{"id":248918,"date":"2026-04-02T20:00:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T20:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/248918\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T20:00:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T20:00:09","slug":"in-south-central-a-film-festival-makes-space-for-neighborhood-creatives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/248918\/","title":{"rendered":"In South-Central, a film festival makes space for neighborhood creatives"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The golden-hour sun illuminated the crowd standing under the trees outside Mercado La Paloma<\/a>, which had gathered on Saturday afternoon for a panel on the lack of Latino representation in the film industry as part of the South Central Film Festival<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a queer, undocumented Mexican immigrant. I am what inspires me to create stories,\u201d said Armando Ib\u00e1\u00f1ez<\/a>, the 42-year-old, Los Angeles-based filmmaker known for his YouTube series \u201cUndocumented Tales.\u201d <\/p>\n

Earlier that day, Ib\u00e1\u00f1ez had won a jury award for his short film, \u201cHer Last Day in the U.S.,\u201d about an elderly undocumented immigrant woman returning to Mexico after living in the United States with her family for almost 40 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would always see movies from Hollywood about immigrants \u2014 characters that were supposed to represent me \u2014 full of stereotypes,\u201d Ib\u00e1\u00f1ez said. \u201cWe are more than just crossing the border and getting deported. We have feelings. We have a past. We have a present. We have complex stories.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Filmmakers <\/p>\n

Filmmakers Kei Austin, from left, Sierra Fujita, Armando Ibanez, Daniel Eduvijes Carrera and Sekou Andrews speak at a panel March 28 during the fourth South Central Film Festival.<\/p>\n

(Nicole Macias Garibay \/ De Los)<\/p>\n

Now in its fourth year, and presented by Esperanza Community Housing<\/a> and L.A. Grit Media<\/a>, the South Central Film Festival invited Indigenous, Black, Brown, LGBTQ+, immigrant and disabled filmmakers to submit their work, including those in a language other than English. The festival, which took place March 27 and 28, featured over 40 short films, animation and experimental works.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe name South Central Film Festival is an assertion that we are here, we cannot be moved and we don\u2019t accept the renaming of our community,\u201d said Nancy Halpern Ibrahim, executive director at Esperanza Community Housing.<\/p>\n

Halpern Ibrahim says that as an anti-displacement-driven organization, Esperanza Community Housing is all about investing in the communities who have long lived in South-Central L.A., especially Black and Latino residents affected by gentrification<\/a> due to private investors\u2019 efforts to build luxury housing and USC\u2019s expansion of student dorms<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cPeople who are born and raised in South-Central L.A. feel very strongly that\u2019s the name of their neighborhood, which is being replaced by south downtown or USC-adjacent names that make the neighborhood friendly for developers, who are part of the difficulty that we have here,\u201d said Halpern Ibrahim.<\/p>\n

With this festival, Esperanza Community Housing is building a platform that is providing visibility to underrepresented voices, said Sandy Navarro, director at L.A. Grit Media and festival founder.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re a huge population, nearly 20% of the [U.S.] population, yet we\u2019re always seeing that lack of representation<\/a> and the cultural erasure of Latinos,\u201d said Navarro. \u201cTo be able to bring something to South-Central that is pushing back against that lack of inclusivity is meaningful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Investing in the talents of the community is a core mission for the festival, the organizers said. Earlier this month, the organization hosted a seminar with special effects makeup artist Veniesa Dillon on sculpting techniques and prosthetic application. In May, two additional workshops will be hosted, where a professor at Cal State Long Beach will teach an animation class.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very grateful with the festival because they are really doing a lot of work in order to empower and inspire filmmakers in our neighborhoods. They should have the right to dream big,\u201d said Ib\u00e1\u00f1ez, who has also facilitated several workshops for the organization.<\/p>\n

For filmmaker Daniel Eduvijes Carrera, being recognized with a jury award at the 2023 edition of the film festival for his short movie, \u201cEl Paisa<\/a>\u201d \u2014 a film about a queer, goth skater, who falls in love with a Mexican cowboy in East L.A. \u2014 encouraged him to pursue storytelling that shows the \u201cnuance, brilliance, heartache and the beautiful aspects\u201d of the Latino community, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving those awards and recognitions from precisely the spaces that you\u2019re making films to represent, it really validates the work,\u201d Eduvijes Carrera said. \u201cThe community embraced this project as something that reflects them in a way that they want to be reflected, and that, for me, is one of my goals whenever I do create a film.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, \u201cEl Paisa\u201d was selected for the American Pavilion Emerging Filmmaker Showcase, taking home the LGBTQ+ showcase award<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat does France know about the queer rancheros coming from different places in Mexico where they couldn\u2019t really be themselves, but now hang out at Club Tempo in East Hollywood?\u201d Eduvijes Carrera said. \u201cTo put my intersecting communities on the map, was one of the greatest feelings and one of the greatest accomplishments.\u201d<\/p>\n

South-Central L.A. native Angie Bravo, 26, attended the festival to watch \u201cEres Suficiente,\u201d the short film by her wife\u2019s cousin, Veronica Jurado. To them, the movie captured the experience of growing up Chicana in the U.S.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was pretty emotional watching it,\u201d Bravo said. She doesn\u2019t feel comfortable speaking Spanish because she doesn\u2019t know how to speak it anymore, even though it was her first language. \u201cGrowing up, it was kind of hard, because I felt like I couldn\u2019t have conversations with my grandparents. I wish I was able to ask them questions.\u201d<\/p>\n

For her, it\u2019s important that the filmmakers \u201cpay respect\u201d to the people who built South-Central L.A. \u201cIf we\u2019re gonna portray them, we might as well share the creations with the community that we\u2019re inspired by, right?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The golden-hour sun illuminated the crowd standing under the trees outside Mercado La Paloma, which had gathered on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248919,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[111054,179,111053,1404,6903,111055,111058,48,52,51,47928,47,50,49,4287,111052,1768,9627,111057,111056,1968],"class_list":{"0":"post-248918","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-armando-ibanez","9":"tag-community","10":"tag-esperanza-community-housing","11":"tag-festival","12":"tag-film-festival","13":"tag-film-industry","14":"tag-jury-award","15":"tag-la","16":"tag-la-headlines","17":"tag-la-news","18":"tag-lack","19":"tag-los-angeles","20":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","21":"tag-los-angeles-news","22":"tag-movie","23":"tag-neighborhood-creative","24":"tag-organization","25":"tag-short-film","26":"tag-south-central-film-festival","27":"tag-south-central-l-a","28":"tag-work"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248918\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}