AFI Film Festival Says ‘Bienvenidos!’ and ‘Bem-vindo!’
By • September 19, 2024 0 323
Opening tonight, Thursday, Sept. 19, the AFI Latin American Film Festival — held at the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center in Silver Spring, Maryland — “celebrates Ibero-American cultural connections” for three weeks during National Hispanic Heritage Month.
When in 1987 the Organization of American States launched the festival (then called the Americas Film Festival), films were screened at AFI’s theater at the Kennedy Center. The event relocated to Silver Spring when the AFI Silver opened in 2003.
“The size of the festival has more than doubled compared to the early days,” said AFI Silver Director Todd Hitchcock. “And the quality has never been better than it is today — both because the filmmaking industry across Latin America has evolved tremendously since the ’80s and ’90s and because AFI Silver programs are curated by a talented team of professionals.”
More than 40 feature films will be screened in Spanish, Portuguese and English (with English subtitles as needed) at this year’s festival, which boasts two Sundance Grand Jury Prize winners.
“In the Summers,” by Colombian American director Alessandra Lacorazza Samudio, looks in on four life-changing summers that two sisters spend with their father in Las Cruces, New Mexico (Sept. 22). “Sujo” written and directed by Astrid Rondero and Fernanda Valadez of Mexico, is a coming-of-age drama about a boy whose father was murdered by the cartel he served (Oct. 5 and 7).
Opening night will offer a screening of “La Cocina,” an adaptation of British playwright Arnold Wesker’s “The Kitchen”; a Q&A with filmmaker Alonso Ruizpalacios; and a post-screening reception sponsored by D.C.’s Mexican Cultural Institute. The closing-night film, on Thursday, Oct. 10, is “Pimpinero: Blood and Oil,” directed by Andrés Baiz of Colombia, about gasoline smugglers in the desert bordering Colombia and Venezuela.
Other post-screening receptions will be sponsored by the Embassy of Uruguay (Sept. 24), the Embassy of Portugal (Sept. 26), the Embassy of Colombia (Oct. 2), the Embassy of Argentina (Oct. 5) and the Embassy of Peru (Oct. 7).
Tickets to festival screenings are $15 (less for Silver Cinema Club members) and all-access passes are $200.
“Silver Spring and Montgomery County have proven to be a great location for this festival, conveniently reachable for a large portion of the interested audience,” said Hitchcock.
Also of note in the AFI Silver’s fall line-up: “Noir City DC: The Washington DC Film Noir Festival” (Oct. 11 to 24) and “Halloween on Screen” (Oct. 25 to 31).
Designed by John Eberson, the Silver Theatre opened in 1938 as a 1,100-seat motion picture palace. Rescued from demolition by Montgomery County and the American Film Institute, the building was restored and renovated to contain three theaters, seating 400, 200 and 75. The current facility is capable of projecting film formats from 16mm to 70mm and high-definition digital video. Also available: broadcast-quality video recording and distance-learning via satellite, fiber and the internet.
Born in 1875 in Czernowitz (now Chernivtsi in southwestern Ukraine), Eberson studied electrical engineering at the University of Vienna and emigrated in 1901 to the U.S., where he designed hundreds of theaters, along with several in Australia, in Mexico and elsewhere. Other than the Silver and the Bethesda, which also dates to 1938, his surviving works nearest to D.C. are: the 1927 Loew’s in Richmond, Virginia, now Dominion Energy Center (formerly Richmond CenterStage); and the Dixie in Staunton, Virginia, rebuilt by Eberson in 1936 after a fire. Closed for the past decade, the Dixie is now being renovated.
AFI Latin American Film Festival
Sept. 19 to Oct. 10
AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center
8633 Colesville Road
Silver Spring, Maryland
301-495-6700
