LOCAL Houston | The City Guide JANUARY 2016 | Page 38

F

...IS FOR FILMS

“The Amazing Catfish” (Mexico)

FILMS AS DIVERSE AS OUR CITY
We are the most diverse city in the country so it makes sense that the films
served up are as diverse as our citizens. The variety of choices doesn’t
quite match the ninety languages spoken in this wild and wooly city every
day but almost. Just over the past few years, you could see films like “Jiro
Dreams of Sushi” (Japan); “The Amazing Catfish” (Mexico); “The Island
President” (Maldives Islands); and “Virgin Margarida” (Mozambique).
We have spots that show foreign films on a regular basis and we have a
variety of film festivals representing various cultures. To understand it all,
you’ll need a road map to get you there. Consider me your tour guide.

ning festival and will be onscreen January 22–23 and January 29–30 as
well as at the Asia Society Texas Center on February 4 and at Rice
Cinema (www.film.rice.edu/Events.aspx) February 5–6. L’Alliance de Française
Houston, Inc. is co-presenting “Five Funny French Films” with the MFAH
from March 4–6 and “Latin Wave: New Films from Latin America” will be
there from April 28–May 1. The Houston Palestine Film Festival (www.hpff.org)
will open up at the MFAH on May 13 and then films will be screened at
the Museum and at Rice Cinema. And, finally, the Turkish Film Festival will
hit the Museum sometime in October.

The fun of exploring the diversity of films in Houston is that you not only
can see authentic films from around the world, but you can also experience
the culture through food and events as well as the people attending those
events. Several organizations that offer these kinds of programs also host
regular movie nights at their venues including the Czech Center Museum
Houston (www.czechcenter.org); L’Alliance de Française Houston, Inc.
(www.alliancefrancaise.org); the Italian Cultural & Community Center (www.iccchouston.com); and the Russian Cultural Center (www.ourtx.org). You can catch
Bollywood Films at Funasia (www.funasia.net/index.php), a variety of foreign
films at Asia Society Texas Center (www.asiasociety.org/texas) and the occasional African (not just African American) film at the Houston Museum of
African American Culture (www.hmaac.org).

The Evelyn Rubenstein Jewish Community Center (www.erjcchouston.org) presents several film programs each year – the Houston Jewish Film Festival
(March 5–20); the “Summer Israeli Film Series” with the Consulate of
Israel; and a film series during the Ann and Stephen Kaufman Jewish Book
& Arts Fair each November. On other screens around town there will be
the Indian Film Festival of Houston (www.iffhinc.org) (dates tbd); the Houston
Asian American Pacific Islander Film Festival (www.haapiff.org) (probably in
June N