AFI Latin American Film Festival Selects “The Mexican Suitcase” For Opener

An image from Trisha Ziff's "The Mexican Suitcase."

AFI has selected “The Mexican Suitcase” (La Maleta Mexicana) as its opening night feature for the 2011 AFI Latin American Film Festival in Silver Spring, MD.
“The Mexican Suitcase” is the latest from documentary filmmaker Trisha Ziff, whose 2008 film, “Chevolution,” explored the iconography behind the well-known photo of guerilla revolutionary Che Guevara.
“Suitcase” follows the discovery and preservation of thousands of photo negatives, thought to be lost, but found in Mexico City in 2007.
Ziff will be in attendance to present the film, which was an official selection of the Los Angeles

Brazil: New Film Festival with a big good cause needs your help!

Urânio em Movi(e)mento
1st International World Uranium Film Festival Rio de Janeiro 2011
To Whom It May Concern!
We are seeking support for the first Uranium Film Festival of Rio de Janeiro – scheduled for the end of May 2011. For the first time in history Brazilians will be able to see international Anti-Nuclear-Documentaries in cinema. The film and video festival “Urânio em Movi(e)mento – 1st International World Uranium Film Festival Rio de Janeiro 2011” will help to bring the Uranium- and Nuclear Question into the national and international public.

Premiere Brazil! 2010 – Brazil Film Festival – Moma NY – Today: Reidy, Building Utopia -

Reidy, a construção da utopia (Reidy, Building Utopia)
2009. Brazil.
Directed by Ana Maria Magalhães.
Magalhães’s documentary follows the trajectory of architect and urbanist Affonso Eduardo Reidy, who turned Rio de Janeiro into a modern city with such projects as the Museum of Modern Art and the Flamengo Embankment.
In Portuguese; English subtitles. 77 min.

Saturday, July 24, 2010, 5:00 p.m. , Theater 1, T1

Premiere Brazil! 2010 – Brazil Film Festival – Moma NY – Today: Waste Land -

Lixo extraordinário (Waste Land)
2010. Great Britain/Brazil.
Directed by Lucy Walker. Co-directed by João Jardim, Karen Harley.
This documentary follows celebrated contemporary artist Vik Muniz on an emotional journey to the world’s largest landfill, Jardim Gramacho, outside Rio de Janeiro, and explores his three-year collaboration with the catadores, who inhabit the “trash city” picking recyclables. It tells an immensely powerful story of people at the end of their rope, using art as a means to “recycle” their own lives.
In Portuguese; English subtitles. 90 min.

Saturday, July 24, 2010, 2:00 p.m. , Theater 1, T1

Latino Short Films: Today at LA Shorts Fest 2010 – Notes On The Other (Trailer)

Notes On The Other
Documentary / Spain / 13 min.
Each summer, a crowd of Ernest Hemingway doubles meet in Key West, Florida, to choose the authentic Hemingway after Hemingway’s death.

Caribbean cinema: Wellfleet Public Library Hosts Video Screening on Matènwa, Haiti

The Wellfleet Public Library, in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, is hosting a short video on Matènwa and the Atis Fanm Matènwa collective on Sunday, July 25, 2010, at 5:00pm.  Filmed and edited by Michele Andolina and Ellen LeBow, the video features the activities of the collective and its co-founders on their most recent trip to Matènwa.
Wellfleet is home to RaRa, a small shop that showcases and sells Haitian artists’ work to support the community of Matènwa. Dedicated to sustainable living through art, the shop sells beautiful creations from the artisans’ collective Atis Fanm Matènwa,

Film of the week: CHEVOLUTION – Special Presentation (20th July)

Directors: Trisha Ziff, Luis López
Producer: Trisha Ziff
Screenplay: Sylvia Stevens
Editor: Luis López
Cinematography: Jan Pester
Sound: Gabriel Coll Barberis

In 1960, Cuban photographer Alberto “Korda” Díaz captured a photo of Ernesto “Che” Guevara during a mass funeral for the victims of an explosion in Havana Harbour – a watershed moment in the emergence of a new Cuba. The photograph was only published once, in the year it was taken. In fact, for seven years, it existed as a simple cropped print, pinned on Korda’s wall, seen only by those who visited his studio. Almost 50 years later, the image remains one of the most dominant icons of the 20th century. In the last decade, with the establishment of the Internet, the image has once again travelled the globe in many forms.

Secuestro in its social and political context

Secuestro’s DVD menu is set against a background of bills — money — produced by the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. The image of Bolívar is present even before the beginning of the film, and it reappears shortly afterwards in a significant position. As I noted, the film starts with a brief shot of the Creole roulette scene and a fast montage of images including a bird-eye view of the high-rises of Caracas and the slums that surround them, graffiti “I love you Caracas,” the Virgin, rich golfers, smart shopping malls, riots in the streets, police attacking Caucasian demonstrators, the demonstrators in turn calling for army intervention, an image of Bolívar,

La Clase in its social and political context

La clase was directed by José Antonio Varela and produced by Villa del Cine Foundation, which is the Venezuelan state’s film production unit created in June 2006 and currently integrated in the Audiovisual and Cinema Platform of the Ministry of Popular Power for Culture. Since becoming President of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez has put forward cultural policies in accordance with his 21st century revolutionary and socialist program. La clase is thus an outcome of the efforts of the Bolivarian Government to integrate cinema and community interests.

Applications are now open for Docs 360

GUIDELINES

The programme is open to anyone resident in the UK or to UK nationals living outside of the UK. There is no application fee. Applicants must have a documentary project in development with a duration of at least 50 minutes and which is intended for theatrical release (as well as other platforms). Applicants can be individual filmmakers or producer / filmmaker teams. All applicant teams must have completed a documentary (short, TV single or series, feature) which has been distributed in the UK (online, TV, cinema). All applicants should have created an online presence for their film (website, facebook group etc.), even if their online campaign has had a limited amount of development.