10th Anniversary SF Latino Film Festival Kicks Off Friday!

Cine+Mas SF is proud to announce the 10th anniversary of the San Francisco Latino Film Festival, opening September 14th through the 30th at various locations throughout SF and the Bay Area. The SFLFF program includes award winning and critically acclaimed documentary, feature and short films from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Peru, Spain, Uruguay and the USA. Local and visiting filmmakers from around the country and Latin America will be in attendance.

The festival will open again at the Alamo Drafthouse in San Francisco's Mission District. Additional venues include the Roxie Theater (SF); Roxie Cinema (SF); Brava Cabaret (SF); Eastside Cultural Center (Oakland), Centro Cultural (Berkeley). Additional venues/dates to be announced.

SFLFF opens this edition of the festival with Ruben Blades Is Not My Name, Bay Area premiere, directed by Abner Benaim. Latin American icon Ruben Blades was at the center of the New York Salsa revolution in the 1970s. His socially charged lyrics and explosive rhythms brought Salsa music to an international audience. Blades has won 17 Grammys, acted in Hollywood, earned a law degree from Harvard and even ran for President of his native Panama. He lives in New York, where he shares his life at home and on tour with the camera. Critically acclaimed director Abner Benaim takes us on a journey through Ruben's 50 year career, revealing that Ruben might still have both musical and political ambitions. The film is a celebration of this living legend and his struggle to come to terms with his legacy.

This year's festival features twenty-five feature length fiction films, and nearly films in total. A sample of feature films includes: Lucas como Sara (Cuba), dir. Day Garcia. In Habana, Cuba, Lucas has a psychedelic trip back into the 80's after digesting the ashes of his mother. Lucas como Sara (Lucas as Sara) is Garcia's debut feature film. Day Garcia is the 5th female in Cuban history to ever have made a feature film.; Local film, Love Cecy (USA/Richmond) dir. Jay Francisco Lopez. Ripped from the headlines, Love Cecy takes audiences back to the cholo, free-style culture of 1990s Richmond, California as it retells the story of 15 year old Cecilia Rios; music documentary, Indestructible: The Soul of Salsa (Spain) dir. David Pareja. Seen through the eyes of el Cigala, this beautifully bewitching musical odyssey takes us from Madrid to various places all over the Americas IN SEARCH OF the sundry sources of that divine tradition we call salsa. A homage to the history of the musical culture and to his wife, Amparo, (who died of breast cancer in August 2015). It was Amparo, the dancer's wife, who flooded him with enthusiasm to embark on this new adventure. Amparo is more present than ever in the Cuban rhythms and in the hearts of who have believed, like Diego, that salsa is a "gift for everyone, not just for Latinos ". Films of Resistance play prominently in the festival, notably, 1950: The Nationalist Uprising, dir. José Manuel Dávila Marichal. Five Puerto Ricans who participated in the Nationalist Uprising of 1950 to free Puerto Rico from the United States of America, speaks about the history of this forgotten struggle and the consequences in their lives.

The festival includes a full array of shorts with several local filmmakers including Encuentros (USA/San Francisco) dir. Naomi Garcia Pasmanick. Created by San Francisco natives in the watery edges of a city that is rapidly changing, this film intends to capture an intimate moment-the brief yet profound spiritual connection between two strangers-- as well as this unique moment in an industrial San Francisco setting that is rapidly being developed. Just like the ever-changing water's edge, Encuentros asks us to appreciate the beauty of an instant as well as the necessity of letting it go.

The SFLFF will close out with a fun mockumentary, Get the Weed (Uruguay) dir's. Denny Brechner, Alfonso Guerrero. Their first feature film -- a fake "Uruguayan Chamber of Legal Marijuana" travels to the United States to find 50 tons of cannabis to supply the country. President Jose Mujica is the leader of the mission. Hilarious while also subversively poignant mockumentary Get the Weed comes from Uruguay, the South American country that actually legalized weed years ago (true story) but then didn't have enough of it to give out (also true story). So their farmer rebel-turned-president (who willingly stars in this film, true story) enlists two of his comrades to go get some from the United States (not true story). SFLFF 10 is pleased to welcome several sponsors back including: KQED, KPFA 94.1FM, KPIX, CBS 5, SFStation, KBCW, the Alamo Drafthouse, the Roxie Theater, Brava Theater, XFINITY, Toyota and MDT Agency.

Companies or individuals interested in supporting as sponsors or volunteers are encouraged to contact us at 415-754-9580 or cinemassf (at) gmail (dot) com.

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