Stars come out in Full Force for The GuadaLAjara Film Festival Closing Night Celebration

Entertainment, Fashion, Style — By Buddy Sampson on October 5, 2022 at 4:00 pm

By Buddy Sampson

The stars came out in full force on a beautiful night in downtown Los Angeles for the 12th Edition of the GuadaLAjara Film Festival (GLAFF). Aiming to showcase the best of Latinx/e, Latin American and BIPOC cinema, GLAFF donated all of its box office proceeds to Bamby Salcedo’s non-profit organization Translatin@ Coalition, which advocates for the Trans Latin@ community that resides in the U.S. and helps with strategies to help improve their life with resources such as medical and legal services, housing, employment, education, mental health and more. “It’s important to recognize that the Latino community is fast-growing, “said Bamby Salcedo, when asked what can be done to bring more recognition to the Latino community for their contributions to society. “There’s still, obviously, a lot of work that needs to happening in order for us to be recognized as people. But the great thing is, we are organizing and we are creating paths for the younger generation, so we’re hopeful for the future.”

Bamby, who was also honored with the Arbol de la Vida Achievement Award, is an innovator that is making needed change. Also honored on a lovely Saturday evening in Grand Park in Los Angeles was actress and activist Rosario Dawson, who was honored with the Arbol de la Vida Artist and Advocacy Award. She was very candid about the importance of festivals that bring awareness to serious issues, such as the GuadaLAjara Film Festival.

“This year, we are championing people in front of and behind the cameras, who are trans and non-binary, making sure they have access and representation and that their voices are a part of the narrative shift that we all need because narratives have been hurting us and killing us, in most specifically most vulnerable communities within the Latino family, and that’s a lot of our trans and non-binary folks,” said Rosario Dawson. “So, to be able to have a festival that’s championing education, and awareness, bringing filmmakers together, networking folks, and also championing the folks in front of and behind the camera- the power of narrative storytelling and saying ‘we see that’ and support that and want to amplify that, so people don’t shy away from that sort of storytelling- that’s really beautiful.”

Stars and activists alike attended the event. Dolores Huerta, a labor leader, who worked with Cesar Chavez and co-founded the National Farmworkers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers (UFW) was one of the presenters and every word the activist spoke were words of character, leadership, dignity and class. “I think it’s alive and well,” said Dolores Huerta, when asked about the state of activism in our country. “I think it’s growing; I think social media platforms are helping to expand that, but I just want to say, especially to young people, protests are important, but we’ve got to take it to the ballot box, we’ve got to make things into law and we have to vote.”

 

 

Actor JM Longoria, who hosted the closing night event, was among several stars, which included handsome actor Ryan Carnes of the soap opera General Hospital, also an excellent drummer and actress/author Jozanne Marie among several others. Actress Constance Marie, who starred in “Selina” and a new series “With Love,” spoke about the importance more representation of Latinos in television and movies. “We’ve made a lot of progress,” said Constance Marie, “but it’s not a level playing field yet, and I feel it’ll be a level playing field when any actor can play any role, and even roles that are not traditionally written for a Latin person. They’re just a human. All humans can play any role.”

Actor Benito Martinez, a very down to earth personality, was fun to talk to. “I like telling stories that are unexpected,” said Benito Martinez, who also is working in the series “With Love” (we’ve screened this series for the EURweb.com and it is excellent.)  “I loved working on ‘The Shield,’ because we never knew what it was going to be when we finished an episode, and it had one of the best endings of any show. I like to tell the stories that haven’t been told.”

 

 

One of the biggest stars that attended was actress Veronica Falcón, who starred in “Queen of the South,” and “Ozark,” who, in a complete contrast to the sinister characters she plays, was warm, open and incredibly engaging. When asked about leaving the show, she reflected warmly of the experience. “Well, the show was called ‘Queen of the South,’ and Alice (Braga) does an extraordinary job,” said Veronica Falcón. “Camila Vargas (her character) was always meant to have her reign ended from the beginning, so it was a wonderful experience and it was my first big American television show, so I’m very grateful to ‘Queen of the South.’”  The incredibly charming and down to earth actress, who plays a lot of criminals in her roles, enjoys the challenge of playing complex roles. “I love playing villains,” laughed the actress, who is also starring in the reboot of the “Perry Mason” series. “I love playing antagonists, they’re a lot of fun. But as an actor, I’m always like trying to look for different things, that are very, very different, one from another to expand my range.”

Each year the festival chooses a social theme of importance to highlight as a topic of necessary conversation within the filmmaking and television industry. The social theme of this year’s festival is to highlight the needed changes and progress made for trans and non-binary representation both in front and behind the camera in the entertainment industry.

Films that screened at GLAFF: Omara (Opening Night Film), Home is Somewhere Else (Centerpiece Film), Sansón and Me (Closing Night Film), Carajita, Raymond and Ray, Three Headed Beast, Three Tidy Tigers Tied A Tie Tighter, Swing and Away. For the complete list of films visit their website, www.glaff.org.

Instagram: @glafilmfest Facebook: @GuadalajaraFilmFestival Twitter: @glafilmfest

Special thanks to Tessy Garcia, and Edward Enriquez-Cohen of Olive Productions and Publicity for allowing us to get the Scoop!