Mexican-American Film and Television Festival

The Mexican-American Film & Television Festival MAFTF has grown to become the premier Los Angeles Festival which represents the 40 million Americans of Mexican descent. In 2023 it was a sold-out event with over 1000 tickets sold, and an impressive list of talent including Paul Rodriguez, Annie Gonzales, Pepe Serna, Luis Valdez, Moctesuma Esparza and many more. Its focus is projects which depict the Mexican-American community, not with the usual Hollywood stereotype, but the more real-to-life depiction of a community of hardworking Americans who contribute and have contributed endlessly to this country. Astronauts, lawyers, teachers, nurses, doctors, accountants, builders, war heroes and people of every sort whose stories go untold, because a demeaning stereotypical narrative is preferred by Hollywood.
Hollywood has been notorious for erasing Mexican-Americans/Chicanx out of American life for over 100 years. Even stories where Mexican-Americans\ war heroes are featured e.g; “Hell To Eternity” (1960), Anglo-American actors have portrayed their bravery and never mentioned their Mexican heritage. The perception of Mexicans and Mexican-Americans in the US is distorted and the media has played a large part in this. Largely portrayed in media through degrading stereotypes such as “bandidos” “criminals”, “the help”, “lazy”, “illegal invaders”, and “uneducated”. Recently, those in political power, including the former president, have legitimized these Mexican-American stereotypes into the American consciousness, with disastrous consequences see throughout the news. No other Latino group has endured such abuse.

The UCLA Hollywood Diversity Report 2020 showed that the demographics of film screenplay writers are 89% white, 5.2% Black, 3.0% Asian, 0.7% Latino and director are 84% white, 5.5% Black, 3.4% Asian, 2.7 Latino. The USC Annenberg Inclusion Report 2021 reviewed 126 films and 180 series produced by Netflix in 2018 and 2019, showing great improvement in gender and racial equality with most minorities, with Latinos being one of the exceptions, as only 2.6% of all stories had a Latinx lead or co-lead, and similar low numbers behind the camera. Mexican-Americans are 12% of the US Population and close to 70% of all Latinos in America.

Because Films & TV have a tremendous impact on the narrative, perception and the reputation of our community, the Mexican-American Cultural Education Foundation (MACEF) a 501 (c) 3 non-profit, has chosen to promote positive content, as well as foster future Mexican-American filmmakers in order to truly change the narrative.