By Robert St. Martin
Los Angeles, CA (The Hollywood Times) 7/20/23 – Helping to close out 10 days of films at Outfest Los Angeles for 2023 will be a set of LatinX Shorts on Saturday, July 22, at 9:30 PM at the Directors Guild of America in West Hollywood. This program includes 8 short films, mostly in Spanish (with English subtitles) or in English (with Spanish subtitles). The range of these short films touches upon themes across the spectrum of LGBTQ+ experiences in the context of LatinX culture in the United States and Mexico.
Certainly, one of the most poignant is El Paisa (17 min), directed by Daniel Eduvijes Carrera with an original cumbia musical score by Silas Hite and Ricky Garay and fine cinematographic work by Smokey Nelson. We first meet a gay Goth skater Fernando (Christian Urbina) with lives with his widowed mother Ernesta (Rocio Lopéz) in East Los Angeles. He gets rescued from a gang-related incidence in an alleyway by a charismatic vaquero Carmelo (David Ty Reza) and that changes the way he sees himself and his relationship with his more traditional Mexican mother. Fernando’s decides that he will put an end to his relationship with a handsome closeted gangbanger named Angel (Eric Flores).
In Inés Unfortunately (12 min.), Anna Salinas tells the story of a heart-broken young Cuban American teenager girl named Inés (Brea Mascarro) who decides that she must end it all. But her perfectly planned suicide is interpreted by the ghost of her chatty Cuban neighbor Alma (Jessica Elena Easton).
Tucked in the series is Dear Uncle (5 min.), in which Marianne Amelinckx Labrador explores what happens when our parents’ wishes would exceed the limits of our identity. It revolves around a letter to her recently deceased uncle.
The program finds space for a 1-minute short by Oscar Alvarez –Órale (1 min.) which gives us a snapshot of a relationship all around a single word. This film was the Outfest Fusion 2023 One Minute Movie Contest Runner Up.
In Punk Is Punk (15 min.), Kimberly Bautista gives us a clever face-off the parents of a Mexican American teenager. A genderqueer punkrocker mom (Alejandra “Xoxikoyotl” Reyes) reluctantly agrees to organize a quinceañera for her daughter (Yaretzi Juarez-Reyes). This sets the stage for a nasty encounter with the girl’s estranged and very traditional father (Daniel E. Mora).
Tierra (15 min., in Spanish/Zapotec) is Fana Adjani’s exploration of ecofeminism in Oaxaca and the destruction of Indigenous gender identities. This peak of the loss of Oaxacan traditions and territory, as is reified through a sublime and sensual dance, to a score by Bomba Estéreo’s Simón Mejía.
The Ballad of Tita and the Machines (14 min.) is Miguel Angel Caballero’s venture in sci-fi. Here in the near-future where Artificial Intelligence is a societal norm, an injured and elderly fieldworker reluctantly hires a humanoid substitute worker to fill in for her. The cast includes Laura Patalano, Luis Antonio Aldana, Nico Greetham, Cheryl Umaña, Rocio Lopez, Rafael Cobos Delgado, and Geoffrey Rivas.
A very different theme is the basis of the documentary The Girl That Got Away (14 min.) – a short by Lauren Veen & Ephi Stempler about a Mexican American angel named Angel who had portrayed tough guys in movies for four decades. He reveals how he has navigated their gender identity at the risk of job security and family acceptance.
If you wish to see this fine set of short films and not able to make it to the DGA on Saturday, July 22, 9:30 PM, consider viewing them later via Outfest Streaming from July 24 through July 30. For tickets, go to: www.Outfest.org.