Pedestaling Latinx short films, CINEOLA\'s cinematic lineup — which starts today, June 6, and ends June 12 — aims to connect audiences with diverse representations of Latinoamérica on screens (big and small), with funds made through ticket sales benefiting SF institutions like the Roxie Theatre and Artists’ Television Access.
Amid the ever-worsening pandemic, CINEOLA recently announced it’ll showcase its entire film festival online via Seed&Spark, in partnership with the Bay Area Video Coalition. Better yet, proceeds garnered by the ticket sales will benefit tenured, COVID-19-affected venues like the Roxie Theatre and Artists’ Television Access, as well as supporting CARECEN SF, a local non-profit supporting Latino and immigrant communities, to help them provide aid to under-resourced families in the Bay Area.
Coming soon to a screen near you: Our 2020 festival, available online from June 6-12, co-presented by the @BAVC & powered by @seedandspark
Join us for a program of Latin American documentary shorts & live filmmaker Q&As. For more 👇https://t.co/yvGPDUIQdK
— CINEOLA (@Cineola) May 28, 2020
“We’re excited to launch the first edition of CINEOLA, connecting audiences with stories from across Latin America while supporting the local Latinx community in the San Francisco Bay Area alongside our non-profit partners CARECEN SF,\" says Daniel Díaz, the founder and director of CINEOLA, in a press release.
The festival was initially planned to launch in April, but the coronavirus forced organizers to think outside the box, leaving them to create a philanthropic, online-only festival: \"We’re delighted to be working with Seed&Spark to bring the festival online and use this opportunity to raise funds for our partner venues, The Roxie and Artists’ Television Access, during what is an exceptionally challenging time for independent venues and artists.”
Split into two hour-long-ish programming blocks, \"Recordar\" and \"Resistir,\" the documentary short films highlight Latin American realities — not the hyperbolized episodes of scapegoating that say, certain right-leaning media outlets tend to megaphone — and the communities that populate them.
Stories like Verde Olivo retell Cuba\'s communal enchantment when Barack Obama visited in 2016, the first president to do so in nearly 90 years; La Bala de Sandoval\'s reflexive take on mortality as two brothers weave through an Ecuadorian rainforest and recount their near-death experiences; how in the midst of Venezuela’s spiraling economic crisis, members of a Chavista collective took over production at a local bakery to feed the masses in The Breadmaker.
To boot, the festival also includes two live filmmakers Q&As, featuring guest moderators like film writer Carlos Aguilar and Bay Area filmmaker Colin Trevorrow, who directed Jurassic World.
Tickets ($8 per program block) to CINELOA are available on Seed&Spark; you can also register for the festival\'s \"virtual events,\" like the aforementioned Q&As, on there, as well.
CINEOLA’s online film programming is accessible starting today, June 6, through June 12.
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Image: Courtesy of CINEOLA, still from \'Hazte Sentir\'
