|
|
|
|
The Victoria College. Full-time salaried position with benefits available...
DISTRICT "Champions for Community Wellness" has the following positions...
Film.
That all changes this year with the 22nd annual symposium, which focuses on Mexican-Americans in films, symposium committee member Dan Jaeckle said.
“We try to change our topics every year and film is pretty much the only genre in the arts we haven’t covered,” he said. “When the idea to focus on film came before the committee, they adopted it immediately.”
The symposium is a collaboration between the University of Houston-Victoria and the De León Club of Victoria to promote awareness of the Hispanic culture and history in the area, according to a university news release. The De León Club was formed in 1965 and is a nonprofit organization that works to improve the quality of life in Victoria, Jaeckle added.
The symposium begins this evening at 7 p.m. with “A Night of Chicano Film” and continues Saturday with two presentations.
One of the highlights of the symposium is the Victoria premiere of the short film “19 Victoria,” which is about the 19 illegal immigrants who died in 2003 outside of Victoria after being abandoned in the tractor trailer they were riding in. Directed by Dolissa Medina, the film has been shown as far away as Paris and Colombia, and has won various film festival awards.
Other films to be featured in the symposium are “El Bebop Kid” and “Lydia Mendoza: Una Mirada” by Carlos Calbillo. A writer, journalist and community activist, Calbillo is also one of three presenters at the event.
Oscar Oviedo, an adjunct faculty member for Lone Star Community College, will speak on the Mexican-American experience through film. Domino Renee Perez, Ph.D., an author and a professor at the University of Texas at Austin, will present “Mothers, Martyrs & Mamacitas: (Re)presenting NosOtras in Film.”
Although the symposium focuses on Hispanic culture and history, committee member Tina Kidder said she hopes this event reaches out to the community at large.
“It’s not just for Hispanics. We want to reach out to everyone in the community and would like to get more people involved,” she said. “We want to start a community conversation.”
For more information on the Martin De León Symposium on the Humanities, contact Jaeckle at 361-570-4225.
Aprill Brandon is a reporter for the Advocate. Contact her at 361-580-6514 or abrandon@vicad.com.