By Hamptons Art Hub Staff
The OLA Film Festival returns to the Hamptons to present three films over three days at the Parrish Art Museum. Presented by Organización Latino-Americana of Eastern Long Island, the 10th annual edition opens on Friday with a screening and live music performed by Mambo Loco. The festival continues with a single screening held on Saturday and Sunday. The OLA Film Festival is designed to reveal Latin American culture by presenting well-crafted documentaries and films.
On Friday, the OLA Film Festival begins at 5 p.m. with a screening of the Oscar-winning documentary “Inocente.” Following the 40-minute film, live music by Mambo Loco takes place from 6 to 8 p.m. on the Mildred C. Brinn Terrace. Visitors can bring chairs or blankets. Food and drink is available for purchase from the Café by Art of Eating.
Mambo Loco is steeped in the classic music of Afro-Cuban and Puerto Rican. Their concerts present the “the best of ‘old school’ Latin and Latin Jazz music,” according to The Parrish. Mambo Loco features Larry Belford (drums and lead vocals), Alfredo Gonzalez (trombone, violin, percussion, and vocals), Bill Smith (piano, melodica, and vocals) and Wayne Burgess (bass and vocals).
“I know them for years and they are very well received” said Isabel Sepulveda, founder and president of OLA. “That is why I proposed them for the Parrish. People always enjoy dancing to their music.”
The film festival continues on Saturday at 3 p.m. with “Tanta Agua,” a narrative film from Uruguay. The final screening takes place on Sunday at 3 p.m. with the Chilean documentary “Salvador Allende.”
“The films presented at OLA are always impressive, thought-provoking, and award-winning,” stated Andrea Grover, Curator for Special Events for The Parrish Art Museum. “Like the kickoff title, "Inocente," which won Best Short Documentary at the 2013 Oscars and tells the real-life story of a Mexican-born, homeless teenager who finds solace in painting. We are especially proud to be celebrating 10 years of OLA with the festival's founder and curator, Isabel Sepulveda.”
Directed by Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine, “Inocente” documents the coming-of-age story of a young woman’s drive to overcome the severity of her surroundings. Inocente is a 15-year-old immigrant, homeless and undocumented, who refuses to give up her dream of becoming an artist. Told entirely in her own words, the film meets Inocente at a turning point, when she decides for the first time to take control of her own destiny.
Irreverent, flawed, and funny, the young artist channels her irrepressible personality into a future she controls. Her talent has been noticed, and if she can create a body of work in time, she has an opportunity to put on her first art exhibition. “Inocente” is both a timeless story about the transformative power of art and a timely snapshot of homelessness in America.
“Tanta Agua,” directed by Ana Guevara and Leticia Jorge, tells the story of an ill-fated family holiday. Alberto has not been able to spend much time with his children Lucia and Federico since his divorce, so he decides to take them to a hot springs for a short vacation. But when they arrive at their rented cabin they learn that the pools have closed until further notice because of thunderstorms.
Alberto tries to remain enthusiastic, but moods inevitably turn sour as the rain keeps falling and the walls seem to be closing in. When Lucia meets friends her age, equally bored at the rained-out resort, her vacation starts looking up, but her adolescent rebellion clashes with her father's enthusiastic efforts to have some quality family time.
Chilean filmmaker Patricio Guzmán is one of the international film world’s most acclaimed documentarians. In “Salvador Allende,” he turns to the life of a controversial leader, whose overthrow by an American-backed military destroyed not only his dream of Chilean socialism, but the lives of many of his supporters.
On November 4, 1970, Allende was elected president of Chile and committed himself to the socialist transformation of his country. Three years later, he was deposed by a right-wing coup led by Augusto Pinochet, and he committed suicide before being taken prisoner. His country faced two decades of military-led dictatorship, and his followers faced repression, exile, or death. "Salvador Allende marked my life," Guzmán says in this heartfelt work. "I will never forget.”
“Salvador Allende” holds personal importance to Sepulveda, OLA’s founder and president.
“The Sunday movie is really important for me, because it follows the life of Salvador Allende, the democratic socialist president elected in Chile in 1970, who was overthrown thanks to the involvement of the CIA and Nixon and Kissinger pouring in money to create chaos there,” she wrote.
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