CineFest Latino Boston LLC is an annual film festival conducted in Boston, highlighting stories by and about Latinos. The festival is committed to using the power of film to break stereotypes, bring cultures and communities together and reveal the complex issues affecting the Latinx community in the United States, as well as communities in Latin America and Spain.
Info
Venue
Emerson Paramount Center Bright Family Screening Room
559 Washington St, Boston, MA, United States, Massachusetts
Dates
Sep 25, 2025 - Sep 28, 2025
Details
$15 | $12 for Students & Seniors
Films
Uvalde Mom
Directed by Anayansi Prado | Documentary
88 mins | USA | Rated PG | English & Spanish with English subtitles
Thu, Sep 25 @ 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
in Person Q&A with the director
“Uvalde Mom” is a feature length documentary that tells the story of Angeli Rose Gomez, a farm worker and single mom who in May 2022 ran into Robb Elementary in Uvalde, TX to save her two sons during a mass shooting, while nearly 400 armed officers waited 77 minutes to intervene. When a video of her running out with her sons goes viral, Angeli highlights the inaction of law enforcement that day. However, she soon faces harassment from authorities, making her vulnerable due to her tumultuous past. As Angeli’s narrative unfolds, the Uvalde community demands accountability and change. Conflicting narratives emerge from authorities, and the U.S. Department of Justice launches an investigation.
81 mins | Dominican Republic | Rated R | 2024 | Spanish with English subtitles
Fri, Sep 26 @ 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Content Warning: Nudity, sexual content, drug abuse
Virtual Q&A with Director
Romantic Biónico struggles to find a job and home to provide for fiancée La Flaca after rehab. He tries to quit drugs with help from his partner Calvita. A woman has a chance to free herself from an oppressive past when she meets a man with whom she re-discovers her passion for tango. But before she can move on, she has to accept some uncomfortable truths.
Watch the Trailer:
Aquí y Allá
(precedes La Bachata de Biónico)
Directed by Isabella Breton | Documentary
10 mins | USA | Rated G | 2024
Through a conversation with photographer Winston Vargas, we explore the evolution of the Dominican community that migrated from one island to another. We witness through his gaze the peculiar experience of the diaspora in Washington Heights, but most importantly the effect of the community on its new environment. Apart from addressing Dominican identity, Winston confronts the difficulties of adapting, their resilience and the value of documenting and visually expressing their presence over the years.
SHORTS PROGRAM DIRIGIDOS POR MUJERES: YO MISMA FUI MI RUTA
Sat, Sep 27 @ 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
The Crest
Directed by Nanichi Nieves Díaz | Animation 5 mins | Puerto Rico | Rated PG | 2024 | LGBTQ+ | Spanish with English subtitles
During the colonial era, Nyanga was kidnapped off the coast of Africa, brought to Mexico and enslaved. Based on historical fact, and using shadow theater and handmade cinema, ‘Nyanga’ is an homage to resistance against colonial chains.
Watch the Trailer:
Woman Who Lives at the End of Time (2025)
Directed by Cristina Kotz Cornejo | Narrative
21 mins | USA/Mexico | Rated PG | 2025 | LGBTQ+ | in English & Spanish with subtitles
in Person Q&A with the director
The year is 2030. A women’s collective in Mexico City harbors a stranger seeking refuge.
Directed by Yael Bridge | Documentary
12 mins | Cuba | Rated G | 2024 | Spanish with English subtitles
in Person Q&A with the director
There are a little over 200,000 people who live in Guantanamo, roughly 50 of whom are Jewish. In 1959 Cuba had a revolution and in the aftermath all public displays of religion were prohibited. In 1991, the Cuban government repealed its ban on religious practice, making it possible for people of all faiths to practice publicly. This film follows two octogenarians, Fortuna and Lidia, having their Bat-Mitzvah.
A West Side Story Story
Directed by Aditya Joshi | Narrative
13 mins | USA | Rated PG | 2025 | Spanish with English subtitles
A Puerto Rican theatre director struggles to hold together her “culturally authentic” version of West Side Story.
Directed by Mariana Tames | Narrative
15 mins | Mexico | Rated PG | 2024 | Spanish with English subtitles
in Person Q&A with the director
In a small room, 98-year-old Chelis faces the final stage of life, dependent on her compassionate nurse, Mónica. Their daily routine – hair brushing, medication, fading memories—shows the monotony and dignity of elderly care.
I Don’t Know if I’ll Have to Say Everything Again
Directed by Vitória Fallavena & Thassilo Weber | Narrative
14 mins | Brazil | Rated PG | Portuguese with English subtitles
Fernando meets his mother weekly at a café. During their encounters, he always tells her that he is gay. Ana, who has Alzheimer’s, has difficulties remembering her son’s sexuality; what we are left to question is whether she truly forgets or if she chooses not to remember.
84 mins | USA | Rated PG | 2025 | Spanish with English subtitles
Sat, Sep 27 @ 5:00 pm - 6:30 pm
in Person Q&A with the filmmaker
“Backside” offers an intimate and tender glimpse into the lives of immigrant workers who begin their days at 2 a.m., seven days a week, year-round, caring for some of the world’s most prized racehorses. Set against the backdrop of a racing season at Churchill Downs’ barns in Louisville, Kentucky – known as the “backside” – this observational-sensorial film reveals the symbiotic relationship of human and animal labor, celebrating the quiet beauty of unseen work and the resilience of those who sustain it.
79 mins | Mexico | Rated PG | Spanish with English subtitles
Sat, Sep 27 @ 7:30 pm - 9:15 pm
In Person Q&A with Director
David dreams of being a pianist like his father, José Luis, who believes it impossible due to his son’s physical characteristics: short arms, hands with four fingers and limited hearing. Thanks to his tenacity, David shows him that he can play in his own way and together they begin a musical path that culminates in a new challenge for David: premiering, during the pandemic, the difficult concerto for piano and orchestra that his father composed for him.
Directed by Alfredo Alcántara & Isabel Alcántara Atalaya | Documentary
72 mins | Mexico | Rated PG | 2025 | Spanish with English subtitles
Sun, Sep 28 @ 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm
Q&A with Director
When three children die of leukemia in a rural Mexican community, two mothers partner with a scientist to investigate their water supply. Their discovery of dangerous radioactivity leads to community backlash, revealing how deep aquifers harbor ancient nuclear traces from the last ice age.
80 mins | Brazil/Bosnia | Rated PG | 2024 | Portugese with English subtitles | LBGTQ+
Sun, Sep 28 @ 3:30 pm - 5:15 pm
Pirajuí is a small city of 25,000 people with three prisons, each holding 1,500 inmates. Most of the women in Pirajuí’s prison are there for drug-related crimes – some for money, others for love, helping their boyfriends or husbands.
Graziella Fernanda Costa (45), the prison director, decides to restore the inmates’ self-esteem by organizing a beauty contest. For four weeks, women behind bars get a chance to transform from poor Cinderella to proud princess, breaking the monotony of prison life. The beauty contest becomes a quiet rebellion against the prison uniform—offering pride, purpose, and hope.
Watch the Trailer:
La Mancha Negra (The Black Stain)
(precedes Prison Beauty Contest)
Directed by Yareni Velázquez Mendoza Díaz | Animation 5 mins | México | Rated PG | 2024 | Spanish with English subtitles
Recounts the transformation of Marlene, a woman who once embraced darkness as a true expression of herself and soul. However, the adversities she faced in life have allowed her to grant new meaning to that darkness.
Woman Who Lives at the End of Time (2025)
A West Side Story Story
I Don’t Know if I’ll Have to Say Everything Again
