NY ESSENTIALS : CINEMA > SPRING 2013
De aqui a comienzos de Mayo tendremos las carteleras ocupadas con varios festivales de cine y algunos estrenos relevantes. Veamos:
LO NUEVO EN CARTELERA
* NEW DIRECTORS / NEW FILMS > Marzo 20 al 27 > NDNF.
The Festival New Directors / New Films is dedicated to the discovery of new works by emerging filmmaking talent. For this edition the festival presents 25 features (19 narrative, 6 documentary) and 17 short films representing 24 countries – all having their New York City premieres. And relevant Latino filmmaking, of course!: Matías Peñeiro's Viola; Jazmin Lopez's Leones; Marcelo Lordello's THEY’LL COME BACK; Eryk Rocha's JARDS, plus films from Italy and France and shorts from Mexico, Colombia, Spain and Brazil.
Read our article about the Festival New Directors / New Films > NDNF.
* BLANCANIEVES. Directed by Pablo Berger > En Cartelera Marzo 29 > Varios Teatros. 
Set in a romanticized 1920s Seville, Berger's Snow White is Carmen (Macarena García), the daughter of a famous bull fighter, who lives under the tyrannical rule of her monstrous, evil stepmother, Encarna (Maribel Verdú). She escapes and joins a troupe of bullfighting dwarves, where her beauty and natural talent in the ring attract notices from the press. But soon the news reaches Encarna, who at last she knows where to find Carmen, and she prepares for the final showdown.
Watch our interview with director Pablo Berger > TespisTV.
* THE GIRL > Directed by David Riker > En Cartelera > Varios Teatros > Girl.
More than a decade after bursting onto the scene with his acclaimed debut feature The City (La Ciudad)—a quartet of stories about Spanish-speaking immigrants trying to make it in New York—director David Riker travels south of the border for his long-awaited follow-up, The Girl. In a performance of staggering power, Abbie Cornish (Bright Star, SevenPsychopaths) stars as Ashley, a single Austin mother and recovering alcoholic trying to hold her life together after losing custody of her son and her job at a Wal Mart-esque big box store. Desperate for cash, Ashley offers her services as a “coyote” for a Mexican family trying to cross the border illegally. But when the attempted crossing ends in tragedy, Ashley finds herself playing surrogate mother to a lost and confused young girl desperate to find whatever family she has left. The harrowing, moving and ultimately hopeful journey that ensues takes us deep into the heart of Mexico, and of a woman trying to make amends for her troubled past.
* NO. Directed by Pablo Larrain > Nominada al Oscar como Mejor Película Extranjera > Varios Teatros. 
In 1988, Chilean military dictator Augusto Pinochet, due to international pressure, is forced to call a plebiscite on his presidency. The country will vote YES or NO to Pinochet extending his rule for another eight years. Opposition leaders for the NO persuade a brash young advertising executive, Rene Saavedra (Gael Garcia Bernal), to spearhead their campaign. Against all odds, with scant resources and under scrutiny by the despot’s minions, Saavedra and his team devise an audacious plan to win the election and set Chile free.
Watch director Pablo Larraín speaking about NO > TespisTV.
* SAVING LINCOLN. Directed by Salvador Litvak > Varios Teatros. 
Based on true events, SAVING LINCOLN tells the little-known story of our 16th President (whose life, and death, is currently generating a plethora of films, television and book projects), through the eyes of his long-time friend and law partner from 1852 to 1857 colleague, Ward Hill Lamon. Lamon, a Southerner, was a banjo-player, singer, and pistol-packing jokester who appointed himself Lincoln’s bodyguard after the first assassination attempt in 1861, and who foiled repeated attempts on the President's life throughout their four years in Washington. Despite some pronounced differences between the two men, they shared a fondness for telling jokes and stories, and both felt slavery should be eliminated. Lamon often served as Lincoln's private confidant, and kept him functioning during the darkest hours of the Civil War. Lincoln was never far from him – save that fateful night at
Ford’s Theatre when Lamon was sent by the President on a Reconstruction mission to Richmond.
This unique feature film was shot entirely on a single green screen stage and composited into vintage photographs of the Civil War era. As Director Litvak says, “I borrowed techniques from painting, photography, animation, stereoscopy, and VFX compositing to create a style I call CineCollage.
* MARIACHI GRINGO > En Cartelera > Jackson Heights Cinema. (Tom Gustafson, USA/Mexico, 2012, 95 min.)
A stifled small-town man, stuck in a dead end life runs away to Mexico to be a mariachi singer. Mariachi Gringo is a musical tour-de-force exploring the reality of "following your dreams" across cultural, personal, social and geographical borders. Featuring Martha Higareda and Lila Downs.
* EVERYBODY HAS A PLAN > En Cartelera > Angelika Film Center and AMC Empire 25.
(Todos tenemos un plan, Ana Piterbarg, Argentina/Spain, 2012, 117 min. In Spanish with English subtitles).
In this dazzling thriller from first-time filmmaker Ana Piterbarg, Viggo Mortensen (in his third Spanish-language film) stars as twin brothers whose deadly pact plunges them into the sordid depths of the Argentinean underworld. Everybody Has a Plan tells the story of Agustín, a man desperate to abandon his frustrating existence in Buenos Aires. After the death of his two brother Pedro, Agustín decides to adopt the identity of his brother and return to the mysterious region of Argentina where they lived as boys. But shortly after his return, Agustín fins himself unwillingly involved in the dangerous criminal world that was a part of his brother's life.
* BLESS ME, ULTIMA > En Cartelera Marzo 27 > AMC Loews Village 7. (Carl Franklin, USA, 2012, 104 min. In Spanish and English with English subtitles).
Based on the controversial novel by acclaimed author Rudolfo Anaya, Bless Me, Ultima is a turbulent coming-of-age story about Antonio Marez (Luke Ganalon), a young boy growing up in New Mexico during World War II. When a mysterious curandera named Ultima (Miriam Colon) comes to live with his family, she teaches him about the power of the spiritual world. As their relationship grows, Antonio begins to question the strict Catholic doctrine that has been taught by his parents. Through a series of mysterious and at times terrifying events, Antonio must grapple with questions about the relationship between good and evil and ultimately how to reconcile Ultima’s powers with those of the God of his church.
* Epic Encounters: Flaherty NYC at 92Y TRIBECA > Ongoing > Epic. 
Some things in life fall away into a forgotten chasm, relegated to imperfect human memories, tucked away in a remote abyss where you will probably never hear from them again.
Film often reverses the course of events, giving these things a place in our history. This program focuses specifically on the ability of film to shed light on those spots that might otherwise be lost forever. The selected films deal with episodes of a nebulous past, with activities that are not usually represented, with fractured spaces and finally, with the frailty of memory. Filmmakers, videographers, professionals and amateurs from Latin America, Spain and the US help create a bridge between what is seemingly irrelevant and what takes on significance. This show features a Hi-8 home video, an underground scream, a fading memory, an unknown story, a rehearsal and a rarely seen film.
* VIOLETA WENT TO HEAVEN > En Cartelera Marzo 29 > The Quad Cinema. (Violeta se fue a los cielos, Andrés Wood, Chile, 2011, 110 min., In Spanish with English subtitles)
The extraordinary story of the iconic poet, musician and folksinger Violeta Parra, whose songs have become hymns for Chileans and Latin Americans alike. Director Andrés wood (Machuca) traces the intensity and explosive vitality of her life, from humble origins to international fame, her defense of indigenous cultures and her devotion to art.
* The Place Beyond the Pines > con Eva Mendes > En Cartelera Marzo 29 > Varios Teatros.
A motorcycle stunt rider turns to robbing banks as a way to provide for his lover and their newborn child, a decision that puts him on a collision course with an ambitious rookie cop navigating a department ruled by a corrupt detective.
* WAR WITCH. Directed by Kim Nguyen > Varios Teatros. 
WAR WITCH tells the story of Komona, a young girl whose life is anything but normal. Kidnapped by African rebels at the age of 12, Komona was forced at gunpoint to slaughter her own parents and fight as a child soldier against the government in the jungles. But Komona was no ordinary solider. Due to her ability to see gray ghosts in the trees that warn her of approaching enemies, she was deemed a sorceress and bestowed the title of War Witch by the supreme leader of the rebels, Great Tiger. War Witch exudes visceral energy and emotional power as Komona’s journey ultimately finds her in love with a fellow child soldier named Magician, but pregnant with another man’s child. Saddled with the reality that a life of normalcy is forever beyond her grasp, Komona must find a way to resolve the actions of her past. WAR WITCH is Canada’s submission to the 2012 Academy Awards, an Indepdenent Spirit Award Nominee, was named one of the National Board of Review’s 5 Best Foreign Lanuage Films of 2012.
* Brazilian Saga: Carlos Diegues’ Cinematic Adventures > Abril 12 -18 > Film Society Lincoln Center > Diegues.
Carlos Diegues was a pioneer of the revolutionary Cinema Novo movement, which made film an integral part of the cultural and sociopolitical struggles facing Brazil in the 1960s. Diegues’ now-iconic films had a historical emphasis but were conceptually groundbreaking and were among the first to bring Afro-Brazilian culture to life on film. We are proud to present this comprehensive survey of his work. Carlos Diegues in person!
Watch our interview with Zezé Motta, the original Xica Da Silva! > Xica on TespisTV.
* 14th Havana New York Film Festival > Abril 12 - 19 > HNYFF.
El 14vo. HAVANA FILM FESTIVAL NEW YORK (HFFNY) se llevará a cabo del 12 al 19 de abril, presentando más de 45 películas de América Latina, el Caribe y de latinos en otros lugares del mundo; los países participantes son: Argentina, Brasil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Republica Dominicana, Ecuador, España, Guatemala, México, Puerto Rico, Venezuela y Estados Unidos.
Películas que van de una variedad de géneros y temas, desde comedia, suspenso, acción, drama, historias infantiles y documentales así como filmes de y sobre los pueblos indígenas de Guatemala, Colombia y México. 19 Películas Competirán por el Havana Star Prize.
* 29th Chicago Latino Film Festival > Abril 11 - 25 > CLFF.
The Chicago Latino Film Festival is the largest and oldest Latino film festival in the nation, and presents over 100 films of cultural and social significance from Latin America, Spain, Portugal and the U.S.
* 12th Tribeca Film Festival > Abril 17 - 28. Varuos Teatros > TFF.
The Festival’s mission is to help filmmakers reach the broadest possible audience, enable the international film community and general public to experience the power of cinema and promote New York City as a major filmmaking center. Tribeca Film Festival is well known for being a diverse international film festival that supports emerging and established directors. This year we have little Latino presence with Reaching for the Moon (Flores Raras), directed by Bruno Barreto from Brazil.
* Gypsy Davy. Directed by Rachel Leah Jones (2012) Abril 23 > The JCC Manhattan.
When an American white boy with Alabama roots becomes a Spanish flamenco guitarist in Andalucian boots, what happens along the way and behind the scenes? Gypsy Davy tells the story of David Jones, stage name: "David Serva," through his five women and five children—one of whom is the director. After all, who knows the man who came and saw and conquered, “strumming their pain with his fingers,” better than they? Part duel and part duet—between a guitar-wielding father and a camera-pointing daughter—Gypsy Davy is a personal and political portrait of a man, a family, a generation. Shot over a ten-year period in five countries across three continents, and featuring some of the finest “old-school” Gypsy Flamenco artists: Inés Bàcan, Concha Vagas, Miguel Funi, as well as some of the hottest names in American and Spanish alternative rock: Counting Crows and La Shica, not to mention a title song made famous by Woody Guthrie, Gypsy Davy is much more than another hunt-down-the-absent-father movie, it’s a home-made epic.
* The Mexican Suitcase (La Valija Mexicana). Directed by Trisha Ziff (2011). Mayo 3. In collaboration with the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives (ALBA) > Casa Mezcal.
The Mexican Suitcase tells the story of the recovery of 4,500 negatives taken by photographers Robert Capa, Gerda Taro, and David Seymour during the Spanish Civil War. The film follows the journey of these negatives to Mexico – images as exiles, recovered seventy years later. The Mexican Suitcase brings together three narratives: the suitcase, the exile story, and looks at how people in Spain today address their own past, 30 years after transition. The Mexican Suitcase addresses the power of memory and asks who owns our histories?.
* Voyage to Italy. Directed by Roberto Rossellini > Mayo 1 al 9 > Film Forum.
* Madrid, 1987. Directed by David Trueba (2012).
Spectacle Theater. Junio, 2013 (Exact Date TBD).
José Sacristán and María Valverde shine in David Trueba’s intelligent, witty, and sensual new film, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival to great acclaim. On a hot summer day in a vacant Madrid during a period of social and political transition in Spain, Miguel, a feared and respected journalist, sets up a meeting in a café with Ángela, a young journalism student. He takes her to a friend's studio. His intentions are clearly sexual; hers are less clear. Chance events force them together for more time than they would have chosen, locked in a bathroom, naked, without the possibility of escape. Removed from the outside world, the pair, who represents polarized generations, is pitted in an unevenly matched duel involving age, intellect, ambition and experience. The political and social context of the period provides the background to the power shifts that continually take place between them over twenty-four hours.
Y más por venir: La última de Almodóvar, Los amantes pasajeros (I'm so excited) is coming soon; la última de Alfonso Cuarón, Gravity; también las esperadas: Chávez, Pacific Rim, Turbo, Sin City, Elysium, Star Trek, Fast and Furious, Getaway, The Counselor, La danza de la realidad, La contadora de películas, Europa Report y 33 días.
Para más información de cine, visita nuestro artítulo reciente > CINE LATINO SOMEWHERE NEAR YOU! > http://goo.gl/fb/OZcJd.
CINEMA ESSENTIALS: WINTER 2013
Maria (Naomi Watts), Henry (Ewan McGregor) and their three sons begin their winter vacation in Thailand, looking forward to a few days in tropical paradise. But on the morning of December 26th, as the family relaxes around the pool after their Christmas festivities the night before, a terrifying roar rises up from the center of the earth. As Maria freezes in fear, a huge wall of black water races across the hotel grounds toward her.
Based on a true story, The Impossible is the unforgettable account of a family caught, with tens of thousands of strangers, in the mayhem of one of the worst natural catastrophes of our time. But the true-life terror is tempered by the unexpected displays of compassion, courage and simple kindness that Maria and her family encounter during the darkest hours of their lives. Both epic and intimate, devastating and uplifting, The Impossible is a journey to the core of the human heart.
Argentina, 1979. After years of exile, 12-year-old Juan (Teo Gutiérrez Moreno) and his family return to Argentina under false identities. Juan's parents and his eccentric uncle Beto (scene-stealing Ernesto Alterio) are members of an underground resistance movement fighting against the Military Junta that rules the country. Their political activities make the threat of capture a constant concern. However, as seen through Juan's eyes, daily life is also full of warmth, humor and discovery, as he makes new friends at school (where he is known as “Ernesto”), including his first serious girlfriend. Produced by Academy Award winner Luis Puenzo (The Official Story), writer-director Benjamín Ávila’s superb debut feature, based on events in his own family, recalls Sidney Lumet’s Running on Emptyin its powerful portrait of childhood innocence at odds with life-or-death political ideals.
This selection of 10 films from as far afield as Iran, Serbia, Chile, Kazakhstan, and Iraq includes projects developed with seed money from GFI, and represents a concise survey of contemporary filmmaking from areas where local political restrictions and/or economic realities make such expensive and technology-driven endeavors a challenge. Accomplished, entertaining, and thought-provoking, these films are all deeply rooted in the social and political realities of the countries where their talented and resourceful makers live and set their stories.
Life and death come wrapped in a mutual embrace in this absurd, poignant comedy about an unlikely friendship between a morbidly obsessed drifter and a grieving young cinematographer at work on a seriously schlocky low-budget horror film—scenes from which constitute the only color sequences in this intentionally gray-toned homage to melancholy and rebirth. Reveling in a blend of sardonic humor and loving characterization, Silva (The Maid,2009) displays a sure, discerning style in this compassionate vision of frail, unforgettable lives.
++ Sudoeste (Southwest) 2011. Brazil. Directed by Eduardo Nunes. With Simone Spoladore, Raquel Bonfante, Julio Adrião.
++ El Fantástico mundo de Juan Orol (The Fantastic World of Juan Orol) 2012. Mexico. Directed by Sebastian del Amo. With Roberto Sosa, Gabriela de la Garza, Roger Cudney.
Move over Ed Wood! Mexico’s half-forgotten B-movie master, “involuntary surrealist” Juan Orol (1897–1988), receives a pitch-perfect tribute in this deft, irresistible love letter to a self-made man of showbiz whose career spanned half a century and nearly 60 films. Abetted by an all-pro cast, Sosa’s brilliant interpretation of Orol’s life exudes a droll underdog charm, and almost every frame is an infectious homage to the golden age of cinema, the wiles of memory, and the art of fantasy.
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Guillermo del Toro presents MAMA, a supernatural thriller that tells the haunting tale of two little girls who disappeared into the woods the day that their parents were killed. When they are rescued years later and begin a new life, they find that someone or something still wants to come tuck them in at night. Five years ago, sisters Victoria and Lilly vanished from their suburban neighborhood without a trace. Since then, their Uncle Lucas (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) and his girlfriend, Annabel (Jessica Chastain), have been madly searching for them. But when, incredibly, the kids are found alive in a decrepit cabin, the couple wonders if the girls are the only guests they have welcomed into their home. As Annabel tries to introduce the children to a normal life, she grows convinced of an evil presence in their house. Are the sisters experiencing traumatic stress, or is a ghost coming to visit them? How did the broken girls survive those years all alone? As she answers these disturbing questions, the new mother will find that the whispers she hears at bedtime are coming from the lips of a deadly presence.
A winning romantic comedy about a hot streak, a big bet, and the dangers of getting what you hoped for, Daniel Burman’s All In is the story of Uriel, a professional gambler, single father, and Don Juan of the first rank. With his luck running at cards and with the ladies, Uriel decides to take the plunge and embark on a new life of freedom—he gets a vasectomy. Just as everything in his life seems to be coming together perfectly, Gloria, his old pre-marriage flame, returns to Buenos Aires after years abroad to turn his life on its head.
* Parker. Directed by Taylor Hackford. With Jennifer López > Enero 25 > Varios teatros.
Parker (Jason Statham) is a professional thief who lives by a personal code of ethics: Don’t steal from people who can’t afford it and don’t hurt people who don’t deserve it. But on his latest heist, his crew double crosses him, steals his stash, and leaves him for dead. Determined to make sure they regret it, Parker tracks them to PalmBeach, playground of the rich and famous, where the crew is planning their biggest heist ever. Donning the disguise of a rich Texan, Parker takes on an unlikely partner, Leslie (Jennifer Lopez), a savvy insider, who’s short on cash, but big on looks, smarts and ambition. Together, they devise a plan to hijack the score, take everyone down and get away clean.
The new film from beloved cult director Alex de la Iglesia goes into fresh territory for the daring director, a dark comedy/social satire that also works as a deeply felt drama about the devotion of a husband and father. A wild riff on manhood in the modern media world, As Luck Would Have It is a skewed take on the strange world we live in.
A classic flamenco drama inspired by Romeo and Juliet and possiblyWest Side Story, Los Tarantos is characterized by a sexy, gritty, Catalan gitano style of dancing and marks the final appearance of the legendary Carmen Amaya in the role of Angustias. The star-crossed lovers are Sara Lezana and the mesmerizing Antonio Gades, best remembered for his dancing (and acting) in Carlos Saura’s flamenco trilogy that began withCarmen. The film was nominated for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 1963 and has not been shown for many years. To celebrate this occasion, Maria Esteve, a well-known actress and the daughter of the iconic Gades will make a personal appearance at the screening.
On the verge of a forced retirement, Don Celso, an elderly office worker begins to relive both real and imagined memories from his life – a trip to the movies as a young boy with Beethoven, listening to tall tales from Long John Silver, a brief stay in a haunted hotel, conversations with a fictional doppelgänger of a real writer. Stories hide within stories and the thin line between imagination and reality steadily erodes, opening up a marvelous new world of personal remembrance and fantastic melodrama. In this playfully elegiac film, loosely adapted from the fantastical short stories of Chilean writer Herman del Solar, the late master Raúl Ruiz has crafted a final masterwork on his favorite subjects: fiction, history and life itself.
* SAVING LINCOLN. Directed by Salvador Litvak > Febrero 15 > Varios teatros.
Based on true events, SAVING LINCOLN tells the little-known story of our 16th President (whose life, and death, is currently generating a plethora of films, television and book projects), through the eyes of his long-time friend and law partner from 1852 to 1857 colleague, Ward Hill Lamon. Lamon, a Southerner, was a banjo-player, singer, and pistol-packing jokester who appointed himself Lincoln’s bodyguard after the first assassination attempt in 1861, and who foiled repeated attempts on the President's life throughout their four years in Washington. Despite some pronounced differences between the two men, they shared a fondness for telling jokes and stories, and both felt slavery should be eliminated. Lamon often served as Lincoln's private confidant, and kept him functioning during the darkest hours of the Civil War. Lincoln was never far from him – save that fateful night at
Ford’s Theatre when Lamon was sent by the President on a Reconstruction mission to Richmond.
This unique feature film was shot entirely on a single green screen stage and composited into vintage photographs of the Civil War era. As Director Litvak says, “I borrowed techniques from painting, photography, animation, stereoscopy, and VFX compositing to create a style I call CineCollage.
WAR WITCH tells the story of Komona, a young girl whose life is anything but normal. Kidnapped by African rebels at the age of 12, Komona was forced at gunpoint to slaughter her own parents and fight as a child soldier against the government in the jungles. But Komona was no ordinary solider. Due to her ability to see gray ghosts in the trees that warn her of approaching enemies, she was deemed a sorceress and bestowed the title of War Witch by the supreme leader of the rebels, Great Tiger. War Witch exudes visceral energy and emotional power as Komona’s journey ultimately finds her in love with a fellow child soldier named Magician, but pregnant with another man’s child. Saddled with the reality that a life of normalcy is forever beyond her grasp, Komona must find a way to resolve the actions of her past. WAR WITCH is Canada’s submission to the 2012 Academy Awards, an Indepdenent Spirit Award Nominee, was named one of the National Board of Review’s 5 Best Foreign Lanuage Films of 2012.
* 14th Havana New York Film Festival > Abril.
Based on the book that has sold more than seven million copies and spent years on the bestseller list, Academy Award winner Lee's LIFE OF PI takes place over three continents, two oceans, many years, and a wide world of imagination.
This unclassifiable, expansive movie from Leos Carax (Lovers on the Bridge)—his first feature in 13 years—operates on the exhilarating logic of dreams and emotions. After a prologue in which Carax himself, clad in pajamas, walks through a corridor that leads to a theater full of silent spectators, HOLY MOTORS segues to actor Denis Lavant, Carax’s longtime collaborator, playing a mysterious man named Oscar who inhabits 11 different characters over the course of a single day. This shape-shifter is shuttled from appointment to appointment in Paris in a white-stretch limo driven by the soignée Edith Scob (EYES WITHOUT A FACE); not on the itinerary is an unplanned reunion with Kylie Minogue. To summarize the film any further would be to take away some of its magic; the most accurate précis comes from its own creator, who aptly described HOLY MOTORS after its world premiere in Cannes as “a film about a man and the experience of being alive.”
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Photo courtesy of NY-Daily News
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Triumphantly returning to live-action filmmaking for the first time since Cast Away 12 years ago, Robert Zemeckis teams with Denzel Washington on the tense and edgy thriller FLIGHT. In a brilliant, heart-stopping sequence, pilot Whip Whitacker (Washington), after an all-nighter of booze, sex and drugs, boldly guides a crippled airliner to a crash landing that nearly all the passengers survive. Although he is acclaimed as a hero, the legal, moral and ethical aspects of Whip’s behavior before and after the accident are much more ambiguous than initially meet the public eye. A study of addiction far more complex than the norm, FLIGHT is a compelling drama anchored by a great performance from one of our most distinguished actors. John Goodman, Don Cheadle, Melissa Leo and Kelly Reilly offer vibrant supporting turns in what is certain to be one of the most talked-about movies of the season.
Bond's loyalty to M is tested as her past comes back to haunt her. As MI6 comes under attack, 007 must track down and destroy the threat, no matter how personal the cost.
A pretty 17-year-old from a strict evangelical family, Daniela is finding it hard to reconcile her raging hormones with the rules ofher religion. With no other outlet for her desire, Daniela taps into a rampant underground network of other teens through her sexually charged blog. Director Rivas’s handsome debut is a lively coming-of-age story of a young woman who, torn between the burning fires of religious fervor and youthful sexual energy, refuses to make choices that limit her pleasure.
* ON THE ROAD > Directed by Walter Salles.
Alex and Nica are young, in love and engaged to be married. The summer before their wedding, they are backpacking in the Caucasus Mountains in Georgia. The couple hire a local guide to lead them on a camping trek, and the three set off into a wilderness that is both overwhelmingly open and frighteningly closed. Walking for hours, they trade anecdotes, play games to pass the time of moving through space. And then, a momentary misstep, a gesture that takes only two or three seconds, a gesture that's over almost as soon as it begins. Once it is done, it threatens to undo everything the couple believed about each other and about themselves. All the while, they are not alone. They are always with the guide, who witnesses their every move.
A Whisper to a Roar tells the heroic stories of courageous democracy activists in five countries around the world – Egypt, Malaysia, Ukraine, Venezuela and Zimbabwe. From student leaders to prime ministers and heads of state, these activists share their compelling personal stories of struggle, past and present, with their countries’ oppressive regimes. Shot over three years and completed in February 2012, the film was inspired by the work of Stanford University’s Larry Diamond, author of “The Spirit of Democracy” and Director of Stanford University’s Center for Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law. It was funded by The Moulay Hicham Foundation, whose benefactor, Prince Moulay Hicham of Morocco, is a renowned public intellectual and democracy advocate, particularly in regards to the Middle East.
This compelling documentary narrated by John Leguizamo is a gritty look inside the world of Major League Baseball (MLB) training camps in the Dominican Republic. Miguel Angel and Jean Carlos are two of the top prospects at an MLB training camp, and they are both about to turn 16, which means they can be signed to an MLB farm team and ultimately move up to the majors. Filmmakers Ross Finkel, Trevor Martin and Jonathan Paley take you inside this never-before-seen world for an up-close and personal look at the cost of the American dream.
