Sold-out ‘Macario’ a triumphant conclusion to The Poitier Film School Latino Screening Series
From left: Aida Velasco Pérez, head of the Department of Cultural and Academic Affairs at the Consulate General of Mexico in Los Angeles; Peter Murrieta, interim associate dean of Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts in Los Angeles and deputy director of The Poitier Film School; Lucia Urrutia Ugarte, art curator with the Department of Cultural Affairs at the Consulate General of Mexico in Los Angeles; Moctesuma Esparza, filmmaker and founder of Milagro Cinemas; and journalist and film historian Justina Bonilla. Photo courtesy of The Poitier Film School
It was a rare and inspiring sight at Milagro Cinemas in Norwalk, California, last week: Two theaters packed with people to see an old black-and-white film on a Wednesday night.
Not just any black-and-white film, but the first Mexican film to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. “Macario” is a fantastical Spanish-language movie from 1960 by Mexican director Roberto Gavaldón, about a hungry peasant who wishes to have a good meal on the Day of the Dead.
The Nov. 5 screening was the perfect note to cap the fall 2025 Latino Screening Series, hosted by The Sidney Poitier New American Film School at ASU, in partnership with Milagro Cinemas and the Mexican Consulate (Consulado General de México en Los Ángeles), highlighting the school’s growing partnerships across the Latino creative community.
“‘Macario’ is one of the most important films in Mexico's cinema because it proved that Mexican cinema could tell serious universal stories with rich visuals, complex characters and complex stories,” said Lucia Urrutia Ugarte, a photographer and art curator with the Department of Cultural Affairs at the Consulate General of Mexico in Los Angeles who helped to introduce the film before a rapt audience.
The sold-out “Macario” screening was a triumphant close to the semester-long series of rarely screened Spanish-language films, including Luis Buñuel’s “The Exterminating Angel,” the Mexican wrestling romp “Santo and Blue Demon vs. Dracula and the Wolf Man” and the Golden Age of Mexican Cinema classic “La Otra.” The series celebrates Latin American filmmakers and cross-border storytelling.
“The significance of the series is to bring back to life a lot of these classic, iconic films that haven't been shown in theaters for many years, very culturally and historically significant films that deserve to be seen again on the big screen,” said journalist and film historian Justina Bonilla, who also helped to introduce the film.
The series was spearheaded by Peter Murrieta, interim associate dean of Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts in Los Angeles and deputy director of The Poitier Film School. In April, Murrieta was recognized by the Imagen Foundation in its 2025 class of Influential Latinos in Media. The foundation seeks to empower, celebrate and inspire Latino creative voices in entertainment, and it was Murrieta’s second consecutive year receiving the distinction.
Murrieta says for him, the real triumph was in the community the series brought together over the semester: multicultural, multigenerational and passionate about cinema.
“You get to hear from the audience afterwards about what a joy and pride it is to see these great films,” Murrieta said. “The smiles, the thanks we get for doing that is the best thing about my day. It’s a gift, seeing all those people watching great films from Mexico on the big screen, together as a community.”
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