Continuing the festivities of its 20th anniversary, Cinema Tropical is presenting a special screening of the Mexican landmark film Y Tu Mamá También by Academy Award-winner Alfonso Cuarón (Roma, Gravity, Children of Men), also celebrating its 20th anniversary. The first in-person screening of the organization in over more than a year, will take place on Sunday, May 30 as part of the grand opening of the Sag Harbor Cinema in eastern Long Island, and it will be followed by a Q&A with screenwriter Carlos Cuarón and a reception.
Premiering on June 8, 2001, Alfonso Cuarón’s fourth feature film Y Tu Mamá También took the festival world and box office by storm, launching its teenage protagonists Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna to international stardom and cementing Cuarón as a leading filmmaker on the world stage. The film won the award for Best Screenplay at the Venice Film Festival and García Bernal and Luna took home the Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best Young Actors. It was a runner up at the National Society of Film Critics Awards for Best Picture and Best Director and earned Cuarón his third Oscar’s nomination, for Best Original Screenplay at the 2003 Academy Awards.
Opening to critical acclaim upon its original release, Y Tu Mamá También broke Mexican box office records for a domestic film. It went on to gross a record $12 million in Mexico. After being picked up by U.S. independent distributors Good Machine and IFC Films, Y Tu Mamá También became a global sensation, grossing $13.8 million in the U.S. and Canada and making it the second-highest grossing Spanish language film in the United States at the time.
A raunchy rode comedy, Y Tu Mamá También combined sexually explicit subject matter with emotional warmth to offer a moving look at human desire and the nature of friendship. The film follows Mexico City teenagers Julio (Gael García Bernal) and Tenoch (Diego Luna), best friends from different classes who, after their girlfriends jet off to Italy for the summer, are bewitched by a gorgeous older woman from Spain (Maribel Verdú) they meet at a wedding. When she agrees to accompany them on a trip to a faraway beach, the three form an increasingly intense and sensual alliance that ultimately strips them both physically and emotionally bare.
The screening will be preceded by a the panel discussion “Cinema Para Todos - Latin American Cinema Today and Tomorrow” focusing on the creative explosion of Latin American and U.S. Latinx cinema of the past years. Cinema Tropical's Co-Founder and Executive Director Carlos Gutiérrez will be in conversation with Carlos Sandoval–award-winning filmmaker and Express News Group columnist, and Minerva Perez–Executive Director of OLA (Organización Latino-Americana) a Latino focused nonprofit supporting arts, education and advocacy on the East End and a Sag Harbor resident. The talk will be introduced by Sag Harbor Cinema's Artistic Director Giulia D'Agnolo Vallan, and moderated by Cinema Tropical's Director of Strategic Partnerships and Special Projects and Sag Harbor resident, Mary Jane Marcasiano.
For tickets and more information visit www.sagharborcinema.org.
