HOLLYWOOD, Calif. –This year's Hola Mexico Film festival has been postponed until September. While movie-goers wait for the fall the festival's director, Samuel Douek, is offering a virtual online film series.
“If people can not leave their house and people can not go to a cinema than the cinema should go to your house so it’s important for people to also watch this Mexican cinema and not only watch what Amazon or Netflix has available for them,” said Douek.
The festival's online experience will include pre-recorded Q& A sessions with filmmakers and actors.
Each film will cost $4.99 to view and be available for 24-hours.
The online availability of the films is important to festival devotees like Artemio Flores.
Flores remembers walking down Vine Street in Hollywood and noticing a poster for the festival for the first time.
"Those were movies that were making a lot of noise in Mexico," he said. "Family and friends were talking about them and I was not able to watch them anywhere online, or any other spot other than the festival.”
After his first experience attending, he was hooked.
"After the second year attending, we were planning our vacations to be able to attend the festival,” he said.
While Flores says he will miss physically being at the theater and meeting his favorite actors in-person, he says he’ll continue with his annual tradition, even if it is virtual this time around.
He’s most excited about the comedies in this year's lineup. As he says, now more than ever, he's “looking to relax, laugh and forget about everything.”