Aurora University to Screen Three Latino Films April 12, 13

AURORA, Ill.--Aurora University will screen three films from the 24th annual Chicago Latino Film Festival on April 12 and 13.

Free to the public, the films will be shown at 7 p.m. Saturday, April 12 and at 3 p.m. Sunday, April 13, in Perry Theatre in the Aurora Foundation Center for Community Enrichment at 1305 Kenilworth Place in Aurora.

The sponsor is AU's Latin American Student Organization. AU is among nine colleges and universities screening films as venue partners with the festival which runs through April 16.

The films are "Little Immigrants," "May 1st," and "Crossing Numbers." "Immigrants" is a 2007, 40-minute documentary directed by Sonia Fritz of Puerto Rico. The film focuses on the plight of Abi and Eliezer, a Mexican girl and boy ages 10 and 11, who are trying to cross the Mexico-Arizona border.

They are attempting to reunite with their mother who left them 10 years earlier due to poverty. As the children wait for months on the Mexico side of the border, the film shows the opposing social forces that clash on the border issue.

"May 1" is a two-part, 2006 video documentary directed by Alexy J. Lanza, a U.S. citizen. He chronicles historic immigrant marches in Chicago in 2006.

The two parts reflect the events and emotions of the communities and individuals who marched on a massive scale. Included are interviews, excerpts of speeches, and footage of hundreds of thousands of participants.

"Crossing Numbers," a 2007 short film by Abel Gonzalez, is a dark comedy about what might happen if the U.S. Border Patrol and the Mexican police find a corpse of an illegal alien lying on the border line.

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