Abel is screening at the Pacific Cinémathèque theatre on September 9 at 9:30 p.m.

On September 1, the Vancouver Latin American Film Festival (VLAFF) hit the film scene with a bang, and you have until September 11 to be struck by everything Latin American.

“I’ve never been to VLAFF,” said Adam Picotte, a lawyer from Vancouver and first time VLAFF attendee. “There’s definitely a fantastic excitement in the air.”

Picotte and his wife Lisa attended the opening gala on September 1 at Empire Granville 7 Cinemas to watch El Hombre de al lado, an Argentinian film about a neighbour who irritates a bourgeois architect and his family.

El Hombre de al lado is fitting as it portrays both the levity and triviality of humans, all the while exposing how selfish we can be and how we can mistreat each other.

VLAFF seems eager to explore serious issues, yet still leave room for laughter.

For nine years VLAFF has continuously brought Latin American films to Vancouver in order to allow the public to explore and appreciate not only Latin American cinema, but the diverse Latino culture itself.

No film is exactly alike and every country from Mexico, El Salvador, to Venezuela and Argentina, and even Brazil is given the opportunity to bring Canadian audiences a taste of the films they create and the culture they cherish.

Heather Ritchie, 40, is a Canadian who has Vietnamese, Punjabi, Anglo, and Maori blood flowing through her veins. She grew up near Montreal, Quebec where there was no shortage of different people from different cultures and back grounds milling about. What she likes about VLAFF is that it steps out of the ordinary when it comes to cinema, and yes, even life.

Ritchie previewed the film Abel which you can catch on Friday September 9 at 9:30 p.m. at the Pacific Cinémathèque theatre. She was attracted to the movie’s quirkiness and lighthearted tone, but discovered that it was also quite bold in its message and touched on taboos not normally seen in regular films.

She describes it as a story about a mother’s love for her son who is deeply affected by his father’s abrupt departure from their lives.

“It looks like a very cute story about a family,” said Ritchie, “but it’s also a story that is willing to push boundaries and show that a mother’s love has no boundaries itself.”

Abel starts to push boundaries when its 9 year old protagonist is left speechless after his father leaves the family behind. One day Abel wakes-up feeling a sense of ownership of the family and begins to run the house as if he was the head of the family, and in his mind, he is.

The film takes viewers through the delusions of a 9 year old who suddenly has to deal with the surprise return of his father.

“This movie seems to shed light on how impressionable our children are,” said Ritchie, “and how our actions can deeply affect them.”

Like Abel, VLAFF is intent on continuing to push boundaries and affect audiences with new features such as the art exhibit “Yuxtaposicion” by Mexican painter Jose Luis Ramirez.

“Yuxtaposicion” is described by VLAFF as a mix of sombre images of strangled teddy bears, decapitated puppets and armed angels. A huge departure from lighter films such as Abel and El hombre de al lado.

Ramirez told VLAFF that he was motivated to paint the series because he wanted to “play with the concept of the toy as something innocent, and how at the same time, it can be seen as a symbol of commercialization and capitalism.”

Ramirez’s work will be showcased at the Ayden Gallery in the International Village on the second floor. Admittance is free with a cash bar.

This year also marks the very first time VLAFF will be holding not one, but three competitions.

The first and most prestigious competition is set to have seven documentaries compete against each other. The director of the film will receive $3,500 sponsored by the Al Jazeera Documentary Channel.

All of this excitement might be too much for film goers who feel that autumn already brings a slew of film festivals, leading to possible overdose by movie.

But at the opening gala, Marc Fournier, a Board Director of VLAFF, poetically encouraged people to support the festival and challenged the audience not to dismiss it amongst the other festivals.

“VLAFF is the smallest of the big festivals, and the biggest of the small festivals.”

For more information about the Vancouver Latin American FIlm Festival, and to purchase tickets, visit www.vlaff.org.