The Day I Met You by André Novais Oliveira
Film at Lincoln Center and The Museum of Modern Art have just announced the 53rd annual edition of New Directors/New Films, which will screen 25 features and 10 shorts, including five Latin American titles from Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico. A celebration of new filmmakers from around the world, New Directors/New Films is a place to discover the next generation of essential storytellers, showcase distinctive new voices, and share the gift of discovery with audiences.
This year’s Latin American slate includes the Brazilian feature films The Day I Met You / O Dia Que Te Conheci by André Novais Oliveira and Malu by Pedro Freire, the Chilean feature Otro Sol by Francisco Rodríguez. New Directors/New Films will also screen the Mexican short film Kill ’Em All / Mátalos a todos by Sebastian Molina Ruiz and the Colombian short film The Night of the Minotaur / La noche del minotauro by Juliana Zuluaga Montoya. All of the screenings will have Q&As with the directors.
A micro portrait of two individuals finding comfort in each other’s company, The Day I Met You offers a refreshing reprieve from the daily grind. Set in the vicinity of Belo Horizonte, the capital of the mountainous Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, the film follows Zeca, whose job, body, and mind have all gone out of whack. The weight of setbacks is lifted when he spends a few impromptu hours with Louisa, his colleague at a local school, and the two even find joy in poking fun at their shared misery.
Malu by Pedro Freire
Winner of the Best Brazilian Film awards at the São Paulo Film Festival and the Special Jury Prize at the Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival, Novais Oliveira’s film combines a chic sense of pace and magical long takes to make the most unassuming encounter infinitely cool and full of hope.
A profoundly felt study of a woman with an all-consuming, unstable love, directed with an intense force to match its unforgettable protagonist, Pedro Freire’s Malu follows a free-spirited actress approaching middle age and constantly at odds with the world and herself.
Living with a conservative, religious mother who fears her anti-authoritarian, bohemian approach to life is indicative of a mental breakdown, Malu has idealistic plans to transform her modest Rio de Janeiro home into an arts center for poor local kids. Yet her erratic behavior and recurrent, explosive battles with her brittle mother leave her vulnerable to a confusing, sometimes cruel world.
Set in 1978, Otro Sol follows a Chilean thief who entered the grand Cádiz Cathedral in southern Spain, and, it is believed, stole priceless ancient artifacts before being tracked down and killed. In Rodríguez Teare’s form-defying feature debut, the maybe-true tale of Candia provides the unstable center of an absorbing inquiry into mythmaking, following a pair of young thieves across the Atacama Desert as they meet a community of local prospectors digging for gold.
Otro Sol by Francisco Rodríguez
Through stories that seem to be real and others that can only be fantasy, Teare’s inventive film constantly shifts the borders between truth and fable, while presenting to the viewer the staggering, vast beauty of the mountains, beaches, and rivers of Atacama and Andalusia.
In Sebastian Molina Ruiz’s coming-of-age story Kill ’Em All, teenagers Mila and Carolina are close confidantes who live on opposite sides of Mexico City. They exchange diaristic videos that document their experiences growing up and their feelings toward the obligations, both familial and personal, they each face. Until, eventually, they decide to meet in person.
Winner of Best Short Film at the Latin American Competition of the Festival Internacional de Cine de Mar del Plata, The Night of the Minotaur explores the origins of pornographic cinema in Colombia. In a fantastic tale spun from archival material, Juliana Zuluaga Montoya explores how in a small village surrounded by enigmatic wilderness Luz Emilia García, the precursor of porn cinema in Colombia, becomes the master of ceremonies presiding over the debaucherous Night of the Minotaur.
The 53rd edition of New Directors/New Films will take place April 3-14, 2024 at Film at Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
