The Watsonville Film Festival is the only Latino film festival in California between San Francisco and L.A. It’s been going strong for twelve years now. This year's festival runs March 7 - 17.
Consuelo Alba is the co-founder and executive director of the Watsonville Film Festival. She says it all started with a conversation she had with an educator who was making films with students.
"We were talking about the need to have a space to tell our own stories and to share our talent and to share the nuance and richness and complexities of our community," Alba said. "We never saw that reflected in the media. And we didn’t know we would be here 12 years later."
International women’s day falls on March 8 this year, the second day of the festival. On that day, all the films are about women or directed by women. One of those female directors is Eugenia Renteria, a graduate of the cinematic arts and technology program at CSUMB.
Two of Renteria’s films featured in the festival couldn’t be more different. One is a drama called "13 Años, 9 Kilómetros," or "13 years, 9 kilometers." It’s a short film about a 13-year-old boy from Watsonville who walks 9 kilometers to see the ocean for the first time. The film explores how many young people who live close to the beach never get to go there due to multiple barriers, including transportation.
"[It's about] not having direct transportation to the beach when you don’t own a car or when your parents work full-time jobs," Renteria said. "Going to the beach is a privilege in a way for a lot of different people in our community, and so those are some of the different aspects that we explore."
Renteria’s other film featured in the festival is "Amor en Cuarentena" or "Love in Quarantine," which began as a web series back in 2020. Set on the Central Coast, the film follows Emi, a teacher and hopeless romantic, as she looks for love during a pandemic.
"It’s in Spanglish," Renteria said. "It's a comedy and it talks about the different issues that we experience living in this area of California."
The festival will also feature a music video from Watsonville singer/songwriter Gabi Bravo, for her song "Apaga La Luz” or "Turn off the Light." It’s a celebratory video in which Bravo and her friends and fellow musicians dance and jam on the beach, which fits perfectly with the bossa nova tropical vibe of the song.
"She [Bravo] works with a team of filmmakers who produce her music videos," explained Alba, "so it’s celebrating the amazing talent we have in our community through film, through music."
Bravo will close out Friday night with a special live performance following the film screenings.
The Watsonville Film Festival runs March 7 - 17 at various locations in Watsonville and online. Find the online schedule here.