Children played beneath colorful banners and posters as about 100 people of all ages spoke in Spanish and English at the Harn Museum of Art Thursday for the opening of the 22nd Gainesville Latino Film Festival.
The film “Una canción para mi tierra” kicks off more than two weeks of scheduled films and cultural events centered around the theme “Voices of Our Land.” The festival will host different films until Sept. 27 with a schedule on its website.
The festival has grown in scale over the last two decades with the rapid growth in Alachua County’s Latino population, which has more than doubled in the last decade according to U.S. Census data.
Ericka Ghersi, the president of the Gainesville Latina Women’s League, said native Spanish speakers living in the area desire to keep in touch with art in their countries. The festival aims to bring these films to local residents and to show the diversity among different Latino cultures, she said.
The festival’s theme is more personal this year. At first, the goal of the festival was to “show the community about Latin American cultures,” said Ghersi. But this year’s theme is meant to showcase films addressing a variety of issues in Latin America, whether it’s environmental conservation or human rights.
“I think it’s very important to let the community know that they have a voice, and that their voice is powerful,” Ghersi said.
The opening film reflected this year’s theme, depicting the true story of Ramiro Lezcano, a music teacher in rural Argentina, where agrochemicals are being sprayed near schools and putting students’ health at risk.
To help the children express their concerns, Lezcano begins writing songs with them about the issue and other environmental problems.
Following the screening, the film’s director, Mauricio Albornoz Iniesta, said during a Q&A via remote video that the project “gave the children a way to voice what they thought through music.” To the surprise of both Lezcano and Albornoz Iniesta, the project grew progressively bigger, resulting in a concert that united the community and famous Argentinian musicians, including Léon Gieco and Lito Vitale.
“They thought it was just going to be the kids singing to the parents and the little community in the plaza,” Albornoz Iniesta said through an interpreter. “But they saw the movement become bigger and bigger.”
The Gainesville Latino Film Festival began with a small group of women who, at the time, were able to travel back and forth to their home countries, Ghersi said. The women wanted to showcase their cultures and diversity to a public that wasn’t always familiar with their background. Ghersi pointed to some Latino cultures being mixed up or grouped with others.
“For an American, we are from Mexico,” Ghersi said.
The festival was sponsored by VisitGainesville and Gainesville Community Reinvestment Area, at a time when local cities and counties across the state face cuts to its arts budgets. Ghersi said funding cuts have prompted the organization to host fundraisers and bingo nights to cover the festival’s costs.
Aside from the films, the event also includes and art exhibition of work by Latino artists, which Ghersi said was “revolutionary” since there isn’t typically a place in Gainesville “for Latinos to hang their art.”
The Gainesville Latino Film Festival will continue through Sept. 27, when it will conclude with a screening of “La Pecera” at Cypress & Grove.