XicanIndie Film Fest XVI coming April 3-6

Su Teatro will present XicanIndie Film Fest XVI (XIFF16) April 3-6, a four day festival dedicated to Latino World Cinema and featuring the best in film screenings, performances, receptions, parties, awards and panels with visiting filmmakers. Complete festival details may be viewed at the Su Teatro website. All events will take place at Su Teatro Cultural and Performing Arts Center, 721 Santa Fe Dr. Denver, CO 80204. Call 303-296-0219 for more information.

The complete line-up for the Festival will be announced Tuesday, March 25.

XicanIndie Film Fest XVI will feature films that reference the Chicano Civil Rights Movement, such as United States Artist Award recipient Philip Rodriguez’s new documentary, Ruben Salazar: Man in the Middle. This film investigates the circumstances surrounding the death of journalist Ruben Salazar during the Chicano Moratorium in Los Angeles, in August, 1970.  Salazar was killed when he was hit in the head by a tear gas cylinder that police tossed into the Silver Dollar Saloon, where the reporter sought respite from the chaos on the street. This documentary by Mr. Rodriguez – who will be in attendance at the festival – examines Salazar’s evolution as a conservative reporter to an empathic chronicler of the Chicano Civil Rights Movement. The documentary will premiere on PBS on April 29th and the XicanIndie screening is an important advance screening.

The festival will also feature XicanIndie Film Fest Director Daniel Salazar’s 1986 documentary, After Joaquin, which examines the history and trajectory of Denver’s Crusade for Justice, an organization helmed by the famed Corky Gonzales, that contributed to the Chicano Movement’s impact, nationally.

Visiting filmmaker John Jota Leanos of San Francisco will cap the festival’s movement track with his new film Frontera, an animated short that demystifies the colonial history of the Southwest.