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.

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.

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.

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,

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:

Reviewing reviews of South of the Border

Oliver Stone’s new documentary about Latin America’s leftward political shift and its growing independence from Washington is being lambasted by the media. This shouldn’t come as a surprise as Stone calls out the mainstream media in his new film South of the Border for its mostly one-sided, distorted coverage of the region’s political leaders—most significantly Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez .

17th Cinesul Film Festival Rio de Janeiro

The Festival, organized by Pulsar Artes and now in its seventeenth year, is an important showcase of the best films being made in the Spanish and Portuguese speaking world. Started in 1994, the festival was initially the Mercosul Cinema and Video Showcase with an aim to stimulate debate about film production in Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay. In 2002, the festival officially expanded into a Latin American film festival and acknowledging the considerable participation of Portuguese and mainly Spanish producers in the submitted films, Cinesul became Ibero-American in 2006.

South of the Border by Stone, greeted by thousands of Bolivians

Noted US political firebrand and film director Oliver Stone attended the Bolivian premiere of his documentary “South of the Border” Tuesday night at El Coliseo La Coronilla, an enormous indoor sports stadium in Cochabamba.

More than six thousand Bolivians, including Bolivian President Evo Morales, attended. Stone even walked away with the key to the city, bestowed on him by the city’s mayor.

“I don’t think in my entire career in cinema I’ve seen a crowd so big to see a movie of mine,” Stone told the audience. “I’m honoured to bring this film to Cochabamba.”

The event is part of a larger tour Stone has made through Spain and South America, where the film will be released this month. Cinema Libre Studio will un-reel the documentary in the US June 25, and Dogwoof will release it in the UK July 30.

Historian Tariq Ali and Mark Weisbrot wrote the film, a chronicle of Stone’s travels throughout South America late last year and his interviews with leaders in the region.

Cinema Libre Studio has also distributed the films like”Outfoxed”, “Angels In The Dust” and “The End of Poverty?”

Stone is a close friend of Cuban leader Fidel Castro, Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and Bolivia’s Evo Morales.

Sourced from: mercopress.com