After seeing many online ads for the Latino Film Festival, I decided to organize a trip to NYC exclusively for the festival. As a venezuelan aspiring to work in the industry, I was curious and interested to see what kind of films Latinos around the world are producing. I thought this festival would showcase a wide range of good work from multiple nationalities. However, I was disappointed and surprised that most films they selected were produced or co-produced by Americans. For example, there wasn't a single feature film from Colombia, only a couple of shorts. Given the fact that Colombia has such an active film industry, this was the first bad sign of the festival.
I have to admit that I left NYC very disappointed. The people running the festival are just drilling and reiterating the stereotypes that follow us around the world. The organization of the festival was awful. I couldn't believe that there was more than an hour delay in the opening night. As it turns out, they were showing the same film in two theaters with half an hour difference. The funny thing is that they didn't have an extra copy of the DVD.......... How is that possible!!!! I was hopping that after this screening the other 4 films we had schedule would go smoothly and on time. Well, I was wrong. The next day, not only we had to wait an hour while they fixed technical issues, but the sound system was dreadfully laud, making it excruciating to sit through the bad short films we were watching. Ah, and lets not forget the very low picture quality. I think the filmmakers that attended the festival felt nauseous by seen their work projected so poorly. I'm in complete awe by the fact that the festival was sponsored by big names such as HBO and Heineken. They most have good connections I guess!..
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