A film that will surely hit close to home for any cinema lover, A Useful Life follows Jorge (played by a real film critic) who has been running an arthouse movie theater in Uruguay for 25 years.

But when costly repairs, dwindling audiences, and diminishing support force him to close down the theater, Jorge is forced to find a life outside of his daily routine at the movie theater. A loving homage to the soul of cinema, A Useful Life is a charming and droll look at life after the movies. (63 mins., 35mm)

As Follows, an early short by the director of A Useful Life, offers a wry story about a boy preparing for his bar mitzvah in a Jewish enclave of Montevideo, Uruguay. (13 mins., 35mm)

Stay after the films on Friday for a conversation with the Wex’s Director of Film/Video Dave Filipi and Associate Curator Chris Stults about the ups-and-downs of organizing a film program much like the one featured in A Useful Life.



Copresented by the Global Film Initiative (globalfilm.org).

Cinema Latino is cosponsored by Hispanic Chamber of Columbus and Ohio State’s Center for Latin American Studies and Department of Spanish and Portuguese.