25th Cine Las Americas International Film Festival

Program

Removed from their family home and forced into Canada’s residential school system, Cree musical prodigy Aline and her siblings are plunged into a struggle for survival. BONES OF CROWS is Aline's journey from child to matriarch, a moving multi-generational epic of resilience, survival and the pursuit of justice.

Set during the early days of Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship, Chile ‘76 builds from quiet character study to gripping suspense thriller as it explores one woman’s precarious flirtation with political engagement. Carmen (Aline Kuppenheim) leads a sheltered upper middle class existence. When the family priest asks her to take care of an injured young man he has been sheltering in secret, Carmen is inadvertently drawn into the world of the Chilean political opposition and must face real-world threats she is unprepared to handle.

Having known fame as a former boy band member, Billy now lives a monotonous existence as a married man in a suburban Mexican city. Yet, an encounter with an ex-fan will make him confront his life decisions.

In the tropical mountains of Costa Rica, widower Domingo owns a piece of land which is coveted to build a new highway. When the contractors send in thugs to intimidate the community, the neighbors leave one by one, but Domingo refuses to give in, especially as the land hides a special and mystical secret.

Ana is driving, her face serious and angry. Mateo, her husband, asks her to turn around, returning to the place in the forest where they have left their 7 seven-year-old son. It’s only been two minutes, but he’s gone.

Celebrate a special section of the Festival showcasing works by filmmakers 19 years or younger. The works screened in this category are eligible for an Audience Award for Best “Emergencia” Youth Film.

Julia, aged 22 and mother of two children, falls in love with Óscar. They start an intense and tortuous relationship full of ups and downs. Soon, Julia begins to doubt Óscar's suitability as a male role model for her children. A violent incident will lead Julia to leave Óscar and look for a better future.

“Hecho en Tejas” is a series of films produced in Texas. The films are eligible for a Jury Award and Audience Award presented in partnership with the Texas Film Commission (TFC) and the Texas Archive of the Moving Image (TAMI) and support from HEB.

Cielo’s teenage daughter, Laura, is kidnapped in Northern Mexico. Despite paying several ransoms, Laura is not returned. When the authorities offer no support in the search, Cielo takes matters into her own hands and transforms from housewife into vengeful militant.

Nicaragua, today. 11-year-old Maria lives with her mother Lilibeth at the edge of a garbage dump. Their future depends on selling a litter of purebred puppies to a local thug. When the deal falls through, Lilibeth must go to the city and drops Maria off at a recycling center where she must stay and work. But days pass and she doesn’t return. Maria feels lost, bewildered and angry. One night, Maria meets Tadeo, an imaginative new friend who is determined to help her to reunite with her mother.

Eliú, a country boy, is incarcerated in an experimental young offenders institution, deep in the heart of the Colombian tropical forest, for a crime he committed with his friend El Mono. Every day, the teenagers perform hard manual labour and endure intense group therapy, under the menacing gaze of the camp guard Godoy. One day, El Mono is transferred to the same center and with him comes the past that Eliú is trying to escape.

When Kiran Singh (Nardeep Khurmi), a 1st Gen Punjabi-American truck driver and expectant father, hears pounding coming from inside his truck’s trailer, he finds Elena (Caroline Valencia), a young Mexican-American girl stowed away onboard. Kiran’s already tumultuous life takes a drastic turn as he seeks to reunite her with her family. As the pair ride across the changing American landscape, Kiran faces what it means to be a father while Elena learns how to trust again. They connect through family, dreams of the future, and a healthy debate over God’s existence, all while the ghosts of the past, racially charged encounters, and the threat of I.C.E. linger over their journey.

Manuela, a Latin American immigrant, walks through the empty streets of Los Angeles, scouring the area for work. After getting a job as a nanny, Manuela meets Alma, who is initially resistant to her. While Alma's mother is gone on a business trip, Manuela and Alma swim in the pool, clean the house, and form a maternal bond. Manuela takes on more and more of a motherly role until one day she learns that her entire world as she knows it has just changed and she must make a huge decision.

Martinez, a lonely accountant who really prizes his daily monotony, is pushed by his hierarchy to retire. While his life stability is threatened, his neighbor, a woman of his age, is found dead in her home after several days. Although he has never met her, her death will make him realize that his life is still ahead of him.

Cine Las Americas presents a selection of five narrative shorts representing six countries. The films are personal and each telling rich stories that will resonate with viewers. The works screened in this category are eligible for a Jury Award for Best Narrative Short.

Bego decided to decline her life plans to attend to household duties. She lives bored and afraid of being inconsequential, but this may change when the meditation group she attends announces a great cataclysm: 3 days of darkness.

Agatha (74) and Leonidas (36) maintain an absorbing mother-son relationship: Agatha never fell in love again and Leonidas does not dare to build a life outside the doors of the family home. One day, Agatha suddenly wakes up in the body of a little girl: as herself, but at the age of seven. The only possible solution after having cut off all ties with the outside world for fear of giving explanations, will be to call Elisa (38), Agatha's eldest daughter, who despite having become independent a long time ago, will return to the family home to repair wounds that remain open.

FLAMIN’ HOT is the inspiring true story of Richard Montañez (Jesse Garcia) who as a Frito-Lay janitor disrupted the food industry by channeling his Mexican-American heritage to turn Flamin’ Hot Cheetos from a snack into an iconic global pop culture phenomenon.

On a hot summer day, Paloma decides to fulfill her most cherished dream: a traditional wedding in a church with her boyfriend Zé. She is a devoted mother, a hard-working farmhand in a papaya plantation and has been saving to afford the celebration. The priest’s refusal to marry her and Zé will force Paloma to confront the rural society. She suffers violence, betrayal, prejudice and injustice but nothing shakes the faith and determination of this transgender woman.