Lo que se hereda [It Runs in the Family] is a film directed by Victoria Linares (2022, in Spanish with English subtitles, 84mins). “Through a series of re-enactments starring her family and the filmmaker, she traces the forgotten life of her cousin, queer filmmaker and political activist Oscar Torres, blurring the lines between her reality and his” (IMDb.com).

Description (BAM): Dominican filmmaker Victoria Linares sets out to reclaim personal and national history in this deeply personal work illuminating the life and art of her uncle Oscar Torres. A pioneering Caribbean filmmaker and queer political activist who lived in the Dominican Republic during the authoritarian regime of Trujillo, Torres’ memory has been largely forgotten both internationally and within her family. As Linares unearths her uncle’s legacy—giving form to his experiences under Trujillo and bringing her family together to stage his unproduced screenplays—she both creates and embraces her lineage.

Jim Gilles (The Hollywood Times) writes: In this deeply personal, richly-textured documentary about her family in the Dominican Republic, Linares traces the life of her uncle Oscar Torres – a pioneer of Caribbean cinema, a participant in the leftist movements of the 1940s and a fellow queer person who had been quietly erased from her own family’s memory. It Runs in The Family (Lo Que Se Hereda, Dominican Republic, 2022) tells the story of Oscar Torres, who story has been lost to time and Victoria Vinares set off on a journey of self-discovery and historical excavation by unearthing memories and staging re-enactments of her uncle’s unproduced screenplays. In many ways, this film is also Victoria’s own story of “inheritance,” as she is a queer person and a filmmaker who discovers how much she shares with Oscar Torres who died long before she even knew he existed.

For more information see https://thehollywoodtimes.today/victoria-linares-it-all-runs-in-the-family-erasure-queer-filmmaker-family/, https://www.bam.org/film/2023/it-runs-in-the-family, and https://www.bam.org/film/2023/it-runs-in-the-family