Posts filed under ‘COSTA RICA CINEMA’
Fernando Pérez wins Havana Festival Best Director Award
Cuban filmmaker and scriptwriter Fernando Pérez won the Best Director Award at the International Festival of New Latin American Cinema in Havana, his seventh Coral prize since making his debut in 1987.
His film “José Martí, el ojo del canario”(José Martí, the Eye of the Canary), a humanistic look at the Cuban independence fighter and national hero, also won the awards for Best Artistic Direction and Best Poster and the Signis Prize on Sunday night.
A day earlier, he received eight of the festival’s collateral prizes, including from UNICEF. (more…)
Singapore Latin-American Film Festival
Singapore has been given the honor of hosting the Asian leg of the Latin-American Film Festival, bringing together the best of contemporary Latin American cinema. This year’s entries will feature a selection of challenging and thought-provoking pieces from Chile, Peru, Venezuela, Costa Rica and Mexico. (more…)
OPENING AND CLOSING FILMS FOR Vancouver Latin American Film Festival 2010 ANNOUNCED!
The Vancouver Latin American Film Festival is glad to announce its opening and closing films for this year’s festival.
As Colombia is our guest country this year, VLAFF will have the honour to open with a great Colombian film, LOS VIAJES DEL VIENTO, directed by the young director Ciro Guerra. LOS VIAJES DEL VIENTO was part of the official selection at the Cannes Film Festival 2010, being the first Colombian film in this selection in 11 years (the last one was La Vendedora de Rosas by Victor Gaviria). LOS VIAJES DEL VIENTO has been presented in a number of international film festivals and has won awards at the Bogota, Cartagena, Cannes and Santa Barbara Film Festivals.
For our closing night VLAFF will screen a film co-produced by Colombia, Mexico and Spain. RABIA, directed by the Ecuadorian filmmaker Sebastian Cordero and was produced by the Mexican director Guillermo del Toro. RABIA premiered at the Toronto Film Festival, won best film at the Malaga Film Festival and the special jury prize at the Tokyo Film Festival.
VLAFF welcomes LOS VIAJES DEL VIENTO and RABIA, leading a great selection of films from over 15 countries.
Traveling to Latin America? Don’t buy a guide, watch a movie!
With its vibrant and varied national identities, a turbulent and sometimes tortured past along with its proud cultural heritage, Latin America has all the necessary ingredients for a rich tradition of cinema and film.
In the early years, the Latin American film industry was dominated by Mexico, which exported its enormously successful movies throughout the world. But over the second half of the 20th century, a number of other big film centers developed, in particular Cuba, Argentina and Brazil.
Throughout this period, filmmakers drew upon wide political and social influences, reflecting the often chaotic environments they were trying to reflect. Latin America’s prominent role within the non-aligned movement during the Cold War and widespread popular opposition to the giant northern neighbor helped influence the development of Tercer Cine, Third Cinema, as a backlash against Hollywood, US cultural dominance and capitalism.
Led by the Argentinean Grupo Cine Liberacion, but also driven by radicals in Cuba, (more…)
South American Renaissance at the BFI
Madeinusa: Hugely original, exquisitely shot fable by gifted Peruvian Claudia Llosa.
BFI is preparing a new Latin American season entitled South American Renaissance. Local stories with universal appeal from a film industry that has been blossoming over the last decade.
We will be posting daily updates about the movies being shown.
Here are al the movies that conform the programme: (more…)
Focus in Latin American film at the QFest Philadelphia (8-19th July)
Elvis & Madona
A ditzy Copacabana drag queen and a butch lesbian fall in love in this enormously enjoyable post-queer comedy/drama.
Just when you thought filmmaking had exhausted showcasing the variations of queer coupling, comes this wildly entertaining and unexpectedly romantic comedy from Brazilian director Marcelo Laffitte. Madona is an alternately tough and feminine drag queen, tall and fabulously blond she is a hairdresser during the day and a club singer at night. She also endures a tumultuous relationship with João, her thuggish and abusive sometimes boyfriend. Also in Rio’s Copacabana is Elvis, an aspiring young photographer with short dark hair, a swagger and butchness to spare – she’s a bedroom-eye baby dyke. When Elvis gets a job delivering pizza, she meets up with Madona, right after she’s been robbed and beaten by João. They form a friendship, and then with the adage, opposites attract (but in this case reversed) they begin an unlikely romance. Can the two remain together, despite their differences? When you think of it – this is a heterosexual story – that of a man and a woman who fall in love – but Elvis & Madona is queer as queer can be. And it is one of the few films in the festival that should attract both lesbians and gay men…who knows what might happen when the lights go down. (Portuguese with English subtitles) — Raymond Murray (more…)
Carmen Oquendo Villar ganadora de la beca de cine Guggenheim
La puertorriqueña Carmen Oquendo Villar aspira a expandir los conocimientos y la producción de la cinematografía en Puerto Rico tras hacerse ganadora de la prestigiosa Beca Guggenheim, en la categoría de cine.
“Todavía estoy que no lo puedo creer. Mi objetivo es poner el nombre de Puerto Rico bien en alto y ayudar al cine en todo lo que sea necesario”, dijo hoy a Efe Oquendo Villar, de 40 años. (more…)
Cannes vuelve a mirar al cine latinoamericano
Alejandro González Iñárritu y su filme “Biutiful” son un ejemplo de la presencia latina en el festival francés
La edición número 63 del Festival de Cannes que comienza la próxima semana mira al cine latinoamericano, lo mete en competición, en las secciones paralelas y en los asientos del jurado, en lo que parece un reconocimiento de su vitalidad, diversidad y creatividad.
La lista de la competición por la Palma de Oro tiene la atención sobre los latinos centrada en el mexicano Alejandro González Iñárritu, que dirige a Javier Bardem en “Biutiful” , y quien diez años después de su laureado “Amores Perros” asciende al Olimpo cinematográfico de la ciudad de la Costa Azul para luchar con otros 17 filmes por el máximo galardón.
Es un ejemplo destacado del poderío de México en este festival pues sus filmes, en todo formato, salpican además otras secciones. (more…)
A film on the 6,300 Maria Rodriguezes of Costa Rica
Over 6,300 women in Costa Rica have Maria Rodriguez as their names, prompting the Costa Rican government to produce a documentary based on their lives.
The documentary follows the daily lives of five women named Maria Rodriguez, and even held a meeting asking all women of that name to gather here in the capital city during the weekend.
The film, titled ‘Maria Rodriguez‘, will be released in 13 Latin American and Caribbean countries and intends ‘to portray the Costa Rican woman and society through the lives of five very different women,’ Alonso Arias, one of the directors, said.
Despite having the same name, the five Marias in the documentary ‘are very different’ in terms of age, socio-economic status, ambitions and their geographic location, Arias said.
The producers invited women named Maria Rodriguez to a party in San Jose as a ‘tribute to the Costa Rican woman’ and to shoot a number of scenes for the documentary.
All the Maria Rodriguezes who attended the party got to know one another and enjoyed the party with lots of food, music and dancing, he said.
The film, written and directed by Gustavo Loria and Arias, is an initiative of the governments of Ibero-American nations, the countries that were formerly Spanish or Portuguese colonies.
Source: EFE
Corto chileno gana el festival de cine Vina del Mar
La película chilena “El Monte de Gabriel“, de Christopher Murray, ganó el Octavo Festival de Cine Digital de Viña del Mar en la categoría de cortometrajes, donde lograron menciones honrosas Cuba, España y Chile.
El corto ganador aborda la historia de un ferviente católico que sube todos los días al monte que hay en su pueblo en busca de una revelación o manifestación divina.
Las menciones honrosas recayeron en “Brainstorm“, del cubano Eduardo del Llano, “La paradoja de Arrow”, del español Jorge Caballero, y “La ley del hielo”, del chileno Ignacio Rodríguez. (more…)
