Cine Las Americas International Film Festival
Encyclopedia
The Cine Las Americas International Film Festival is an annual film festival
based in Austin, Texas
featuring Latin American and indigenous
films from the Americas. In its 14th year in 2011, the Festival has grown into a city-wide event, with over 100 screenings in a nine-day span. Patrons of the festival are offered a wide variety of films to choose from including narrative and documentary features, short films, animation and youth films.
organization that offers cultural experiences and business opportunities for Latinos in film and media arts, and brings media arts education to minority youth in Austin. While the international film festival seeks to become an institution in the international film business and trade, fostering multi-national film production, and accessing emerging markets and diverse audiences, Cine Las Americas remains a community oriented Media Arts Center, offering diverse opportunities for culture, education and fun.
sponsored by the Mexic-Arte Museum
in Austin, Texas
. While programming the initial event, the organizers realized that although Austin was building its reputation as an important city for producing and showcasing independent film, films made by and about Latinos were largely absent from the community's cultural landscape
. In 2001, Cine Las Americas partnered with the Austin Independent School District
(AISD) and moved the organization's offices to Johnston High School
in East Austin, where it established a Media Arts Center, implementing educational and mentoring programs to support the District's Dropout Prevention Campaign. During this time the organization offered the school's students hands-on bilingual
opportunities in multimedia
production, event production, and non-profit organization management.
a program, grant awards for the best work, and produce a day of free screenings within the context of the festival. Emergencia remains a special competitive section of the festival open to filmmakers ages 19 and under and is curated
by students participating in Cine Las Americas' multicultural Media Literacy programs.
In 2003, professional musicians and other guest artists began to instruct and mentor
dozens of students at a recording studio
inside the organization's classroom at the school. There, students were able to write and record music and lyrics in a professional studio environment within a bilingual Digital Music Production curriculum
in the after-school program BeatLab. Many students have used skills learned there in preparing work for subsequent Festivals. BeatLab has continued at other area schools since the organization's offices moved to East Austin after its contract with the school expired.
Also in 2003, the festival extended its program to include indigenous work from the Americas, established competitive sections granting juried
and audience awards.
By 2005, the organization had presented more than 300 films at the annual Festival and at various screenings throughout Texas, collaborating with institutions such as The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), the South By Southwest
film festival (SXSW), and the Austin Film Festival
.
In 2007, the Festival expanded to its current format in celebration of Cine Las Americas' 10th anniversary.
The 13th annual Cine Las Americas International Film Festival was held April 21-29, 2010, and featured Mexico
as the invited country in celebration of Mexico's bicentennial
.
El truco del manco (The Handless Trick)
Director: Santiago Zannou, Spain
, 2008
Jury Award for Best Documentary Feature:
Intimidades de Shakespeare y Víctor Hugo (Shakespeare and Victor Hugo’s Intimacies)
Director: Yulene Olaizola, Mexico
, 2008
Special Jury Award for Documentary Feature:
Unidad 25 (Unit 25)
Director: Alejo Hoijman, Argentina
/ Spain
, 2008
Jury Award for Best Narrative Short Film:
Danzak
Director: Gabriela Yepes, Peru
/ USA, 2008
Special Jury Award for Narrative Short Film:
Saliva
Director: Esmir Filho, Brazil
, 2007
Jury Award for Best Documentary Short Film:
Conversations II
Director: Marianela Vega Oroza, Peru / USA, 2007
Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature:
Cinco días sin Nora (Nora's Will)
Director: Mariana Chenillo, Mexico, 2008
Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature:
El General
Director: Natalia Almada, Mexico, 2009
Emergencia Youth Competition, Jury Award for Best Film:
Journeys Through the Red, White and Blue: Brian's Journey
Andrea Williams, USA, 2008
Jury Award for Best First or Second Narrative Feature
NOEL POETA DA VILA (NOEL, THE SAMBA POET), Ricardo van Steen, Brazil, 2006
Jury Award for Best Narrative Short
MEXICAN DREAM, David Michan, Mexico, 2007
Special Jury Mention for Narrative Short
EN TRÁNSITO (IN TRANSIT), Isabel Muñoz Cota Callejas, México, 2007
Jury Award for Best Documentary Feature
LA AMERICANA (THE AMERICAN), Nicholas Bruckman, USA, 2008
Special Jury Mention for Documentary Feature
LOS PUÑOS DE UNA NACIÓN (THE FISTS OF A NATION), Pituka Ortega Heilbron, Panama, 2006
Jury Award for Best Documentary Short
CON EL TOQUE DE LA CHAVETA (WITH A STROKE OF THE CHAVETA), Pamela Sporn
, Cuba, USA, 2007
Special Jury Mention for Documentary Short
POR MIS HIJOS (FOR THEM), Aymée Cruzalegui, Spain, 2007
AUDIENCE AWARD WINNERS:
Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature
NAO POR ACASO (NOT BY CHANCE), Philippe Barcinski, Brazil, Drama, 2007
Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature
LA AMERICANA (THE AMERICAN), Nicholas Bruckman, USA, 2008
De NADIE, Tin Dirdamal, 2006
De NADIE went on to win many other awards including the Audience Award, Sundance Film Festival 2006, and Mexican Ariele award for Best Feature Docuementary, 2006.
Film festival
A film festival is an organised, extended presentation of films in one or more movie theaters or screening venues, usually in a single locality. More and more often film festivals show part of their films to the public by adding outdoor movie screenings...
based in Austin, Texas
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
featuring Latin American and indigenous
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
films from the Americas. In its 14th year in 2011, the Festival has grown into a city-wide event, with over 100 screenings in a nine-day span. Patrons of the festival are offered a wide variety of films to choose from including narrative and documentary features, short films, animation and youth films.
Organization
Cine Las Americas, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, is a multiculturalMulticulturalism
Multiculturalism is the appreciation, acceptance or promotion of multiple cultures, applied to the demographic make-up of a specific place, usually at the organizational level, e.g...
organization that offers cultural experiences and business opportunities for Latinos in film and media arts, and brings media arts education to minority youth in Austin. While the international film festival seeks to become an institution in the international film business and trade, fostering multi-national film production, and accessing emerging markets and diverse audiences, Cine Las Americas remains a community oriented Media Arts Center, offering diverse opportunities for culture, education and fun.
Festival history
The Cine Las Americas International Film festival began in 1997 as a Cuban film retrospectiveRetrospective
Retrospective generally means to take a look back at events that already have taken place. For example, the term is used in medicine, describing a look back at a patient's medical history or lifestyle.-Music:...
sponsored by the Mexic-Arte Museum
Mexic-Arte Museum
Mexic-Arte Museum is a fine arts museum in Austin, Texas founded in 1983 by Sylvia Orozco of Cuero, Texas and Pio Pulido of Mexico. The Museum was begun to educate and promote traditional and contemporary Mexican and Latino art throughout the state of Texas by providing cultural...
in Austin, Texas
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
. While programming the initial event, the organizers realized that although Austin was building its reputation as an important city for producing and showcasing independent film, films made by and about Latinos were largely absent from the community's cultural landscape
Cultural landscape
Cultural Landscapes have been defined by the World Heritage Committee as distinct geographical areas or properties uniquely "..represent[ing] the combined work of nature and of man.."....
. In 2001, Cine Las Americas partnered with the Austin Independent School District
Austin Independent School District
Austin Independent School District is a school district that is based in the city of Austin, Texas, United States. It was established in 1881. Its current superintendent is...
(AISD) and moved the organization's offices to Johnston High School
Johnston High School
Johnston High School is a public secondary school located in Johnston, Iowa. It is part of the Johnston Community School District. The school serves approximately 1,300 students in grades 10 through 12...
in East Austin, where it established a Media Arts Center, implementing educational and mentoring programs to support the District's Dropout Prevention Campaign. During this time the organization offered the school's students hands-on bilingual
Multilingualism
Multilingualism is the act of using, or promoting the use of, multiple languages, either by an individual speaker or by a community of speakers. Multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. Multilingualism is becoming a social phenomenon governed by the needs of...
opportunities in multimedia
Multimedia
Multimedia is media and content that uses a combination of different content forms. The term can be used as a noun or as an adjective describing a medium as having multiple content forms. The term is used in contrast to media which use only rudimentary computer display such as text-only, or...
production, event production, and non-profit organization management.
Festival-related programs and milestones
The training students received in the Cine Las Americas-school district partnership culminated in students producing Emergencia, the youth component of the film festival. In Emergencia they receive entries from around the country, preview them in order to curateCurator
A curator is a manager or overseer. Traditionally, a curator or keeper of a cultural heritage institution is a content specialist responsible for an institution's collections and involved with the interpretation of heritage material...
a program, grant awards for the best work, and produce a day of free screenings within the context of the festival. Emergencia remains a special competitive section of the festival open to filmmakers ages 19 and under and is curated
Curator
A curator is a manager or overseer. Traditionally, a curator or keeper of a cultural heritage institution is a content specialist responsible for an institution's collections and involved with the interpretation of heritage material...
by students participating in Cine Las Americas' multicultural Media Literacy programs.
In 2003, professional musicians and other guest artists began to instruct and mentor
Mentorship
Mentorship refers to a personal developmental relationship in which a more experienced or more knowledgeable person helps a less experienced or less knowledgeable person....
dozens of students at a recording studio
Recording studio
A recording studio is a facility for sound recording and mixing. Ideally both the recording and monitoring spaces are specially designed by an acoustician to achieve optimum acoustic properties...
inside the organization's classroom at the school. There, students were able to write and record music and lyrics in a professional studio environment within a bilingual Digital Music Production curriculum
Curriculum
See also Syllabus.In formal education, a curriculum is the set of courses, and their content, offered at a school or university. As an idea, curriculum stems from the Latin word for race course, referring to the course of deeds and experiences through which children grow to become mature adults...
in the after-school program BeatLab. Many students have used skills learned there in preparing work for subsequent Festivals. BeatLab has continued at other area schools since the organization's offices moved to East Austin after its contract with the school expired.
Also in 2003, the festival extended its program to include indigenous work from the Americas, established competitive sections granting juried
Juried (competition)
A juried competition is a competition in which participants' work is judged by a person or panel of persons convened specifically to judge the participants' efforts, either by the competition's stated rubric or by a subjective set of criteria dependent upon the nature of the competition or the...
and audience awards.
By 2005, the organization had presented more than 300 films at the annual Festival and at various screenings throughout Texas, collaborating with institutions such as The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), the South By Southwest
South by Southwest
South by Southwest is an Austin, Texas based company dedicated to planning conferences, trade shows, festivals and other events. Their current roster of annual events include: SXSW Music, SXSW Film, SXSW Interactive, SXSWedu, and SXSWeco and take place every spring in Austin, Texas, United States...
film festival (SXSW), and the Austin Film Festival
Austin Film Festival
The Austin Film Festival was started in 1994 in Austin, Texas and is claimed to be "the first organization of its kind to focus on the writer’s unique creative contribution to the film and television industries"...
.
In 2007, the Festival expanded to its current format in celebration of Cine Las Americas' 10th anniversary.
The 13th annual Cine Las Americas International Film Festival was held April 21-29, 2010, and featured Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
as the invited country in celebration of Mexico's bicentennial
Celebration of Mexican political anniversaries in 2010
In 2010, Mexico celebrated both the 200th anniversary of its Independence and 100th anniversary of its Revolution. The entire year was proclaimed by President Felipe Calderón as "Año de la Patria", or "Year of the Nation." 16 September 1810 is the day of the "Grito de Dolores" or Miguel Hidalgo's...
.
2009 awards
Jury Award for Best Narrative Feature:El truco del manco (The Handless Trick)
Director: Santiago Zannou, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, 2008
Jury Award for Best Documentary Feature:
Intimidades de Shakespeare y Víctor Hugo (Shakespeare and Victor Hugo’s Intimacies)
Director: Yulene Olaizola, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, 2008
Special Jury Award for Documentary Feature:
Unidad 25 (Unit 25)
Director: Alejo Hoijman, Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
/ Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, 2008
Jury Award for Best Narrative Short Film:
Danzak
Director: Gabriela Yepes, Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
/ USA, 2008
Special Jury Award for Narrative Short Film:
Saliva
Director: Esmir Filho, Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, 2007
Jury Award for Best Documentary Short Film:
Conversations II
Director: Marianela Vega Oroza, Peru / USA, 2007
Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature:
Cinco días sin Nora (Nora's Will)
Director: Mariana Chenillo, Mexico, 2008
Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature:
El General
Director: Natalia Almada, Mexico, 2009
Emergencia Youth Competition, Jury Award for Best Film:
Journeys Through the Red, White and Blue: Brian's Journey
Andrea Williams, USA, 2008
2008 awards
JURY AWARD WINNERS:Jury Award for Best First or Second Narrative Feature
NOEL POETA DA VILA (NOEL, THE SAMBA POET), Ricardo van Steen, Brazil, 2006
Jury Award for Best Narrative Short
MEXICAN DREAM, David Michan, Mexico, 2007
Special Jury Mention for Narrative Short
EN TRÁNSITO (IN TRANSIT), Isabel Muñoz Cota Callejas, México, 2007
Jury Award for Best Documentary Feature
LA AMERICANA (THE AMERICAN), Nicholas Bruckman, USA, 2008
Special Jury Mention for Documentary Feature
LOS PUÑOS DE UNA NACIÓN (THE FISTS OF A NATION), Pituka Ortega Heilbron, Panama, 2006
Jury Award for Best Documentary Short
CON EL TOQUE DE LA CHAVETA (WITH A STROKE OF THE CHAVETA), Pamela Sporn
Pam Sporn
Pam Sporn is a film maker and teacher. Her documentaries have won several film festival awards.-Career:Her work has covered such topics as Cuban cigar rollers, an annual dance, and the story of a family that emigrated from Cuba to the United States, as well as "homelessness, teen pregnancy and...
, Cuba, USA, 2007
Special Jury Mention for Documentary Short
POR MIS HIJOS (FOR THEM), Aymée Cruzalegui, Spain, 2007
AUDIENCE AWARD WINNERS:
Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature
NAO POR ACASO (NOT BY CHANCE), Philippe Barcinski, Brazil, Drama, 2007
Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature
LA AMERICANA (THE AMERICAN), Nicholas Bruckman, USA, 2008
Earlier winners
Best Documentary Feature 2006:De NADIE, Tin Dirdamal, 2006
De NADIE went on to win many other awards including the Audience Award, Sundance Film Festival 2006, and Mexican Ariele award for Best Feature Docuementary, 2006.
External links
- Festival official site
- Festival videos on YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....