It is almost time to welcome the fall season, and with it come many area events. I would like to encourage people to attend this year’s CineSol Film Festival to be held in Harlingen and Edinburg, Texas. The opening screening will be held at the Texas State Technical College in Harlingen, Texas on Saturday September 8th, 2012 and will conclude the following weekend at the Edinburg Conference Center at Renaissance.
I have been able to pre-screen some of the many film entries submitted by artists from all over the world, and have been part of the selection process. If you are not into the actual film making, but you love stories with great human content, you will see some very good stories here. I guarantee it.
One of the featured documentaries and this year’s best documentary recipient is titled La Camioneta. The film touched me to the point of tears. It is the story of a school bus, one of many auctioned in the United States to buyers from Central America, and its journey through Mexico and the tropical landscapes of Central America. La Camioneta was featured at the SXSW Film Festival in addition to the Los Angeles and Nashville Film Festivals. Now we have an opportunity to see it here in the Rio Grande Valley during our very own film festival.
Through the camera’s eyes, we experience the entire process in the life of a “retired” school bus. The journey takes us into the tropical landscapes of Guatemala where danger lingers at every turn. We become part of the bus’ complete overhaul. We meet its new owners, and the artists who will give it a new face as it transitions from school bus into urban transportation.
We are able to sit at the table and share the dreams for a better life with the protagonists, who are not actors, but the real life dreamers. Their eyes and their smiles tell of so much hardship, but they also tell the story of the human spirit who refuses to surrender to despair.
The film was produced by Mark Kendall who is a Student Academy Award-nominated director based in Brooklyn, NY. He was selected to participate in the first annual emerging visions program developed by IFP and the Film Society of Lincoln Center at the 2011 New York Film Festival. This documentary, La Camioneta, is his feature directorial debut.
Don’t miss it; it is one of those films you will remember for years to come.
La Camioneta will premiere in Harlingen on Sunday September 9, 2012.
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