Lost & Found at the Movies: Stories from Latino L.A.

Featuring Special Guests Edward James Olmos and Alejandra Espasande-Bouza
In conversation with John Nein, Senior Programmer, Sundance Film Festival

In celebrating the breadth and diversity of Latino film culture in Los Angeles, we’re joined by actor and filmmaker Edward James Olmos, LA born and bred, for a look at the films and experiences that were formative to his work as well as his role in the emergence of a strong, distinctive cinema that countered stereotypes and offered complex stories of Latino characters and communities.

As a prologue, we also explore one of the most fascinating but overlooked stories in Hollywood history: the Spanish-language features produced by the studio system in the early years of talkies, after the introduction of sound threatened Hollywood’s once universal product. These films (like Universal’s 1931 Dracula in which you will find Carlos Villarias rather than Bela Lugosi bearing fangs) as well as those imported from Latin America, sustained a string of downtown theaters and a thriving film culture from the 1930s to the early 1960s.

Sadly many of these movies, stars and theatres have been lost to time, but we remember them with film archivist Alejandra Espasande-Bouza (Academy Film Archive) along with a sneak peek at some rare treasures forthcoming from the Academy Film Archive and the UCLA Film & Television Archive PST programs.

LFLA Members enjoy exclusive access to the exhibition Visualizing Language: Oaxaca in L.A. prior to the program, and a Member Reception to follow the program.

Lost & Found at the Movies is generously supported by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association