Sydney Latin American Film Festival

Overview

Latin America produces good film. The documentary The Forgotten Tree, from Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal's travelling Ambulante Film Festival, revisits the slums of famous director Luis Bunuel's masterpiece Los Olvidados, Mexico's equivalent to Bicycle Thieves. Optical Illusions shows the world of a man whose sight is being slowly restored, while Eyes Wide Open explores Latin America through the prism of the book Hugo Chavez gave to Barack Obama, The Open Veins of Latin America. And all of them are screening at the fifth Sydney Latin American Film Festival.

Running at a record four venues this year — the Dendy Opera Quays, Mu Meson Archives, Macquarie University and the Casula Powerhouse — the festival is run by volunteers, and its proceeds go to community development projects around Latin America. The party for opening night has tango and the rough espanol of Watussi. For the inner-city closing night, the pulsing, colonnaded atrium of the Dendy will become a venue for mariachis accompanying the multithreaded Mexican film Chilango Chronicles. Good films, good causes — they know about it in Mexico, you should too.