Latin American Film Festival

For those for whom the screen image of Latin America is limited to Evita and Selena, the New England Latin American Film Festival taking place this week at the Rhode Island School of Design (and the Museum of Fine Arts and the Somerville Theatre in Boston), should prove enlightening. Now in its fifth year, the festival will screen some 40 films, including several national premieres, and will present many major figures in Latin American filmmaking, criticism, and scholarship.

The theme this year will be "Women At the Forefront of Latin American Cinema" -- a focus that, according to the festival's assistant director, Esther Gamboa, should combat a persistent misconception. "Even though the stereotype of Latin America is of a macho, male-dominated society, we find that many women participate in Latin American filmmaking, and that women's issues are a major part of it."

Evita, for example, is the subject of Argentinian Juan Carlos Desanzo's documentary Eva Perón (1996; screens Sunday, April 13 at 8:30 p.m. at the RISDAuditorium), which might be a useful corrective to the Madonna version. Another woman familiar to American audiences is Brazil's Sonia Braga, from Bruno Barreto's Doña Flor and Her Two Husbands (1978) and Hector Babenco's Kiss of the Spiderwoman (1985). She will be on hand with Carlos Diegues to present his new Tieta of Agreste (1996; screens Saturday, April 19 at 3 p.m. at the MFA; and on Sunday, April 20 at 7 p.m. at RISD), in which she stars as a modern, urbane woman who returns to her traditional village with newfangled attitudes and a troubling secret.

Less well-known are Sabina Beman and Isabelle Tardan, whose intriguingly titled romantic comedy Between Pancho Villa and a Naked Woman (1995; screens Friday, April 11 at 8:30 p.m. at the RISD) is the tale of a crusading woman who struggles for democracy in Mexico while receiving visits from the ghost of the title revolutionary. Or Solveig Hoogesteijn, the director of Santera (1996; screens Thursday, April 17 at 6 p.m. at RISD), in which a woman working for Amnesty International becomes entangled in the title cult.

Other films emphasizing women's roles and feminist issues include young Venezuelan director Fina Torres's frothy and surreal Celestial Clockwork (1994; screens April 16 at 3:30 p.m. at the MFA only) and Chilean filmmaker Tatiana Gaviola's debut feature, My Last Man (1996; screens Monday, April 14 at 8:30 at RISD).

There's also Jorge Ali Tiana's updating of Sophocles, Oedipus Mayor (1996; screens Thursday, April 10 at 7 p.m. at RISD), and a retrospective of the works of veteran Cuban filmmaker Julio García Espinosa (1996; on Saturday, and Sunday, April 12 and 13, at 4 p.m. at RISD).

Complementing the films will be panel discussions on such topics as "Women in Latin American Cinema," with participants including Wellesley College's Marjorie Agosin, Maria Silvina Persino of Simmons College, and yours truly. The emphasis, though, is on the films. " `A country without a film industry is like a family without a photo album,' " says Gamboa, quoting Colombian director Lisandro Duque.

The New England Latin American Film Festival runs April 11 through 19 at the Rhode Island School of Design Auditorium, as well as the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the Somerville Theatre. Call RISDat 454-6233, the MFA at (617) 267-9300, extension 300, and the Somerville at (617) 625-5700.

-- Peter Keough