Film Fest Brings Latin American Directors To Town

Latin American filmmakers come to town for LIFFY. From left to right: Juan Gomez, Carlos Barba Salva, Luis Alberto García, Deyma D’Atri, and Jean Jean.

Friday, November 17, 2017 - 

After decades of cool antagonism, the United States restores full diplomatic relations with Cuba, and a New Yorker returns to the island nation of her birth to look after her ailing father.

Cut to four men playing dominos as they speculate on the political future of Cuba. Or to the story of the first transgender woman to be elected to Venezuela’s National Assembly. Or to the challenges faced by a Haitian woman who has lived in the Dominican Republic for 30 years, but still falls between the cracks as a “non-resident.”

These are just a few of the stories on display this weekend at the Latino and Iberian Film Festival at Yale (LIFFY), an annual celebration of contemporary Spanish and Portuguese-language cinema that takes place in downtown New Haven, at the Whitney Humanities Center at 53 Wall St.

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Love Of Country Hits The Screen

April 20, 2016 - When the widow of Cuban filmmaker Tomás Gutiérrez Alea reached out to Margherita Tortora, senior lecturer in Spanish at Yale, to ask if she would consider a celebration of her late husband’s work on the 20th anniversary of his death, Tortora jumped at the opportunity. She knew that she had limited resources to put on a film festival, but that hadn’t stopped her in the past. Alea’s widow, the director and actress Mirta Ibarra, was excited. This way, both students and members of the public could benefit from a re-evaluation of the work of one of the most influential directors in Cuban history.

This Thursday through Saturday, those months of planning will come to fruition when a local series about contemporary Latin American cinema comes to a close with a five-film tribute to Alea, showcasing the Cuban director’s resonant, ambivalent patriotism. Four of his most celebrated films, as well as a documentary about the director, will play at Yale’s Luce Hall auditorium at 34 Hillhouse Avenue. All of the screenings are free and open to the public.

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Latino / Iberian Film Fest Opens

Margherita Tortora (Thomas Breen photo)

November 11, 2015 - Margherita Tortora was not planning on hosting a film festival this year. A Spanish instructor at Yale who has been the director of the New England Festival of Ibero American Cinema (NEFIAC) for the past five years, Tortora wanted a break from the time, effort, and bureaucratic headaches that come with organizing an annual not-for-profit film festival. The only problem: She kept getting movies in the mail.

“All these filmmakers didn’t realize I wasn’t doing [NEFIAC] this year,” Tortora said, “so they just kept sending me their films.” With movies in hand and just enough funding from Yale’s Council on Latin American and Iberian Studies, she decided to put on a festival celebrating Spanish and Portuguese-language films after all — her sixth in as many years.

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