The Spanish department hosted the eighth annual Latin American and Spanish Film Festival Oct. 16-19, showing seven of the most popular Spanish-language films released within the past year and a half.
Over the course of four days, seven films were screened from five different countries: Mexico, Chile, Argentina, Spain and Colombia. From the dark comedy “Broken Panties” to the thriller “The Angel,” a variety of genres were shown. On the creative side, the festival was largely organized by Professor of Spanish Rosa Tapia and Instructor of Spanish Cecilia Herrera.
An average of 47 people attended each film, according to Spanish TA and festival organizer senior Cristina Sada Segovia. Of those who attended, many were Appleton community members, including many without Spanish or Latin American heritage, Sada Segovia said.
“It’s a very important thing for a community like Appleton, which for so long has been pretty isolated-Anglo, like mostly English speakers,” Sada Segovia said. “But, you know, there’s a lot of places downtown even that hire a lot of Spanish speakers now. And there’s been a lot of immigration that has come up north. So I think it’s important for the campus to recognize that it has a huge Latino presence.”
Most of the films chosen were those which have recently gone through the awards cycle and had already received critical acclaim internationally. From there, films were selected with an eye towards reflecting relevant cultural issues of today, as shown through the depiction of economic inequality in “The Chambermaid” and the origins of the Colombian drug trade in “Birds of Passage.”