OC Film Fiesta, Documentary on Mormon Church and Prop 8 Roll in Santa Ana Tonight

OC Film Fiesta continues tonight through Sunday in downtown Santa Ana with a
classic film from the Mexican Golden Age about politics and integrity, an award-winning documentary that features
interviews with some of the last surviving members of Emiliano Zapata's
army, Walt Disney in South America, Marlon Brando all Mexed up and much, much more.

And now for something completely different . . .
]

For tonight, Santa Ana is also the site of a very different screening. It's the documentary 8: The Mormon Proposition, which is about the influence of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on the initiative that outlawed same-sex marriage in California.

Since we've already given OC Film Fiesta some love, we'll start with the Mormons.

Reed Cowan's documentary, which previously screened at Sundance and the Newport Beach Film Festival, is an eye-opener, revealing the Mormon church has been heavily embroiled in a secretive,
decades-long campaign against LGBT human rights. It screens at 7 tonight not in a Mormon temple but the Church of the Foothills, 19211 Dodge Ave. (at Newport), Santa Ana. Call 714.544.1319 for more details.

OC Film Fiesta continues a half hour earlier tonight with El Compadre Mendoza, a
classic film from the Mexican Golden Age about an opportunistic landowner who wants to be everyone's compadre. Rosalio Mendoza entertains government officers with his
best cognac and then breaks out the mescal for the rebels. But everything changes for Mendoza after he marries an impoverished young beauty. A pot-luck reception follows tonight's 6:30 screening at CALACAS, 324 W. 4th St., Santa Ana.

The Fiesta continues 2 p.m. Thursday with Short Film
Showcase, which is part of the Santa Ana College student body's “Hispanic Heritage” celebration, followed at 3 p.m. by Francesco Taboada Tabone's award-winning documentary Los Ultimos
Zapatistas
, which features
interviews with some of the last surviving members of Emiliano Zapata's
army. The flicks roll in the college's Phillips Auditorium, 1530 W. 17th St., Santa Ana.

That same evening, the Fiesta's Latino Short Film Program includes Paul Bobadilla's award-winning drama Tijuaneros, which is out of Chapman University and is about an aspiring photographer who snaps the death of his best friend in Tijuana. This program begins at 5 p.m. at Original Mike's at Main and First in Santa Ana.

The previous screening lingers into the Happy Hour at downtown developer Mike Harrah's restaurant and watering hole, which is great because the drink specials should lighten the mood in time for the 7 p.m. screening there of the 1986 John Landis comedy ¡Three Amigos!, which stars Chevy Chase, Martin Short and Garden Grove's own Steve Martin. They play a trio of silent movie stars who are mistaken for actual revolutionary
heroes by villagers threatened by the menacing El Guapo, played to the
hilt by Alfonso Arau.
[

Walt Disney, his wife Lilly and animators arrive in South America.

Over at the Fiesta Twin on Fourth Street in Santa Ana at 2 p.m. Saturday, an award-winning documentary recalls Walt Disney's historic 1941 trip to Latin America–and its director will be at the screening to recall making Walt N El Grupo. Ted Thomas will take audience questions about his film on the studio titan and his
animators making the South America journey, which served as the visual
inspiration for the animated feature The Three Caballeros (which screens later in the Fiesta) and
influenced Disney animation for decades to come. Walt N El Grupo is presented “in glorious
35mm” at Fiesta Twin Cinemas, 305 E. 4th St., Santa Ana.

Over at the nearby Yost Theater at 6 p.m. the same day, artist Eloy Terrez will introduce a documentary about him. Roberto S. Oregel's  Eloy Take Two ventures into the Los Angeles artist's creative mind and exposes his work, which includes the celebrated mural of Mexican-born actor Anthony
Quinn
on the Victor Clothing Building in LA. One thing we discover in the documentary is comedy
legend Cheech Marin is an art collector–just like Steve Martin. The Yost is at 307 N.
Spurgeon Ave., Santa Ana.

At 7 p.m. Saturday at the Yost, Emiliano Zapata's
nephew, Alfredo Zapata, introduces Elia Kazan's 1952 drama (written by John Steinbeck) Viva Zapata! It features Quinn and, in the title role and infamously in brown face, Marlon Brando. Here's a fun fact: while his parents separated briefly, Brando moved with mother to Santa Ana, where he attended Lathrop Junior High School.

Back at the Fiesta Twin at 2 p.m. Sunday, it's that aforementioned screening of The
Three Caballeros
, which stars Donald Duck and his two Latino
amigos, the Mexican Panchito and Brazilian Jose Carioca, heading south of the border. It's also screened in glorious 35mm.

OC Film Fiesta wraps up at 9 p.m. Sunday at the Yost with Ray Telles' two-hour, HD documentary The Storm that
Swept Mexico
, which explores the legacy
of the Mexican Revolution of 1910. Period photographs, some of the earliest motion pictures, contemporary footage and interviews with participants and historians contribute to create an engaging cinematic experience. This Orange County premiere is co-sponsored by the Mexican Consulate in Santa Ana.

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