“Michele Serros. Photo by Marie the Photographer taken in front of mural by M.B. Hanrahan.
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By Mona AlvaradoFrazier/ Guest contributor
Las Contemporañeas at the Museum of Ventura County will present the inaugural Latina Short Film Festival (LSFF) on Saturday, March 8. The LSFF begins with a dessert and champagne reception from 6:30-7:15 p.m. followed by an award to keynote speaker, Michele Serros, author, poet, and social commentator.
The LSFF begins with Lucy Rodriguez Hanley, film producer of “The Big Deal,” a short film based on one of Serros short stories in “How To Be A Chicana Role Model,” an Imagen Award winner. A brief question and answer period follows.
Several short films were submitted for the LSFF. Selected films will be screened. An awards presentation follows.
Michele Serros, named by Newsweek as “One of the Top Young Women to Watch for in the New Century,” is the author of “Chicana Falsa and other stories of Death, Identity and Oxnard,” “How to be a Chicana Role Model,” young adult novels “Honey Blonde Chica,” and “¡Scandalosa!” Originally from Oxnard, Michele is currently working on a new novel, A (sorta) Unmarried Mexican.
A former staff writer for The George Lopez Show, Serros has written for the Los Angeles Times, Ms. Magazine, CosmoGirl, Marie Claire and The Washington Post and contributes satirical commentaries regularly for National Public Radio. An award-winning spoken word artist, she has read her poems to stadium crowds for Lollapalooza, recorded Selected Stories from Chicana Falsa for Mercury Records, and was selected by the Poetry Society of America to have her poetry placed on MTA buses throughout Los Angeles County.
While still a student at Santa Monica City College, Michele’s first book of poetry and short stories, Chicana Falsa and other stories of Death, Identity and Oxnard, was published. Chicana Falsa became required reading in many U.S. high schools and universities.
Tickets to the LSFF are $15, $10 for students with photo ID and MVC members. Open to ages 18 years and older. Please call 805-653-0323 ext. 315 for tickets. See www.venturamuseum.org for more information.
Mona AlvaradoFrazier
— Mona AlvaradoFrazier is a writer. To see more of her work, visit http://www.alvaradofrazier.com
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