BFI London Film Festival: A World Away From the Mundane Mainstream

With so few features from outside of the United States and Europe securing a theatrical release in this country, it is vital that festivals continue to showcase pictures from Latin America, Asia and Africa. No British event is as committed to world cinema as the BFI London Film Festival and the 54th selection is typically diverse and distinguished.
From Quebec to Patagonia, the contribution from the Americas is particularly strong this year, with Xavier Dolan’s Heartbeats confirming the good impression that he made at the tender age of 21 with How I Killed My Mother (2009). Indeed, he also takes the lead in this Montreal variation on François Truffaut’s Jules et Jim (1961), as he competes with gal pal Monia Chokri for the affections of new-in-town Niels Schneider. Seething with catty lines and camply hip visuals that owe as much to Wong Kar-wai, François Ozon and Christophe Honoré as the nouvelle vague, this achingly stylish paean to unrequited lust peppers the action with vox pops to emphasise its dramatic points. However, it’s the fond rivalry between Dolan and Chokri (that eventually brings them to blows during a stay in the

Dallas’ Vistas Latino Film Festival Announces 2010 Line-Up: Watch Trailer!!!

 

Dallas Latino Film Festival

Dallas’ Vistas Latino Film Festival is celebrating its eleventh annual appearance with a great line up of Latin American films and visits from several of the minds and faces behind them.  Vistas runs from October 28th through the 31st and showcases some of the best recent Latino film of recent years.  The Mexican omnibus film, Revolucion opens the festival on October 28th at the Angelika Film Center at Mockingbird Station.  This is Revolucion’s US debut and stars Jaime Camil, Blanca Soto, Alejandra Barros, Liz Gallardo, Adal Ramones, Alejandra Ambrosi, Pedro Armendariz, Jr., Jeannine Derbez, Gustavo Sanchez-Parra, Humberto Busto, Erik del Castillo, and Maria Soleno will be in attendance, it should be a fun night!  Twitch readers will probably recognize Seres: Genesis among the films being screened this year.  The film opened a couple of weeks ago in Mexico and is getting good notices, this could be a new landmark in Latin American Sci-fi, which has not been a big seller south of the border historically.  Passes for the festival are available and very affordable.  Follow the link at the bottom for more information.  I’ll try to keep you guys updated with more info about the features and hopefully some advance reviews to whet your appetites!  Watch this space!

AFI Latin American Film Fest Opens with “Revolution;” Closes in and with “October”

An image from Walter Salles and Daniela Thomas's "Linha de Passe."

AFI has announced their complete lineup for the 2010 AFI Latin American Film Festival in Silver Spring, MD.
The fest will open on September 21 with “Revolution,” a shorts compilation commissioned by Gael García Bernal, Diego Luna and Pablo Cruz, featuring some of Mexico’s leading contemporary directors (among them, Fernando Eimbcke, Carlos Reygadas, Rodrigo Garcia, Bernal, and Luna) exploring themes and stories inspired by the Mexican Revolution, in honor of its 100th anniversary.
The festival will close on October 13 with “October,” Daniel and Diego Vega Vidal’s film that won the Jury Prize in the 2010 Canne Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard section.  “October” follows Clemente, a moneylender, who enters his office to find a baby girl in a basket.  He must search among the prostitutes he frequents to find the baby’s mother, as his neighbor looks after the baby and his office. 

Matt Dillon receives an award at the Guadalajara Film Festival

El Festival Internacional de Cine en Guadalajara (FICG) in the state capital of Jalisco, Mexico, started today with the award of the International Guadalajara U.S. actor and director Matt Dillon, in the hands of the Mexican Diego Luna. In a brief speech that ended with a “Viva Mexico,” Dillon nominated for an Oscar for best supporting actor in 2005 for the movie Crash, and director of the film City of ghosts, said he was excited to visit this city for the second time and receive this prize.