First Hispanic Heritage Film Festival Offers Five Films Starting Sept. 16

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FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The University of Arkansas celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month 2015 with the first campus Spanish language film festival.

The Hispanic Heritage Month Committee, in collaboration with La Oficina Latina and Cine Club will present five award-winning films from the Spanish-speaking world. Cine Club is the film lecture series sponsored by the Department of World Languages, Literatures and Cultures’ Spanish-language.

All five films are free and the public is welcome.

The Festival begins Wednesday, Sept. 16 with a special kick-off event to open Hispanic Heritage Month activities.  

The films in the film festival are:

• 6 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 16, Giffels Auditorium : Paradise (Paraíso), Sept. 16, a heart-warming comedy romance from Mexico about rediscovering yourself and realizing true beauty comes from within. Directed by Mariana Chenillo.
•  6 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 22, Arkansas Union Theater: Who is Dayani Cristal? (¿Quién es Dayani Cristal?). A documentary directed by Marc Silver and Gael Garcia Bernal, who embed themselves among migrant travelers near the U.S. border, gaining rare insight into the human stories beyond the immigration debate.
• 6 p.m. Tuesday, Sept 29, Arkansas Union Theater: Southern District (Zona Sur). A Bolivian drama that tells the story of the final days of an upper-class family, at a time when the country is undergoing social changes. Directed by Juan Carlos Valdivia.
• 6 p.m. Thursday, Oct 1, Giffels Auditorium: With My Heart in Yambo (Con mi corazón en Yambo). A documentary from Ecuador, written and directed by María Fernanda Restrepo, that documents the abduction of Restrepo's two brothers in 1988.
• 6 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 6, Arkansas Union Theater: Land Without Evil (Yvy Maraey). Also directed by Juan Carlos Valdivia, this Bolivian film travels from the highlands of La Paz to the swamps and forests where the indigenous Guarani culture still exists.

The Hispanic Heritage Month Film Festival is part of an effort to increase awareness of these issues raised in these films, to promote activism and to highlight the importance of Nobel Prize winner Rigoberta Menchú’s visit to campus.

The films are shown free of charge thanks to generous support from Pragda, SPAIN arts & culture, the Secretary of State for Culture of Spain and the Hispanic Heritage Month Committee. For more information about the films and to view trailers, visit: http://www.pragda.com/spanishfilmclub/films.

This film festival has been made possible by a competitive grant awarded to the University of Arkansas, among a few other prestigious universities in the United States, by Pragda, SPAIN arts & culture and the Secretary of State for Culture of Spain.

About the University of Arkansas: The University of Arkansas provides an internationally competitive education for undergraduate and graduate students in more than 200 academic programs. The university contributes new knowledge, economic development, basic and applied research, and creative activity while also providing service to academic and professional disciplines. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the University of Arkansas among only 2 percent of universities in America that have the highest level of research activity. U.S. News & World Report ranks the University of Arkansas among its top American public research universities. Founded in 1871, the University of Arkansas comprises 10 colleges and schools and maintains a low student-to-faculty ratio that promotes personal attention and close mentoring.