Maria Hermosillo - Coordinator of the Kinolatino Festival

For three years now, the Latin American film festival Kinolatino has been taking over the programming of several cinemas in Belgium. With just a few days to go before the opening ceremony, I sit down with festival coordinator Maria Hermosillo to talk about Latin America on the big screen.

Full interview (in Spanish)

With less than a week to go, the headquarters of the Jacquemotte association is in full swing. This house in downtown Brussels is the control booth for Kinolatino, the Latin American film festival that kicks off its third edition on April 11th. With just a few days to go before the opening ceremony, the place is a veritable hive of activity, with piles of programs, posters and last-minute changes.

Despite the hustle and bustle, festival coordinator Maria Hermosillo takes the time to welcome me. She has been working for the festival since last year, and looks back on its creation. “It all began in 2023 with a small group of filmmakers who wanted to promote Latin American cinema”. A good idea that represents intense work throughout the year. "For this edition, we received 400 films. We're a small team of seven people to screen everything over a six-month period that runs from summer to January, more or less. After that comes all the work of negotiating copyrights and organizing the logistics of the festival".

Much to the delight of the organizers, the festival quickly found its audience in the capital. The venues were packed for last year's edition, and Maria intends to repeat the success this year. "The festival is growing very fast, the halls are full. Knowing that the public is waiting for us every year is something that completely overwhelms us and continues to surprise us".

An audience that comes from all walks of life. "Our audience is very diverse. There's obviously a Latino audience who join us to connect with their cultures, to create community links. But there are also a lot of other people from Brussels". And not only, as the festival organizes screenings all over Belgium. A desire to reach out to as diverse an audience as possible. "It's always been our aim to be present in all three regions of Belgium. We've been in Antwerp since the first edition, but also in Namur, Liège and Nivelles. New this year is our presence in Louvain-la-Neuve".

This diversity has been reflected in the festival's programming since the first edition. "We want to represent different countries, but also different ways of making cinema: documentaries, fiction, feature-length or short films... Having this wide range of formats, genres and themes reflects the diversity of our continent". Is it even possible to define Latin American cinema? "In general, all Latinos are lumped together. But it's not so easy to find the link that unites us. There are a number of factors: the desire for community, the party, some social struggles".

For the opening ceremony, Kinolatino chose “Mexico 86”, a political and social film by director César Diaz, an example of Belgo-Latino cinema. “For us, it was an obvious choice: the film was very well received since the release, it premiered at the Locarno Film Festival and César Diaz has been with Kinolatino from the start”. For the closing ceremony, the festival opted for “Fresa y Chocolate”, a classic Cuban film from 1993. The aim is to show that this tradition of Latin American cinema is not new. "For the 2024 edition, we also screened a slightly older film. The idea is to celebrate films that have had an impact on the history of Latin American cinema. In the case of ‘Fresa y chocolate’, we're offering a remastered version".

A team of film professionals

Like the rest of the organizing team, Maria works in the film industry. It was as a teenager, when she borrowed Alejandro Iñárritu's “Amores perros” from her local video store, that her vocation took shape. "It was my first memory of Latin American cinema. Alfonso Cuaron's work also had a big influence on me." Apart from organizing Kinolatino, she produces documentaries after studying cinema at the Haute Ecole Libre de Bruxelles.

A background halfway between Latin America and Europe that she claims and shares with many of the organizers and directors selected for the festival. "In the programming, only the theme has to be Latin American". This allows us to move on to a more political theme that the festival wishes to defend: co-production agreements. "We need to have a discussion on this subject. There's a lot of Latin American presence in Belgium, particularly in the film industry. But to obtain Belgian funding and use part of it in Latin America for filming, we need co-production agreements between countries. At present, Belgium has only two such agreements in Latin America". This means that Belgian-Latin filmmakers have to go through a third country, often France, which complicates the whole production process.

With this in mind, the festival is organizing a round-table discussion on the subject of co-productions on April 17th in the foyer of the Cinéma Palace. "This debate is very important, and will be attended by representatives of film institutions. It's an opportunity to show our interest in this type of agreement. Not only to make cinema today, but also to create new ways of making cinema tomorrow."

Kinolatino Festival

From April 11th to 19th

Practical information: www.kinolatino.be