2009 November « Blog of All Trades

I.
When one seeks to learn more about their culture they turn to the arts. May they be film, painting, photography, sculpture, music, or culinary, clues of the past lie within them. Many American born Latinos face the world through two different filters, the American eye and the Latino eye. Becoming more and more acculturated, 2nd and 3rd generation Latinos begin to lose and in some cases never even learn of their heritage, culture, or ancestry.
I want to bring this culture back to people in the Latino community and especially to 2nd and 3rd generation Latinos who may feel a disconnection or divide between their American culture and Latino culture. I want to take what they are experiencing inside the home and bring it out and expand upon it. What I came up with was a Film/Art/Culture festival as a way to combine all facets of Latino cultures in an accessible way.

Through preliminary research I was able to look at different Latin American cultural festivals and the kinds of events they offer for the community. I started by looking at what was offered in the New York/New Jersey area to see how they compared to my idea. What I found was that there are many parades and festivals held in the area that take place on days of a country’s independence. For instance the Colombian Festival held in both Queens, NY and Hackensack, NJ take place in July on the weekend that falls closest to July 20th, their independence day. Both of these festivals feature cuisine, music, and crafts but rarely or ever films or fine artists from that country.
I also found a number of Latino Film Festivals that take place over the course of the year that showcase only in film theaters, giving the audience a normal movie going experience. Such film festivals are The New York International Latino Film Festival, The Rio de Janeiro Film Festival, and the Havana Film Festival to name a few.
There are only two festivals that come close to what I am proposing. My festival would lie somewhere in the middle of these two extremes. One is the high end Sundance Film Festival, where Park City, UT is basically shut down except for film connoisseurs and the Hollywood types. The other is a small block party in Newark called the Halsey Street Block Party. Here a small section of Newark is shut down for the community to experience films, food, and art that their community members are producing (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c13x4MJ83ds).
I believe after seeing the two extremes my festival would be great because it reaches out to the larger community but is not so big that it loses its intimacy and connection with the community.

II.
To get an idea of what the potential audience for this festival is looking for, and to get a feel for what relevant knowledge they already have, I conducted a survey. The participants were male and female U.S. born Latinos living in the New York/New Jersey area and between the ages of 18-50. These are my core audience because I want to reach out to bi-cultural American born Latinos to reintroduce them to their heritage and some of the culture that is sometimes lost to 2nd and 3rd generation Latinos. Myself being 3rd generation, it was interesting to see what my counterparts felt and how it was the same or how it differed from my views. Also, as a supplement to my survey, I read some of the Cassandra Multicultural Report 2009 (www.trendcentral.com) findings.

III.
By way of an email survey and supplementary information learned from the Cassandra Multicultural Report 2009, this is what I found.
Out of the youngest generation of people surveyed (19-21) very few had an interest for the arts coming from their country of heritage. They were most interested in their American culture and status. It was also interesting to see, though, that those surveyed in this group from the New York area had more of an affinity to their Latino roots than those in the New Jersey suburban area. These young New Yorkers were more open to attending a festival like the one I envision. When looking at the results of the median group of people surveyed (24-29) this changed drastically. All of them not only had the interest, but also had some ready knowledge of films and artists coming from their countries of heritage as well as other Latin American countries. They cited mostly music artists such as Ricky Martin, Shakira, Los Amigos Invisibles, Juan Luis Guerra, and Bebel Gilberto as some of their favorites. This shows me that there is a great diversity in musical tastes and those surveyed in this group are open to new musical genres. When asked about their knowledge of Latin American films, they cited films such as the popular City of God (Brasil), Y tu Mama Tambien (Mexico), Amores Perros (Mexico) as some of their favorites. This shows me that there is an opportunity here to bring more films from Latin America for exposure to this audience. The oldest generation surveyed (31-48) showed almost the same results. They had the same general knowledge of Latin American films and also showed a great diversity in musical tastes. The one thing that changed with this group were the music artists that they cited as some of their favorites. This is most likely a generational divide since they are listening to the same genres, but less contemporary artist. They cited groups such as Mana, Los Tigres del Norte, Joao Gilberto, and Celia Cruz as some of their favorites.
The most consistent finding for me is that across all age groups, they all felt that there was an under representation of Latin American culture. According to the Cassandra Multicultural Report 2009, this was true of the Hispanic youth they studied as well. The oldest group surveyed seemed to find that their representation came in the form of artist such as Jennifer Lopez, Eva Mendez, Marc Anthony, Benjamin Bratt and John Leguizamo.
There was a lot of concern among those surveyed with South American Heritage that there is always focus, especially in our New York City area, on certain groups such as Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Mexico but not much cultural representation for films or arts coming from their nations. The biggest take away for me is because of the little knowledge that all groups showed for films coming from Latin America shows me that there is a great opportunity here for exposure.

The next step in my process is to take this information and use it to guide a preliminary round of branding and identity for this cultural initiative. Certain film festivals, such as the New York International Latino Film Festival, Sundance, Tribeca Film Festival, and Premiere Brazil have some examples of clean text driven logos that inspire the direction in branding I would like to take(fig.1a-1d). In the long term, this research in addition to future focus groups and more in depth study of the Hispanic communities in the New York/New Jersey area will also be used to help me make an informed decision on location and venue design.

IV.
In conclusion, my proposal is to curate a festival that can be in a self-contained venue, such as the MOMA PS1 in Queens or El Museo del Barrio in New York City, just as an example as hypothetical/potential venues. This event would take place every year during Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15-October 15). Every week would feature a different Latin American groups’ films, artworks, and music in the galleries of the venue. For example, the countries would be divided into groups such as the Latin Caribbean, Mexico & Central America, South America, and the American Latino Movement. By doing so, there can be more focus on these groups individually and this would also allow for a more in depth experience of art works. Each Saturday during the month, live bands and food vendors would set up in the outdoor parts of the venue showcasing the music and cuisine of these countries. Patrons would be able to listen to bands and enjoy the food outdoors, as well as the artworks on the gallery walls and films in the screening rooms indoors making for a multisensory experience of culture.

1a. hbo_nyi_latino_logopd http://nylatinofilm.com/index.html