Last Updated on March 5, 2023, 8:28 AM | Published: March 5, 2023
OKLAHOMA CITY — Over 250 people attended the 9th Oklahoma Cine Latino Film Festival Opening Night Saturday. Once again, the event was in the Yale Theater on Calle Dos Cinco in the Historic Capitol Hill District.
The event showcases Latin American and Hispanic cultural influence in the filmmaking industry by supporting, promoting, screening and awarding feature films and shorts every year in Oklahoma City.
Calle Dos Cinco in Historic Capitol Hill District, in association with the Oklahoma Cine Latino Film Festival (also known as OKCine Latino Film Fest) hosted the opening night.
The film festival has received local and international submissions through the years.
In 2023, over 25 feature films and about 65 short films from all over the US, Mexico and Latin America were submitted to the festival including documentary and fiction.
Opening night films
This year, OKCine Latino Film Festival opening night featured films by Oklahoma’s own Samuel Carilllo (Joy), Ivan Barragan (Damien’s Night) and Victor Caballero (Seeker).
The short films After the Fact and Don’t Look Back, created by students of the OKCine Latino Youth Film Institute, were also featured during the festival’s opening night.
In addition to local productions, the festival screened international films like Lili from Puerto Rican filmmaker Brian Rios and Goya by Pablo Orta from Mexico.
Calle Dos Cinco in Historic Capitol Hill business district Director Gloria Torres thanked the attendees, sponsors and volunteers for supporting the festival and its mission of empowering the community through film.
“It is about empowering our local filmmakers who may have not seen themselves in film before,” Torres said.
Oklahoma City resident Jennie Martinez believes that empowering the Latino youth through festivals like the OKCine Latino Film Festival will have a positive impact in the community especially with a growing film production industry in Oklahoma.
“We get to tell our stories as Hispanos. We have great stories to tell and share with the rest of the world,” she concluded.
The Latino Youth Film Institute
The short films After the Fact and Don’t Look Back, created by students of the OKCine Latino Youth Film Institute, were also featured during the festival’s opening night.
The youth film institute aims to expose Oklahoma’s youth to the filmmaking industry by co-creating films meant to be seen on the big screen.
Festival Director Rogelio Almeida told Free Press that the initiative of the free workshops was born from a need to fill the gap in Hispanic communities and school districts across the OKC metro area which lack art programs, especially those which require expensive gear like film production.
Most successful year
2023 has been the most successful youth workshop so far, with almost 30 participants, almost doubling enrollment numbers from previous years.
“This year we’ll be having not one, but two short films made by our very own OKCine Latino Film Institute, which includes a mix of middle school, high school, and college students, where we teach them the basics of filmmaking and they get to write, act, produce, direct, and edit their very own short films, and on March 4th they’ll get to have their big Red Carpet Premiere in front of a large audience,” Almeida told us.
Lead event coordinator Miriam Ortega has been volunteering for OKCine Latino for the past seven years.
“I think our biggest goal is to expose our students to film and to expose our community to what filmmaking means,” Ortega told Free Press.
She said it was crucial to support independent filmmakers and understand the importance of representation.
“It makes a difference when you see yourself on the screen or hear your stories,” Ortega said. “These stories are being told by people that look like you or people that understand your culture.”
Sunday — 2nd Festival day
Later Sunday, the Capitol Hill Library will host the second and last day of the film festival featuring films, documentaries, and a discussion panel where the community can interact with filmmakers.
OKCine Latino Film Festival will conclude the day with an award ceremony.
Sunday’s admission is free and open to the public.
Pablo Angulo is a Colombian OKC-based freelance journalist and photojournalist with a bachelor's degree in Journalism from the University of Oklahoma.
