An upcoming film festival in New York could provide much-needed exposure for Latino films and filmmakers.

The first annual Viva Latino Film Festival NYC International (VLFFI) is slated to make its debut on February 19, and will run through February 23. Most of the films featured in the festival will be in English, but some will be in Spanish with English subtitles.

Steven Del Castro, founder of the festival, talked to Latin Post about the process, the preparation, and everything else that led to the establishment of the event. Del Castro has more than 15 years of experience in finance, sales, and marketing. He has worked as an actor on commercials, print work, films and TV for such clients as Skechers, MJB, HallMark Channel, Marshalls and more. He has also worked in various roles behind the camera, and made a short film in 2012 entitled "First Round." He also co-produced two feature films.

Francisco Salazar: What is the goal of the festival?

Steven Del Castro: The festival is brand new so our main focus is to help filmmakers, especially in the Latin community, get more visibility. We also want to make sure that filmmakers meet with distributors.

FS: When did you first have the idea of creating this festival?

SDC: It's been in discussion for about four years with our co-founder Richard Rodriguez. He comes from the National Hispanic Foundation of the Arts, and he's been talking about it for about four years. We were thinking [Washington,] D.C., or New York. We knew that there were some festivals in New York, one international, which folded. And we knew that there was one needed in New York, and we wanted to make sure that filmmakers not only had another film festival but one that promotes and inspires the film community.

FS: What were the biggest challenges of putting the film festival?

SDC: Everything was preplanned. However, having a web person was a challenge because we had one person who left after the first or second month. We wanted it to look one way but he had his vision. Financial backers or just getting the resources, which was also a challenge. Even reaching out to sponsors. Remember they come from a realm of some other film festivals. They're very supportive. But we also know we're brand new, so we had to make sure that even sponsors, whether they were on board or not, could secure our finances. But in the end, we did it.

FS: What was the process of choosing the films that were selected into the festival?

SDC: We planned for seven-month windows. You need to plan about six months to a year. What we did was marketed it on the website's fest home and film freeway, and we also had a lot of word-of-mouth on social media. We had a great response. The selections were made based on the story, production value, acting and other variables. Truth be told, there was a lot of good stuff. However, if there was a movie that we thought needed to be a looked at a couple of times for judging reasons, we would re-watch it. Sometimes you have a great story but the production value is not good. But you don't want to toss that because the story has some substance compared to something with great production value. There is a fine balance to pick and choose, and that's what we did. Luckily, we found 40 films.

FS: What kind of films will be shown at the festival?

SDC: There are films from Peru, Guatemala and other Southern American countries that we chose because they had great stories. We also have a lot of Spanish films with subtitles, and there are a lot of films from the U.S. with really great Latin actors and great scripts. We also have some documentaries that were really refreshing and show the diversification of filmmakers. We have one from Puerto Rico that is very different that most people wouldn't think are in a festival. We also have music videos because we want to share a space for musicians.

FS: What kind of panels will you be holding at the festival?

SDC: We're going to have two panel discussions or workshops. They are going to be about traditional distribution and digital distribution. There is also a possibility of having a name actor talk about the industry.

FS: When will the festival be held?

SDC: For a first year we were surprised that we had enough for four days. But we also wanted to help filmmakers, so we extended it to a fifth day. It was originally supposed to run [Feb. 19-22] but extended it through [Feb. 23].

FS: Where will the festival be held?

SDC: It will be the Film Anthology Archives. We reached out to other locations, but we felt we wanted one place. We didn't want to have too much commercial appeal for this year, but it could change. We wanted a compatible venue, and this one was a good fit.

FS: What do you hope audiences and filmmakers will take away from your festival?

SDC: I want to build of a sort of community and show that there is great quality and content that can actually be enjoyed and can enrich their lives. I want the filmmakers to know that they have a place to finally screen again. But also we are filmmakers, so we really want filmmakers to succeed. We take the initiative to call up distributors. At the end of the day, I want the films to get distribution so they can get the exposure they need and deserve. There is a population out there that happens to be educated and bilingual acculturated, yet you don't see our reality on the big screen. Hopefully we can penetrate the markets to some degree and hopefully give these filmmakers some exposure.