FLiCX: Chavela
Wednesday, Oct. 25
5:45 p.m. – 7:45 p.m.
Belcourt Theatre
2102 Belcourt Avenue, Nashville, TN
Dir. Catherine Gund, Daresha Kyi | USA | 2017 | 90 min. | NR | DCP | Spanish with English subtitles
Post-screening discussion in the second-floor Jackson Education and Engagement Space (seating is limited) with Edward Wright-Rios, professor of history at Vanderbilt University.
Participants who commit to checking in with the FLiCX administrator by no later than 5:45 p.m., and to making an effort to attend the discussion, may RSVP on this page for tickets purchased by the Dean of Students office.
Since seating is limited, we must remind participants of the following:
- that if you RSVP in the affirmative, and your plans change, you are expected to log back in and change your status to “not attending;”
- that Vanderbilt participants must RSVP for themselves, and may not be “guests;” and
- that non-Vanderbilt guests are limited to one per participant.
Chavela is a captivating look at the unconventional life of beloved performer Chavela Vargas, whose passionate renditions of Mexican popular music and triumphant return to the stage late in life brought her international fame. Born in Costa Rica in 1919, Chavela Vargas ran away to Mexico City as a teenager to sing in the streets. By the 1950s, she was a household name in her adopted country, delivering performances with a raw passion and unique voice. Just as influential were her cultural contributions—Chavela was a bold, rebellious sexual pioneer, known for having many female lovers at a time when being out in Mexico was dangerous. Chavela centers around a 1991 interview—the singer’s first public appearance after 15 hard years lost to alcoholism and heartbreak. In the final years of her life, Chavela openly comes out as a lesbian and rises into her momentous third act, becoming a muse to filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar, earning a Lifetime Achievement Grammy, and selling out performances at prestigious concert halls around the world.
“Unmissable . . . The songs are wonderful, testimony to a pioneer who is probably Donald Trump’s ultimate nightmare—a Mexican lesbian diva who can wring your very soul.” —Jonathan Romney, The Guardian