ Young Hunter (2019) & Horseplay (2022) has developed a reputation for dealing with gender issues in his own distinctive style.
Paradise City
Inspired by ten years living as a teacher in Brazil, Paradise City is the debut crime novel from Joe Thomas, which delves deep into the underworld of São Paulo. Here the author writes about the people and places, the violence and…
HAPPINESS, A PLAY by MARILIA SAMPER opens at the Cervantes Theatre
“Sometimes it is best not to see anything” – This is a moving play that reveals the challenges of life in a working-class condominium. Where is the solidarity?
ALL IS VANITY Dir. Marcos Mereles
A story within a story within…who bit the apple first? A moody, acerbic photographer (Sid Phoenix) and his intern assistant (Yaseen Aroussi), the blasé make- up artist (Rosie Steel) and the laconic model (Isabelle Bonfrer) meet…
“The Horror Seeps Through the Cracks”
Set during the harshest period of the Pinochet Dictatorship, ‘1976’ (2022) is an intelligent and moving study of a well-to-do housewife, Carmen, who, after being asked to care for a wounded activist, finds her life changing and…
"Transforming one body into another’"
Flamenco's experimental bailaor extraordinaire, Israel Galván, will be mesmerising audiences at Sadler’s Wells for two nights on November 25 and 26th with his original interpretation of ‘The Rite of Spring’ by Igor…
LATIN LONDONER # 13 Eddy Vents - Kizomba teacher
Eddy Vents has been surrounded by Lusophone music from the early childhood. His undoubted passion for kizomba and exceptional teaching skills has made him a winner of the award for Kizomba Teacher of the Year in 2014. This is his…
THE MOLE AGENT (2020) Dir. Maite Alberdi
“I love the fact that everything I would like to invent already exists; the challenge is to find it!” With this attitude, Chilean director Maite Alberdi brings her highly original eye to her documentaries, not least THE MOLE…
FAILURE! 2023, directed by Alex Kahuam is screening at the London Frightfest 2023
Failure! is a psychological thriller that features the enigmatic Ted Raimi in the lead role as a man who, facing ruin gets increasingly more desperate as he seeks a way out.
SUBLIME (2022) Dir. Mariano Baisin
A beautifully understated Argentinian coming-of-age drama starring Martin Miller and Teo Inama Chiabrando and directed by Mariano Biasin.
Latin Londoner #48 - Gustavo Nenao, street artist
Gustavo Bordin (akak Gustavo Nenao) is a Brazilian street artist who has developed works in three continents and 42 countries and was the only Brazilian to join the selected group of artists chosen by the former U.S. first lady…
Women of Toil - Maria Barea, pioneering Peruvian Director of ‘Antuca’ (1992)
Maria Barea decided to start filming the plight of young indigenous women working as domestic servants in Peru "to give them a voice." We look at the life of the pioneering Peruvian director of ‘Antuca’ (1992) and ‘…
Good Manners (2017) Challenging Motherhood in São Paolo
Set in São Paolo, Good Manners (2017) explores the relentlessness, chaos and fraught nature of motherhood in a drama that blurs the edges between fantasy and horror. Corina Poore talks to its directors Marco Dutra and Juliana…
‘I AM AWAKE’ - Paraguayan artist Feliciano Centurión
Feliciano Centurión’s whimsical and moving works are on display at the Cecilia Brunson Gallery September 19th – December 13th 2019.
COCO (2017) Dir.Lee Unkrich
A gorgeously animated 3D musical fantasy, based on an original idea of Lee Unkrich, and directed by him, ‘Coco’ is up there with the best of Pixar Animation Studios, and in the process manages to shed Hollywood’s tired old…
Without Stillness There Is No Dance.
Gilles Brinas believes profoundly in the universality of dance and the Arts and feels that Stillness and Silence are vital ingredients of drama. So,he developed ‘Che Malambo’, which is indeed a dramatic show, based on the ‘…
SEX WORKERS' OPERA
With a cast made up of workers in the sex industry and actors (its not clear whom is which to preserve anonymity) this unique multimedia production written by British-Uruguyan singer and composer Alex Etchart, offers a brutally…
"At the end of the day what's most important is family"
We talk to Andy Garcia, Gloria Estefan, Adria Arjona (daughter of Guatemalan singer Richardo Arjona) and Diego Boneta (hot off his title role in Netflix's Luis Miguel: The Series) who make up the stellar Latino cast of a…
“No Tengo Dogma" - an Interview with Mexican Director Lila Avilés
Mexican writer/ producer/ director LILA AVILÉS is reaching audiences far and wide, way beyond her Latin American roots, as her second film TÓTEM (2023) hits the screens in the UK and other countries. Both her films, LA CAMARISTA…