NEFIAC, a mix of art and education celebrating Ibero-American culture

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After a successful first edition, this year the festival brings back a complex representation of fifteen countries with a total of 59 works including feature films, documentaries and shorts. The 2nd edition of the New England Festival of Ibero-American Cinema (NEFIAC) will run from September 30 through October 9 with screenings in four cities in the area: 

• Providence, RI:  Brown University's Perry and Marty Granoff Center for the Creative Arts and the Watson Institute for International Studies' Joukowsky Forum will feature festival screenings and panel discussions. 

• New Haven, CT: Three locations share the honor this time: the Whitney Humanities Center and Linsly-Chittenden Hall, both at Yale University; and the Criterion Cinemas.

• Hanover, NH: Showings will be at Silsby Hall at Dartmouth College.

• Bristol, RI: Global Heritage Hall at Roger Williams University will also hold festival screenings.

NEFIAC's mission is to promote emerging filmmakers and celebrate those with a promising career through the exhibition and discussion of their feature films, documentaries, shorts and animations, as well as through other artistic manifestations, produced in or about Latin America, Spain and Portugal. The festival will open with Marti: The Eye of the Canary, the latest film of the world renowned Cuban director Fernando Pérez; who will join us with one of his leading actors,  to share their fascinating experience. The highest honor at NEFIAC is the Emerging Filmmaker competition. This year ten Directors will compete to obtain this prize and recognition: Álvaro Curiel for The Battle Ship/Acorazado (México), Fernando Mieles for Deporting Prometeo/Prometeo deportado (Ecuador), Marcel Rasquin for Brother/Hermano (Venezuela), Francisca Silva for Ivan's woman/La Mujer de Iván (Chile), Esteban Insausti for Long Distance/ Larga Distancia (Cuba), Hilda Hidalgo for Of Love and Other Demons/ Del amor y otros demonios (Costa Rica), Léster Hamlet for Old House/Casa Vieja (Cuba), Carlos Gaviria for Portraits in a Sea of Lies/Retratos en un mar de mentiras (Colombia), Gustavo Pizzi for Riscado (Brasil) and Paula Siero for The Water at the End of the World/El agua del fin del mundo (Argentina). A jury of connoisseurs from different disciplines within Ibero-American culture and film and audiovisual production is responsible for selecting the winner in NEFIAC's competition. This year, jurors include Marisa Fernández Armenteros (Mediapro, Spain), Marisol Rodriguez Rosabal (Young Cuban Filmmakers Showcase) and Julia Solomonoff, the latter winner of the Emerging  Filmmaker prize on the 1st edition of the Festival for her film The Last Summer of La Boyita /El último verano de la Boyita. A special program of Cuban cinema, Desde Cuba: New Cinema, will be screening its fourth edition during the course of the festival, this year presenting a very interesting selection of films from National Showcase of New Filmmakers of La Habana, Cuba. NEFIAC has also joined forces with RISCA and AS220 to promote Latin American Art: Cuban painter Reynier Ferrer, a talented artist who will be sharing with us his latest work at the exhibition called "Con la memoria". RISCA's 1st Annual Creative Impact Art Series invites you come and appreciate some of Ferrer's work, as well as that of other local artists at the Atrium Gallery (Reception on Thursday, 09/22 at 6:00pm. Also in collaboration with our festival AS220 presents "MEJUNJE: Experiments in Latin Identity", their first signature event celebrating Hispanic Heritage! "MEJUNJE" is a one-day showcase of unjuried and uncensored art, poetry, and music exploring Latin identity. This will take place this Sunday, September 25th starting at 4pm in the Main Gallery and Performance Space at 115 Empire Street, Providence, RI.   Ticket sales and additional info for all NEFIAC related activities at nefiac.com