AUSTIN, Texas—The romantic comedy Gabriela will premiere in a special showing free and open to the public at 8 p.m. Thursday (Feb. 22) at The University of Texas at Austin.
The screening in Batts 7 (South Mall area) is linked to a roundtable discussion — Towards the Positive Portrayal of Latinos in Film — earlier in the day as part of the college tour by the Premiere Weekend Club. The roundtable event at 3:30 p.m. in FAC 21 (Flawn Academic Center), located just west of the UT Austin Tower, also is free and open to the public.
Gabriela, a production of Power Point Films, has been credited for inspiring a social movement and the formation of the Premiere Weekend Club organization. It is attracting attention for its groundbreaking positive portrayals of Latinos.
The forum will feature actress Seidy López (Gabriela, Mi Vida Loca), filmmaker Vincent Miller (Gabriela), UT Austin professors José Lim&pacute;n and Charles Ramírez-Berg, doctoral student Mary Claude Beltran and Professor Federico Subervi serving as moderator. Focus will be on past and present Latino representations and portrayals in Hollywood films. López and Miller will be available for interviews.
The Premiere Weekend Club is a non-profit organization that promotes Latino films and artists and celebrates the positive images of such. Their purpose is to serve as a catalyst to create a paradigm, which will help diminish current stereotypes and inaccurate Latino representations.
The department of Radio-Television-Film, the Center for Mexican-American Studies at UT Austin and Latino USA are co-sponsors of the Premiere College Tour. The February visit to the UT Austin campus is one of the first destinations scheduled on this first annual, nationwide college tour of the Premiere Weekend Club organization.
For additional information, contact Subervi at (512) 471-6668, or Jordana Barton of the Center for Mexican American Studies at (512) 471-2136.
