The Hola Mexico Film Festival is the largest festival of Mexican Cinema outside of Mexico. It is a yearly event that takes place every May in Downtown Los Angeles and goes on tour during the summer months. It showcases the best of Mexican film in a variety of categories, and the tour is comprised of the 10 best films of the festival. Maya Cinemas, Salinas CA will be featuring the films from September 9-15. Visit http://mayacinemas.com/hola-mexico-film-festival to view the full schedule. The films are in Spanish with English Subtitles.
The festival will feature the following films:
A LOS OJOS
Dir. Victoria Franco y Michel Franco
Cast: Mónica del Carmen, Omar Moreno, Benjamín Espinoza, Jacobo Najman
Mexico 2015, 72 MIN
Monica is a social worker from Mexico City, who’s child is suffering from a degenerative illness in his eyes. Having exhausted all other options, a corneal transplant is her only hope. Overwhelmed by the ineffectiveness of the health system and the scarcity of resources, she decides on an extreme solution, within the world of street children.
LAS APARICIO
The Aparicios
Dir. Moisés Ortiz – Urquidi
Cast: Ana De La Reguera, María Del Carmen Farías, Liz Gallardo, Eréndia Ibarra, Damián Alcazar, Joaquín Cosio, Paulina Gaitán y Tenoch Huerta
México 2016, 103 MIN
The Aparicios, a family made of women cursed to become widows and only bear females, discover the body of the first husband of one of them at their ranch in Xico, in the state of Veracruz. This leads The Aparicios to search into their past to try to put an end to The Curse and face their present.
RUMBOS PARALELOS
Dir. Rafa Montero
Cast: Ludwika Paleta, Iliana Fox, Michel Brown, Arturo Barba
Mexico 2016, 91 MIN
Rumbos Paralelos tells the emotional story of two young mothers, whose life will turn in an unexpected switch. Everything changes as Silvia, finds out, not only of her son’s illness, but that she is also not his biological mother. With time against her to find a kidney transplant, Silvia will find Gaby, the biological mother. The following actions will put to test the power of maternity and life as a whole. Is family a result of love, or is it nature?
PARAISO PERDIDO
Paradise Lost
Dir. Humberto Hinojosa
Cast: Ana Claudia Talancón, Iván Sanchez, Andrés Almeida
México 2016, 87 MIN
Three friends decide to travel through Caribbean waters, suddenly they discover a paradisiac island and they decide to explore it. A weekend that was supposed to be one of the best of their lives will soon turn into a survival quest as they find out what’s really going on in the island.
LOS PARECIDOS
The Similars
Dir. Isaac Ezban
Cast: Gustavo Sánchez Parra, Cassandra Ciangherotti, Humberto Busto, Carmen Beato
Mexico 2015, 89 MIN
On the rainy night of October 2, 1968, eight characters waiting on a remote bus station, in the middle of nowhere, for a bus heading to Mexico City. They’ll start experiencing a strange phenomenon.
ELVIRA, TE DARIA MI VIDA PERO LA ESTOY USANDO
Elvira, I will Give You my Life, but I’m Using It
Dir. Manolo Caro
Cast: Cecilia Suárez, Luis Gerardo Méndez, Vanessa Bauche
Mexico 2015, 108 MIN
One night Gustavo, husband of Elvira, goes to buy cigarettes. Never returns. Elvira, 40 years old, mother of two children, begins a relentless pursuit of the love of her life. The clues lead her to the conclusion that her husband has kept a secret relationship. The unfortunate discovery will not stop Elvira in the mission to find him.
SOPLADORA DE HOJAS
Leaf Blower
Dir. Alejandro Iglesias
Cast: Francisco Rueda, Alejandro Guoerrero, Fabrizio Santini
Mexico 2015, 96 MIN
Three friends have a special mission: find some keys lost in a pile of dead leaves. It may seem a simple task, but it will turn into an odyssey when it confronts them to their fear to grow up. This afternoon, as trivial as it may sound, could change the course of their lives.
MADE IN BANGKOK
Dir. Flavio Florencio
Cast: Morgana Love
Mexico 2015, 75 MIN
Morgana is a Mexican transgender opera singer with a relentless determination to fight against social stigma and family prejudice. Her dream is to have a sex reassignment surgery. Her only chance to make it happen is to win a beauty pageant in Bangkok and use the $10,000 cash award to pay for the surgery. The documentary embarks on Morgana’s odyssey as she follows her dream of self asserting the identity she has been struggling all her life to construct.
TE PROMETO ANARQUIA
I Promise You Anarchy
Dir. Julio Hernández Cordón
Cast: Diego Calva Hernández, Eduardo Eliseo Martinez, Shvasti Calderón
México 2015, 88 MIN.
Best friends and lovers Miguel and Johnny have known each other since childhood. They spend their time skateboarding with their friends in throbbing Mexico City where they sell their own blood and get donors for the ER black market as a way to make money.
To view other city venues visit http://holamexicoff.com/tour/