WHEN Sept. 21 to Oct. 13
COST $9 per film with valid student ID
WHERE AFI Silver Theatre, two blocks away from the Silver Spring stop on the red line.
SCENESTERS SAY If you like Latin American or foreign films, don’t miss this chance to see them in some comfy seats.
The Latin American Film Festival will be showing at the American Film Institute in Silver Spring, Md., from Sept. 21 to Oct. 13.
The festival is a collection of films from Latin American countries as well as Spain, according to AFI.
AFI is giving movies the royal treatment at this 21st annual event. The films are shown in grandiose cinemas at AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center in Silver Spring, Md. Their “state-of-the-art film and video projection facilities” give films their proper splendor, according to AFI. Unbelievably comfortable seats add to the perfect experience.
The festival is a cultural exposition. Through the films, viewers come to learn what other cultures revere and can learn to appreciate universal values through humor and dramatic situations. There are romances, adventures, comedies, action films and documentaries.
AFI Programmer Todd Hitchcock is primarily responsible for curating the movies found at film festivals across the world, including Berlin, Cannes, the Czech Republic and Toronto.
Hitchcock sees value in doing festivals such as this one.
It brings viewers “deeper into, and more comprehensively, into a selection of new films from the region,” Hitchcock said. “One gains a “sense of what’s going on country by country ... in terms of cinema right now.”
This season has been going particularly well. AFI sold twice as many passes to the festival as last year, according to Hitchcock.
Embassies around D.C. helped promote the event, Hitchcock said.
He noticed that there was a lot of turn out to films from the embassies wishing to see films from their own countries.
“Everyone knows D.C. has a large population from El Salvador,” Hitchcock said. “But there have also been large turnouts by the Bolivian, Colombian, Dominican and Brazilian populations in the D.C.-metro area.”
AFI Silver will continue to host international films with its AFI European Union Film Showcase this November. AFI Silver is also in the process of setting up film festivals for Korea, Africa and the Caribbean.
Admission to any film shown at the Latin American Film Festival is $9 with a valid student ID at the box office. AFI is two blocks north of the Silver Spring Metro stop on the red line. More information can be found at www.afi.com/silver/new/.
thescene@theeagleonline.com
