Courage and truth are the themes of the 23rd Annual Latino Film Festival of the Hamptons, which will open next Thursday at the Southampton Playhouse with the New York premiere of the Mexican film “Moscas (Flies).” An initiative of Organizacion Latino Americana of Eastern Long Island, the festival coincides with National Hispanic Heritage Month. All films will be presented in Spanish with English subtitles.
“Every year, this festival reminds us that storytelling has the power to transform communities,” said Minerva Perez, OLA’s executive director. “These films invite us to see ourselves in one another, to recognize the dignity of every journey, and to celebrate the beauty and complexity of Latino experiences.”
“Moscas,” the fifth feature of Fernando Eimbcke, stars Teresita Sanchez as Olga, who is forced by financial necessity to rent out a room in her apartment. Because it’s a single-occupancy arrangement, the tenant, Tulio, moves in and secretly brings along his 9-year-old son, Cristian.
“Sanchez’s subtly modulated performance doesn’t require any big emotional displays to reveal the causes of Olga’s slow transformation from a grouch to a friend with protective maternal instincts,” according to The Hollywood Reporter’s David Rodney.
“Moscas” won the Ecumenical Jury Prize at the 76th Berlin International Film Festival and the Berliner Morgenpost Reader Award. A conversation with Vanessa Garnica, the film’s co-writer, will follow the 7 p.m. screening. Tickets are $12.
The festival will move to the Sag Harbor Cinema on Sept. 19 for an 8 p.m. screening of “Alma truncada (Truncated Soul),” a short by Pedro Perez Nunez that explores regret, memory, and redemption in the moments between life and death.
It will be followed by the Long Island premiere of “Isla de los suenos (Island of Dreams),” Alvaro Jimenez and Cliff Orloff’s feature documentary that explores the difficult choices surrounding migration from Cuba. Filmed between 2024 and 2025 in various regions of that country, it is set during its post-Covid migration crisis, considered the most severe in 80 years. The screening will be followed by a conversation with Jimenez. Tickets are $15.
The North Fork Arts Center’s Sapan Greenport Theatre will host a screening of "Dora y la busqueda del sol dorado (Dora and the Search for Sol Dorado)" on Sept. 20 at 2 p.m. Directed by Alberto Belli, the 2025 comedy-adventure is based loosely on the Dora the Explorer franchise. Following the adventures of Dora, Diego, and friends in search of a legendary treasure, it was filmed at various locations in Colombia, including the jungle and theme parks.
Tickets are $10, free for children.
