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Keeping the Community Alive: Boston's First Latinx LGBTQ Film Festival

With constant efforts to expand the arts and infuse diversity into the various neighborhoods of Boston, we have partnered with The Theater Offensive to highlight the Latino LGBT community and present Boston’s first Latinx LGBTQ Film Festival. “I’m very excited about this collaboration with IBA and The Theater Offensive; there’s a lot of potential for what we can do together,” said Josean Ortiz, the community program’s manager of The Theater Offensive, whose mission is to present the diversity of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender lives in art so bold it breaks through personal isolation, challenges the status quo and builds thriving communities. Taking place every Thursday in September, the films being presented highlight the diverse lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) Latinx people. Latinx, a gender-neutral term, describes how the various films encompass a wide range of identities and experiences: from friendships and activism among transgender people in Puerto Rico, to love between gay men in Caracas, Venezuela, to a gay Latina in Los Angeles in mourning for her late lover. The series is presented as part of the OUT in Your Neighborhood or OUT’Hood program and focuses in Roxbury, Dorchester, Jamaica Plain, and the South End. Ortiz said, “The OUT’Hood series is like the new baby of the theater offensive. The main purpose is to bring to those neighborhoods queer experiences in terms of art, theater, bands, workshops, literature… any kind of queer expression for the queer community, Latina community, and people of color.” The festival includes award-winning films Mala Mala and Desde Alla but also introduces some new films to the Boston community. Mala Mala, winner of the Audience Award for Documentaries at the Tribeca Film Festival, explores the lives of people who defy typical gender identities. Desde Alla, winner of the Venice Film Festival’s Golden Lion Award, takes an unvarnished look at issues of class, violence, and homophobia. Ortiz expressed his happiness for the film’s they curated for the festival, “This is the first time the theater offensive is working with a film series but we were able to include a variety of countries [Puerto Rico, Cuba, the U.S., Argentina, Mexico, Colombia, and Venezuela] and representation across the spectrum of the LGBTQ community.” Ortiz also revealed the festival will have visits from at least 2 of the directors and include “a surprise theatrical component.” “As the Latino Community moves, changes, and integrates with the various communities and ethnic groups of Boston, it’s important to keep the community alive and active, especially through working in the arts in the things that are important for us to say, show, or represent us as Latinos,” Ortiz said. This organization is enhancing the arts across the communities of Boston and we couldn’t be more excited to host them at our Villa Victoria Center for the Arts (VVCA). For more information on each film and tickets for the Latinx LGBT Film Festival click here....