After more than ten years at Instituto Cervantes, the International Latino Cultural Center’s (ILCC) monthly Reel Film Club series moves to Facets, 1517 West Fullerton Avenue, the original home of the Chicago Latino Film Festival. Held on the last Tuesday of each month (except March, April and December), the Reel Film Club celebrates a theme night with a reception and screening showcasing films and filmmakers from Latin America, Spain and Portugal followed by a post-screening discussion.
The ILCC celebrates the move with the Chicago theatrical premiere of Germán Kral’s Adiós Buenos Aires on Tuesday, January 28, followed the next month with a screening of the Dominican Republic/Argentinean co-production Carajita, an official selection of the 38th Chicago Latino Film Festival, on Tuesday, February 25. Full synopsis of both films below.
“Our relationship with Facets goes way, way back to the origins of the Chicago Latino Film Festival. Its founder, the much missed Milos Stehlik, was a strong supporter of the Festival and its mission, and a much cherished advisor to myself. Through the Reel Film Club we have brought back past festival selections that deserved a second chance in finding an audience in our city as well as the Chicago premiere of films that deserve to be seen in the perfect setting. Facets’ state-of-the-art facilities provides us with that perfect setting,” said Pepe Vargas, Executive Director of the International Latino Cultural Center of Chicago and founder of the Chicago Latino Film Festival.
“Facets is thrilled to partner with The Reel Film Club and help bring to Chicago the best and newest in Ibero-American cinema. Each event is terrific, immersing us into the culture with the added element of food and a culturally relevant conversation about the film. Definitely a can’t miss event!,” says Facets Executive Director Karen Cardarelli
Admission is $20, $15 for members of ILCC & Facets. The price of admission includes a reception with appetizers and cash bar at 6 pm followed by the screening at 7 pm. The appetizers are thematic to the country of origin of the film being shown. The screening is followed by a discussion with a local film critic.
REEL FILM CLUB FOR JANUARY AND FEBRUARY
TUESDAY, JANUARY 28
Adiós Buenos Aires
Argentina/Germany, 2023/93 min.
Directed by Germán Kral
Spanish w/English subtitles
November 2001: the government suddenly freezes all the country’s bank accounts, plunging the country into a deep financial crisis. Julio Färber, the charismatic bandoneon player of the “Vecinos de Pompeya,” a five-piece working-class tango band, is trying to keep his head above water, but every month he is earning less and less from their gigs as well as from the traditional shoe shop he inherited from his father. The government’s action prevents Julio from leaving Buenos Aires in search of a better life. Protests break out on the street. And Mariela, a feisty taxicab driver, crashes into his car at full speed, damaging Julio’s last possession of value before stealing his heart.
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25
Carajita
Dominican Republic/Argentina, 2021/90 min.
Directed by Silvina Schnicer and Ulises Porra
Spanish w/English subtitles
Sara’s well-to-do family has moved back to the Dominican Republic after living abroad for years. Returning with them is Yarisa, their maid and Sara’s nanny, an Afro-Dominican who has yet to tell her own family, especially her daughter Mallory, that she is back. Sara and Yarisa have long lived under this false notion that an almost maternal bond exists between them. That notion is put to the test after Mallory’s mysterious disappearance at a party she was invited to by Sara. Winner of the HBO Ibero-American Feature Film Award in 2022 at the Miami Film Festival, this film by the Spanish-Argentinean directing duo of Ulises Porra and Silvina Schnicer delivers a tight, suspenseful and ultimately devastating portrait of the Dominican Republic’s class and racial divides.
ABOUT THE ILCC
The International Latino Cultural Center of Chicago is a pan-Latino, nonprofit, multidisciplinary arts organization dedicated to developing, promoting, and increasing awareness of Latino cultures among Latinos and other communities by presenting a wide variety of art forms and education including film, music, dance, visual arts, comedy, theater and culinary arts. The Center prides itself for its outstanding multidisciplinary local and international cultural programming which spans Latin America, Spain, Portugal, and the United States.
Born out of the Chicago Latino Film Festival, The International Latino Cultural Center of Chicago also produces other programs, including the Chicago Latino Music Series, which is celebrating its 19th edition this year; Film in the Parks, also in its 19th season; the monthly Reel Film Club, already in its 17th year; the Chicago Latino Dance Festival, now in its third year; and many more.
All in all, the audience has grown from 500 people in 1985 for the first Chicago Latino Film Festival to more than 50,000 (Latinos and non-Latinos) who enjoy the year-round multidisciplinary cross-cultural exchanges offered by the Center.
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