The Museum of Modern Art has announced the film series ‘Iberoamérican Images: The State of Art,' saluting Ibermedia’s 15th Anniversary and presenting nine feature films including a one-week theatrical engagement of Mercedes Moncada's Palabras mágicas (Romper un encantamiento) / Magic Words (Breaking a Spell) (pictured below left).
Running May 1-14, MoMA’s fourth biannual Ibermedia program is particularly rich, with a number of films that have U.S. distribution and/or a healthy festival run behind them, and a treasure trove of films by filmmakers who seldom get the opportunity to show their work in the U.S. Mercedes Moncada Rodriques’s stunning, heartbreaking Magic Words (Breaking a Spell), which opens the festival with a weeklong run, is perhaps her most accomplished yet.
For just over 15 years, Ibermedia has been instrumental in the continued ascent of Latin American, Spanish, and Portuguese filmmaking. The intergovernmental Ibermedia organization began with seven member countries; today films from over 20 member countries appear on festival schedules and in cinemas the world over.
Ibermedia facilitates and finances co-productions of documentaries and fiction films between its Spanish- and Portuguese language member countries, and grants money for international distribution and promotion. Professional film organizations from the country sponsoring the proposal select the projects to be helped by the Ibermedia umbrella organization, thus ensuring each project’s autonomy. To date, Ibermedia has supported over600 films and provided training for filmmaking professionals.
Films by promising new talents from Uruguay, Cuba, and Colombia, among others, appear alongside work by seasoned filmmakers like Brazil’s Lucia Murat, capturing a stirring picture of the state of the medium today, in all its variety and splendor. Other films in the lineup include Peruvian film El mudo / The Mute (pictured above left) by Daniel and Diego Vega, Bolivian film Yvy Maraey: Tierra sin mal / Yvy Maraey: Land without Evil (pictured above right) by Juan Carlos Valdivia, and the Mexican film La jaula de oro / The Golden Dream by Diego Quemada-Diez.
Some filmmakers will be present to introduce their films, and on Saturday, May 3 a special screening and round-table discussion takes place at New York University’s King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center in conjunction with the exhibition.
