As we kick off Hispanic Heritage Month, a new report from the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative spotlights the ongoing absence of Hispanic and Latino representation in the film industry.
According to the report, "only 3 Hispanic/Latina women worked as directors across [a span of] 13 years."
3...!!
"5.9% of all speaking or named characters in 2019 were Hispanic/Latinos of any race.
There has been no change over time in the prevalence of Hispanic/Latino speaking characters.
Only 5% of all 51,158 characters identified across the full 1,300 film sample were Hispanic/Latino."
And these are just some of the highlights.
Read more about the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative HERE
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In addition, here is a non-exhaustive watch list for you to continue to celebrate the month while consuming some 'on-brand' content ie. by supporting some members of our Latinx & Hispanic creative community here at Film Fatales:
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A Dark Foe by Maria Gabriela Cardenas
A guilt-ridden FBI agent, stranded in the painful memory of the abduction of his sister, suffers from a rare condition known as Nyctophobia, an irrational fear of the dark, and will have to face off with the cunning serial killer who took her away.
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Aguilas by Kristy Guevara-Flanagan
The film documents the Aguilas del Desierto volunteers as they set out along the southern desert border of Arizona to recover missing loved ones. Once a month these volunt
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Angelica by Marisol Gomez-Mouakad
This is the story of a young woman who returns after a long absence from Puerto Rico when her father, Wilfredo, suffers a stroke.
This forced return and her father's illness forces Angelica to re-evaluate her relationship with her mother and family members, who don't accept her because of her skin color. Furthermore, she does not like herself. All this will force her to face herself and discover that she does not know who she is.
After her father's death, Angelica must decide whether to return to the comfort of her previous life, dissatisfied but secure, or set on an adventurous path to rediscover herself as an independent, modern, strong, mulatto, and Puerto Rican woman in a globalized world.
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Birth Wars by Janet Jarman
Told through deeply personal stories in the trenches of the healthcare sector, this story chronicles a power struggle between doctors and midwives in Mexico about whose vision of childbirth should prevail. The film takes viewers on a journey into two worlds riven by prejudices and antagonism and explores how building bridges between these worlds could help save lives.
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Bride+1 by Christina Morales Hemenway
A hilarious rom-com about a Latina who races against her biological clock by throwing her own wedding-- now all she needs to do is manifest a groom!
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Extase by Moara Passoni
An elliptical portrait of a young girl experiencing both rapture and torture starving herself as a way to find a place in a brutal uncertain world.
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Extra Terrestres by Carla Cavina
A family, 100,000 chickens with a death sentence, a secret that will unveil all family secrets, and a star 2,500 million light years away that will make them understand that we all are metaphorically ExtraTerrestrials.
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Fandango at the Wall by Varda Bar-Kar
Follows Multi Grammy Award winners Arturo O'Farrill and Kabir Sehgal, as they prepare to record a live album at the U.S.-Mexico border wall. The project is inspired by the annual Fandango Fronterizo Festival, which unites people on both sides of the Tijuana-San Diego border.
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Foreign Puzzle by Chithra Jeyaram
This documentary is the story of Sharon Marroquin a Mexican American dancer. In this intimate film, her struggle to come to terms with uncertainty and impermanence is examined in heartbreaking clarity through dance while juggling the roles of a recently divorced parent of a 6-year-old, a choreographer, and a primary school teacher amidst intensive treatments for breast cancer.
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Fruits of Labor by Emily Cohen Ibañez
Ashley, a Mexican-American teenager living in California, dreams of graduating high school and going to college. But when ICE raids threaten her family, Ashley is forced to become the breadwinner, working days in the strawberry fields and nights at a food processing company.
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A dark comedy about three chicks trying to get rid of a corpse.
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Our Quinceañera by Fanny Grande
An uplifting, award-winning documentary. A high school principal in a Texas town hosts a yearly Quinceañera for underprivileged students. The entire border town gets together to teach these girls that with the power of community any dream can come true. Alongside favorites like: Selena, Coco, Instructions not Included, Under the same Moon, and Science Fair - a documentary for the whole family.
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While working at her aunt's flower shop, ROSA takes her job underground when she begins a side business of shipping undocumented bodies to their home countries for burial, starring Jackie Cruz (Orange is the new black) as Rosa.
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Same/Different/Both/Neither by Adriana (Chica) Barbosa
Fernanda is a Brazilian living in São Paulo, Adriana is a Mexican-Brazilian living in Los Angeles. In a period of isolation, far away from each other, they both reconnect through video-letters, inspired by the poetic gaze of women experimental filmmakers like Marie Menken, Joyce Wieland, Gunvor Nelson and Yvonne Rainer.
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Along the Peruvian Andes a network of encoded messages is woven into every hat. This is a story of how wool and straw become forms of communication and resistance.
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The story of a secret code created by and shared among young lesbians in 1970s & 80s Albuquerque, New Mexico as a means of self-identification and finding community.
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What We Leave Behind by Iliana Sosa
After filmmaker Iliana Sosa's grandfather, Julián, is told that he can no longer travel to the U.S. to visit family, he begins building a new house in his rural Mexican hometown that he says will be for the whole family once he's gone. The film follows Julián in the twilight of his life, as his granddaughter pieces together how their transnational family has built and rebuilt their home over decades of separation.
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Finding Gaston by Julia Perez
Can a chef change a country? A tour of Peruvian gastronomy on the heels of chef Gaston Acurio in his quest to use cuisine as a catalyst for change in his country. Stories, dreams and flavours from a country caught up day to day in the power of cuisine.
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After Spring by Ellen Martinez
Two filmmakers witness the Syrian refugee crisis by following two families in transition and aid workers fighting to keep the camp running. With the Syrian conflict entering its sixth year, millions of people continue to be displaced.
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