The Bronx Documentary Center, BDC, brings the third latin American Foto Festival from July 23rd through August 2nd which features large-scale photographs throughout the Melrose community by award-winning photographers from the Caribbean and Latin America.

The community will see works by artists from Colombia, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Venezuela, Chile and Argentina with photos from a variety of long-term projects focusing on social issues. As part of the Festival, the BDC will hold virtual workshops, tours, and panel discussions for the online and Bronx community, home to thousands of Latinx immigrants.

Two of the photographers in this year’s Festival celebrate the role and strength of Latin American women. Luisa Dörr will show her images of cowgirls and rodeo life in Brazil, while Adriana Parrilla‘s work explores the cultural roots of Afro-identity in Puerto Rico. Eric Allende, co-founder of Migrar Photo, a major photographic platform in Chile, photographs the recent uprising there. These images will be shown across the street from Luján Agusti’s documentation of Payasos de Coatepec, a project created in Veracruz, Mexico on religion, colonialism and culture.

An exhibition of Venezualan photography by Adriana Loureiro Fernández reflecting on the violence, poverty, and political upheaval there, will be projected nightly on the BDC’s back patio and Jorge Panchoaga‘s project on Colombia’s Nasa indigenous communities will be projected on the corner of 151st Street and Courtlandt Ave.

The 18-member COVID LATAM collective will show their work on the pervasive effects of COVID-19 in Latin America. The legendary Leo Goldstein’s photographs of Spanish Harlem from the 1950’s will be exhibited on the BDC’s fence; across the street, César Rodríguez’s black and white photos created in the mountains of Guerrero, Mexico will be displayed at the 151st Street community garden.

The Latin American Foto Festival’s outdoor display takes place in the BDC’s Melrose neighborhood, one of New York’s fastest growing and most dynamic communities. With installations along city sidewalks, school exteriors, and in community gardens, the Festival will be seen by thousands of residents each day. It is one of New York’s most exciting and important cultural displays of the year.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the indoor galleries will remain closed: this photo festival will be made up of outdoor banners and projections as well as the virtual component viewable at Bronxdoc.org.

Curated by Michael Kamber and Cynthia Rivera.

You can find the information here and the places where you can see the exhibition outdoors: https://www.bronxdoc.org/exhibits/3rd-annual-latin-american-foto-festival/detail

The 3rd Annual Latin American Foto Festival is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, the National Endowment for the Arts, Con Edison.

Ambulante Cine Documental Itinerante, as its original name suggests, usually tours around Mexico for two months and aims to bring film to those communities where film is not popular. Through the years, the festival has evolved and changed the way these communities see film as a form of art. Not only did people begin to show their interest in the films brought by Garcia and Luna, but children and young adults also expressed their inclination toward the process of filmmaking. 

The outcome of the interest shown by these people prompted García and Luna to create a program, where these young people could learn the craft of filmmaking and share it to the Mexican and foreign audiences through Ambulante.

Hence, for the ambitious festival funders, García and Luna, the idea of postponing the date of the celebration that ‘gives voice to the voiceless’ was simply unacceptable.

As an alternative, the organizers of the festival decided to continue with the program in an online format that made possible for film fans around the world to watch the documentaries. From April 29th to May 28th, at midnight, the festival released a documentary on their webpage to the general audience. To continue with the celebration of the film released, the organizers opened a virtual conversation the next day that included the filmmaker, the organizers, and the audience with the help of social media. 

It is worth noting that for the founders and everyone involved at Ambulante, it was essential that filmmakers, the press, and the audience continued to share their concerns, especially amidst these uncertain times. Postponing or shutting down the festival would have posited a disadvantage to those filmmakers who continue to make their voice heard through Cinema.

As García pointed out in the inaugural remote press conference of the festival:

 “Los documentales tocan los temas que son importantes y que tienen que ser hablados.” 

“Documentaries bring attention to themes that are important and that are worth talking about.”

Over the past few years, the festival not only became one of the most beloved events in Mexico, but it also became attractive to foreign audiences and toured the United States, El Salvador, and Colombia. 

This year, Ambulante Itinerant Documentary Cinema celebrated an unusual fifteen-anniversary that brought sixty-seven documentaries to the screen of millions of film fans around the globe. Twenty-five of those films were created by Mexican filmmakers and the other forty-two were made by filmmakers from all over the world.

With a diverse list of themes that included censorship, migration, and civil unrest in Mexico among many others, the festival continued to do what it first did in 2005- it made Cinema accessible.

For more information about the festival visit: https://www.ambulante.org/en/ or visit their social media profiles on Instagram (@ambulanteac), and on Twitter (@Ambulante). You can also follow the hashtag #ambulantegiracontigo on both platforms.

La sexta edición del Colombian Film Festival llegó a la Gran Manzana con una apertura emocionante en el teatro Cinépolis en Chelsea. En La Escena y My LifeStyle Magazine se unieron para celebrar con todos los asistentes el evento de cine colombiano más importante en el exterior. Los directores, productores, actores e invitados caminaron por la alfombra roja, adornada con pétalos de rosas rojas, para compartir con los asistentes el comienzo de una experiencia cinematográfica llena de emociones. El festival trajo más  de 30 películas que fueron proyectadas por 3 días.

El documental Ciro & Yo del director Miguel Salazar fue el encargado de abrir el festival, una película  que logró sacar lágrimas al público y recordar a través de la historia de Ciro la propia historia de Colombia. Fue un momento emocionante para los asistentes y una manera única de comenzar un evento que con el esfuerzo de su fundador y director, Juan Carvajal, y la productora general, Ivonne Torres, ha logrado llegar al corazón de cientos de personas. Por eso, la audiencia fue el principal patrocinador en esta edición, quienes siempre han llenado las salas y han apoyado este puente cultural.

Los filmes ganadores de esta versión fueron el documental Señorita María, la falda de la montaña del director Rubén Mendoza, la película de ficción Bad lucky Goat de Samir Oliveros, el cortometraje Damiana de Andrés Ramírez Pulido y La Casa en el árbol de  Juan Sebastián Quebrada.

Fotos tomadas por Felipe Tehuitzil