San Diego Latino Film Festival movie trailers playlist
By Beth Accomando
Listen to a KPBS Midday Edition interview with festival organizers.
The San Diego Latino Film Festival kicks off its 20th season with more than 100 films from around the globe.
For its 20th anniversary, the SDLFF will focus on Mexico, the country that provides upwards of 40 films each year to the festival. There will also be a sidebar on Chilean films and the usual Cinegay, documentary, and shorts film programs.
New this year will be the addition of a new theater space at the Media Arts Center San Diego (the sponsoring organization that puts on the SDLFF). The New Digital Gym Micro Cinema will seat about 50 people and will allow the festival to take some programming risks since the venue is small and they won’t have to pay a rental fee for it. This year they will use it for the Un Mundo Extraño program of horror films. The films were programmed by Mexican filmmaker Aaron Soto who has a passion for the genre and for bringing more of these films to a broader audience.
There will be movies from five countries serving up serial killers, brutal revenge, ghosts, and the end of the world. Soto also put together a horror panel featuring filmmaker Rodrigo Gudiño (whose film “The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh” will screen); Horrible Imaginings Film Festival director Miguel Rodriguez; and KPBS Cinema Junkie blogger Beth Accomando. The horror panel will be held at the Digital Gym Cinema on Friday, March 15.
The San Diego Latino Film Festival runs through March 17. Primary location is the Digiplex Mission Valley (formerly the UltraStar Mission Valley). There will be a special 20th anniversary screening of “Selena” with director Gregory Nava in attendance. The film will screen at the new Full Moon Drive-In in Pacific Beach on Thursday, March 14. Films will also screen at the Digital Gym Cinema at 2921 El Cajon Blvd. More information on the theater venues is here.