Crosstown Arts will host four short documentaries from a film festival that was started in Mexico called “Ambulante” as part of Indie Memphis’ and Crosstown Arts’ monthly Microcinema event held on Sept. 17.
The Microcinema Club is a project from Indie Memphis. It takes place once a month and is open to the public. The event is a pay-what-you-can/free admissions that promotes local and international films.
“At Crosstown Arts we’re all about community and collaboration,” Thompson said. “We have an art gallery, we have a community space that can be rented out by anyone as long as it is open to the public, an after-school-program and a flea market that is open every weekend.”
Ambulante is an international documentary film festival that travels throughout Mexico, Central America and this year Colombia and California. The film festival began back in 2005 and has grown to become one of the largest documentary film festivals in Mexico. According to the Ambulante website they see documentaries as a tool for ‘social and cultural transformation.’
“Their pretty awesome,” Justin Thompson, the video producer at Crosstown Arts, said. “They are incredible documentaries.”
Ambulante Beyond is a branch of the festival that works to provide training and publicity to those in Latin America who would otherwise not have the resources to share their stories.
“This project is putting the camera in the hands of those communities,” Isabel Machado, a Ph.d candidate at the University of Memphis said.
Most poor and indigenous communities around the world don’t have access to the film industry.
Machado had an anecdote for this.
“My friends here in the Southeastern U.S. are always complaining how Hollywood shows the South,” Machado said. “The industry is in the hands of those that can afford it. There is a hierarchy there.”
Richard Lou, the chairman of the art department at the U of M and chair of Centro Cultural Latino de Memphis, said people try to fit in with their culture.
“People find power in being able to reflect upon their culture and not feel isolated.” Richard Lou, the chair of the art department at the U of M and chair of centro cultural Latino de Memphis said. “I think when people are able to find and cultivate their own voice it’s part of the democratic process,” Lou said.
For this event Crosstown Arts and Indie Memphis are partnering with Centro Cultural Latino de Memphis. For Lou this partnership makes perfect sense.
“Progressive institutions-like Crosstown Arts and Indie Memphis-want to reach out to a diverse audience and develop as diverse an audience as possible,” Lou said.
The Centro host events throughout the year to promote Latino culture and diversity in Memphis. Caritas Village located on 2509 Harvard Ave. is home to the Centro. There they also offer weekly activities such as poetry classes in Spanish, Aztec dancing lessons and more.
“This is the first Latino cultural center in Memphis, probably in all of Tennessee,” Lou said. “We’re each others neighbors. Really it’s about expanding the notion of family and expanding the notion of community. It is a way of breaking barriers.”
Machado said she hopes the event will show what these groups are doing in the Latin American community.
“[The hope] is that this event will help bring a larger awareness for the Latin American community and these groups that are doing amazing things,” Machado said. “Representation means power.”
As a form of art and expression, documentaries also give the filmmakers a chance to empower themselves and their communities.
“Who better than yourself to tell your own story,” Thompson said.
The event will begin at 7 p.m. on Wednesday and last for 90 minutes. Afterwards there will be an informal discussion.
