The experimental short film Patitos comiendo arroz (Patitos eating rice) directed by playwright-director and filmmaker Javier Antonio González is a freewheeling collaboration with his artistic troupe, Caborca. The film is inspired by the groundbreaking book la novelabingo (Editorial El libro viaje 1976/Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña, 2011) by renowned (from a critical standpoint,) yet obscured Diasporican-queer writer, Manuel Ramos Otero. Initially, the film was created as part and in conversation with the performance/movement piece La Mamutcandungo (2015) created by José Pepé Álvarez but eventually González decided to make it an audiovisual piece that could stand on its own. The short film dissociates itself from a narrative line, perhaps the closest to it would be a queer theater group, rehearsing, playing, and documenting their own practice around Ramos Otero’s work. Moving by visual and sonic associations, the short film bets on its poetic drive and represents an exemplary case of interdisciplinary Boricua aesthetics.

On October 21, 2021 at 1:00 pm, Baruch College professors Jennifer Caroccio Maldonado (English), Gustavo Quintero (BLS) and Rojo Robles (BLS) will host a screening of the film and a conversation with director Javier Antonio González. The conversation will focus on experimental filmmaking practices, Boricua-Latinx theater troupes in NYC, queer archives and communities, Manuel Ramos Otero’s work, bilingual poetics, among other topics.

Register in advance for this meeting:

https://baruch.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIvfu-rqD8pGNAG3_S41XtVma2BWpzESrBa