San Antonio Filmmaker Brings Pandemic-Era Short 'A Life in Technicolor' to Cine Las Americas

Austin has long been known for independent filmmaking and for hosting film festivals. In the late 1990s, though, some local film enthusiasts felt a gap remained, and they moved to fill it.

The result was the Cine Las Americas International Film Festival. Over 25 years it has gone through several iterations and changed locations, but its purpose has held steady: presenting movies made by and about Latinos and Indigenous peoples across the Americas. This year's festival opened Wednesday in Austin.

Among the filmmakers attending is San Antonio's Alex Ramirez, whose latest short, "A Life in Technicolor," is part of the program. Ramirez, a Mexican-American director, spoke with the Texas Standard about the festival, the film and the future of Latinos in cinema. He said the festival has been on his radar for about 10 years, since he began making films, and called screening there "a real honor."

Ramirez said Cine Las Americas fits into the broader conversation about Latino representation by programming work that is vital to the community. In his view, the festival explores what it means to be Mexican-American, Latinx, Latino or Latina in the contemporary world "in a very powerful way."

The film is set during the coronavirus lockdowns. Its protagonist, Natalie, played by Josey Porras, loves old movies, and her world gradually loses its color. Ramirez said the premise is built into the title and grew out of the sense of being trapped that many people felt during the pandemic, along with his own need for more color in his life.

Production took place in 2021, during a dip in COVID-19 cases, when Ramirez and his crew had already spent more than a year isolated indoors. He said they were eager to get back to making movies, and that he wrote a story the team could realistically shoot under the circumstances.

Asked whether a short film is harder to get in front of audiences than a feature, Ramirez said conditions vary depending on the venue and the film's length. Still, he said he makes pictures for expression and did not worry about where the film would be shown. He wanted to make something that could brighten his own world, and to convey loneliness and isolation, including that of an artist who still wants to create. He said that feeling is externalized in Natalie.

The film also moves visually from a modern look toward something resembling the silent-film era, with a grainier image. Ramirez said he likes telling new stories with old techniques and has always loved old Hollywood. The approach, he said, connects to his mother, with whom he bonded over movies. The film is dedicated to her, and he described it as an exploration of cinema at its roots during a strange time in the world.

Ramirez said he and his mother constantly talked about and watched movies together. Once someone is "bitten by cinema," he said, they look back to the first moments of inspiration, and he credited his mother with instilling that in him.