The Wild Woman by Alan González
The Havana Film Festival New York (HFFNY), the annual event celebrating Latin American cinema for over two decades, has announced its lineup for its 24th edition, taking place April 12-18 at the Quad Cinema and featuring over 30 films from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela.
Aiming to enrich and expand the vision of Latin American culture in the United States and its effects on global filmmaking, this year's program includes multiple New York, US, and world premieres of contemporary cinema from the region, award-winning documentaries that explore iconic Latin American literary, cinematic, and musical figures; and retrospectives of remastered classic films that have left an indelible mark on cinematic production around the world.
This year’s main slate includes two Cuban films and one Colombian documentary: The Wild Woman / La mujer salvaje by Cuban filmmaker Alán González as the festival's opening night feature, Nelsito’s World / El mundo de Nelsito by Cuban director Fernando Pérez as its centerpiece film, and Igualada by Colombian filmmaker Juan Mejía Botero as this year's closing night film.
Winner of the Best Film Award at the 2023 Cine Ceará Ibero-American Film Festival, González’s The Wild Woman is set in a Havana slum, and follows a woman who survives a bloody fight between her husband and her lover. In a desperate attempt to spare her son from the scandal, she decides to run away with him, but a video of the incident has already gone viral.
Nelsito’s World crafts its world around a car accident. The victim, Nelsito, is a 16-year-old autistic teenager who has run away from home. While everyone is worried about him, his big eyes are registering every detail. From his stretcher and through his imaginary pen, Nelsito reveals the dark, hidden side of those who surround him: wicked children, murderous women, adorable swindlers. Once recovered, Nelsito will be received by these characters – now simple neighbors who are real, ordinary and genuine. But which are the real ones? Those ordinary mortals or the ones that Nelsito has imagined in each of them?
Set in one of Latin America’s most unequal countries, the documentary Igualada follows Francia Márquez, a Black Colombian rural activist, who challenges the status quo with a presidential campaign that reappropriates the derogatory term “Igualada”—someone who acts as if they deserve rights that supposedly don’t correspond to them—and inspires a nation to dream. Director Mejía Botero’s exclusive access to Francia Márquez’s presidential campaign reveals an unwavering commitment to fight inequality and integrates into Márquez’s trusted circle, closely observing her and the campaign team’s tireless grassroots efforts to push her candidacy forward, while archival footage of a younger Márquez in La Toma reminds us of her long-standing activism.
The other nine titles competing for the Havana Star Prize in the fiction category are the Argentine-Uruguayan coming of age drama I Woke Up With A Dream / Desperté con un sueño by Pablo Solarz, the Brazilian queer drama Toll / Pedágio by Carolina Markowicz, the Colombian films Memento Mori by Fernando López Cardona and Rebellion / Rebelión by José Luis Rugeles Gracia, the Costa Rican film Lazaro’s Daughter / La hija de Lázaro by Gustavo Fallas, the Cuban films Under A Powerful Sun / Bajo un sol poderoso by Enrique ‘Kiki’ Álvarez and A Night With The Rolling Stones / Una noche con los Rolling Stones by Patricia Ramos; the Mexican drama Heroic / Heroico by David Zonana; and the Peruvian-Venezuelan co-production The Monroy Case / El caso Monroy by Josué Mendez.
The eight Latin American documentary films vying for the Havana Star Prize are Ayahuasca Now by Carlos Bruno Cejas from Argentina, The Castle / El castillo by Martín Benchimol, also from Argentina; the Brazilian film Aldo Baldin: A Life For Music by Yves Goulart; the Colombian prpductions We, the Women / Nosotras by Emilce Quevedo Díaz and Transfariana by Joris Lachaise; the Cuban films Landrián by Ernesto Daranas Serrano and Blessed Song / Santa canción by Juan Carlos Travieso Fajardo; and the Panamanian Oscar submission Tito, Margot & Me / Tito, Margot y yo by Mercedes Arias and Delfina Vidal.
HFFNY in partnership with The Cohen Film Collection will also present the retrospective series ‘Laughing through Rebellion: The Cine Libre of Tomás Gutiérrez Alea’, the most comprehensive showcase of the Legendary Cuban director affectionately known as Titón. Delve into the cinematic brilliance of Titón with six of his iconic films, newly restored by the Academy Film Archive. Discover classics such as Strawberry & Chocolate / Fresa y chocolate, Death of a Bureaucrat / La muerte de un burócrata, The Survivors / Los sobrevivientes, The Last Supper / La útima cena, A Cuban Fight Against Demons / Una pelea cubana contra los demonios, and the short film El arte del tabaco. The showcase offers an unparalleled opportunity to be immersed in the groundbreaking works of one of Cuba's most celebrated filmmakers.
Lastly, for its 24th anniversary, HFFNY will also pay homage to Cuban filmmaker Nicolás Guillén Landrián through “The Unseen Gaze: A Retrospective.” This retrospective will present significant restoration projections aiming to unveil the lost legacy of one of Cuba's pioneering black filmmakers and to shed light on the forgotten contributions of Landrián while illuminating the dark realities that marginalized his work.
