July 12-29, 2001
Co-presented by the NEBRASKA FILM OFFICE


Latino
The following entries are presented for this category.

Desi's Looking For a New Girl
Mary Guzman
Run Time: 85 minutes

Desi del Valle has girl trouble. Her girlfriend has just dumped her for a younger woman, and now she must go through mourning and get back into circulation before her friends and family drive her crazy in their quest to set her up with "the perfect girl." Set in San Francisco's Latino and queer communities, this film offers an upbeat look at friendships, relationships and everything in between. Tag along with Desi on a series of emotional roller coaster rides and hilarious blind date disasters as she negotiates her way as a single gay Latina looking for love. For mature audiences.

Luminarias
Jose Luis Valenzuela
Run Time: 100 minutes

Luminarias is a romantic comedy about four women friends: Andrea, Irene, Sofia and Lilly, looking for love in contemporary Los Angeles, where people of all walks of life, cultures, religions and sexual preferences converge and try to survive in the city. After divorces and fruitless relationships these four professional, intelligent, beautiful, sexy Latinas find themselves "single" once again and still looking for the right guy. They come together once a week at Luminarias, an Eastside nightclub, to share, gossip, lament and talk about, what else, men! Each woman unique in her preferences and tastes: Andrea likes Chicanos, Sofia likes white guys, Irene likes young guys and Lilly likes anyone she can get her hands on -- usually undocumented and married. But, when you're looking for love in L.A., you don't always fall for who you think you will. Luminarias is a universal film about life and the pursuit of love and happiness. Luminarias examines the contemporary Latina's struggle with identity, independence, sexuality and prejudices in a hilariously entertaining way.

The City (La Ciudad)
David Riker
Run Time: 88 minutes

With stunning black and white cinematography and an intensive collaboration with the New York Latino immigrant community over a five-year period, The City (La Ciudad) weaves a rich narrative tapestry of present day immigrant life. The film's four unforgettable stories center on a group of day-laborers scavenging for bricks; two teenagers from the same hometown who meet in the projects and fall in love; a homeless father who tries to enroll his daughter in school; and a garment worker who seeks justice in the sweatshops. Uprooted, disenfranchised, exploited, and heroic, these characters uncover the tragedies and redemptions of everyday life.

The Woman Every Man Wants
Gabriela Tagliavini
Run Time: 92 minutes

In a futuristic world where women run the show and men are secretaries and maids, a shy plastics designer looking for a romantic woman the way they used to be in the twentieth century buys a sweet, sports-lover and always-willing-to-have-sex female robot, but... he falls for the lady of plastic who can't love.