Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts (MCCLA) will host the seventh annual San Francisco Video Fest with screenings on Thursday, October 14 and Saturday, October 16. Events on Saturday include a reception and celebration where you can meet the filmmakers and a screening of 2501 Migrants: A Journey by Yolanda Cruz. A question and answer session with Ms. Cruz follows.

MCCLA launched Video Fest in May 2004 as a video contest for Latino artists worldwide and non-Latino artists who focus on Latino themes and communities. It includes genres such as short fiction, short documentary, experimental, video art, and youth producers. This year’s Video Fest explores the “lesser known aspects of the everyday” of travellers, explorers, migrants, and wayfarers.

The 2010 Video Fest official selections include:

• “Homes for the Homies" produced by Gloria Morán (13 minutes, 2009). A long time Mission resident preserves the historic memory of her neighborhood through her art.
• "Medellín" produced by Patricia Montoya (10 minutes, 2009). A lyrical farewell to the city of the filmmaker's youth.
• "The Oak Park Story" produced by Valerie Soe and Russell Jeung (20 minutes, 2010). A short doc on how a group of Cambodian and Mexican immigrants built an unlikely coalition to fight a slumlord, win housing rights and discover a collective sense of dignity.
• "Sin País" documentary produced by Theo Rigby (20 minutes, 2010). When immigration agents raid their home, a family of Guatemalan immigrants is divided across a continent, presenting unique challenges for everyone involved.

Click here for more information about this year’s Video Fest.

Film enthusiast will also want to catch a screening of Cointelpro 101, a new documentary film by the Freedom Archives.

The documentary “exposes illegal surveillance, disruption, and outright murder committed by the US government in the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s.” Using interviews from activists who experienced abuse from Cointelpro firsthand and rare historical footage, “the film provides an educational introduction to a period of intense repression and draws relevant lessons for the present and future.” Freedom Archives will hold screenings at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. on October 10, 2010 at the MCCLA Theater.