Seattle Latino Film Festival 2013

This Friday kicks off the Seattle Latino Film Festival which starts at SIFF's Uptown Cinema, travels to the local classic Grand Illusion theater and then on to AMC Pacific Place for closing night. The full list of tickets available and links to where to buy them is online along with trailers for each picture. Just look for the "purchase tickets" link - unfortunately due to the SLFF site's design I cannot seem to point you directly at the buyable goods. Passes are also available and for $40 ($50 including parties) that seems like an utter steal.

The list of films looks pretty impressive, blending some lighter fun fare with more serious topics and several fascinating looking documentaries.Opening night and closing nights includes a party with the festival - which sounds like it'll be a lot of fun.

Unfortunately I haven't seen any of the films yet so cannot make any specific based on personal knowledge recommendations. But then again the fact that I haven't seen any of their films and they all seem pretty intriguing bodes well. Oops, actually on a second look I have seen the 2006 Jennifer Lopez / Marc Anthony biopic about Hector Lavoe. It's not really terrific from what I recall, but seeing it with an audience with the director attending for Q&A might be worth it if you're in the Tacoma area.

Some random choices that caught my eye are below. I'm hoping to check out some of the films over the next week - hope others pick up the opportunity to support this local festival as well.

Sagrada - The Mystery of Creation - a documentary about an architectural project in Barcelona that's been running since the late 1800's and is rocking a 7.4 rating on IMDb (admittedly with only a smattering of votes).



The Gold Brooch - retirement home breakout flick, how can one go wrong. Ok, Ok ... lots of ways - but isn't it worth the risk?



I'm Better than You - "Cristobal wanders around Santiago searching for a woman to help him rebuild his shattered ego. After a pathetic night filled with failures, during which he is unable to forget his conflict, the time to choose comes: it’s either his family or his ego." I'm always up for a night of wandering filled with failures. Even if that does sound a bit too close to home as I read it again.



Cement Suitcase - the closing night film is described as "Franklin, the best wine salesman in the Yakima Valley, hates his life. His girlfriend is cheating on him, and he doesn’t even have the self-respect to tell her that he knows. When he meets the “other guy”, who turns out to be a terrific person, he decides it’s time to let go of some baggage." Yep ... I think they had me at "best wine salesman in the Yakima valley.


Cement Suitcase Trailer from Psychic Bunny on Vimeo.