Starting on Tuesday, the Historic Guadalupe Theater will host the 44th annual Latinx CineFestival, which will include 114 films made by local and regional directors.
Tuesday's free showing of Blood In, Blood Out, which celebrates the film's 30th anniversary, will serve as the festival's opening event.
The free event will be hosted by San Antonio actor and CineFestival adviser Jesse Borrego, who will also discuss the movie, which tells the tale of three young Chicano males as they battle prejudice, poverty, drug use, and crime in East Los Angeles in the 1970s.
"CineFestival is an important vehicle to showcase the Latino narrative. It offers the community a unique chance to see authentic Latino stories being told, from Latinx filmmakers, whose work may not easily be found at the movie theater," said Borrego in a press release.
This year's CineFestival now has an additional day to accommodate all of the films and screenings due to the increase in entries.
"The festival continues to grow in popularity and in fact, this is the second time in the past three years that we extended the festival to another day," said festival director Eugenio del Bosque Gómez in a press release.
"We wanted to make sure we were able to showcase as many local and regional artists whose unique voices need to be heard."
Of the 114 films chosen for the festival, 40 are from outside of Texas and 38 are produced in San Antonio.
"Vistas de San Antonio" will showcase 20 local films throughout the festival including Conjunto Blues, Heart of Glory and Sacred Mask.
Conjunto Blues, written and performed by Nicolás Valdéz, takes audiences into the social and historical moments that led to the birth of conjunto music.
Heart of Glory directed by Jorge Lopez Ramirez follows the struggles of Ramirez's father, local San Antonio boxer Jimmy "The Kid" Sanchez and his journey to becoming a top fighter.
Sacred Mask, directed by David F. Mendez, is about a young man named Jesse who was raised in a luchador family.
A mysterious shadow torments Jesse and the people he cares about in an effort to get him to go back into the ring after he decides to give up his family name and disguise in order to follow his own aspirations.
The majority of CineFestival's events require a $8 ticket, however beginning on Wednesday, 13 films are free, San Antonio Report reported.
Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. attendees can see a selection of international films including Kemonito: The Final Fall/Kemonito: La ultima caida from Mexico, Statistic from Brazil, Concord/Concordia from Chile and Eternal and the River/Eterno y el Rio from Costa Rica.
Conjunto Blues will be shown for free as part of Senior Cinema Day on Thursday at noon, and on Saturday, free screenings of movies by directors 19 and under will include Carlos Hagerman and Jorge Villalobos' Home Is Somewhere Else and Allen Otto's On Guard: A Story of American Youth.
The 2023 Mesquite Awards for Best Texas Narrative Short Film and Best Texas Documentary Short Film will be presented on Sunday, as the festival comes to an end.
The Historic Guadalupe Theater, which is located at 1301 Guadalupe St., will host CineFestival from Jul. 11–16. Individual movie tickets cost $8, while festival passes cost $40.
Both can be purchased on the CineFestival website, where you'll also find a full schedule of the festival.
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