ESU Celebrates Latino Heritage Month With First Annual Film Festival

East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania (ESU) celebrates Latino Heritage Month with its first annual film festival, presenting the best of contemporary 2012 and 2013 feature films and documentaries from Spain, Latin America, and the United States. The festival will run from September 19 until October 17 and all films will be shown on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 7 p.m. in Beers Lecture Hall, unless otherwise noted.

The festival is co-sponsored by the Office of the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, the Student Activity Association, the Departments of Modern Languages, History, Sport Management, the Office of Multicultural Affairs, and the Frederick Douglass Institute of ESU.

Kicking off the festival on Thursday September 19, will be “Negro,” which is part of a

docu-series that explores identity, colonization, racism and the African Diaspora in Latin America and the Caribbean and the color complex among Latinos. On Tuesday, September 24 the film “Wilaya” follows the story of a teenage girl who is caught between two worlds when she is forced to return to her Saharan birthplace after being gone for 16 years at her foster home in Spain. “Infancia Clandestina” (Clandestine Childhood), being shown on Thursday, September 26, is a story about militancy, undercover life, and love.

The following week on Tuesday, October 1, “Con mi corazón en Yambo” (With my heart in Yambo) shares the story of director Fernanda Restrepo whose brothers were illegally detained, tortured, and murdered by the Ecuadorean police at the age of 14 and 17.  Also that week on Thursday, October 3 the film “El Regreso” (The Return) follows 30-year-old Antonio who is forced to deal with the realities he ran away from when he returns to San Jose after living in New York for 10 years.

“Harvest of Empire: The untold story of Latinos in America” takes an unflinching look at the role that U.S. economic and military interests played in triggering an unprecedented wave of migration that is transforming our nation’s cultural and economic landscape. This film will be shown on Tuesday, October 8. That Thursday, October 10, will showcase the film titled “Aquí y Allá” (Here and There) which captures the complex homecoming of a loving father Pedro who returns home to a small mountain village in Guerrero, Mexico, after years of working in New York.

The final movie that will conclude the film festival will take place on Thursday, October 17 at 8 p.m. This film titled, “The Clemente Effect” tells the story of Puerto Rican baseball superstar Roberto Clemente who played for the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1955 to 1972. The documentary shows some of the challenges Clemente faced being a Latino playing major league baseball during his time.

All of the films are free and open to the public. For further information please contact Annie Mendoza, Ph.D., assistant professor of modern languages at 570-422-3407.

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