LASA Film Festival Selections
Featured at the Latin American Studies Association (LASA) Film Festival, this collection of films contributes to critical discussions on the region's identity and realities, making them essential viewing for audiences interested in thought-provoking cinema with global resonance.
The Latin American Studies Association (LASA) Film Festival is a distinguished event that celebrates the richness and diversity of Latin American cinema. Held alongside LASA's annual congress, the festival serves as a platform for education and social action, connecting filmmakers, scholars, and audiences worldwide.
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The LASA Film Festival Selections collection includes the following titles:
Exploiting Eden, Île-à-Vache
Explotando el edén, Île-à-Vache
Documentary
Haiti, Spain
The Haitian government makes a tourist destination out of the unspoiled beach of Île-à-Vache. Great for prosperity. A nightmare for local islanders.
The Trial
El juicio
Documentary
Argentina, Italy, France, Norway
A tour de force of political filmmaking; a chilling record of the trial of nine representatives of Argentina’s military dictatorship for unlawful detention, torture, and murder.
Valentina or the Serenity
Valentina o la serenidad
Drama, Fiction
Mexico
Young Valentina uses all her might to believe that her father is still alive. This poignant tale of loss is uplifted by the joyous nature of love.
100 Ways to Cross the Border
Documentary
United States, Mexico
A celebration of performance artist Gómez-Peña and the contributions his radical, anti-colonial art has made to conversations around border thinking, gender politics, and Latinx identity.
Home Is Somewhere Else
Mi casa está en otra parte
Documentary, Animation
Mexico, United States
Recommended by Alejandro González Iñárritu, this multi-award-winning animated story offers an intimate window into the hearts and minds of immigrant Latin youth. A powerful reminder of how the color of your passport determines your life.
Blooming on the Asphalt
Germinio pétalas no asfalto
Documentary
Brazil
A vibrant and inspiring documentary that captures the resilience and strength of queer Brazilian youth.
Marea Verde: The Road to the Law
Marea Vernde
Documentary
Argentina, Colombia
Mothers, grandmothers, sisters, friends, workers, lesbians, transsexuals, and others unite in the fight for legal, safe, free abortion in Argentina.
Martírio
Documentary
Brazil
Filmed over the course of 40 years, indigenous expert and filmmaker Vincent Carelli seeks out the origins of the Guaraní Kaiowá genocide. A conflict of disproportionate forces: the peaceful and obstinate insurgency of the dispossessed Guaraní Kaiowá against the powerful apparatus of agribusiness.
Mother Plant
Madre Planta
Documentary
Argentina
A collective of mothers fights for the legalization of cannabis oil, driving change while advocating for health, in this portrait of resistance.
Neighborhood Cinemas
Cines de video
Documentary
Peru
Elder Peruvian cinema workers screen a movie in which they are the protagonists, sharing intimate tales from their past in old theaters.
Nudo Mixteco
Nudo mixteco
Drama, Fiction
Mexico
A quietly powerful triptych of stories that speak about the impact of migration and the plight of indigenous women in a rural Mixtec village in Oaxaca.
Persistent Woman
Mujer perseverante
Documentary
Argentina
In 1994, the people of the northern Argentina were left without work when mines closed. There, a kolla woman creates an organization of weaving women.
Silent Witnesses
Mudos testigos
Experimental, Drama, Documentary, Romance
Colombia, France
An imaginary trek through the history of Colombia (and its cinema) during the first half of the 20th century, using footage of Colombian silent film.
Swing and Sway
Vai e vem
Documentary, Experimental
United States, Brazil
Against the backdrop of a tumultuous 2020 marked by pandemics, elections, and social upheavals, the two friends embark on a thought-provoking exploration of feminist cinematic expression and the female experience.
The Awakening of the Ants
El despertar de las hormigas
Drama, Fiction
Costa Rica, Spain
Isa finds herself suffocated by rigid gender roles and the cloistered, provincial thinking of a Costa Rican seaside village. She desperately imagines some other way of living.
The Film Justifies the Means
El film justifica los medios
Documentary
Colombia
Inside our editing rooms are images by filmmakers revealing a country in conflict. Five decades later we see a memory that refuses to disappear.
The Journey of Monalisa
Documentary
Chile, United States
Chilean-born performer and writer Iván Monalisa fully embraces his / her dual selves: scrappy, masculine Iván as well as diva, transvestite sex-worker Monalisa.
The Padilla Affair
El Caso Padilla
Documentary
Spain, Cuba
La Habana, 1971: poet Heberto Padilla has just been released from prison and “self-confides” as a counter-revolutionary before the writer’s guild, marking a before and after in the Cuban regime.
The Sky Is Red
El cielo está rojo
Documentary
Chile
In 2010, 81 inmates died in a huge fire at the San Miguel prison in Chile’s capital city, Santiago. Justice remains elusive as the trial fails to assign blame. With full access to the judicial files, this reconstruction sheds light on the utter failure of the prison administration, which housed twice as many prisoners as allowed.
The Spark in the Meadow
La chispa en la pradera
Documentary
Chile
Sofia Brito’s sexual harassment by a professor sparked a feminist movement in Chilean universities where students protested gender-based violence.
The Wind Blows the Border
Venta na fronteira
Documentary
Brazil
On the violent border between Brazil and Paraguay, a battle wages between agribusiness and indigenous sovereignty.