The film directed by Abner Benaim inaugurates a program of Latin American and U.S. Latino features and documentaries

Rubén Blades is Not My Name, Panamanian director Abner Benaim’s look at the renowned salsa singer-songwriter’s life and musical legacy, will open the New York Latino Film Festival on Aug. 22.

The festival, screened at various New York City theaters, is presented by HBO, which has picked up distribution of the Blades doc. Rubén Blades is Not My Name's opening night showing, its New York debut, takes place at the AMC Empire 25 Theatres in midtown Manhattan. The film won the Audience Award at the SXSW Film Festival.

Celebrating its 15th year, the 2018 New York Latino Film Festival will showcase films from 17 countries.

Other documentaries include the 2018 Sundance Audience Award winner The Sentence, about the consequences of mandatory minimum drug sentencing, director Brian Kaufman’s border portrait The Wall, and portraits of sexual tourism in Buenos Aires (Monger), the daily lives of Puerto Rican teenagers (Ser Grande), Mexican boxer Juan Estrada (El Gallo), and the world’s only ballet school for the blind (Looking at the Stars).

Two intimate films from Cuba, Marcel Beltrán’s Music of the Spheres and Kim Hopkins’ Voices of the Sea are also on the program.

The festival runs from Aug. 22 – 26.