By Cesar Arredondo
Movies about a pair of estranged twin sisters, an ailing horse jockey, a traumatized monarch butterfly scientist, and a deaf family are among those with Latino actors in prominent roles in the lineup of the 2021 Sundance Film Festival. The program also includes films from Mexico, Spain, Argentina, and Brazil, and a documentary about actress Rita Moreno.
Unsurprisingly, as most fests since the beginning of the pandemic earlier this year, Sundance will go virtual but also offer in-person screenings in about 30 cities across the United States “public health permitting,” organizers have announced. The 2021 edition offers a slimmed-down film selection program with over 70 features and 50 shorts compared to the 2020 festival. (The previous fest presented 118 features and 74 shorts in 2020. That means about a third fewer films this year. Episodic series were cut from eight to four.)
Eugenio Derbez appears in CODA by Siân Heder (Photo: Mark Hill/ Sundance Institute)
Standing out in this year’s festival lineup are several films by and about Latinos and featuring Latino talent.
EUGENIO DERBEZ IN CODA Opening the festival will be CODA, a drama about a teenager who is the only hearing member of a deaf family, loves music, and is torn between family and college dreams away from home. CODA, which stands for child of deaf adults, is directed by Siân Heder, who was determined to feature real deaf actors in her film. The drama stars Emilia Jones as 17-year-old Ruby, Marlee Matlin and Troy Kotsur as her parents, and Daniel Durant as her brother. Mexican actor Eugenio Derbez (Instructions Not Included, Dora and the Lost City of Gold) plays Emilia’s encouraging choirmaster Bernardo Villalobos.
Jockey stars Mexican-American actor Clifton Collins (Capote, Star Trek) playing a seasoned horse jockey facing deteriorating health and the surprising arrival of a young jockey who claims to be his son. This latter role is played by Colombian-American actor Moises Arias (Hannah Montana, Ender’s Game).
Cuban-American sister actresses Alessandra and Anu Messa play identical twins in Superior, meeting again after many years of leading opposite lives. Directed by Erin Vassilopoulos, the feature is a continuation of a Sundance 2015 short with the same title, by the same filmmaker that also featured the Messa sisters.
BUTTERFLIES & PERSONAL TRAUMA The Mexico-USA co-production Hijo de Monarcas (Son of Monarchs), tells the story of a New York-based lepidopterist who, upon his grandmother’s death, returns to his natal Mexican town nestled in the monarch butterfly forests of the state of Michoacan. Directed by French-Venezuelan filmmaker and biologist Alexis Gambis (The Color of Time), the drama stars Tenoch Huerta Mejía (Narcos: Mexico, Tigers Are Not Afraid). The film won the Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize for portraying scientists in major roles.
Tenoch Huerta Mejía is a butterfly scientist in Son of Monarchs (Photo: Imaginal Disc and Labocine)
In addition to Son of Monarchs, Mexico has another two films at Sundance. Users a documentary about a mother who feels she is competing with computers, electronic cribs, and other technologies in raising her son. The US-Mexico co-production is directed by Natalia Almada (El Velador, Todo lo Demás). Also the short El Sueño Más Largo Que Recuerdo (The Longest Dream I Remember) which centers on a woman who leaves her hometown to search for her disappeared father. The drama is directed by Carlos Lenin.
The documentary Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go For It (Photo: Mariem Pérez Riera)
Puerto-Rican actress Rita Moreno, who just turned 89 years old, is the subject of the documentary Rita Moreno: The Girl Who Decided to Go For It by director Mariem Perez Riera. The film explores Moreno’s life from her childhood in the Island of Enchantment to her life in New York and covers her accomplishments as an EGOT artist—one of a few who have won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony awards.
YOUTHS IN LAW ENFORCEMENT Another documentary, At The Ready, follows a group of high school students in El Paso who aspire to work in law enforcement and immigration. The Mexican-American youths join a criminal justice club and discover the complexities of careers, personal values, family, and community. The film is directed by Maisie Crow.
FROM ARGENTINA, SPAIN & COLOMBIA There are also several films from other Latin American and Spanish-speaking countries.
Argentina’s El Perro Que No Calla (The Dog Who Wouldn’t Be Quiet) tells the story of a man who faces neighbors complaining about his dog’s barking and employers forbidding pets at work. Shot in black-and-white, the feature is directed by Ana Katz, who competed at Sundance back in 2016 with Mi Amiga del Parque (My Friend From the Park), winning the screenwriting award in world cinema dramatic competition.
Representing Spain is El Planeta (The Planet), a comedy about a broke mother-daughter duo that tries to live the good life on credit, lies, and ingenious shopping that involves makeup sampling at the mall and buying returnable items. It is directed by Amalia Ulman.
In the shorts category, Colombia competes with the futuristic Yoruga in which a lonely old man pays a visit to Yoruga, one of the last animals on Earth; while Brazil’s Unliveable tells the story of a mother who searches for her missing daughter Roberta, a trans woman.
4 Feet High (Photo: Natalia Roca)
MIXING LIVE ACTION & ANIMATION There is a Latin American episodic series that stands out at Sundance 2021. Argentina’s 4 Feet High is a mix of live-action and animation that tells the story of Juana, a spunky 17-year-old in a wheelchair who explores her sexuality but is ashamed of her body. The six-episode series deals with school life, friendship, fear, failure, and politics. Rosario Perazolo, who is wheelchair-bound, and María Belén Poncio co-wrote and co-directed 4 Feet High.
Other Sundance films featuring Latino talent include the racial drama Passing, starring Tessa Thompson (Creed, Man in Black: International) and the rom-com Together Together, starring Julio Torres (Los Espookys) who has written for Saturday Night Live in recent years.
In addition to the virtual screenings, Sundance will also show films in many venues scattered throughout the country, from arthouse cinemas and drive-ins to pop-up movie theaters. These include the parking lot of the Rosebowl Stadium in Pasadena, California, a museum in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and one movie theatre in Park City, Utah—the ski resort that has been the festival’s home since 1981. The online film screening program is available on the festival website, but physical movie screenings details are yet to be posted.
Other cities with in-person screenings include Austin, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Honolulu, Key West, New Orleans, and Tucson.
Considered the preeminent independent film fest of the U.S., and one of the most important in the world, the Sundance Film Festival is organized by the nonprofit Sundance Institute.
Robert Redford at a Sundance event (Photo: Sundance Institute)
Festival organizers acknowledge the challenges facing the fest during the current pandemic.
“Togetherness has been an animating principle here at the Sundance Institute as we’ve worked to reimagine the Festival for 2021, because there is no Sundance without our community,” says actor and filmmaker Robert Redford, who is the Sundance Institute founder and president. But as the coronavirus epidemic has limited public gatherings, Redford explains that fest organizers had to make “room for imaginative new possibilities in a new online format.”
“Of course, the pandemic year demanded adaptation,” says Keri Putnam, Sundance Institute’s executive director. “On a deeper level, we also recognize the urgency of supporting independent storytellers at a time of great upheaval in the film and media fields.” She described the upcoming fest edition as “fiercely independent” and able to “reach people everywhere” via its new streaming platform.
For tickets, passes, and more information, visit https://festival.sundance.org. Top Featured Photo: Adolpho Veloso/Courtesy of Sundance Institute
Check out the video below of what Sundance has been and who have been at the fest in recent years.
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