The Tribeca Film Festival, which started in 2002 as a vehicle to bring people back to downtown Manhattan post 9-11-01, celebrated it 6th year and closed this past weekend. This year the festival spanned more of the borough of Manhattan than ever before with films, festival, and discussions with the filmmakers and actors. Featured are no less than 26 films with Latino/Hispanic content or filmmakers. These films explore a range of genres from documentaries to drama and highlight well known cinema players and new blood.

The documentaries cover subject matter as varied as the Latino/Hispanic diaspora itself. One film which has been particularly acclaimed is The Man of Two Havanas, directed by Vivian Lesnik Weisman, daughter of Cuban exile activist Max Lesnik. But Lesnik is not the typical Miami Cuban and this has cost him and hi family. He fought in the Cuban revolution beside Castro and his exile has been spent not demonizing Fidel but rather exploring the nuances of the revolution and its aftermath, including the growth of right wing Cubans who have resorted to terrorism sponsored in part by the U.S. government. The 96 minute film explores how the father’s passion impacted the daughter’s life, bearing witness to attempts on her father’s life and expanding hers and everyone’s definition of what makes a good Cuban-American.

Another highly touted documentary is Chavez, directed by Mexican actor Diego Luna. This film focuses on the career of Mexican boxing champion and legend Julio Cesar Chavez and the passing of the gloves , if you will, from father to son.

Many of the films presented at the Tribeca Film Festival hope to be noticed to gain wider distribution to be shown for wider audiences around the country. If the breadth of the Latino/Hispanic talent displayed at this year’s festival is any indication, stories and perspectives often overlooked by the mainstream will soon be more readily displayed and available to the greater public.

For more information visit www.TribecaFilmFesitival.org