Latina Film Fest focuses on immigration issues.

The Second Annual Boyle Heights Latina Independent Film Extravaganza (BHLIFE) will be a celebration of Latinas, their voices and their cinematic visions.

The mission of the festival is to build a network of Latina filmmakers that will draw attention to the growing number of Latinas working behind the camera. The program of films constitutes a body of work that will act as a powerful statement against the stereotypical portrayals of Latinas on screen.

The festival will open with a screening of the feature length film, Buscando a Leti, a film that addresses the immigrant experience from the point of view of those that are left behind, in this case, children in Mexico. This opening night event will include a discussion of current immigration legislation. The film’s director will be present and USC Professor Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo, whose research focuses on Mexican undocumented immigration and transnational families, will facilitate the discussion.

The works of emerging filmmakers will be screened as well as those of more established film directors like Nancy De Los Santos, whose documentary The Bronze Screen was shown at the first BHLIFE festival, and 30 Days Before I’m Famous by Gabriela Tagliavani whose first film Ladies Night broke box office records in Mexico. Films will be screened in the categories of youth media, feature length dramas, feature length documentaries, dramatic shorts, documentary shorts, experimental shorts, and erotica. The 47 films featured in the festival come locally from Boyle Heights’ artists as well as from filmmakers representing diverse Latino communities throughout the country. The cities represented include New York, Chicago, Tucson, Houston, Austin, San Francisco, Oakland and Los Angeles.

BHLIFE will take place on December 8th-10th, 2006 at CASA 0101 Theatre Art Space.

For more information at http://bhlife.org>