New Iowa City film festival celebrates global and local communities

Iowa is witnessing a cultural renaissance through two new Latino film festivals that are uniting global and local communities in powerful, intimate ways. The inaugural Aki and Aya Latin American Film Festival at FilmScene in Iowa City, launched after five years of planning, brings critically acclaimed films from Argentina, Mexico, Bolivia, and beyond to a Midwestern audience—many of which are unavailable on mainstream streaming platforms. More than just screenings, the festival is a living act of cultural affirmation, with free 'pay-what-you-can' admission, community food trucks, and live performances like Mexican folk dance, all designed to make space for Latino identity in a region where it's often invisible. At the heart of the festival is a deep commitment to representation: programming is curated by a diverse committee including university students and local artists, and films like the award-winning Bolivian documentary *A Place of Absence* confront painful truths about migration and loss with poetic grace. Meanwhile, in Des Moines, the Latino Film Festival has evolved from a pandemic-delayed park event into a vibrant, multi-day celebration of Latino heritage, now hosted at the Varsity Cinema with feature films like *A Poet* and *American Pachuco*, and a shorts program curated with input from Drake University students. Both festivals are not just about entertainment—they’re about belonging, healing, and reimagining what community looks like in America’s heartland.