Former and current board members of the Vancouver Latin American Film Festival are at loggerheads over allegations of sexism and harassment levelled against the festival’s director, placing the future of the event, which attracts over 6,000 people annually, at risk. The festival’s last edition ran from Aug. 25 to Sept. 5. Last October, the group held a virtual open dialogue session where they invited the public to discuss how the festival can move forward given the allegations of “harassment, sexism, bullying, and lack of transparency” against director Christian Sida, which they had outlined in an open letter released the day before the festival began. Over 25 people including members of the public attended the virtual session. “We want to see all Latin American organizations in the city dedicated to the arts thrive,” Carmen Rodríguez, a Vancouver-based writer and educator, said during the session. Rodríguez has been a long-time contributor to the festival in various roles, including as part of the programming committee. “But that can only happen in the context of respect and good governance.” VLAFF was founded in 2002 and has since become an important staple among cultural events in the city and in elevating Latin American voices both domestically and abroad. It is slated to celebrate its 20th anniversary in 2022. But the allegations have cast a shadow on that. The open letter alluded to the Festival’s 2020 Annual General Meeting in which Sida allegedly “shamed, belittled and vilified a female member of the Board” for allegedly trying to bring attention to issues related to Sida’s “handpicking” of Board members and “the need for structural changes within the organization.” The letter and virtual conference came after previous unsuccessful meetings where the group had brought their concerns to Sida and presented the Board with several recommendations that went unheeded, including cancelling the 2021 edition of the festival and for Sida to issue a public letter of apology. However, Carmen Henríquez, a filmmaker and producer who joined VLAFF’s Board in 2019, told NCM, on behalf of the Board, the letter came as a surprise because the Board had been receptive to the discussions all along. “We began conversations several months ago…and we learned a lot from them. We were feeling that there was a great exchange of ideas,” Henríquez says. Though she believes “a lot of [the impact of the discussions] was in some ways positive,” she says the open letter had a dampening effect on this year’s festival. Several members of the former VLAFF group said they had either experienced or witnessed incidents of sexism and bullying while working for the festival. Sarah Shamash, a filmmaker and former VLAFF curator and jury member, recalled a colleague being berated by Sida on many occasions, including one that left her “shaking in an opening gala after [Sida] had yelled at her in public.” Shamash also described the working atmosphere during her time at the Board as “walking on eggshells” for fear of Sida’s reaction to some of the female staff’s questions and suggestions. Sonia Medel, a former Coordinator of Community Partnerships who’d also been allegedly berated by Sida, said despite the “sexism and machismo (that) are a part of our Latinx culture,” she has “always felt empowered.” “But when I started to voice my concerns about [Sida]’s behaviour, his treatment of me changed,” she said at the virtual session. Another member, Jose Fernandez, recounted an incident in 2019 in which Sida “was being extremely defensive when Board members and staff were providing feedback,” adding that the way the feedback was received was “very sexist as well.” Victor Martinez Aja, one of VLAFF’s founding members and therefore a recipient of the letter, said while “one incident can be [classified as] gossip,” the sheer number of allegations is a point of concern. “When it’s seven individuals referring to the same thing, there is something wrong,” he told New Canadian Media in an interview. Former Board member Adriana Contreras described how in recent years, the governance of the festival had become “reactive,” in part because Sida was living part of the year in Mexico. This resulted in the planning work becoming increasingly stressful, in particular as the festival’s next edition approached. Efforts to address these issues were met with resistance. “Whenever there was an attempt by members of the Board to correct the situation, they were truncated,” Contreras said at the virtual session.