Latino Cinema big in India? Argentine Film Festival begins in Chennai on Monday

Actor Suhasini Maniratnam at the inaugural function of Argentine Film Festival at Alliance Francaise in Chennai on Monday. ( From lleft ) Alliance Francaise of Madrasdirector Benoit Olivier, Minister and Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of the Argentine in New Delhi, Juan Jose Santander, are in the picture. Photo : R.Ravindran

The first Argentine Film Festival began in the city with the screening of Oscar award winning ‘Son of the Bride’ at the Alliance Francaise of Madras on Monday.
Minister and Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of the Argentine Republic in New Delhi, Juan Jose Santander, inaugurated the six-day film festival.
In the inaugural speech, Mr. Santander traced the brief history of Argentinean cinema since 1896 and said that Argentina produced the first film with talkies in 1927.
Mentioning that Argentina, Brazil and Mexico had several thousands of cinema halls during the 1950s, he said: “But, the numbers have come down in the recent years due to development of handheld devices and other electronic devices. About 70 low-budget movies were being produced in the year,” he said. The film festival is being organised by Indo Cine Appreciation Foundation (ICAF) in association with Embassy of the Argentine Republic, New Delhi and Cinemas du Monde at the Alliance Francaise of Madras, College Road from June 6 to 11.
Films directed by Juan Jose Campenella, Fabion Bile Ivinsky, Fabian Bielinsky, Sergio Renan, Maria Luisa Bemerg, Juan Carlos Desanzo, Alfonso Rosas Priego, and Adrián Caetano/Bruno Stagnaro will be screened.
Alliance Francaise of Madras Director, Benoit Olivier, said they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with ICAF that would permit the latter to conduct two film festivals every month at the Alliance Francaise auditorium for a period of eight days.
Their mission is not only to promote French but also other languages. In this regard, ICAF would be screening movies from all over the world, he said.  ICAF general secretary E. Thangaraj said that efforts would be made to screen these movies in other cities too.

Source: The Hindu