The Latina-Canadian Gaze

Let’s shine a spotlight on the new wave of Latina-Canadian filmmakers who have directed NFB-produced films over the past decade.

A great way to kick off this celebration is to watch the most recent work by Cuba-born Canadian filmmaker Tamara Segura, Seguridad (2024) The film’s title plays on the director’s last name, beautifully encapsulating its subject matter. Following a world premiere at the Halifax Atlantic International Film Festival, where it won the DGC Award for Best Atlantic Documentary, Seguridad was awarded both Best Film and Best Documentary prizes at the 24th edition of Toronto’s aluCine Latin Film + Media Arts Festival.

Seguridad, Tamara Segura, provided by the National Film Board of Canada

Four Shorts from Two Mentorship Programs

Although Latin-American women have been making films at the NFB since the mid-1970s (e.g., Chilean-born pioneer Marilú Mallet), it wasn’t until the last decade that a new wave of Latina-Canadian cinema emerged at the National Film Board of Canada. These filmmakers include directors who identify as women and are either first-generation Canadians or were born in a Latin-American country. A fresh example is Canadian-Costa Rican Bianca Shonee Arroyo-Kreimes’ My World, Your Melody (2024), a delightfully unsettling animated short in which a choir of tropical frogs performs infectious pop.

My World, Your Melody, Bianca Shonee Arroyo-Kreimes, provided by the National Film Board of Canada

My World, Your Melody is part of the collection of one-minute animated shorts made for the 14th edition of the Hothouse animation mentorship program for emerging Canadian filmmakers. Created in 2003 by NFB Animation Studio producer Michael Fukushima and executive producer David Verrall, Hothouse seeks to re-imagine ways of making animation that are faster and more flexible—and that celebrate the shortest of short forms while maintaining creative and technical excellence, all hallmarks of NFB animation. Filmmaker and illustrator Karla Monterrosa, who’s originally from El Salvador, also participated in the 13th edition of this acclaimed program with her film Lo 100to (2022).

Lo 100to, karla monterrosa, provided by the National Film Board of Canada

The NFB is committed to becoming a hub for young Canadian filmmakers. To that end, it recently formed another mentorship program, called Alambic, an experimental creative lab that offers the unique perspectives of emerging Canadian animators. Under this new program, Montreal animator Bren Lopez Zepeda, who is of Mexican descent, made the film Modern Alchemy (2022), a quest for self that centres on resilience, reconstruction and rebirth.

Modern Alchemy, Bren López Zepeda, provided by the National Film Board of Canada

Alambic (whose first edition took place in 2022) offers artists who are beginning their careers the opportunity to create a film under three minutes long (while the Hothouse program produces one-minute shorts). Brazilian filmmaker Beatriz Carvalho contributed to the first edition of Alambic with her poetic and sound-rich travelogue Solid Ground (2022), a personal journal that reveals the thoughts of an expatriate returning to her native land.

Solid Ground, Beatriz Carvalho, provided by the National Film Board of Canada

Depicting Quebec Through a Latina-Montrealer’s Point of Vue

One of my favourite recent NFB releases is Saturday Night (2021) by Rosana Matecki. Narrated by the Venezuelan-born filmmaker herself, this 15-minute short recalls how the collective mourning of Leonard Cohen’s death gave her a sense of belonging to Montreal for the first time, as she crossed paths with other Latin-American immigrants also seeking an intimate connection with their adoptive city. This is a doc about the bittersweet feeling of aging in a Canadian city, captured through the eyes of a Latinx-Canadian/Quebecer filmmaker.

Saturday Night, Rosana Matecki, provided by the National Film Board of Canada

Saturday Night, which had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, takes place almost entirely inside a ballroom where Latin Americans and Canadians gather to dance the tango, in a city that seems to be undergoing constant and endless construction. From beginning to end, all the characters appear to be moving—not necessarily dancing but performing their own personal rituals. The film’s moody tempo and the characters’ intimate revelations—as well as the theme of fear of solitude—make the film all the more compelling to audiences. Although the camera work, sound design and constant movement of the characters are all impeccable, the editing is what keeps the film together, as it creates a rhythm that immerses audiences in the director’s emotive voiceover. Truly a must-watch Latinx-Canadian NFB film!

As Night Descends, Nadine Gomez, provided by the National Film Board of Canada

Nadine Gomez’s As Night Descends (2020) is a film essay composed of two elements: a soundtrack featuring the thoughts of French Canadian sociologist and political thinker Jean Pichette, and glimpses of everyday life from an unseen protagonist, which make the images seem like found footage. This film could be described as a lucid encounter between Chris Marker and Jonas Mekas. Made during the pandemic, As Night Descends afforded this Mexican-Canadian filmmaker the opportunity to rethink our modes of existence and our relationship to others.

A Deeply Moving and Visually Creative Film[s][i]

While studying at The International Film and Television School (EICTV) in her native Cuba, Tamara Segura won a scholarship to attend The Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema at Concordia University in Montreal in 2012. Just a couple of years later, the Cuban director released her first film for the NFB, A Song for Cuba (2014). This film explores the reminiscences of a young Cuban couple charting a new course for their lives on an island in the North Atlantic (Newfoundland). This film is not only Segura’s directorial debut but also the film that launched this new wave of Latina-Canadian filmmakers at the NFB. Segura wrote, directed, and played one of the main roles in the film, which premiered at Halifax’s Atlantic Film Festival in 2014.

Song for Cuba, Tamara Segura, provided by the National Film Board of Canada

A decade later, Segura premiered her first feature-length film, Seguridad (2024) –featured above. Through a series of deeply personal on-camera interviews with her immediate family, Segura unearths long-held secrets that ultimately tell a story of resilience and profound love between family members. This film artfully weaves a lifetime’s worth of still photographs into its intimate narrative, offering a rare glimpse into the inner lives of Cubans in the post-revolutionary era. In Seguridad, the Cuban director incorporates a very intimate (and yet public) component of her personal story, masterfully crystallizing reflections that have haunted her for decades. This is one of the most personal, yet universal films recently released by the NFB. AluCine’s jury stated that this film “unpacks the complexities of sorrow, disappointment, expectations, resilience, family, love, and the Cuban Revolution.”[ii]

Enjoy this collection of must-watch Latina-Canadian NFB films, including the first feature-length doc directed by a Latina-Canadian filmmaker for Canada’s public film agency in over 20 years!