This year’s Silver Bear Alfred Bauer Prize at the Berlin International Film Festival went to “Ixcanul,” the first feature length movie by Guatemalan director Jayro Bustamante.

Pedro Lemebel, the Chilean queer writer and performer, who died on January 23, 2015, “was able to speak aloud when all were whispering during that long night that was the 1980s.” 

“Today I believe that writers should publish pieces in newspapers and take part in democracy, as well as literature.” 

With his hair brushed and a camisetão to his knees Rico Dalasam walks through the outskirts of São Paulo. “I’m still discovering how to be a gay rapper in Brazil.” 

Carlos Flores Marini was an architect and advocate of Mexican art; Neé Emelia Pérez Castellanos, better known as Ninón Sevilla, was born in Havana, Cuba, and started out to be a missionary nun, but instead followed her love of dancing and acting.

The play “The Captive,” which was performed in Lima, was investigated the by anti-terror police who alleged that it is a work of apology for the “subversive group” Sendero Luminoso, while its author says it is a story and a work of fiction.

Twenty-five years after the murder of the Jesuits in El Salvador the case still has a powerful presence, and will now make it to the small screen through the miniseries Cortar el puente. 

Two Latin-American films made the first cut for the Foreign Language Oscar award. 

Poet, writer and tango legend Horacio Ferrer died in Buenos Aires of heart disease at the age of 81, and Córdoba-born poet, writer, lyricist and journalist Daniel Salzano, died at the age of 73 after a long battle against cancer.

Turning their eyes to home decoration and accessories, some Brazilian architects infuse new energy into their professions with the colorful palette of the Mexican artist.