Chicago Latino Film Festival gets rolling

The 38th Chicago Latino Film Festival opens tonight with 86 films — some with key local connections.

• Festival closer "Bye Bye Chicago" is about an unlikely friendship between a Mexican artist and Colombian student.

We asked festival rep and longtime arts journalist Alejandro Riera to walk us through this year's offerings.

The lineup: "It's one of our most thematically diverse," Riera tells Axios. "We have a strong selection of features and shorts and films made by and about Latin America's and Spain's LGBTQ community."

• Three examples: Sundance-winning Dos Estaciones, Nudo Mixteco, and Candela, based on the novel by Chicago-based playwright Rey Andújar.

Top picks: "This is where I am going to wave my Puerto Rican flag high and highlight two features from the island:

• "Perfume de Gardenias, about the very Puerto Rican tradition among women of a certain age attending every single funeral in their community."
• "La última gira, a fictionalized account of legendary bolero singer Daniel Santos."
• Riera is also looking forward to Eva Longoria's debut feature, La Guerra Civil about the rivalry between Julio César Chávez and Oscar de la Hoya.

How to choose: "Start with your favorite genre. Love horror? We have three really gory, really suspenseful, really scary films. Documentaries? Comedies? Thrillers? We got plenty."

• "And since a good number of our films have played in other festivals, check the reviews."

If you go: Tickets for screenings at theaters, drive-ins, or online are available through May 1.