Thanks to the Havana Film Festival New York (HFFNY), you can see some of the great films that are part of the Festival Internacional del Nuevo Cine Latinoamericano de La Habana, AKA the Havana Film Festival. In its 9th year, HFFNY features full-length features, documentaries, short films, classics and animation from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela, Puerto Rico and the United States.

Here are 10 reasons you won’t want to miss the festival.

1) ESTELA BRAVO RETROSPECTIVE: WITNESS OF HER TIME. FREE! (Tuesday April 15th) Check out three films of the Brooklyn born American filmmaker Estela Bravo, the director of 30 award-winning documentaries on Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa and the US. Then stay for a talk between Bravo and filmmaker Tami Gold.

2. Holy Father and Gloria, Bravo’s moving account about Carmen Gloria, a Chilean student whom the Chilean military doused with gasoline and set on fire in 1986 and Pope John Paul’s visit to Chile a year later, which ignited a massive outpouring against the repressive Pinochet regime.

3. HFFNY AT THE BRONX MUSEUM OF THE ARTS
Free and open to the public. (Friday April 18th) World Premiere of HAVANA KIDZ II followed by Q&A with Director Alberto Gonzalez And a party with a live band and DJ celebrating the music of Cuba! In collaboration with the First Fridays! series at The Bronx Museum of the Arts.

4. Tribute to Cuban Director Juan Carlos Tabio

5. Screening of Las Dos Caras de Jano A Puerto Rican mystery about a serial killer known as “The Angel of Bachelors” who preys on closeted gay men. followed by Q & A with DirectorEdmundo Rodriguez.
6. World Premiere of Pequeña Habana / Little Havana, a feature length documentary about the lives of achondroplasiacs (better known as dwarves) in Havana. Followed by Q&A with director Rolando Pardo

7. NY Premiere of Cochochi a Mexican film about two indigenous brothers from northwestern Mexico who stumble into adulthood when they are sent on an excursion to deliver medicine to a far away community.

8. NY premiere of Saneamento Basico / Basic Sanitation a Brazilian movie about… poop. In order to stem “the smell of poop” in the river that runs through the Italian immigrant village of Crystal Line in Brazil’s Rio Grande do Sul, the villagers ask the government for money to build a new sewer. Unfortunately, there are no funds allocated for sanitation, but there is a sizeable grant available to make a 10-minute fiction video.

9. Screening of Madrigal, a love story told in two parts, in Havana, 2005 and somewhere in the world, 2020.

10. Closing Night Film, Q&A, and PARTY! NY Premiere of El Otro / The Other, an Argentine film about a man who assumes the identity of a dead man. Followed by a Q&A with Director Ariel Rotter. Followed by a closing night party!

! Check out the Havana Film Festival NY.