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Showing posts with label filmlinc. Show all posts
Showing posts with label filmlinc. Show all posts

8 FESTIVALES Y SERIES DE CINE QUE NO TE PUEDES PERDER EN NYC

Posted by LATINO EVENTS Y TESPIS MAGAZINE on Friday, June 3, 2016 , under , , , , , , , , , , , , , | comments (0)



TOP SERIES AND FILM FESTIVALS IN NYC NOW. Por Alex Guerrero.


Todo abunda en Nueva York, incluyendo las esperadas series y festivales de cine que se presentan en la temporada veraniega. Aquí están nuestras recomendaciones con el mejor cine que la ciudad nos ofrece.
* La serie Open Roads: New Italian Cinema continua en la Film Society del Lincoln Center hasta el 8 de Junio > @FilmLinc 


* El 2do Festival de Cine Ecuatoriano en NYC se realiza del 2 al 5 de Junio > Vean nuestra guia:
ECUADOR MUESTRA SU CINE CONTEMPORÁNEO > http://goo.gl/fb/n4Srkb


* El Brooklyn Film Festival se realiza del 3 al 12 de junio > @brooklynfest 


* El Festival de Cine Human Rights Watch se celebra de Junio 10 al 19 en la Film Society del Lincoln Center  y IFC Center > @hrwfilmfestival  


* El Festival Films on the Green comienza el 7 Junio. Cine francés en los parques de NYC y gratis! > @FilmsontheGreen


* El mejor showcase de cine independiente BAM Cinemafest regresa a BAM Brooklyn de Junio 15 al 26 > @BAMcinematek 


* La nueva temporada de Rooftop Films ya comenzó y nos trae otra fantástica cartelera de pelis y documentales hasta el final del verano > @RooftopFilms


* El HBO Bryant Park Film Festival comienza el 20 de Junio hasta el final del verano. Películas gratis todos los lunes.

Disfruten de un gran verano lleno de gran cine en la Gran Manzana! :)  

NEW DIRECTORS NEW FILMS: A SHOWCASE OF PROMISING EMERGING LATINO TALENT!

Posted by LATINO EVENTS Y TESPIS MAGAZINE on Thursday, March 17, 2016 , under , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | comments (0)




The film series that brought us the likes of Pedro Almodóvar, the New Directors/New Films continues this year with another promising showcase of emerging Latino talent and from around the world. And what a selection of Latino talent we have: Federico Veiroj,  Salomé Lamas, Julio Hernández Cordón, Anita Rocha da Silveira, Pietro Marcello, Gabriel Mascaro, Pascale Breton and Lucile Hadžihalilović, are all part of the festival. Some other emerging talent like Josh Kriegman & Elyse Steinberg, Tony Stone, Omer Fast, Raam Reddy, Anna Rose Holmer, Tamer El Said, Kirsten Johnson, and Babak Anvari are also part of it. These are our highlights. Do not miss these films, specially the Latino films highlighted below!.


* The Apostate / El apóstata. Federico Veiroj, Spain/France/Uruguay, 2015, 80mSpanish with English subtitles


 With wry humor and deep conviction, Uruguayan filmmaker Federico Veiroj (A Useful Life, ND/NF 2010) observes a young Spaniard’s maddening efforts to abandon the Catholic Church. Petitioning the local bishop in Madrid to hand over his baptismal records, the philosophy student is soon confronted with a stubborn bureaucracy and comically agonized tests of his fidelity and patience. Scenes of pithy theological discussion (performed by the film’s excellent ensemble cast) are interspersed with oneiric flights of imagination, cohering to produce a work that is by turns seriously philosophical and irreverently funny. While Veiroj’s tone may be more gently ironic than that of Luis Buñuel (his spiritual forebear), The Apostatenonetheless traces in bracing fashion the competing forces of conformity and rebellion, spiritual yearning and carnal desire, at war within us all.


* Eldorado XXI: Salomé Lamas, Portugal/France, 2016, 125m Spanish, Quechua, and Aymara with English subtitles



Salomé Lamas’s Eldorado XXI immerses the viewer in the breathtaking views and extreme conditions of La Rinconada in the Peruvian Andes, the highest-elevation permanent human settlement in the world. Here, some 17,000 feet above sea level, miners face misery and lawlessness in the hopes of striking gold, chewing coca leaves to stave off exhaustion. They toil for weeks without pay under the inhumane lottery system known as cachorreo, gambling on an eventual fortune if they can survive the despoiled landscape long enough. Life in this remotest outpost of civilization seems to unfold in the grip of an illusion, and the film itself frequently resembles a hallucination, not least in an extended tour-de-force shot that reveals an endless stream of miners trekking up and down the mountain as we hear radio reports and stories of their daily lives. Full of unforgettable images and sounds, Eldorado XXI is a transporting, fundamentally mysterious experience that renews the possibilities of the ethnographic film. North American Premiere


* I Promise You Anarchy / Te prometo anarquía Julio Hernández Cordón, Mexico/Germany, 2015, 100m    Spanish with English subtitles.


Miguel (Diego Calva) and Johnny (Eduardo Eliseo Martinez) are in deep. Badass skater-bros, crazy-in-love blood hustlers, they’re flowing inevitably toward a sea swimming with narco-sharks. This is Mexico City today, and for two boys from different worlds but the same house—Johnny is the son of Miguel’s family maid—there is no future. On the days they do have at their disposal, they will live as hard as they can, even if it means total destruction for everyone around them. A harrowing vision of the 21st century replete with garishly lit sex scenes, inebriated slow motion, and an exhilarating, eclectic pop soundtrack, and winner of numerous prizes at festivals in Latin America, Julio Hernández Cordón’s film is exploding with beats, sweat, and pain—an ecstatic and anguished portrait of youth teetering on the brink of nihilism. U.S. Premiere


* Kill Me Please / Mate-me por favor Anita Rocha da Silveira, Brazil/Argentina, 2015, 101mPortuguese with English subtitles.


Anita Rocha da Silveira’s vibrantly morbid debut feature is a coming-of-age story in which passive aggression on the handball court, jealousy among friends, and teenage angst unfold in the foreground of a slasher flick. In Rio de Janeiro’s Barra da Tijuca—a newly formed upper-middle-class neighborhood of car-lined thoroughfares, gigantic malls, and monolithic white condos—a clique of teenage girls become fearfully captivated by a string of gruesome murders. The most fascinated is Bia (Valentina Herszage), whose own sexual discoveries evolve alongside the mounting deaths in this skewed world of wild colors and transformative desires. With nods to Brian De Palma’s Carrie, Jacques Tourneur’s Cat People, and the atmospheres of David Lynch, Rocha da Silveira’s contribution to the genre is nonetheless entirely her own.


* Lost and Beautiful / Bella e perduta. Pietro Marcello, Italy/France, 2015, 87m. Italian with English subtitles.


Pietro Marcello continues his intrepid work along the borderline of fiction and documentary with this beautiful and beguiling film, by turns neorealist and fabulist, worthy of Pasolini in its matter-of-fact lyricism and political conviction. Shot on expired 16mm film stock and freely incorporating archival footage and folkloric tropes, it begins as a portrait of the shepherd Tommaso, a local hero in the Campania region of southern Italy, who volunteered to look after the abandoned Bourbon palace of Carditello despite the state’s apathy and threats from the Mafia. Tommaso suffers a fatal heart attack in the course of shooting, and Marcello’s bold and generous response is to grant his subject’s dying wish: for a Pulcinella straight out of the commedia dell’arte to appear on the scene and rescue a buffalo calf from the palace. With Lost and Beautiful, a documentary that soars into the realm of myth, Marcello has crafted a uniquely multifaceted and enormously moving work of political cine-poetry. Winner of two awards at the Locarno Film Festival. U.S. Premier

* Neon Bull / Boi neon. Gabriel Mascaro, Brazil/Uruguay/Netherlands, 2015, 101m. Portuguese with English subtitles.


A rodeo movie unlike any other, Gabriel Mascaro’s Venice and Toronto prize-winning follow-up to his 2014 fiction debut August Winds tracks handsome cowboy Iremar (Juliano Cazarré) as he travels around to work at vaquejadarodeos, a Brazilian variation on the sport in which two men on horseback attempt to bring a bull down by its tail. Iremar dreams of becoming a fashion designer, creating flamboyant outfits for his co-worker, single mother Galega (Maeve Jinkings). Along with Galega’s daughter Cacá and a bullpen worker named Zé, these complex characters, drawn with tremendous compassion and not an ounce of condescension, make up an unorthodox family, on the move across the northeast Brazilian countryside. Sensitive to matters of gender and class, and culminating in one of the most audacious and memorable sex scenes in recent memory, Neon Bull is a quietly affirming exploration of desire and labor, a humane and sensual study of bodies at work and at play. A Kino Lorber release.
* Suite Armoricaine. Pascale Breton, France, 2015, 148m. French with English subtitles.

In her first feature since her distinctive 2004 debut, Illumination, Pascale Breton returns to her native region of Brittany for this rapturous ensemble film about the persistence of the past in the present. Françoise (Valérie Dréville), an accomplished art historian, leaves Paris to teach at her alma mater in Rennes. Most of her former schoolmates never left town, it turns out, and are curiously eyeing her return. Meanwhile, Ion (Kaou Langoët), a sensitive geography student, falls in love with the blind Lydie (Manon Evenat), and clashes with his estranged, now-homeless mother, Moon (Elina Löwensohn), one of Françoise’s closest friends from the old punk-rock days… As these idiosyncratic, richly drawn characters intersect, their points of view overlap and the tricks of time and memory become apparent. Bursting with ideas and emotion, Suite Armoricaine is a work of symphonic scope and grand themes (love and death, art and beauty, language and music) that finds deep wells of meaning in the smallest and most surprising details and gestures. North American Premiere

* Evolution / Évolution. Lucile Hadžihalilović, France, 2015, 81m. French with English subtitles
On a remote island, populated solely by women and young boys, 10-year-old Nicolas plays with other children, but not in a carefree manner. And while the women may have maternal instincts, something is awry: they gather on the beach at night for a strange ritual that Nicolas struggles to understand, and the boys are taken to a hospital regularly for mysterious treatments. And water is everywhere. This is the stuff nightmares are made of, and Nicolas appears to be living out one of his own. In the follow-up to her directorial debut, Innocence, Lucile Hadžihalilović continues her exploration of growing up—where we’re going and what we’re leaving behind. As Nicolas discovers more, feelings of fear, melancholy, and also eroticism bubble to the surface. Hadžihalilović has created a dark fantasy that we are invited to explore and make our own discoveries, however macabre they may be. An Alchemy release.

* Neither Heaven Nor Earth [Formerly titled The Wakhan Front] / Ni le ciel ni la terre. Clément Cogitore, France/Belgium, 2015, 100m French and Persian with English subtitles
The ingenious conceit of Neither Heaven Nor Earth, a critical success at Cannes, is to transform the Afghan battlefield—dust and boredom and jolts of explosive violence—into the backdrop for a metaphysical thriller. Jérémie Renier stars as a French army commander who begins to lose the loyalty of his company, as well as his sanity, when soldiers start mysteriously disappearing one by one. Rarely is the madness of war conveyed on screen with such simmering tension and existential fear. Rarely, too, is the ignorance and mistrust between cultures—are the shepherd villagers innocent civilians or Taliban spies?—limned with such poetic insight. U.S. Premiere

MORE HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE USA AND AROUND THE WORLD.

* Weiner. Josh Kriegman & Elyse Steinberg, USA, 2016, 100m


Truly compelling vérité filmmaking requires several key factors to coalesce: intimate access, cinematographic acumen, genuine inquisitiveness, and fascinating subjects. Directors Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg brilliantly meld these elements to create one of the most engaging and entertaining works of nonfiction film in recent years. A truly 21st-century hybrid of classic documentary techniques and reality-based dramatic storytelling, Weiner follows the mayoral election bid of former New York Congressman Anthony Weiner in 2013, an attempted comeback that, as we all know now, was doomed to failure. By turns Shakespearean in its tragedy (it’s clear that Weiner and his inner circle have real political talent) and Christopher Guest-ian in its comedic portrayal of what devolves into a Waiting for Guffman–esque campaign, this is the perfect political film for our time. A Sundance Selects release.


* Peter and the Farm. Tony Stone, USA, 2016, 92m

Peter Dunning is a rugged individualist in the extreme, a hard-drinking loner and former artist who has burned bridges with his wives and children and whose only company, even on harsh winter nights, are the sheep, cows, and pigs he tends on his Vermont farm. Peter is also one of the most complicated, sympathetic documentary subjects to come along in some time, a product of the 1960s counterculture whose poetic idealism has since soured. For all his candor, he slips into drunken self-destructive habits, cursing the splendors of a pastoral landscape that he has spent decades nurturing. Imbued with an aching tenderness, Tony Stone’s documentary is both haunting and heartbreaking, a mosaic of its singular subject’s transitory memories and reflections—however funny, tragic, or angry they may be.


* Remainder. Omer Fast, UK/Germany, 2015, 97m.


The feature debut by celebrated video artist Omer Fast is a striking, stylish adaptation of English novelist Tom McCarthy’s landmark 2005 novel. Set in London, the narrative kicks off when the anonymous protagonist (Tom Sturridge) is struck by a large object plummeting from the sky. When he comes to, he has no recollection of what happened, and a reparations settlement nets him millions of pounds. The man channels these resources toward creating preposterously ambitious reconstructions of his own dim memories, in the process raising a host of questions about the relationship between reality and simulation, the minute details essential to our perception of places and events, and the limits of artistic monomania. Fast, who has explored similar themes in his own work, adapts McCarthy’s idea-packed novel with lucidity and wit, and Sturridge is mesmerizing as an existential hero searching the void for a trace of meaning. North American Premiere
* Cameraperson. Kirsten Johnson, USA, 2016, 102m



How much of one’s self can be captured in the images shot of and for others? Kirsten Johnson may be a first-time (solo) feature-film director, but her work as a director of photography and camera operator has helped earn her documentary collaborators (Laura Poitras, Michael Moore, Kirby Dick, Barbara Kopple) nearly every accolade and award possible. Recontextualizing the stunning images inside, around, and beyond the works she has shot, Johnson constructs a visceral and vibrant self-portrait of an artist who has traveled the globe, venturing into landscapes and lives that bear the scars of trauma both active and historic. Rigorous yet nimble in its ability to move from heartache to humor, Cameraperson provides an essential lens on the things that make us human.


* Short Stay. Ted Fendt, USA, 2016, 35mm, 61m

Multi-hyphenate Ted Fendt delivers on the promise of his acclaimed short films without sacrificing an ounce of his singular charm and rigor. Shooting on 16mm (blown up to 35mm), the writer-director-editor here focuses on Mike (Mike MacCherone), an ambitionless resident of Haddonfield, New Jersey, who finds himself subletting a friend’s room in Philadelphia and (ineptly) covering his shifts at a by-donation walking-tour company. Mike floats, as if in a trance, from one low-key comic folly to another, each one a strange and subtle moral tale. Fendt’s economy of expression, expert handling of his nonprofessional cast, and incomparable nose for the tragicomic dimension of the everyday distinguishes Short Stay as a truly anomalous work in contemporary American cinema: a film made entirely on its maker’s terms. North American Premiere


*Thithi. Raam Reddy, India/USA, 2015, 120m Hindi with English subtitles

Raam Reddy’s bold, vibrant first feature is closer to Émile Zola than it is to Bollywood. Filmed in India’s southern Karnataka state with all nonprofessional actors, the sprawling narrative follows three generations of sons following the death of the family’s patriarch, their 101-year-old grandfather known as “Century Gowda.” The men’s respective vices—ranging from greed to womanizing to cut-and-dry escapism—bring deliciously comedic misadventures to their village in the days leading up to the thithi, a funeral celebration traditionally held 11 days after a death. This incisive portrait of a community in a time of radical change (while some are looking after their sheep, others are lost in their cell phones) yields exemplary humanist comedy. Winner of two awards at the Locarno Film Festival, the film equally affirms the advent of a new realism within Indian cinema, as well as an engaging new voice in contemporary world cinema.


* Tikkun. Avishai Sivan, Israel, 2015, 120m Hebrew and Yiddish with English subtitles

In Avishai Sivan’s intense and provocative Tikkun, a prizewinner at the Jerusalem and Locarno Film Festivals, an ultra-Orthodox Yeshiva student experiences a crisis of faith—and visions of earthly delights—when his father brings him back from the brink of death. Was the young man’s improbable survival a violation of God’s will, or was it “tikkun,” a way toward enlightenment and redemption? Sivan imbues the narrative with an indeterminate, hypnotic blend of black comedy and alienated modernism, effecting a singularly uncanny atmosphere. Nonprofessional actor Aharon Traitel, himself a former Hasidic Jew, gives a nuanced, knowing performance as the anguished prodigy, and the black-and-white chiaroscuro photography casts the devoutly private, regimented Hasidic community of old Jerusalem’s Mea Shearim in a morally shaded light. A Kino Lorber release.

* Under the Shadow. Babak Anvari, UK/Jordan/Qatar, 2016, 84m
Farsi with English subtitles
It’s eight years into the Iran-Iraq War, but the troubles of wife and mother in Tehran have only just begun. Shideh (Narges Rashidi) is thwarted in her attempts to return to medical school because of past political activities. And as Iraqi bombs close in, her husband is sent off to serve in the military, neighbors begin to flee, and she is left alone with her young daughter, Dorsa, who refuses to be separated from her favorite doll. At first, Dorsa’s tantrums seem to simply be the complaints of a cranky child. But soon she’s in conversation with an invisible woman—no imaginary friend, this one—and the cracks in the walls and ceilings of their apartment could just be the result of something more than air raids. And what is that she sees down the hall, from the corner of her eye? Though Shideh is a woman of science, she begins to suspect that a malevolent spirit, a djinn, is stalking them. A political horror story that rises up from the rubble of war, Babak Anvari’s feature debut boasts a terrific performance by Rashidi as a woman with more than one war going on in her home and in her head, who must save her daughter from dangers both physical and supernatural.
* The Fits. Anna Rose Holmer, USA, 2015, 72m.


The transition from girlhood to young womanhood is one that’s nearly invisible in cinema. Enter Anna Rose Holmer, whose complex and absorbing narrative feature debut elegantly depicts a captivating 11-year-old’s journey of discovery. Toni (played by the majestically named Royalty Hightower) is a budding boxer drawn to a group of dancers training at the same rec center in Cincinnati. She begins aligning herself with one of the two troupes, the Lionesses, becoming immersed in their world, which Holmer conveys with a hypnotic sense of rhythm and a rare gift for rendering physicality—evident most of all when a mysterious, convulsive condition begins to afflict a number of girls. Set entirely within the intimate confines of a few familiar settings (public school, the gym), and pulsating with bodies in motion, The Fits encourages us to recall the confused magic of entering the second decade of life. An Oscilloscope release..

* Behemoth / Beixi moshuo. Zhao Liang, China/France, 2015, 91m. Mandarin with English subtitles
Political documentarian Zhao Liang draws inspiration from The Divine Comedy for this simultaneously intoxicating and terrifying glimpse at the ravages wrought upon Inner Mongolia by its coal and iron industries. A poetic voiceover speaks of the insatiability of desire on top of stunning images of landscapes (and their decimation), machines (and their spectacular functions), and people (and the toll of their labor). Interspersed are sublime tableaux of a prone nude body—asleep? just born? dead?—posed against a refracted horizon. A wholly absorbing guided tour of exploding hillsides, dank mine shafts, cacophonous factories, and vacant cities, Behemoth builds upon Zhao’s previous exposés (2009’s Petition, 2007’s Crime and Punishment) by combining his muckraking streak with a painterly vision of a social and ecological nightmare otherwise unfolding out of sight, out of mind. Winner of the environmental Green Drop Award at the Venice Film Festival. North American Premiere


* Demon. Marcin Wrona, Poland/Israel, 2015, 94m. English, Polish, and Yiddish with English subtitles

Newly arrived from England to marry his fiancée Zaneta, Peter has been given a gift of her family’s ramshackle country house in rural Poland. It’s a total fixer-upper, and while inspecting the premises on the eve of the wedding, he falls into a pile of human remains. The ceremony proceeds, but strange things begin to happen... During the wild reception, Peter begins to come undone, and a dybbuk, that iconic ancient figure from Jewish folklore, takes a toehold in this present-day celebration—for a very particular reason, as it turns out. The final work by Marcin Wrona, who died just as Demon was set to premiere in Poland, is an eerie, richly atmospheric film—part absurdist comedy, part love story—that scares, amuses, and charms in equal measure. Winner of Best Horror Feature at Fantastic Fest. An Orchard release.


* Donald Cried. Kris Avedisian, USA, 2016, 85m.

Trust me, you can’t go home again. Kris Avedisian’s unhinged first feature is a brilliant twist on the family-reunion melodrama and the classic buddy comedy. Returning after 20 years to Warwick, Rhode Island, for his grandmother’s funeral, Peter Latang (Jesse Wakeman), now a slick city financier, has to endure a blast from the past and relive some very cringeworthy moments when hanging out with his former high-school bestie, the obnoxious Donald Treebeck (Avedisian). By turns depressing and funny while subtly shifting our sympathies thanks to sharp dialogue and extremely well-written characters, Donald Cried can perhaps best be summed up as The Color Wheel meets Planes, Trains and Automobiles


* In the Last Days of the City / Akher Ayam El Madina. Tamer El Said, Egypt/Germany/Great Britain/United Arab Emirates, 2016, 118m. Arabic with English subtitles.


This film within a film is a haunting yet lyric chronicle of recent years in the Arab world, where revolutions seemed to spark hope for change and yield further instability in one stroke. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Khalid Abdalla (The Kite Runner, The Square) plays the protagonist of Tamer El Said’s ambitious feature debut, a filmmaker in Cairo attempting to capture the zeitgeist of his city as the world changes around him—from personal love and loss to the fall of the Mubarak regime. Throughout, friends send footage and stories from Berlin, Baghdad, and Beirut, creating a powerful, multilayered meditation on togetherness, the tactile hold of cities, and the meaning of homeland. Shot in 2008 and completed this year, the film explores the weight of cinematic images as record and storytelling in an ongoing time of change. North American Premiere 

 The New Directors/New Films takes place at Lincoln Center and at MoMA. For info: NewDirectors.

TOP CINE: THE BEST LATINO FILMS IN NYC

Posted by LATINO EVENTS Y TESPIS MAGAZINE on Thursday, February 18, 2016 , under , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | comments (0)



TOP CINE: THE BEST LATINO FILMS IN NYC.
Por Alex Guerrero.

 Todas estas películas han sido aclamadas por la crítica y han recibido algunos de los mejores premios en festivales internacionales y nacionales. Comenzamos con El abrazo de la serpiente del colombiano Ciro Guerra que sobresale al ser una extraordinaria producción que merecidamente está nominada al Premio Oscars como Mejor Película Extranjera ( Pueden ver nuestra entrevista exclusiva con su director Ciro Guerra aquí ). 
La Tetralogía del Amor Frustrado de Manoel de Oliveira llega al Lincoln Center a fines de febrero. Desierto de los hermanos Cuarón se estrena en Marzo, la fantástica película irlandesa filmada en Cuba y en español VIVA se estrena en Abril asi como la última de Alex de la Iglesia, My Big Night (después de estrenarse en el Festival de Cine de Miami). En cuanto a los festivales, la temporada trae los mejores en su clase: Rendez-Vous con el Cine Francés, Cinema Tropical Film Festival, New Directors/NewFilms, el Havana Film Festival NY y para terminar, el Tribeca Film Festival. Todos se realizan en los próximos 2 meses. 



 * El Abrazo de la Serpiente (Embrace of the Serpent. Foto) del colombiano Ciro Guerra y nominada al Oscar como Mejor Película Extranjera estrena en NYC el 17 de Febrero en Film Forum y Lincoln Center Plaza. En Los Angeles estrena el 19 de Febrero y después a nivel nacional. Pueden ver nuestra entrevista exclusiva con su director Ciro Guerra aquí.

* Busco Novio para mi Mujer de Enrique Begne se estrena el 19 de Febrero.

* Los reyes del pueblo que no existe de Betzabé García se presenta en la serie Doc Fortnight en el Museo de Arte Moderno  el 24 y 25 de Febrero > @MoMAFilm * Tetralogy of Frustrated Love de Manoel De Oliveira se presenta también en la Film Society del Lincoln Center del 25 al 28 de Febrero > @Filmlinc

* El Festival Cinema Tropical presentará los ganadores de la 6ta Edición de los premios del mismo nombre en el Museum of the Moving Image del 25 al 28 de Febrero > @MovingimageNYC
* DESIERTO de Jonás Cuarón y Alfonso Cuarón se estrena el 4 de Marzo.

* Rendez-Vous with French Cinema toma lugar del 3 al 13 de Marzo > @Filmlinc

* La Calle de Los Pianistas del argentino Mariano Nante se presenta en The Americas Society el 15 de Marzo > @Ascoa

* New Directors/NewFilms se realiza del 16 al 27 de Marzo  en MoMA y Lincoln Center > @MomaFilm


* Neon Bull (Boi neon) de Gabriel Mascaro se estrena como parte de New Directors/New Films en el MoMA > @Momafilm

* El Havana Film Festival NY se realiza del 7 al 17 de Abril > @HFFNY

* The Tribeca Film Festival se celebra del 13 al 24 de Abril > @Tribeca

*  MY BIG NIGHT (Mi Gran Noche) de Alex de la Iglesia se estrena el 15 de Abril.

* VIVA de Paddy Breathnach se estrena en NYC y Los Angeles el 29 de Abril (nueva fecha). Producida por Benicio del Toro.

 Películas recién estrenadas aún en cartelera o en mercados selectos:

 * The Revenant de Alejandro González Iñárritu, con Leonardo Di Caprio. Nominada a 12 Premios Oscars.
*  BOY AND THE WORLD by Alê Abreu del Brazil. Nominada a 1 Premios Oscars
* JOY de David O. Russell con Jennifer Lawrence y el venezolano Edgar Ramírez como el Latin Lover.Nominada a 1 Premios Oscars.
* La nueva versión de POINT BREAK de Ericson Core con Edgar Ramírez y Luke Bracey.
* A Perfect Day de Fernando León de Aranoa. Con Benicio del Toro.
* La calle de la amargura (Bleak Street) de Arturo Ripstein.
* El Club (The Club) de Pablo Larraín.
* Regression de Alejandro Amenábar.
* I Knew Her Well de Antonio Pietrangeli.
* REQUIEM FOR THE AMERICAN DREAM con Noam Chomsky.
* Mountains May Depart de Jia Zhangke

 Visítanos en www.LatinoEvents.me y síguenos en Twitter @LatinoEvents para mantenerte informado de lo mejor de nuestra cultura!

ESCENAS VECINAS: NUEVA VENTANA AL INNOVADOR CINE LATINOAMERICANO CONTEMPORÁNEO

Posted by LATINO EVENTS Y TESPIS MAGAZINE on Wednesday, January 6, 2016 , under , , , , , , , , , , , , , | comments (0)




La Film Society del Lincoln Center junto a Cinema Tropical se unen para lanzar una nueva serie de cine llamada 'Escenas Vecinas: Nuevo Cine Latinoamericano'(Neighboring Scenes). Después del vacío dejado por la desaparición de "LatinBeat' le damos la bienvenida a esta nueva ventana al maravilloso e innovativo mundo del cine latinoamericano!. Esta nueva serie que se realizará a comienzos de cada año busca mostrar 'la amplia gama de estilos, técnicas y ángulos empleadas por los cineastas latinoamericanos en la actualidad.' 



Hoy, más que nunca, esperamos que 'Escenas Vecinas: Nuevo Cine Latinoamericano' siga demostrando que nuestro cine contemporáneo rehusa ser encasillado en nociones pasadas y estilos caducos. La cita es en el Lincoln Center del del 7 al 10 de Enero. Aqui tienen una referencia rápida de los títulos incluidos en esta primera edición de Escenas Vecinas.

Algunos de las películas a resaltar:  El movimiento de Benjamín Naishtat; La tierra y la sombra de César Augusto Acevedo, ganadora del premio Caméra d’Or en el pasado Festival de Cannes; el estreno en Estados Unidos de la película más reciente del cineasta Arturo Ripstein, La calle de la amargura, la cual ha sido comparada con el período mexicano de Buñuel; Un monstruo de mil cabezas de Rodrigo Plá, la película inaugural de la sección Horizontes del pasado Festival de Venecia; y El club de Pablo Larraín, ganadora del Oso de Plata en el pasado Festival de Berlín y candidata de Chile a los Premios Óscar de la Academia. Más información en > Filmlinc.

Películas participantes:

* El movimiento ( Función de apertura )
Benjamín Naishtat, Argentina, 2015, DCP, 70m
En español con subtítulos en inglés
Siguiendo con su preocupación con el la violencia y el pasado de la Argentina, Benjamín Naishtat (Historia del miedo, que fue exhibida en New Directors/New Films en el 2014) dramatiza un momento crucial para la historia de esa nación caracterizada por el fanatismo político y el terrorismo. Pablo Cedrón interpreta el intenso y desquiciado líder de una misteriosa milicia (siguiendo el modelo del dictador de la Confederación de la era de Juan Manuel de Rosas conocida como la Mazorca) que arbitrariamente deambula por las pampas con el propósito de “purificar” y unir a la sociedad, matando y saqueando colonos en el camino. Personajes surgen y desaparecen en oscuras extensiones—la película está magníficamente rodada en blanco y negro—resaltando su intensa y escalofriante atmósfera. Financiada por el Jeonju Digital Project.
Jueves, 7 de enero a las 7:00 pm (Q&A con Benjamín Naishtat)

*Alexfilm
Pablo Chavarría Gutiérrez, México, 2015, DCP, 60m
En español con subtítulos en inglés
Marcado por un toque ligero y destacándose por ir más allá de la narrativa convencional, el biólogo convertido en cineasta Pablo Chavarría Gutiérrez documenta los ritmos de un hombre a la espera de un evento importante que nunca llega. Mientras se prepara el desayuno, toma siestas, pinta, se prueba gafas de sol y se pasea por diferentes habitaciones de su casa, Chavarría Guitérrez enmarca amorosamente cada acción mediante el uso de la hermosa luz natural, lo que permite que cada momento fluya al siguiente manteniendo su propia esencia. Estreno en Estados Unidos
Se exhibe con:
Gulliver
María Alché, Argentina, 2015, DCP, 25m
En español con subtítulos en inglés
Transcendiendo de un cuento de familia muy naturalista a algo abiertamente surrealista y viceversa, Gulliver capta las circunstancias-imaginarias o no- de una de esas noches en las que los hermanos llegan a un entendimiento más profundo de uno al otro. Después de pasar un rato en casa con su madre (Susana Pampín, una actriz recurrente en las películas de Martín Rejtman) y su hermana mayor Mariela (Agustina Muñoz), Agos y Renzo van a una fiesta en donde Agos termina bebiendo demasiado. Al salirse para recuperarse, la pareja pasea en un extraño pero familiar paisaje, y empiezan a hacerse preguntas acerca del mundo y de sí mismos.
Domingo, 10 de enero a las 5:00 PM

* La calle de la amargura
Arturo Ripstein, México/España, 2015, DCP, 99m
En español con subtítulos en inglés
Basada en una historia real, la más reciente película de Arturo Ripstein es una inquebrantable mirada a las calles de México D.F.. Dos prostitutas, Adela (Nora Velázquez) y Dora (Patricia Reyes Spíndola), están agobiadas por sus tormentosos matrimonios y los problemas financieros derivados desde sus años de juventud. En un intento por ganarse la vida, deciden drogar y robar a los gemelos enanos (Juan Francisco Longoria y Guillermo López), quienes a su vez apenas se ganan la vida como luchadores profesionales. Ripstein contrasta con maestría la aspereza de las calles y de los apartamentos de mala muerte con cinematografía de Steadicam, sin tomar bando ni con las víctimas ni con los perpetradores. Película distribuida por Leisure Time Features. Se exhibirá en Film Forum del 20 de enero al 2 de febrero.
Estreno en Estados Unidos
Domingo, 10 de enero a las 3:00 PM

* El club
Pablo Larraín, Chile, 2015, DCP, 98m
En español con subtítulos en inglés
Pablo Larraín (director de No y Post Mortem) continúa explorando las grandes sombras del pasado reciente de Chile con esta mordaz película sobre el ocultamiento de la mala conducta del clero de la Iglesia Católica. Cuatro ex-sacerdotes de edad avanzada viven pacíficamente sus días juntos en una mugrienta ciudad costera, concentrándose más en su galgo de carreras que en hacer penitencia por sus diversos crímenes. Su idilio se rompe cuando llega un quinto sacerdote y, enfrentado por una de sus víctimas, se suicida. Un joven sacerdote comienza una investigación sobre el pasado de los jubilados, desencadenando una serie de acontecimientos que ponen en cuestión la fe, la piedad y la complicidad. Ganadora del Oso de Plata en el pasado Festival de Cine de Berlín, y candidata de Chile a los Premios Óscar de la Academia. Película distribuida por Music Box Films.
Domingo, 10 de enero a las 9:00 PM

* El escarabajo de oro o Victorias Hamnd
Alejo Moguillansky & Fia-Stina Sandlund, Argentina/Dinamarca/Suecia, 2014, DCP, 102m
En español y sueco con subtítulos en inglés y en español
Fusionando elementos de la historia de Edgar Allan Poe y de la obra de Robert Louis Stevenson La isla del tesoro, la meta-película de Alejo Moguillansky y de Fia-Stina Sandlund relata una producción fílmica sueco-argentina en Buenos Aires que es una biográfica de la autora realista del siglo 19 y protofeminista Victoria Benedictsson. Después de que un actor encuentra un mapa del tesoro que detalla la ubicación de antiguo oro escondido cerca de el pueblo Leandro N. Alem, nombrado así por el político del siglo XIX, en la provincia de Misiones, persuade a los productores de replantear el proyecto como un retrato del radical Alem (intercambiando políticas feministas por anti-eurocéntricas) y de llevar la producción allá para que así pueda buscar mejor el tesoro. Acelerada e hilarantemente auto-reflexiva, la película tiene un enfoque lúdico a los textos y la historia que recuerda a Borges.
Jueves, 7 de enero a las 9:00 PM

* Hopefuls / Aspirantes
Ives Rosenfeld, Brasil, 2015, 71m
En portugués con subtítulos en inglés
Centrado en la promesa seductora de la riqueza y la fama que el fútbol profesional tiene para la juventud brasileña, el debut de Ives Rosenfeld cuenta con excelentes actuaciones de su elenco. Júnior (Ariclenes Barroso) se gana la vida trabajando en las noches en un almacén y de día en una liga amateur con su talentoso mejor amigo Bento (Sergio Malheiros). Cuando Bento es integrado en un equipo profesional, Junior lucha con sus celos, lo cual se convierte aún más en agobiante por la situación de su novia embarazada y de su tío alcohólico. La película se basa en silencio hacia un clímax legítimamente impactante que ofrece una revisión de la realidad sombría.
Domingo, 10 de enero a las 7:00 PM (Q&A con Ives Rosenfeld)

* Todo comenzó por el fin
Luis Ospina, Colombia, 2015, DCP, 208m
En Español con subtítulos en inglés
Luis Ospina (Agarrando pueblo, Un tigre de papel) le da un giro a la cámara hacia sus raíces para este documental sobre el Grupo de Cali, el colectivo de artistas colombianos que revolucionaron el arte, el cine y la literatura en medio del terrorismo y las drogas en los setentas y ochentas. Con una amplia gama de material de archivo nunca antes visto, Ospina (único miembro superviviente del grupo, que fue diagnosticado con cáncer durante el rodaje de la película) se centra en contar las historias de los co-fundadores Andrés Caicedo y Carlos Mayolo. Este punto de vista en el interior de "Caliwood" es la visión esencial para cualquier persona en busca de humor negro e inspiración anárquica. Estreno en Estados Unidos
Sábado, 9 de enero a las 2:00pm (Q&A with Luis Ospina)

* Ixcanul (foto)
Jayro Bustamante, Guatemala, 2015, DCP, 93m
En Kaqchikel con subtítulos en inglés y en español
María (María Mercedes Coroy) va a casarse con un capataz mucho mayor que ella en la plantación de café; sin embargo, ella está enamorada de Pepe, quien sueña con hacerse rico en los Estados Unidos. Después de consumar su coqueteo, Pepe se va para los Estados Unidos, sin María, quien pronto se entera de que está esperando un bebé. Un difícil embarazo auxiliado solamente con medicina tradicional finalmente la lleva a la agitada gran ciudad, pero en condiciones muy severas. Filmada en colaboración con los mayas kaqchikeles de las montañas cafetaleras de Guatemala, el debut de Jayro Bustamante (ganador de unos de los premios principales del Festival de Berlín y candidata de Guatemala a los premios Óscar) explora el significado de la tradición y la modernidad para las mujeres que viven en comunidades marginadas. Película distribuida por Kino Lorber.
Viernes, 8 de enero a las 7:00 PM

* La tierra y la sombra
César Augusto Acevedo, Colombia, 2015, DCP, 94m
En español con subtítulos en inglés
Una poética y devastadora declaración sobre cómo los problemas ambientales afectan a todos los aspectos de la vida, la ópera prima de César Augusto Acevedo ganadora del premio Cámera d’Or es imperdible. Alfonso (Haimer Leal) regresa a la pequeña casa en el Valle del Cauca que había dejado hace 17 años con el fin de cuidar de su hijo Geraldo (Edison Raigosa), quien sufre de una misteriosa enfermedad relacionada con las técnicas de cultivo del azúcar y plantaciones de caña que las rodean. Las tensiones entre Alfonso y su ex esposa (la maravillosa Hilda Ruiz) crecen, sin embargo los lazos familiares y el orgullo por mantenerlos atados a la tierra en la alegoría meditativa y pictórica de Acevedo.
Viernes, 8 de enero a las 9:00 PM

* Mar
Dominga Sotomayor, Chile, 2014, DCP, 70m
En español con subtítulos en inglés
Con reminiscencias a las películas de Josephine Decker y Joe Swanberg, este drama de bajo perfil se centra en los problemas entre Martín, conocido como Mar (Lisandro Rodríguez), y su novia Eli (Vanina Montes). De vacaciones en la ciudad turística argentina de Villa Gesell, los conflictos surgen en relación a las expectativas y compromisos a largo plazo (como el tener un bebé, o ser dueños de una propiedad) pero son relegados a un lado. Una visita de la gregaria madre de Martín y un azaroso acto de dios amenazan con empujar a la pareja a un punto de quiebre. Dominga Sotomayor empata las frustraciones de sus personajes con la elaboración de encuadres exactos de la película, que a menudo oscurecen rostros y cuerpos, destacando visualmente su mutua incomprensión.
Sábado, 9 de enero a las 6:30 PM (Q&A con Dominga Sotomayor)

* Un monstruo de mil cabezas
Rodrigo Plá, México, 2015, DCP, 74m
En español con subtítulos en inglés
Desarrollado en conjunto con la novela de su esposa del mismo título, Rodrigo Plá (La demora, La zona) articula otro hermético thriller, esta vez tomando como punto de partida un sistema de seguro de salud que prefiere el lucro por encima de la atención médica adecuada. Tras la negación al acceso de un tratamiento que podría salvarle la vida a su esposo, Sonia (Jana Raluy) desesperada y con, pistola en mano, desencadena un episodio de venganza contra el sistema. La serie de provocaciones cada vez más terribles se intercalan con momentos de comedia negra y se fusiona en un clímax con un impactante final.
Sábado, 9 de enero a las 8:30 PM (Q&A con Rodrigo Plá)

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NOW! CINE LATINO EN EL NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL

Posted by LATINO EVENTS Y TESPIS MAGAZINE on Thursday, October 1, 2015 , under , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | comments (0)



Un listado rápido de las realizaciones latinas presentes en el New York Film Festival que se realiza hasta el 11 de Octubre en el Lincoln Center.
Sin duda, Arabian Nights (Volumes 1,2,3) del realizador portugués Miguel Gomes ha acaparado la atención de la crítica y el público en el Main Slate del festival; otra a recomendar es My Golden Days del francés Arnaud Desplechin; y Mia Madre de la italiana Nanni Moretti.



En cortos encontramos a los siguientes realizadores latinos:

 Programa 1: 
*La novia de Frankenstein. Agostina Gálvez & Francisco Lezama, Argentina
* Marea de Tierra. Manuela Martelli & Amirah Tajdin, Chile/France
* The Mad Half Hour. Leonardo Brzezicki, Argentina/Denmark

Programa 2:
* Sânge. Percival Argüero Mendoza, Mexico
* Territory / Territoire. Vincent Paronnaud, France
Programa 4:
* Dragstrip. Pacho Velez & Daniel Claridge, USA

En la sección ahora llamada Projections, tenemos:

Programa 1:
* Neither God nor Santa María. Samuel M. Delgado & Helena Girón, Spain
* Entangled / Entrelazado. Riccardo Giacconi, Colombia/Italy
Programa 3:
* Occidente. Ana Vaz, France/Portugal
* In Girum Imus Nocte. Giorgio Andreotta Calò, Italy
Programa 6:
* Minotaur. Nicolas Pereda, Mexico/Canada
* Vivir para Vivir / Live to Live. Laida Lertxundi, USA/Spain
Programa 7:
* Many Thousands Gone. Ephraim Asili, USA/Brazil
Programa 8:
* Isiah Medina, Canada
Programa B:
* Noite Sem Distância. Lois Patiño, Portugal/Spain

 Y documentaries:
* Immigration Battle / Reason to Believe. Michael Camerini, Shari Robertson, USA.
* We Are Alive. Carmen Castillo, Chile.
* Fish Tail (Rabo De Peixe). Joaquim Pinto, Nuno Leonel, Portugal

Más info? > NYFF.

HUMOR SPANISH STYLE > The Last Laugh: An Alternate History of Spanish Comedy

Posted by LATINO EVENTS Y TESPIS MAGAZINE on Thursday, December 11, 2014 , under , , , , , , , , , , , , | comments (0)



Focusing on the tradition of grotesque humor throughout the history of Spanish cinema, The Last Laugh: An Alternate History of Spanish Comedy series comes to the Film Society from December 12-18. The series will include appearances and Q&A's with directors Santiago Aguilar, José Luis Cuerda, Isaki Lacuesta, and Óscar Pérez.




Here is the list of included films and Q&A. For more info > Filmlinc.

* 20 Centimeters / 20 centímetros
Ramón Salazar, Spain, 2005, 35mm, 112m
Spanish with English subtitles
Adolfo (Mónica Cervera) goes by the name Marieta, works as a prostitute, and suffers from narcolepsy, habitually nodding off and slipping into Ginger Rogers–esque dreams in which everything is colorful, musical, and happy. In these dreams she is her fully realized female self, not Adolfo as the official registries would have it. Somewhere in between queer comedy, musical, and a grotesque portrait of the darker side of Spanish society, 20 Centimeters is a distorted and unfettered depiction of a still-chauvinistic country where fears, beliefs, and prejudices endure and where one’s sexual orientation seems to be everybody’s business.
Thursday, December 18, 4:15pm

* Amanece, que no es poco
José Luis Cuerda, Spain, 1989, 35mm, 106m
Spanish with English subtitles
People bursting forth from the ground, black children born of white parents, and Spanish civil guards shooting at the breaking dawn while shouting “damn the whole sacredness bit to hell!”: Amanece, que no es poco might seem to be an incoherent jumble of sequences, but in fact it is one of the high points of Spanish comedy. Valle Inclán’s distortedly grotesque “esperpento,” Francisco de Goya’s darkest, most biting humor, and Luis Buñuel’s surrealist derisiveness all go hand in hand here under the unifying mantle of satirizing a country that is capable, in the words of critic Álvaro Arroba, “of murdering and divesting of their sacrosanctity its most sacred of gods.”
Friday, December 12, 6:15pm (Q&A with José Luis Cuerda)

* Astronauts / Astronautas
Santi Amodeo, Spain, 2003, 35mm, 88m
Spanish with subtitles in English
A 40-year-old junkie decides to follow a psychiatrist’s somewhat absurd list of dos and don’ts to the tee in order to kick his habit and become a “normal person”: be clean, be neat, eat right, clean your house, go shopping, socialize. But in doing so, he finds he has become a nobody, just another face in the crowd. When a 16-year-old girl comes into his life, like an astronaut who has fallen to Earth from out of nowhere, he suddenly gains the love, attention, and care that will rescue him from deadening conformity. Directly engaging taboos without prejudice or moralizing, Santi Amodeo constructs a story on and about the blurred lines of normalcy: in a society where we must adapt ourselves to a host of mores and norms, who is truly the Other, the oddball, the astronaut?

** Screening with:
Holy Thriller
María Cañas, Spain, 2011, digital projection, 2m
Two nearly opposite cultural milestones, Michael Jackson’s Thriller and Seville’s Holy Week processions, are rolled together by tried-and-true iconoclast director María Cañas, a devourer of images, who simply yet relentlessly picks apart some of the myths and symbols on which Spain’s national identity is based.
Wednesday, December 17, 6:30pm

* Caution to the Wind / Con el culo al aire
Carles Mira, Spain, 1980, 35mm, 94m
Spanish with English subtitles
When Carles Mira premiered his first film, The Prodigious Life of Father Vincent, in Spain, someone attempted to prevent it from screening by detonating a bomb in the theater. Spain was emerging from a dictatorship and working its way, for better or for worse, toward becoming a democracy. Far from flinching, Mira upped the ante and filmed Caution to the Wind, taking his iconoclastic passion for festivity to the extreme. Focusing on an insane asylum through which all types of characters parade, Mira constructs an irreverent flashback view of Spain’s past—or as he himself puts it: “I’m convinced that a number of people have taken an interest in concealing our real past and that they invented, at the time, a make-believe empire peopled by heroes and leaders comprising a gallery of ghosts.”

** Screening with:
Meeting with Sarah Jessica
Vicente Villanueva, Spain, 2013, DCP, 20m
Spanish with English subtitles
Tonight, Dori’s dream is coming true: she is having dinner with her favorite actress. She has made the trip from Spain, and the two of them are dining, one-on-one, face-to-face. But an enjoyable meal becomes a gateway to the dark world lurking behind fame…
Sunday, December 14, 1:00pm

* The Certificate / El certificado
Vicente Lluch, Spain, 1969, DCP, 100m
Spanish with English subtitles
Though Vicente Lluch has somehow faded from Spanish cinema history, his eventual rediscovery is inevitable. He directed only three features over the course of a 40-year career, but his films reveal a campy take on uniquely Spanish subjects astonishingly achieved amid the Franco regime. In The Certificate, he draws on the Mediterranean farce (as Carles Mira would later do) in order to hurl scathing criticism at the ethically reproachable and socially ridiculous Barcelona bourgeoisie. As in his other work, the story hinges on a strong, determined female character who grows increasingly empowered as it goes on.
Wednesday, December 17, 8:30pm

* Dying Beyond Their Means / Murieron por encima de sus posibilidades
Isaki Lacuesta, Spain, 2014, DCP, 104m
Spanish with English subtitles
Five desperate, common citizens from a fictitious country pretty much identical to Spain see their lives ripped apart by a global financial crisis. With nothing left to lose, they concoct a crazy plan to save their country’s—not to mention the world’s—economy: kidnap the chairman of the Central Bank and demand that he somehow restore everything to the way it used to be. Is their plan so naïve that it just might work? A dark and rowdy comedy about a country pushed to the economic brink and the everyday radicals who endeavor to save the day by any means necessary. But will their revolution be televised or will it be Googled?
Sunday, December 14, 8:40pm (Q&A with Isaki Lacuesta)

* Justino: A Senior Citizen Killer / Justino, un asesino de la tercera edad
La Cuadrilla (Santiago Aguilar and Luis Guridi), Spain, 1994, 35mm, 93m
Spanish with English subtitles
Justino engages with Spain’s vast tradition of black comedy, brimming with backwards glances and allusions to its rich heritage. If the film at first seems like a simple rehashing of Marco Ferreri’s The Little Coach, it soon becomes clear that its references extend in many different directions, engaging such distinct works as Edgar Neville’s 1946 detective thriller The Crime of Bordadores Street and Fernando Fernán-Gómez’s 1986 Goya Award winner Voyage to Nowhere. Justino takes full advantage of its having been made after the end of the censorship restrictions of the Franco regime, and the creative duo La Cuadrilla (directors Santiago Aguilar and Luis Guridi) revive the figure of the retired man that appears in The Little Coach and Luis García Berlanga’s Not on Your Life.
Saturday, December 13, 6:45pm (Q&A with Santiago Aguilar)

* The Last Circus / Balada triste de trompeta
Álex de la Iglesia, Spain, 2010, 35mm, 107m
Spanish with English subtitles
Francisco de Goya’s Fight with Cudgels depicts two men submerged, knee-high, in the ground, beating each other with wooden clubs. It’s neither here not there that Goya didn’t originally paint the figures this way, but rather on grassy ground; this image, the result of the oil painting’s negligent conservation, has nevertheless become a metaphor for Spain’s eternal cycle of fruitless conflict. Álex de la Iglesia’s film, which earned Best Screenplay and Best Director at the 2010 Venice International Film Festival, returns to this idea of a violent and self-destructive Spain in the guise of circus clowns dueling for the love of a gorgeous trapeze artist.
Thursday, December 18, 6:45pm

* The Last Horse / El último caballo
Edgar Neville, Spain, 1950, 35mm, 85m
Spanish with English subtitles
Edgar Neville’s The Last Horse is considered the most neorealist of all his works. But while it’s true that some of the more obvious aspects of that movement show through, this film is no mere throwback. Its humorous, thought-provoking thrust directly engages with the way things really are in Spain, specifically in Madrid, which, swept along by the changes wrought by modernization, sheds its traditions rapidly and thoughtlessly. The Last Horse is a stroll through Madrid on the brink of a makeover that changed both the city’s outer appearance as well as the lifestyles of those who live there—in particular Fernando, recently discharged from the army, which has decided to put down his faithful horse Bucéfalo.

** Screening with:
Mystery / Misterio
Chema García Ibarra, Spain, 2013, DCP, 12m
Spanish with English subtitles
Trini takes care of her family, just like the other women in her depressing, working-class neighborhood, but she believes her situation is temporary. Soon enough, something or somebody will get her out of there.
Friday, December 12, 9:00pm

* The Little Coach / El cochecito
Marco Ferreri, Spain, 1960, 35mm, 83m
Spanish with English subtitles
Marco Ferreri filmed his first three features in Spain before returning home to Italy. For the first (The Little Flat) and third (The Little Coach), he partnered with Rafael Azcona, a screenwriter also making his debut; the collaboration between these two would be crucial for shaping some of the fundamental traits of Spanish black humor. The Little Coach portrays the trials and tribulations of Anselmo Proharán, a retiree willing to do anything, even do away with his family, in order to get himself a mobility scooter like those owned by his elderly cronies at the park. Although censorship under the Franco regime took some of the bite out of this film and imposed upon it a moralistic ending, it could not repress the harshness with which it depicts a distressful country.

** Screening with:
El engaño / The Cheating
Germán Scelso, Spain, 2009, digital projection, 15m
Spanish with English subtitles
We don’t know how documentary filmmaker Germán first met Juan, but we join them as they watch a bullfight on television. Out of the blue, Juan asks Germán to help him carry out an act of vengeance…
Saturday, December 13, 9:15pm

* Mommy’s a Fool / Mamá es boba
Santiago Lorenzo, Spain, 1997, 35mm, 96m
Spanish with English subtitles
Martín (Jose Luis Lago) is a self-conscious young boy living in a provincial Castilian town where nothing ever happens. He bears the brunt of his classmates’ bullying at school, but his biggest problem is his parents, Gema and Toribio, whose grotesque behavior certainly doesn’t go unnoticed in their sad, gray hometown. But when a new TV station arrives and offers Gema the position of lead anchorwoman, everything changes. Gema and Toribio’s fame skyrockets, but given their status as the town’s laughingstocks, they end up being treated like traveling carnival puppets, and Martín is ostracized ever more severely. Produced on a shoestring budget, with a visual style accentuating the cruelty of its content, Santiago Lorenzo’s satirical feature debut is a comedy that evokes both raucous laughter and smiles of recognition.
Monday, December 15, 6:30pm

* Not on Your Life / El verdugo
Luis García Berlanga, Spain, 1963, 35mm, 89m
Spanish with English subtitles
Not on Your Life marked the second time that Luis García Berlanga and Rafael Azcona worked together, following 1961’s Plácido. This film is a no-holds-barred portrayal of three characters fighting to survive brutal situations. Amadeo is an executioner on the verge of retirement who meets José Luis, a funeral parlor employee he tricks into becoming his heir. Step by step, this film reveals the old man’s Machiavellian plan that finds José Luis literally dragged into becoming his successor despite his ethical reservations.

** Screening with:
Don Pepe Popi
Carlos Vermut, Spain, 2012, digital projection, 16m
Spanish with English subtitles
Don Pepe Popi is a collaboration between Venga Monjas—two comedians who started out on the Internet in 2006—and Carlos Vermut, a director who put a new twist on interweaving genres with his films Diamond Flash and Magical Girl.
Sunday, December 14, 3:30pm

* People in Places / Gente en sitios
Juan Cavestany, Spain, 2013, DCP, 83m
Spanish with English subtitles
The cliché goes that beautiful flowers bloom in cemeteries… or amid rubbish. People in Places illustrates this bromide with an episodic succession of sketches of daily life in a desolate, crisis-ridden Spain. Shot sans script and with a cast comprised of more than 80 actors, People in Places is a comedy with bitter undertones painted in muted colors, intertwining the grotesqueness of Spanish “esperpento” with the cultural pastiche of David Lynch while taking Franz Kafka on a stroll through the industrial suburbs of any provincial town, all with a refreshing absence of pretension.
Thursday, December 18, 9:00pm

* Tell Me About Sanchicorrota / Dime quién era Sanchicorrota
Jorge Tur, Spain, 2013, HDCAM, 62m
Spanish with English subtitles
Jorge Tur’s feature-length documentary delves into the legend of a 16th-century bandit from the north of Spain, who robbed the rich to give to the poor. But the film winds up being a reflexive portrait of documentary’s inability to focus on anything beyond the visible, as well as a tragicomic stroll through a land whose wounds are seemingly always fresh.

** Screening with:
Mr. Easter / Salve Melilla
Óscar Pérez, Spain, 2006, digital projection, 52m
Spanish with English subtitles
Symbols of its imperialist past, Spain still has two cities in African territory: Ceuta and Melilla. Filming the host of a local television show that broadcasts the various religious events that comprise Holy Week in Melilla and employing the stylistic tools of cinema verité, Óscar Pérez envisions a portrait of Spain’s essence as manifested by a city forsaken by the mainland.
Sunday, December 14, 5:45pm (Q&A with Óscar Pérez)

More info > Filmlinc