Hispanic culture hits city screens Film fest bigger this time

161015PBHispanic ORGANISERS of the Wanganui stage of the Latin America and Spain Film Festival are (from left) Andrea Gardner, Beverly Stuart, Queralt Scott and Antonio Salas. PICTURE / PAUL BROOKS

The 14th Latin America and Spain Film Festival is about to hit town and Wanganui's Hispanic community is right behind it.
Twelve films, from Spain and Central and South America, in Spanish or Portuguese, will be screened at the Davis Lecture Theatre between October 22 and November 14. Entry is free and the films have English subtitles.
Queralt Scott hails from Barcelona; she speaks Catalan, Spanish and English and is one of the organisers of the Wanganui stage of the film festival.
She is married to Simon and has lived in New Zealand for five years. She takes an avid interest in Catalonian politics but Wanganui is home. She teaches Spanish at Wanganui High School and does so voluntarily at Wanganui Intermediate and St John's School.
Queralt is part of a group of about 30 people from different countries who got together at a barbecue.
"We have people from Argentina, we have Colombians, Chileans, Peruvians; we have people from El Salvador, from Cuba, a couple of couples from Brazil ... and we get together once a month. That was the rule; once a month, in a different house we're going to chit chat and dance." They bring food according to their nationalities and indulge in Latin American dance.
"It was Antonio [Salas] from Chile; Beverly - a Kiwi who lived in Peru and is very good in Spanish; Andrea from California who is really fluent in Spanish ... and me, and we got together over coffee and we said we need to do something. We'd like to show Wanganui something about our countries."
The original idea was to perhaps borrow movies from embassies and present them in Wanganui. "And that is when we found this Latin America and Spain Film Festival," says Queralt. "It was a circuit of seven cities and we wanted to be part of it so we had our first one last year. This is our second year.
"Last year was an absolute success. We worked hard and we had wonderful support from our sponsors here so we were the last city to arrive, the smallest city ... but we had the biggest attendance at the film festival and the event."
The committee is organising for a bigger event this year. A group of Flamenco dancers is coming and there will be a Capoeira demonstration.
"I think it's going to be better and the movies look more interesting this year," says Queralt. The event will be at the Sargeant Gallery at 7pm on Saturday, November 7, with entertainment, refreshments and appearances by available ambassadors.