Did you know that we have a Latin American Film Festival at Kitchener Public Library (KPL)? Every year for the past 3 years, we’ve had Professor Mario Boido, from University of Waterloo’s Spanish and Latin American department host this festival at KPL during the winter months. The first festival took place in our theatre at our Central Library in 2020! We moved online during the pandemic but this year we were able to show the last movie in person once again!
In case you missed it, did you know that you can watch those movies and many, many more on Kanopy for free with your library card! Learn how to get started here.
2022 Festival Picks
Alice Junior “Alice Júnior is a carefree, spoiled trans YouTuber with everything she could ask for: an apartment in a cool beach town, a loving dad, her own advice vlog, an almost-win on Teen Top Model, and a cat named Rhinoceros. So, when her father announces their move from the vibrant Brazilian city of Recife to a small, conservative town in the south and to an old-fashioned catholic school, Alice has to prepare herself for the prudery and small-mindedness she will confront there. The teenager, however, doesn’t let the initial hostility get her down. Alice releases her truest survival instinct to make her new schoolmates and teachers rethink their conservative ways, and catch her long-overdue first kiss: by being loud and unapologetically herself.”
Guaraní “In this touching drama, fisherman Atilio travels with his granddaughter Lara to Buenos Aires. His great desire is to have a grandson to transmit the Guaraní culture. When he discovers that Lara’s mother, Helena, is pregnant, he decides to go on a long journey with the aim to convince Helena to give birth in the Guarani land…”
Panama Canal Stories “This impressive, sweeping historical drama chronicles five incredible stories of people who helped build the famous canal and Panama itself. Spanning a century, from 1913 to 2013, the film weaves together the tales of five remarkable characters.”
On the Roof “In this feel-good ensemble dramedy, a flat rooftop in an old Havana neighborhood is the natural habitat for three friends who spend their days and nights dreaming about the future.
Yasmani is an amateur pigeon fancier who is too shy to talk to a girl he likes; Victor José has convinced himself of his Sicilian descent and now prefers to go by Vito; Anita is five months pregnant and pretends that she doesn’t care who the father is. In the midst of their boredom, without money and dreaming about success, they decide to set up their own business. The cost of this dream will finally lead them to personal maturity, but with some difficulty.
A deliciously off-beat romantic comedy, ON THE ROOF doesn’t shy away from tackling the problems facing contemporary Cuban youth. The film offers an impeccable balance of colloquial charm and universal appeal. Patricia Ramos and her excellent cast have crafted highly relatable characters with varying degrees of ambition, ingenuity, and quirk.”
On This Side of the World “Alberto, a dull and indolent engineer, is fired from his company just as he plans to buy a house with his girlfriend and become parents. To cover it up, he decides to accept an assignment from his former boss to travel to the city of Melilla, a Spanish enclave in North Africa and gate to Europe. Alberto must renovate, underhand, the system of fences that not only separates one piece of land from another, a city from a country, but two universes in eternal collision: those who want to enter and those who prevent them from doing so.”
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