Latin American film

Colombian film “Chocó” by Jhonny Hendrix Hinestroza complets Panorama Programme Berlinale 2012 (Making off video)

latamfilm — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 15:45:45 +0000

This year’s Panorama is presenting 53 feature films: 18 in the main programme, 15 in Panorama Special and 20 in Panorama Dokumente. A few of the topics explored in them will be examined again in four short supporting films.
34 productions from 37 countries are screening as world premieres. Seven fictional films are directorial debuts. There are 12 German productions, and 24 women filmmakers presenting 16 films.The premiere showings of Panorama’s main programme and Panorama Dokumente will be held at their unusual venues: CinemaxX 7 and Cinestar 7. Panorama Special will be screening at the Friedrichstadt-Palast and Kino International again, and for the first time also at the Cinestar Event Cinema in the Sony Center.

The most important organisational change is Panorama’s new admission regulations for the accredited press: for all public screenings it is now necessary to get tickets in advance at the ticket counter in the Hyatt. This change is due to the ever-growing number of international film professionals coming to the Berlinale. In other words, these tickets have been introduced to ensure the press continued access to Panorama’s public screenings. If by chance there are empty seats available right before a film starts, then you may still try using your Berlinale press badge to gain admission.

Among the final films to be included in the Panorama is the US indie Cherry with Heather Graham, James Franco and Lili Taylor. It portrays a confident young woman who explores her own sexuality and has to deal with the prejudice of those around her. In The Convoy, Alexei Mizgirev presents an apocalyptic portrait of the police and the army in Russia today. After her success with her film Megane (Glasses) in 2008, Japanese filmmaker Naoko Ogigami is returning to the Panorama with Rentaneko (Rent-a-Cat). It’s the enchanting story of a young woman who rents cats to people who are lonely. After presenting his star-studded Taiwan saga Monga in the Panorama 2010, director Dove is coming back to Berlin with his film Love, starring Shu Qi. Crowd-sourcing has rarely made a more monumental work possible: in Iron Sky, a largely Finnish production featuring Udo Kier, director Timo Vuorensola paints a dark picture of the world being threatened from outer space that leads right into the White House. Austrian director Peter Kern’s film is ultimately a surprise: GLAUBE, LIEBE, TOD (BELIEF, LOVE, DEATH) is an intimate drama about the conflicts smouldering between the generations and how an immigrant falls victim to them.  New discoveries include Columbian director Jhonny Hendrix Hinestroza’s Chocó, in which a young woman learns to assert herself in a rural world. Deepak Rauniyar’s HIGHWAY is a Nepalese road movie: all the passengers on a bus are in a hurry to get somewhere, but the ride is constantly delayed by strikes.

To celebrate the restoration of Yonfan’s oeuvre, Panorama is rescreening a film by this extraordinary Hong Kong director: shot in Singapore in 1995, Bugis Street Redux carries viewers off to a delightfully noisy, sexy, queer madhouse.

The TEDDY Award – the Berlinale’s queer film award ceremony – will be held in the main hall of Tempelhof Airport on February 17, 2012. Two personalities of great importance for the queer film world, and beyond, will be honoured with a Special Teddy: Ulrike Ottinger, German director, camerawoman and artist; as well as Mario Montez, the original superstar of US underground cinema, featured in works by many artists, from Jack Smith to Andy Warhol.

List of newly announced titles (earlier announced titles are listed at the end of this press release)

Panorama fictional films

Bugis Street Redux by Yonfan, Hong Kong with Hiep Thi Le, Michael Lam, Greg-O, Ernest Seah

Cherry by Stephen Elliott, USA with Ashley Hinshaw, James Franco, Heather Graham, Dev Patel, Lili Taylor – WP

Chocó by Jhonny Hendrix Hinestroza, Columbia with Karent Hinestroza, Esteban Copete, Fabio García, Daniela Mosquera, Jesús Benavides – WP

GLAUBE, LIEBE, TOD (BELIEF, LOVE, DEATH) by Peter Kern, Austria with Traute Furthner, Peter Kern, Joao Moreira Pedrosa – WP

HIGHWAY by Deepak Rauniyar, Nepal/USA with DAYAHANG Rai, ASHA Magarati, SHRISTI Ghimire, EELUM Dixit – WP

Iron Sky by Timo Vuorensola, Finland/Netherlands/Australia/ Germany with Christopher Kirby, Götz Otto, Julia Dietze, Udo Kier – WP

Love by Doze, Niu Chen-zer, China/Taiwan with Shu Qi, Vicky Zhao, Ethan Juan, Mark Jau

Man On Ground by Akin Omotoso, South Africa with Hakeem Kae-Kazim, Fabian Adeoye Lojede, Fana Mokoena

My Brother The Devil by Sally El Hosaini, Great Britain with James Floyd, Saïd Taghmaoui, Nasser Memarzia, Fady Elsayed – WP

Rentaneko (Rent-a-Cat) by Naoko Ogigami, Japan with Mikako Ichikawa, Reiko Kusamura, Ken Mitsuishi, Maho Yamada, Kei Tanaka – WP

The Convoy by Alexey Mizgirev, Russian Federation with Oleg Vasilkov, Azamat Nigmanov, Dmitry Kulichkov – WP

Panorama Dokumente

Wo men de gu shi (Our Story –10-year ‘Guerrilla Warfare’ of Beijing Queer Film Festival) by Yang Yang, People’s Republic of China

“Blut muss fließen” – Undercover unter Nazis by Peter Ohlendorf, Germany – WP

Panorama short supporting films

7 Deadly Kisses by Sammaria Simanjuntak, Indonesia with Sunny Soon, Daud Sumolang – WP

A Lazy Summer Afternoon with Mario Montez by John Heys, Germany – WP

Green Laser by John Greyson, Canada – WP

ZUCHT und ORDNUNG (LAW and ORDER) by Jan Soldat, Germany – WP

List of fictional films announced in two earlier press releases

Source: Press Office Berlinale

Demián Bichir: Mexican Actor Nominated For An Academy Award For Best Actor In ‘A Better Life’ (Trailer)

latamfilm — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 13:26:01 +0000

Mexican actor Demian Bichir, who was nominated Tuesday morning for an Oscar in the Best Actor category for his role as a Mexican day laborer in the film “A Better Life,” has dedicated his nomination to the millions of undocumented immigrants in the nation.
The drama portrays the life of an undocumented gardener, Carlos Gallindo, in East L.A. The gardener struggles to keep his teenage son on the straight-and-narrow and give him a chance at “a better life” after his wife abandoned the two of them after crossing the border into the United States.
“A Better Life” is rather timely given the contentious national debate over immigration.
Bichir‘s nomination also comes at a time when people around the country are protesting controversial immigration laws, such as Alabama’s HB56 and Arizona’s SB1070.
Bichir’s portrayal of a Mexican day laborer brings the struggle of the “undocumented immigrant” to life. On Tuesday, Bichir issued a statement dedicating the nomination to the undocumented: “I dedicate this nomination to those eleven million human beings who make our lives easier and better in the U.S.”
In an interview with Fox News Latino, Bichir said, “This issue [of immigration] is close to many of us… We are all immigrants and America was based on immigrants. But this film is not just an immigration movie.” Above all, the film captures a father’s unwavering love for his son.
“I’m overwhelmed for having my name among those incredible actors. This could have never happened if Chris Weitz had not been the head of this film. He is my brother and I thank him deeply,” Bichir said in a statement.
While Bichir may be a household name in the U.S. yet, the Mexican star has been acting since he was 14. He has played Esteban Reyes, the fictional mayor of Tijuana and husband of Mary-Louise Parker’s character in Weeds. Bichir also played two famous Latin American revolutionaries: Fidel Castro in Che: Part One and Che: Part Two and Emiliano Zapata in Zapata: Amor en Rebeldia, according to Time.com.
If nothing else, Bichir hopes the buzz surrounding his Oscar nomination will encourage people to see the film.
“Hopefully more and more people will jump into iTunes and Netflix to see our film. That will be the biggest reward we could get,” said Bichir.
In the category for Best Actor, Bichir is up against George Clooney in “The Descendants”, Jean Dujardin in “The Artist”, Gary Oldman in “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” and Brad Pitt in “Moneyball”.
According to the L.A. Times, Bichir is one of only a handful of Mexican actors and actresses to have scored Oscar nominations, including Anthony Quinn for “Wild is the Wind” (1957) and “Zorba the Greek” (1964) and Salma Hayek for Julie Taymor’s 2002 bio-pic “Frida” about painter Frida Kahlo.
The first Hispanic actor to win an Academy Award for Best Actor was Puerto Rican Jose Ferrer in 1950 for his protrayal of Cryano de Bergerac.
The 84th Annual Academy Awards will air February 26 at 7 p.m. EST on ABC.

Source: Huffington Post

GUNS, DRUGS, AND BEAUTY QUEENS: AN INTERVIEW WITH GERARDO NARANJO

latamfilm — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 17:42:29 +0000

Gerardo Naranjo’s third feature film, Miss Bala, dares to take on a very weighty subject—the pervasive violence perpetrated on ordinary citizens all over Mexico by drug cartels. Set in Tijuana, newcomer Stephanie Sigman stars as Laura, a young woman trying to escape an impoverished existence by participating in a beauty pageant. But Laura’s life takes a very different path when she unwittingly attracts the attention of gang-leader, Lino and becomes an unwilling participant in a war from which there is no escape.
On a sunny afternoon in January I got the chance to sit down at the Canana offices with director Gerardo Naranjo, lead actress Stephanie Sigman, and executive producer Diego Luna.

Jennifer Wilson: Did you know early on that you would cast Stephanie in this role?
Gerardo Naranjo: She was the first actress that I met with for the part, but I told her that I wanted to meet with other Mexican actresses just to be sure she was the one. And she wasn’t very happy about it (looks at Stephanie and laughs) but six months later, I told her I was sure that she was the one.

It’s a dangerous world portrayed in this film, how dangerous was it for you, as artists to approach this subject matter?
Stephanie Sigman: I don’t know. I want to think it’s safe because it’s art, it’s a movie. Also, the movie doesn’t really point the finger at anyone specifically; it’s to show what we are feeling as a society.
GN: I think it’s wishful thinking that we’re not in danger because we didn’t attack anybody specifically. It was important that we did this movie from the point of view of a regular person. If it was from the point of a view of a criminal then we would have had to show much more. But I don’t think even the criminals come off in such a bad light. They come off as people working for a living like everyone else. I truly believe if they had an alternative to that life then they wouldn’t be doing that. The first thing the movie is trying to point out is that a life of crime is not glamorous, it’s not fun, it’s not cool. It’s not gold chains, girls, and parties—that’s imaginary. These guys are living a pathetic life.

(to Stephanie) This was your first feature film and you’re in almost every shot. Was it overwhelming at times?
SS: It was a big challenge but I love challenges. But everyone was so supportive and Gerardo is a great director. The psychological and emotional part was difficult, and it was physically challenging –at times I got a bit hurt. There were times I felt totally lost, but I always trusted the process and trusted Gerardo.
Stephanie Sigman as Laura in the Canana and Fox International Productions film ‘Miss Bala’
Why does it seem like Laura never fights back?
SS: I don’t think she could. I think she knows if she fights back at all, she’s dead. She has no time to put a strategy together to get away.
GN: Certainly, we wanted her non-action to reflect Mexican society. I feel Mexican society is frozen, and is not acting against the fear they feel. The character Laura doesn’t react, and I know it’s frustrating for the audience, but it’s also logical for this character—she doesn’t have any military expertise, she doesn’t know how to use any weapons.

It seems like the current situation in Mexico is hopeless, it’s too overwhelming.
GN: I believe so. I don’t believe that this generation of Mexicans will be able to fix it. It’s pretty hopeless. The biggest challenge for Mexico is to recognize the problems. There are still people in Mexico saying that this doesn’t exist—that we’re creating this, that we’re traitors.

Can you talk about how this movie ended up as the Mexican entry for the Oscars this year?
GN: I was surprised by it. But I think the Mexican Academy had a strong feeling about the movie and wanted to endorse what the movie is saying. I think the movie has been popular in Mexico because it’s been attacked, because some authorities are saying it’s not true.

There’s not a sense in this movie of having ‘good guys’ or ‘bad guys’.
GN: In the beginning the script had a speech by the drug dealers about why they do what they do, and a speech by the politicians about why they do what they do. But every other movie is already doing that, giving conclusions right away without leaving questions for us so I thought let’s just take it out and leave it as an open question. I thought if I just focused on this very intimate story and what happens to Laura and cover all the angles, it will leave the audience with a much better interpretation of what’s happening rather than seeing the drama of the police and the drama of the criminals.

Your past films are influenced by the French New Wave, did you have any influences for this project?
GN: We purposely wanted to avoid influences from other films on this. We really tried to stick to the phenomenon we were trying to research. Our biggest guideline was to ask ourselves, how would this feel? What would Laura do in this moment? Those earlier projects were very biographical and afterward I felt something had changed in me and I wasn’t interested in doing that anymore so I wanted this project to be completely different. I was researching violence is Mexico and this project was initially about a DEA agent that goes from America to Mexico.

None of the characters in the film ever specifically talks about drugs and you never actually see any drugs either, why is that?
GN: In the beginning, we thought let’s show everything. Let’s show the people who had been decapitated, let’s show all the drugs, let’s show all the bad stuff. But then we decided what we should do is precisely the opposite—we decided to show the experience of the innocent person and her ignorance towards what’s going on all around her. We didn’t show the criminals with the drugs because we can infer that’s what it’s about because it’s the most powerful force in Mexico right now. At one point we had no drugs and no killings in the script and decided to add in the gun battles because it was becoming a little too abstract.

Why did you set the film in Tijuana?
GN: I really wanted to talk about the relationship that the U.S. has with this problem. I really wanted to connect the fact that America has a lot to do with this.

When you were making the film, how were you able to keep it enough under the radar without word getting out to the drug cartels?
GN: We were lucky. We got advice from people who had more experience with this issue. We called the film “Beautiful Maria” and said it was a romantic comedy. We didn’t get permits so it was a secret where we were going to be shooting. But I think they probably really knew who we were and what we were doing, but they didn’t feel threatened by us.
Executive Producers Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal at the Mexico City Premier of ‘Miss Bala’
(To Diego Luna) Were you surprised that the Mexican Academy chose this film for Oscar consideration? Diego Luna: The Academy is a community of filmmakers that are making these choices and not politicians trying to sell the country. I think the film achieves one thing that rarely happens—the connection with reality is so intense that there’s no way you can say there’s a better film this year that represents what’s going on in Mexico. It’s a feeling we’re all sharing now. No matter where you are in Mexico you cannot hide from what’s happening. Before, you could say oh that only happens in the North or only if you buy drugs, but today it’s really happening everywhere. Everyone has a friend that has some kind of connection with this violence. I believe this film is part of something bigger that is happening in Mexico. I think that what Gerardo gave us with this film is a shout that had been trapped there inside for a long time and had to get out.

Miss Bala opens in New York and Los Angeles January 20, 2012

Source: Film Independent

Latino Themed Movies Take the Spotlight at Sundance Film Festival: Mosquita y Mari (Video)

latamfilm — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 11:38:36 +0000

It is undeniable that Latino voices are largely underrepresented and/or distressingly clichéd through the current perspective of American media, therefore it is rare that a filmmaker like Guerrero has the opportunity to share her voice through moviemaking, and perhaps more profound is that her voice is getting the recognition it deserves.
Sundance Institute strives to serve as the premiere forum for unique voices in independent film: “[A] discovery festival that is committed to representing the wide spectrum of independent cinematic work being made today.” The Institute’s featured event, the Sundance Film Festival, opens today in Park City, Utah, to an expected snow flurry of celebrities, filmmakers, filmgoers, industry professionals and more.Mosquita y Mari is Latina director Aurora Guerrero‘s first feature film and it will premiere in the “Next” category of the Sundance Film Festival 2012, a non-competitive program the festival defines as “films [that] stretch limited resources to create impactful art.” Guerrero’s acceptance to the festival is an accomplishment; of the nearly 12,000 films submitted to the festival this year, less than 2% were accepted.
This won’t be Guerrero‘s first time walking the Sundance red carpet; her short film Pura Lengua screened at Park City in 2005, and the filmmaker was accordingly snatched up by the prestigious Sundance Institute to participate in the Sundance Native/Indigenous Lab. Mosquita y Mari soon thereafter earned the Sundance/Ford Fellowship and the Sundance Institute/Time Warner Foundation Fellowship for Post Production.
In addition to receiving the abundant support of the Sundance, Mosquita y Mari has garnered the attention of prestigious film organizations including the Tribeca All Access Filmmaker Program, Film Independent’s Producers Lab, the National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NALIP) Latino Media Market, and the film project was the recipient of the Paul Robeson Development Grant, the SFFS/KRF Grant and the LG Cinema 3D Fellowship. The film was recently a Nominee for the Film Independent Piaget Producers Award for the work of the film’s producer Chad Burris.
The film Mosquita y Mari explores the complexities of a budding friendship between two Chicana high schoolers in Los Angeles’ Huntington Park as they struggle to recognize the sexual undercurrent in their relationship. The film stars rising teen talents Fenessa Pineda and Venecia Troncoso, and features supporting talent Joaquín Garrido, Laura Patalano and Dulce Maria Solis. The film was intimately photographed by Uruguayan cinematographer Magela Crosignani and both creatively and culturally designed by Production Designer Dalila Paola Mendez. The film was edited by Augie Robles and scored by composer Ryan Beveridge.

Reed more

Source: by S.J. Main for the Huffington Post

3 Latino Films selected: International Film Rotterdam announces final line-up for the Tiger Awards Competitions (full list)

latamfilm — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 14:26:38 +0000

Fifteen films have been selected for IFFR’s Tiger Awards Competition 2012. The complete lineup, comprising first or second feature films concurring for three equal Hivos Tiger Awards of each 15,000 euro, includes eight world premieres. Five competing films have received support from Rotterdam’s Hubert Bals Fund. The Rotterdam Tiger Awards Competition for Short Films 2012 comprises twenty-one films, ranging in length from five to fifty-six minutes. Nine short films in competition will see their world premieres in Rotterdam.

Jury Tiger Awards Competition 2012
The Jury of the seventeenth Tiger Awards Competition comprises actress and film maker Helena Ignez from Brazil, star of Rogerio Sganzerla’s The Red Light Bandit, and co-founder of legendary production company Belair; Ludmila Cvikova, Head of International Programming of the Doha Film Institute, Qatar and former programmer of the International Film Festival Rotterdam; Tine Fischer, director of CPH:DOX, the international documentary film festival in Copenhagen, Denmark; film maker Eric Khoo from Singapore, who’s animated feature film Tatsumi screens in the festival; film maker Samuel Maoz from Israel, who’s first feature film Lebanon was launched as a project at CineMart and went on to win the Golden Lion in Venice. The winners of the Hivos Tiger Awards will be announced on Friday 3 February.

Tiger Awards Competitie Nominees 2012

De jueves a domingo (Dominga Sotomayor, Chile/Netherlands, 2012, 96’, world premiere, Hubert Bals Fund supported film)
Sotomayor’s feature film début, expertly shot by Barbara Alvarez, is a Chilean road movie set in and around the car belonging to a middle-class family. Seen through eyes of the kids in the back, they embark on a four day holiday trip to the north, while the marriage is falling apart. Dominga Sotomayor’s short film Videojuego was screened in Rotterdam in 2010. De jueves a domingo was selected for the Cannes Cinéfondation Résidence 2010.

Neighbouring Sounds (Kleber Mendonça Filho, Brazil, 2012, 100’, world premiere, Hubert Bals Fund supported film)
For his gripping. slow burning feature film début Kleber Mendonça Filho expanded on a theme from one of his short films, Eletrodoméstica. In the middle class street where a rich family owns much of the real estate, life takes an unexpected turn when a private security outfit offers its services to the inhabitants. The presence of the guards brings a feeling of security but also adds good deal of anxiety to a culture that runs on fear. In 2007, IFFR presented five short films by Kleber Mendonça Filho as a ‘Profile’ in the short films section.

Sudoeste (Eduardo Nunes, Brazil, 2011, 128’, European premiere, Hubert Bals Fund supported film)
Sudoeste, a tale of fantasy and mystery shot in stunning black-and-white, is Eduardo Nunes’ fiction feature début, after several successful short films, three of which were screened at IFFR. Situated in a sleepy Brazilian coastal village, a baby, a girl and a woman named Clarice seem to live their (or is it her?) life in one single day.

Voice of My Father (Orhan Eskiköy & Zeynel Dogan, Turkey, Germany, 2011, 87’, world premiere, Hubert Bals Fund supported film)
Voice of My Father is a powerful meditation on identity and family ties, and a profound portrait of a country in transition. Co-director Zeynel Dogan plays a character called Zeynel who lives with his pregnant wife in Diyarbakir, while his mother lives alone in the old family house in a nearly deserted village. Eskiköy and Dogan co-directed documentary short films and the feature length documentary On the Way to School. Voice of My Father is a fiction, based on Zeynel Dogan’s family history.

Living (Vasily Sigarev, Russia, 2012, 119’, world premiere)
Vasily Sigarev’s second feature, after his acclaimed WOLFY, is a grim portrait of existence in a wintry Russian town, showing some characters living through their own ordeal. A mother wants to reunite with her twin daughters; after a wedding ceremony, a young couples’ love is tested in the most brutal way; a boy wants to see his estranged father, despite his mother’s protests. Celebrated young playwright and director offers an unsentimental, sincere and personal film on the complexity of life – and death.

Egg and Stone (Huang Ji, China, 2012, 97’, world premiere)
In the Hunan province village where she was born, Huang Ji shot her first elegant feature, a quietly disturbing drama about 14-year-old Honggui, who lives with her aunt and uncle in the countryside. It seems she is not very wanted. Her parents intended to farm her out to family for only two years so they could work in the big city, but in the meantime, seven years have passed. In 2009, she presented her mid-length fiction The Warmth of Orange Peel at the Berlinale.

Clip (Maja Milos, Serbia, 2012, 100’, world premiere)
Maja Miloš’s first feature film is a dynamic, disturbing portrait of contemporary youth. Jasna, played fearlessly by Isidora Simijonovic, is a pretty girl in her mid-teens. With a terminally ill father and dispirited mother at home, she is disillusioned by her unglamorous life in a remote Serbian town. Opposing everyone, including herself, she goes experimenting with sex, drugs and partying.

In April the Following Year, There Was a Fire (Wichanon Somumjarn, Thailand, 2012, 76’, world premiere, Hubert Bals Fund supported film)
At first sight, an atmospheric, suitably languid portrait of a young man returning to his home town in North Eastern Thailand from his job in Bangkok to attend a friends’ wedding in the hottest month of the year, Wichanon Somumjarn’s first feature turns into a semi-autobiography, and a journey into the labyrinth of the real and the imagined, the past and the present, the personal and the political.

Black’s Game (Óskar Thor Axelsson, IJsland, 2012, 100’, word premiere)
Reykjavik, April 1999: Iceland’s crime scene is in violent flux and young Stebbi suddenly finds himself in a world of tough guys, drugs dealers, stunning blondes, drugs, robberies and slaughter. The feature début by Óskar Thor Axelsson is based on the bestselling Icelandic gangster story Black Curse by Stefán Máni and was executive produced by Nicolas Winding Refn (Pusher, Drive).

It Looks Pretty From a Distance (Anka Sasnal & Wilhelm Sasnal, Poland, USA, 2011, 77’, international premiere)
The feature film début by visual artists Anka & Wilhelm Sasnal focuses on a small Polish community during a hot summer. Everyone is either about to explode or come to a complete halt. Hidden aggression, hatred, discrimination, as well as fears, longings and emotional crises are on the edge of breaking through the surface. Using a precise and austere style, the Sasnals create a physical portrait of a micro society that turns into a viscous swamp, unresistingly absorbing any kind of violence.

Romance Joe (Lee Kwang-Kuk, South Korea, 2011, 115’, international premiere)
Lee Kwang-Kuk, former assistant director to Hong Sang-Soo, plays the storytelling game with unmistakable pleasure in this elegantly shot first feature. In a web of intertwined stories, a film maker seeks inspiration and finds it with an energetic waitress who in return for some payment is willing to tell him about, for instance, the time she met a suicidal guy called Romance Joe.

A Fish (Park Hong-Min, South Korea, 2011, 105’, international premiere)
Park Hong-Min’s feature debut A FISH is the first 3-D film in the Rotterdam Tiger Awards Competition. Little by little, the filmmaker reveals where this unfortunate road movie is taking its characters. In a roadside restaurant, the protagonist, Professor Lee, picks up the detective who says he has found Lee’s missing wife on an island off the coast. The men head for the sea, but that night, the professor has a curious dream.

Return to Burma (Midi Z, Taiwan, Burma, 2011, 84’, European premiere)
Return to Burma, first feature by Midi Z, offers a unique, authentic story from Burma (Myanmar). Xing-hong, a Burmese guest-worker in Taiwan, has the duty of returning the ashes of a friend to their native country. At home, there’s the joy of seeing friends and family. Young people still sing romantic songs and dream of working aborad, like his younger brother. Xing-hong starts to look around for local business opportunities.

L (Babis Makridis, Greece, 2012, 86’, European premiere)
The protagonist in L, a man aged 40, is a more than dedicated driver. His work is his life, and his car is more than a means of transport. He lives in his car, receiving his family at fixed times. His employer is a rich narcoleptic who can’t drive himself. But The Man loses his job and decides to go looking for another means of transport. A unique combination of abstract comedy and existential drama, Makridis debut feature is filled with singular dialogue, a stuttering Mondscheinsonate and a great song about bears.

Tokyo Playboy Club (Okuda Yosuke, Japan, 2011, 97’, European premiere)
In 2010, young film maker Okuda Yosuke made a name for himself with his low-budget gangster comedy Hot as Hell: The Deadbet March. This year, he returns with his first commercially made film, a dry-humorous crime story set in the fringes of Japanese society. A gangster drama that focuses on people who primarily live by instinct, which results in reckless behaviour, bad decisions, and violence.

Source: IFFR

IndieWire’s The Playlist selects “No” (Pablo Larrain) and “Post Tenebras Lux” (Carlos Reygadas) as one of the Most Anticipated Foreign-Language Films Of 2012

latamfilm — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 13:19:40 +0000

Forget the multiplex, what’s going to be heating up the arthouse this year? 2011 saw some fantastic foreign flicks not only crowding top ten lists (“Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall Past Lives,” “A Separation,” “Le Havre,” etc) but even some like the ode-to-silent-cinema “The Artist” entering serious Oscar chit chat. Nearly every weekend, smaller arthouses showcased exciting alternatives to the general empty-headed nonsense that fills the bigger arenas when it’s not October, November, and December. If you had the eyesight for subtitles and were willing to take a chance, there was a remedy for every “Cowboys & Aliens” just around the corner.

We’ve devised a list of foreign movies to keep on your radar during 2012, things that might not make it over here right away (or, unfortunately, at all) but are absolutely worth a slot in the memory bank for a later date. There’s still plenty of room for surprise — aside from the occasional falter of an anticipated work, there are likely plenty of films by new directors that we couldn’t possibly know about. The list also excludes things that we had seen already on the festival circuit last year that will be making it to our shores later in the year (“Once Upon A Time In Anatolia,” “The Kid With A Bike,” etc) and a couple that ended up on our larger Most Anticipated list (Wong Kar Wai’s “The Grandmaster,” which we’ve been talking about for decades already, and “Rust And Bone,” Jacques Audiard’s follow up to the incredible “A Prophet,” starring Marion Cotillard). Still there is lots to look forward to and keep an eye out for.
Remember boys and girls, support your local indie/arthouse theater.

“No” – dir. Pablo Larrain – Chile
Synopsis: A black comedy centering on an ad executive’s campaign to oust Augusto Pinochet in Chile.
What You Need To Know: For some reason the distribution deities haven’t been kind to Pablo Larrain. Both “Tony Manero” and “Post-Mortem” were stark, harrowing and darkly funny movies cut from the same cloth of our favorite 1970s renegade new wavers, yet the former barely blipped in theaters and the latter remains without a passport. However, with Gael Garcia Bernal in tow and a picture described by producer Juan de Dios Larrain as “an epic David and Goliath story (and) a black comedy with attitude,” this closing film in the director’s Pinochet trilogy should be a rousing one, unlikely to be given the same short shrift as the others. It’ll be interesting to see how much of Larrain’s aesthetic survives with such an optimistic crowd-pleaser.
When? Filmed in November, so a fall festival bow seems likely.

“Post Tenebras Lux” – dir. Carlos Reygadas – Mexico
Synopsis: Described as an expressionist painting, this will be a semi-autobiographical tale about the director’s feelings, memories, dreams, hopes and fears.
What You Need To Know: If there’s any director who should be set free of structural shackles, it has to be Carlos Reygadas. His signature loose narratives always allowed him to really explore the small and the weird, so with even less of a narrative structure form and coming from what seems to be a deep personal well, his latest film, “Post Tenebras Lux,” should prove to be a true work of art. Coming off the incredible Cannes Jury prize winner and Martin Scorsese favorite, “Silent Light,” there are plenty of reasons to be excited for his one. A holdover from last year’s list, the film definitively went before cameras last fall, so we should end up seeing it before 2012 is out.
When? Cannes feels a tad early, although we’re sure organizers will want him. Venice might be more likely.

Source: by Oliver Lyttelton for The Playlist

Benicio Del Toro Directs in Cuba: Watch Hutcherson and Del Toro talk about shooting Seven Days in Havana

latamfilm — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 18:10:19 +0000

Puerto Rican actor-turned-director Benicio Del Toro recently screened his latest film project in Cuba, Seven Days in Havana, a French-Spanish production made up of seven shorts. Del Toro directed the first short entitled To Yuma (The American), a story that follows a young American actor (Hunger Games’ Josh Hutcherson) trying to break into the film industry who travels to Cuba for a film festival.
While promoting the film during a press conference in Havana, Del Toro said the experience was so rewarding he plans to continue directing.
“To see the motivation of all the artists, working 14 hours a day, to see the confidence they had in me, the collaboration between everything, is something very special. It’s an experience that motivates me to dream of trying it again,” said Del Toro.

Source: Movies.com

Latino Film Series at LACMA: Contested Visions in Latin America Through Film (full programme)

latamfilm — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 11:01:35 +0000

A special program organized in conjunction with the exhibition Contested Visions in the Spanish Colonial World. Hosted by Edward James Olmos, actor, producer, director and community activist, and curated by Marlene Dermer, co-director of the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival (LALIFF), this two-day film program, explores themes from the exhibition through cinema.
On January 21, the program includes a fascinating selection of feature films followed by a roundtable discussion with some of the directors and actors (the roundtable discussion starts at 6:45 pm, after the last film of the day).
On January 22, a series of compelling shorts and documentaries will be screened.

Bing Theater | Free, tickets required | Please refer to each film below to reserve your tickets.

This film program was made possible with the support of Paul and Herta Amir, JoAnn Busuttil, Darrel Couturier, William Escalera, Francisco George, Elisabeth Waldo Music and Paul A. Dentzel, MCMAFN Foundation.

For more information, please contact educate@lacma.org.

Events in this Series

La teta asustada (The Milk of Sorrow)
January 21, 2012 | 1:00pm

El Violín (The Violin)
January 21, 2012 | 3:00pm

El regalo de la Pachamama (The Gift of the Pachamama)
January 21, 2012 | 5:00pm

Teshuinada, Semana Santa Tarahumara (Teshuinada, Holy Week at the Tarahumara)
January 22, 2012 | 12:30pm

Solo un cargador (Porter)
January 22, 2012 | 1:30pm

El puente dorado (The Golden Bridge)
January 22, 2012 | 2:00pm

La pequeña semilla en el asfalto (The Little Seed in the Asphalt )
January 22, 2012 | 2:30pm

Source: LACMA

Good year for Cuban Cinema: Six Cuban Film Premiers Scheduled for 2012

latamfilm — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 19:00:20 +0000

The first film by director Eduardo del Llano –Vinci- will be premiered on January 13. The movie by the screenwriter of La vida es silbar (Life is Wistling) tells the story of young Leonardo, the painter of La Gioconda, to make a reflection on arts and its inerasable trace on human beings. The director only uses four actors, a single location and paintings by Cuban artist Roberto Fabelo.

February will bring the movie Verde Verde to the island’s theaters, the most recent feature film by 2006 National Film Award laureate, Enrique Pineda Barnet. The Director of La bella del Alhambra or The Beauty of Alambra uses works of art by Rocío García to sew the threads of a seduction game whose protagonists are Héctor Noas and Carlos Miguel Caballero.

Also on the waiting list for its premier are Juan de los Muertos or Juan of the Dead, by Alejandro Brugués, who took home, among zombies and laughs, the Audience’s Coral Award at the recently concluded New Latin American Film Festival in Havana, and La piscina (The Swimming Pool), by Carlos Machado, which won the award by the Cuban Artists and Writers Association’s Radio, Film and TV.  The screening of the film Y sin embargo se mueve or And it still moves, by renowned Cuban TV and video director , Rudy Mora is also expected this year. In it, Mora takes to the screen a celebrated playwright by the Cuban children’s theater ensemble La Colmenita. So is the premier of the musical Irremediablemente Juntos (Hopelessly Together) by Jorge Luis Sánchez who tells how love can win over racial and social prejudice obstructing it.

Source: Radio Habana Cuba

Latin American Films selected for the Santa Barbara International Film Festival 2012

latamfilm — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 17:00:39 +0000

Latin America film is happy to announce that several latino film productions have been selected for this year’s Santa Barbara International Film Festival.
Colombian film The Blue of The Sky (Lo Azul Del Cielo) by Juan Alfredo Uribe will have it’s World Premiere whereas Argentinean co-production Another Silence by Sigal Emanuel will have its US Premiere together with Cuban film El Medico: The Cubaton Story by Daniel Fridell, Brazilian film Found Memories by Julia Murat and Mexican film The Last Christeros (Los Ultimos Cristeros) by Matias Meyer.
In the International Features Competition we have again Argentinean co-production film Another Silence by Santiago Amigorena.
One of the most exciting sections is the Spanish/Latn American Cinema Competition section that this years counts with Cuban co-production films El Medico: The Cubaton Story and La Salsa Cubana, Irish film Little Matador by Sanra Jordan, Colombian film The Blue of the Sky (Lo Azul Del Cielo) by Juan Alfredo Uribee, Spanish film The Opposite of Love (Lo Contrario Al Amor) by Vicente Villanueva and Venezuelan film The Rumble of The Stones (El Rumor de las Piedras) by Alejandro Bellame Palacios.

For full list of the complete line up click here.

Source: Latin America film