Dorothy Baca, associate professor in the Department of Theatre and Dance in the College of Fine Arts, presented awards at the CineMás Albuquerque Latino Film Festival. CineMás is New Mexico’s premiere festival showcasing films focusing on diverse social and cultural themes of the Latino voice.
Many featured pieces have received awards at film festivals around the world and range from short films and animations to documentaries and full-length dramas.
Projects from Panama, Spain, Brazil, Venezuela, Argentina, Chile, Mexico and Uruguay, as well as works by New Mexican filmmakers were screened locally.
Organized by UNM’s Arts of the Americas Institute in the College of Fine Arts, the festival includes an emphasis on filmmakers, scholarly work and generating an atmosphere for discussion.
Listed below are the award winners...
New Mexico Women in Film and Television Award
Morristown (USA)
Directed by Ann Lewis
Working-class people in Mexico and eastern Tennessee are caught in the throes of massive economic change, which challenges their assumptions about work, family, nation, and community. The film chronicles nearly a decade of change in Morristown, Tennessee through interviews with displaced or low-wage Southern workers, Mexican immigrants, and workers and families impacted by globalization.
Albuquerque Mayor’s Award
Una Luchar por Mi Pueblo (USA)
Directed by Federico Reade
Land grant disputes are constant in New Mexico; this particular story began in 1988, with a community who refused to yield land held in common to an Arizona development company. They claimed they owned 700 acres. An ethno history of a peoples’ continual fight for self-determination.
City of Rio Rancho Award for Technology in Film
DVD (Spain)
Directed by Ciro Altabas
This short film includes: Scene selection/trailer/selected cut scenes/alternative endings/eliminated scene/videoclip featurette”What’s a Freak?”/audio commentary/character selection, and a boy-meets-girl story.
UNM Student Film Award
Watch (USA)
Directed by Brenda Avila
Alphonse Allais once said, "We talk about killing time as if it wasn't time who is killing us." Watch tells the story of a man who, like many others, is a slave of the watch. The character takes us with him into his daily journey with his perfect timing and his synchronized schedule. However, an unexpected event changes his routine and his life as our character realizes that time is not always on his side
Award for Best Documentary
Tocar y Luchar (Venezuela)
Directed by Alberto Arvelo
A captivating story of the Venezuelan Youth Orchestra System, an incredible network of hundreds of orchestras formed within most of Venezuela’s towns and villages. Once a modest program, it has evolved into one of the most important and beautiful music phenomena in modern history.