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Updated: October 3, 2009, 5:10 pm	Share    Print    Email

Still from "Mi Mejor Enemigo" (My Best Enemy) to be shown at the Parrish Art Museum. Image courtesy of Parrish Art Museum

Southampton - The Parrish Art Museum and OLA (Organización Latino-Americana) will present the 2009 OLA Film Festival on Friday, Oct. 2, from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m., in the Parrish's concert hall. The festival will include two films, "Mi Mejor Enemigo" (My Best Enemy) and "El Baño del Papa" (The Pope's Toilet), as well as wine, soft drinks, hors d'oeuvres, and coffee and cookies. Admission to the festival is free.

Organized by OLA founder Isabel Sepulveda de Scanlon, the evening will begin with wine provided by Laurel Lake Vineyards and hors d'oeuvres, followed by a screening of the Chilean/Argentine/Spanish production "Mi Mejor Enemigo." This dark comedy was inspired by an actual border skirmish between Chile and Argentina in 1978. An outfit of Chilean soldiers ends up in Patagonia without any idea if they're on Chilean or Argentinean soil. A small company of Argentinean soldiers is waiting in a trench less than a football field away, but neither side knows what to do, especially when they realize their uniforms are all but impossible to tell apart from a distance. Before long a wary conviviality grows between them, though they're still not certain if they should regard one another as friends or enemies.

An intermission with coffee and cookies provided by Hampton Coffee Company and live music performed by Raul Cardenas and DJ Chile will be followed by the Uruguayan film "El Baño del Papa," in which the Pope's impending visit to a small Uruguayan town stimulates a flurry of activity among the poorest residents, who hope to strike it rich by catering to the needs of the 50,000 expected pilgrims. Convinced that his idea is the best, Beto, a petty smuggler, uses up his family's savings to build a pay toilet, where he hopes thousands of visitors will find relief. This deadpan slice of life is a touching, humorous, and poignant story of human dignity and solidarity.

"Mi Mejor Enemigo" (My Best Enemy) (2004). Directed by Alex Bowen. With Nicolás Saavedra, Erto Pantoja, Miguel Dedovich. In Spanish; English subtitles, 104 minutes.

"El Baño del Papa" (The Pope's Toilet) (2007). Directed by César Charlone and Enrique Fernández. With César Troncoso, Virginia Méndez, Mario Silva. In Spanish; English subtitles, 97 minutes.

The OLA Film Festival is sponsored by Film Movement, Venevision, Bridgehampton National Bank, Hampton Coffee Company, VOZ, and Laurel Lake Vineyards.

OLA is a non-for-profit organization serving the Latino Community of the East End through educational, social advocacy, and cultural awareness programs and forums.

The Museum's programs are made possible, in part, with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency.