Two hundred members of the Edmond’s community gathered earlier this month to watch and learn about Latino culture.

 The Seattle Latino Film Festival is a nonprofit organization that discovers and presents documentaries and independent films from Latin American countries. The Seattle Latino Film Festival, also known as (SLFF), has a goal which is to bring audiences and filmmakers together to educate the people about the Latino culture and for them to experience and to support the magic of film-making as part of Hispanic culture globally. 

On Oct. 12, 2018, the black box theater at Edmonds Community College hosted an amazing event, reservations were made early, extra chairs were brought in, and some people didn’t even get to see the event because there was just not enough room for everyone. All movies were in English subtitles, and it was open to people from all cultural backgrounds, the Sliff (producers of the festival) have a requirement that every foreign film have subtitles of the country it is being played in.    

“Events like these are what brings people together, experiencing new culture, and seeing everyone from the community come together,” said Betty Koteles, a Latino outreach specialist. Expressing her satisfaction with the turnout, Koteles continues, “It was great to see Edmonds Community College host an event like this, everyone that came really enjoyed themselves and can’t wait for the next one.” Koteles is a prominent member of the Hispanic community at EdCC, teaching college-level Spanish to students. 

The president of EdCC, Dr. Amit Singh was present, and after speaking to him about the film festival, he had these words to say: “I thought the film festival was excellent. Great turnout and very well coordinated.”

At first, I thought that all the movies would be in Spanish and I would not understand a thing that everyone is saying.          I have seen Spanish shows before, but they were all English dubbed, and I did not know what to expect at the film festival, but to my surprise, everything was subtitled in English, and there were people from all different parts of the community present. 

“The show was amazing, and I love that this year Edmonds Community College was the one of the hosts for this festival. I watch the TV show Narcos and for Damian Alcazar to be there was just one of shows amazing surprises,” said Gary Singh, a Business major at EdCC. I agree with Gary because the show was a must watch, there was limited seating, and the show was free of charge and open to anyone who wants to know more about the Latino culture and their style of films. Along with culture, you feel that you are part of something big that could change this generation and future generations.

In my opinion, the show was fantastic. It gave me an understanding of Latino culture from South America as well as Spain.

The short film that really caught my attention was “What Happens to a Dream Deferred”, a short film about the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy, which showed the real-life story of two graduate students at Michigan State University, and portrays a life of a young man whose life has changed due to the Trump administration decision to rescind DACA. You get a sense of all the struggles and hardships immigrants have to endure by watching it.

I would highly recommend this film festival to everyone from all backgrounds and all ages, and it is something that you need to see at least once in your lifetime if you are someone who is fascinated with the world and want to try something new.  This film festival happens once a year in all different parts of the world and would be a great experience that you could be a part of and share with your family and friends.

This is the 10th annual Latino Film Festival hosted in Washington, very first time for Edmonds Community College and most certainly not the last.