Cine Las Americas Day 4: 18 Countries in 9 Days

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Cine Las Americas MarqueeFriday's lineup was a theme of extremes, starting with Cruzando (odyssey to confront a father at all costs), Stranded (survival in extremis), Gasolina (explosive teenagers), and the dark and twisty Breaking Nikki. I'm not entirely sure how good it all was, but it sure was dark, because the digital projection was not the state-of-the-art 4K at Alamo Village. The difference between old-school and new-school digital projection is astounding.

Fantastic Fest is co-sponsoring a screening next week of a Fantastic Fest favorite, Santos, but in the meantime more fantastic style goodness occurs tonight. Perro Come Perro (Dog Eat Dog) is a gangland thriller mixed with black magic that plays at Regal Metropolitan at 10 pm). It's followed at midnight by Sangre eterna (Eternal Blood), a 2002 Chilean vampire flick -- with the filmmaker in attendance, Austin's horror fans should go.

The Austin Jewish Film Festival is co-sponsoring a screening tonight of Cinco Dias sin Nora (Nora's Will), a comedy from Mexico in both Spanish and Hebrew. The film screens at Metropolitan at 8 pm.

The Hecho en Tejas shorts program is happening at 2 pm today (Metropolitan) as well as the documentary shorts reel (4 pm). Two of those shorts, Duplex and Ojos de Javier, are from local filmmakers. Shorts are often popular at festivals, as they're calling cards for up-and-coming filmmakers. And the Austin filmmakers are in attendance, so go show your support for Austin film.

There are 18 screenings today at Metropolitan and the Mexican-American Cultural Center. The MACC screenings are free, so there's no excuse for not going to check out some of these films. Today is the last day for the MACC screenings. Tomorrow, the fest is showing 12 movies, all at Regal Metropolitan. For more information, go to the Cine Las Americas website.

There's another deal at Cine Las Americas -- a trip to Chile, the guest country this year. For the price of a $10 raffle ticket, you can win a three-night trip for two to Chile, to be announced at the closing-night film on Thursday at Alamo South Lamar. Winners do not have to be present to win.