The Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival diligently represents the broad spectrum of experiences that fall under the Latino umbrella. The organizers put together a balanced collection of short films, episodic projects and feature films from American Latino directors as well as Latin American artists in various genres.

Mexico, Peru, Brazil and Argentina are among the countries represented in this year’s edition, which returns to the TCL Chinese Theaters in Hollywood for five days from June 1-5. Also notable are two Puerto Rican productions. And while the program is largely back to its personal format, select screenings and panels will be accessible virtually.

The opening gala, ‘Mija’, is a documentary by Isabel Castro that chronicles the parallel journeys of two Latinas breaking into the music industry while overcoming preoccupations unique to immigrant children. The festival will conclude with HBO Max’s feature “Father of the Bride,” a Miami set of the classic romantic comedy with a Latino cast led by Andy Garcia, Gloria Estefan and Diego Boneta from Mexican director Gary “Gaz” Alazraki.

As a sign of how the organization has expanded its mission in recent years, this edition now has an animation component consisting of educational sessions and a special short film program. Once again, the work created through the Youth Cinema Project – an initiative dedicated to teaching filmmaking to underrepresented school children in numerous schools in California – will be showcased on the big screen for the young creators and their families to enjoy. .

Below are five highlights from this year’s playlist to give a quick introduction to the types of stories the festival will be highlighting.

Comala

Years after the death of his estranged father – a Tijuana hit man known as “El Jimmy” – Mexican filmmaker Gian Cassini decides to trace the roots of neglect and violence in his family tree. By confronting the darkest truths about the venomous machismo that haunts the men in his bloodline, from his late half-brother to his right-wing grandfather in Texas, Cassini sets out to understand the patterns of these intergenerational wounds to prevent them from becoming permanent.

Painful memories from those closest to him, including his mother, help Cassini put together an impressively insightful and solemnly captivating documentary about how profoundly the people who raise us, or bequeath us, influence who we become. Despite how personal the subject is, the director maintains a stern investigative tone throughout.

June 3, 7 p.m.

Pepe Serna: Life is art

For over 50 years and in over 100 installments in film and TV, Mexican-American character actor Pepe Serna became a fixture in Hollywood long before the current battle for on-screen recording began. Told in his own voice, this cinematic tribute from Luis Reyes chronicles a pioneering life with the supporting voices of a plethora of American Latinos, such as Chicano legend Edward James Olmos, actress Eva Longoria—a fellow Corpus Christi resident—and showrunner. Gloria Calderon Kellett.

Praised for his talent as an improv artist and his uplifting attitude to life’s adversities, Serna’s best-known roles include Brian De Palma’s “Scarface” and Clint Eastwood’s “The Rookie” – which he considers the film that marked the trajectory of his career. career has changed for the better.

June 4, 4:15 pm

Gardenia’s perfume

In ‘Perfume De Gardenias’, a newly widowed woman makes a beautiful custom-made casket for her husband, which attracts the attention of another woman.

(LALIFF)

This refreshing Puerto Rican drama from the first fiction writer-director Macha Colón (aka Gisela Rosario Ramos) presents an array of compelling female characters. After her husband’s death, Isabel (Luz María Rondón), an elderly woman with a talent for decorating and flower arranging, is recruited by a local group of gossiping, pearl necklaces, and church-going women to help them prepare for other people’s funerals. Her creative ideas take into account the professions and interests of the deceased for a final goodbye with a unique theme.

As she struggles with her own grief and the bickering of her grown children, Isabel offers condolences to a seemingly unlikely friend: Julia (Blanca Rosa Rovira), a lesbian woman with a terminal illness. Rondón’s turn as a strong-willed abuela with a steady moral compass without religious judgment makes for an utterly memorable performance in a bittersweet film.

June 4, 1:45 PM

The shape of things to come

In “The Shape of Things to Come,” set in a dystopian city similar to Lima, Peru, 12-year-old Teo teams up with his father to maintain a strange machine designed to generate rain over a severely dry city.

(LALIFF)

Set in a future where no one alive has ever seen rain, this moody, dystopian coming-of-age story revolves around Teo (Lorenzo Molina), a brilliant teenager raised to master scientific concepts. His mechanical engineer and inventor, Father Luis (Fernando Bacilio) has lost touch with reality, instead obsessed with building a machine to produce precipitation. The boy is neglected and belongs to a criminal group.

In a boxy aspect ratio, author Víctor Checa paints an intentionally bland vision of Lima, Peru, where the atmospheric cinematography and lo-fi elements of technology in the story create a rough and grounded take on science fiction. Both Molina and Bacilio’s modest performances match the somber energy.

June 5, 4:15 PM

What we leave behind

“What We Leave Behind” follows the life of Julian Moreno, an 89-year-old who took a 17-hour bus ride each month from Primo de Verdad, Mexico, to visit family in El Paso, Texas.

(LALIFF)

From intimate conversations and quiet moments of reflection, Mexican-American filmmaker Iliana Sosa creates a loving portrait of her elderly grandfather Julián, once a bracero in California who was widowed at an early age with seven children to raise. Now that he can no longer take the bus trip to visit his family in the United States, he worries about completing the construction of a house so they can return to rural Mexico.

The title of this understated moving piece seems to apply to both what Sosa’s mother and her siblings had to give up after migrating north—the longing for home the director himself inherited—and what Julián herself wants to be. humble legacy will be once he is gone.

June 5, 4.30 pm