The Philadelphia Latino Arts & Film Festival returns with a new name and more events
The festival, once focused entirely on films, has expanded to include poetry, dance, theater, and music.
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A festival that began in 2012 as the Philadelphia Latino Film Festival has returned for a 13th year but with a new name and added focus: The Philadelphia Latino Arts & Film Festival.
What remains constant, said festival director and chief curator Marángeli Mejía-Rabell, is that PHLAFF 2024 will stay nimble and continue its mission of showcasing emerging artists, as well as established artists and filmmakers.
“We are keeping with our mission to nurture, create and facilitate cultural dialogues,” said Mejía-Rabell, who is serving her 10th year as festival director.
PHLAFF 2024 began May 26 with virtual programming. In-person programming kicked off Thursday and will continue through July 7. That means there will be six weeks of films and other creative disciplines, including poetry and spoken word, dance, and music.
The festival celebrated the opening weekend of in-person programming at the University of the Arts Thursday with a workshop called Círculos de Voces, featuring singer Xenia Rubinos. Círculos de Voces was described on the website as “a public performance piece and series of talleres [workshops] reimagining the choir as a public service, like a library or park.”
The opening in-person film was Esto No Tiene Nombre, a film by Denice Frohman, a New York City poet and performer who wrote and starred in the one-woman show about the oral histories of Latina lesbian women over 50. The screening, at the University of the Arts, was followed by a discussion between Frohman and Philadelphia artist and filmmaker Michelle Angela Ortiz.
Mejía-Rabell said that 140 films and other performances will be shown at six different venues around Philadelphia.
The festival includes submissions from more than 20 different countries with diverse Latino cultures. For the full schedule and tickets, visit phlaff.org.
“The part that is critical for us is access,“ Mejía-Rabell said. “We want the community to see us as a resource, where they don’t have to come to us, we can come to them.” She said that is the reason the festival can be seen at six different venues, from an art gallery in Germantown to the Cherry Street Pier.
“We want people to know they can bring their stroller or their dog and have access to wonderful art.”
Prices range from an in-person full season pass for $120; a virtual season pass for $50, or weekly virtual passes for $15.