(MICHAEL DANSER/The Daily Campus )

Films and filmmakers from around the world converge once a year at the Angelika Film Center for the annual Vistas Film Festival. Last year, SMU Chair of Cinema-Television, Rachel Lyon’s “Race to Execution” and “Juror Number Six” were the festival’s featured documentaries.

SMU alumnus of 1964 Frank P. Hernandez is the chairman and founder of the Herculano and Elia Hernandez Foundation and organizes this annual film festival.
 

Hernandez was the first Latino to graduate from the SMU School of Law’s day program. After graduation, he became a civil rights lawyer and leader in the Dallas area.
 

He created his foundation to promote Latino culture through the arts—his appreciation of film inspired him to create the Vistas Film Festival to showcase films featuring Latino perspectives.
 

This year, Hernandez said the festival will highlight films exploring bi-racial, African American and Hispanic themes. Lizz Eldridge, executive director of operations and management, said that the goal this year is to show a cross section of films from all over the world that share the Hispanic cultural point of view.
 

The integration of different cultures seemed to be a recurring theme at the Texas Black Film Festival, held Feb. 3-7, Eldridge said they decided to run with that idea. The theme is not fully explored in television and movies, as the media typically focuses on themes that mix black and white issues instead of black and Latino issues, according to Eldridge.
 

Executive Technical Director Victor Camara said that the cultures have similar music and values. He said  Vistas’ partnering with the Texas Black Film Festival could increase the numbers in the audience for both.     
 

Vistas is still accepting submissions, and is open to anyone who wants to submit a film. Camara said the selection process usually looks for films with a Latin American in an involved role, like director, producer or actor.
 

According to Hernandez, film students at SMU can benefit from attending film festivals like Vistas because these events give students the opportunity to not only meet people involved in film-making, but to learn about films outside of the classroom.
 

For more information about the Vistas Film Festival or how to submit a film, visit www.vistasfilmfestival.org.
 

For more information about Lyon’s films visit www.racetoexecution.com.