John Leguizamo’s new film Critical Thinking will play at the OC Film Fiesta that is now being held online through Oct. 25.
Slated to screen this Saturday, the Leguizamo’s drama tells the true story of the remarkable feat accomplished by a Cuban-American teacher who in 1998 took a group of disparate kids from Miami Jackson High School to become the first inner city school to win the U.S. National Chess Championship.
Critical Thinking is one of about 50 films being featured this year at the fest based in Santa Ana, a Southern California city in Orange County. There are movies starring Linda Ronstadt, Culture Clash, Jesse Borrego, Kristina Wong, Natalia Dyer (Stranger Things), Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar‘s ‘muse’ Rossy De Palma, Pepe Serna, the late Mexican crooner José José, and Patrick Harder, an acclaimed director of music videos by artists such as Prince, Foo Fighters, Hillary Duff and The Afghan Whigs.
Feature titles include: Going Rogue, Hometown Proud, Illegal, In the Defense Against Tyranny, La Llorona, Linda and the Mockingbirds, Sound Of Justice, The Horror Crowd, Tu Me Manques, Tuscaloosa, and Phoenix, Oregon.
This year’s festival also presents several Orange County filmmakers, programming partnerships with the cities of Denver, Colorado and San Antonio, Texas. It also offers a special focus on democracy. The program showcases movies from Mexico, Bolivia, United Kingdom, Italy, Taiwan, Macedonia, The Republic Of Moldova, Ghana, Tunisia, India, Iran and Iraq.
Conversations with filmmakers, workshops and special programs are also part of the festival’s 11th annual edition.
The OC Film Fiesta is a program of Media Arts Santa Ana, MASA, a project of the nonprofit Community Partners.
For tickets and more information, visit www.masamedia.org
—CESAR ARREDONDO