The mission of the MSU Latinx Film Festival (LxFF) is to create a space for the celebration and promotion of independent Latinx cinema, which we conceive of inclusively as Spanish, English and Portuguese language films from Latin America, the United States and the Iberian Peninsula. We promote films that are not readily available in the U.S. that challenge audiences to see the world differently. We seek to celebrate Latinx filmmaking and inspire public debates and private reflection about the social, cultural and political questions raised by Latinx cinema through post-screening discussions, director Q&As and special events, in addition to the informal interactions organically generated by the festival.
LxFF is as a bold initiative of MSU’s Department of Romance & Classical Studies (RCS) and it has grown to become a collaborative effort between multiple academic units and a number of institutional and community partners led by RCS faculty and graduate students. LxFF has been consistently supported by important grants from MSU’s Office of Inclusion & Intercultural Initiatives and Pragda, the leading educational distributor of Latin American, Spanish and Latinx films. LxFF is a member of the Arts Council of Greater Lansing, and LxFF 2020 received competitive sponsorship from the Michigan Film & Digital Media Office, recognizing it as an important state cultural initiative. The vision of LxFF is to become a dynamic Latinx festival of reference and to promote independent Latinx filmmaking within the Great Lakes region.