Organized by: DINO DINCO

To research, screen, and choose films where queer and Latinx intertwine, I invited a team comprised of Ciara Vega, Clark Alcantara, Karina Magdaleno, Leslie Lopez-Santiago, Sol Martinez, and Xelestiál Moreno-Luz. Latinx is a nascent and emerging identifier, one very much of their generation. I wanted them not only to gain experience programming films for a festival, but to engage in discussion about queer and Latinx as identifiers, tapping into their critical stance with media, film production background, and individual experiences. 

The challenge to program recent films for Film Maudit 2.0 was fraught from the outset for several reasons. We were thinking about films not only where Latinx and queer intersect but align with the premise of film maudit. Latinx as a contested socio-cultural identifier instigates robust disagreement if not confusion. The term Latinx means different things to different people and means nothing to many. Liberal journalists, arts institutions, and academics increasingly use Latinx, but often as a synonym for Latino/a, Latin@, and Hispanic. The replacement of these terms with Latinx often attempts a desire to appear contemporary and evolved while missing the political and social labor, e.g., gender inclusion, that Latinx is intended to perform. The lack of agreement and acknowledgment of Latinx potentially narrows the pool of films to consider, especially with the festival’s goal of showing recent film work. Expanding the time frame of when the films were made gave us room to revisit and program under-seen films from past decades for our selection. Mexicali (2010) and Mi Pollo Loco (1995) offer expanded perspectives on Latinx-ness and queerness while aligning with and celebrating the premise of film maudit. 

- DINO DINCO, Tijuana, BC, MX 2020