The 29th Dallas Video Festival kicks off tonight running through Oct. 23 and the 125 films, documentaries and other media appear to have one common theme: diversity. Not only diversity of filmmakers and performers, but in viewpoints. The movies shown range from a reimagined ReBirth of a Nation (yes the original one) to one the world premieres, Streets of Scion the story of a Latino man trying to understand his place in the world.
One of the films showcased on opening night is Streets of a Scion, a film made by one of Weiss’ University of Texas at Arlington students. He watched Gabe Duran develop the concept and ultimately the film over the years.
In his Indiegogo description of the project, Duran shared his motivation for the making this film.
“I want to breathe new life into the under-represented Chicano experience and bring the audience closer to me through my stories. I desire to use storytelling as a tool to bring the audience into my world, a world that mainstream media ignores, or when it does “shed-light” on it, it’s done from a stereotypical outsiders point of view. Debunking those stereotypes and connecting with people emotionally is the reason I make films.”
In the movie, a young man whose father is a member of the Black Mafia has died, leaving him and his Latina mother to make it on their own. The gang members seen in the movie are not playing a role they read about, they are in fact gangsters, and those are no harmless toy guns they are banding around. They are real guns.
The Streets of Scion is tonight at the Angelika in Dallas at 9:15 p.m. Get tickets and info here. The festival runs through Sunday, Oct. 23. Stay tuned for more information about the festival tomorrow.
