Tú y Yo by Natalia Cabral and Oriol Estrada
Cinema Tropical, the leading presenter of Latin American cinema in the United States, is thrilled to join the OVID catalog with three poignant documentary films from Bolivia, Mexico, and the Dominican Republic. Launched in 2019, OVID is a streaming service dedicated to independent feature films, global cinema, animation, and social issue and documentary films from around the world, most unavailable on any other platform.
The three new award-winning titles are Away from Meaning by Olivia Luengas, Still Burn by Mauricio Ovando, and Tú y Yo by Natalia Cabral and Oriol Estrada. As of today, Friday, June 5, all are now available to stream at OVID.tv.
Away from Meaning follows the story of Liliana, who, at the age of three, suffered from viral encephalitis. As result of the sickness, Liliana began to experience symptoms of borderline personality disorder years later. Along with her family, she devotes herself to managing and coping with emotional instability that has led to frequent hospitalizations following various suicide attempts. Now, facing the threat of another relapse without the option of hospitalization due to closures, she and her parents must face a new treatment scheme from home.
Awarded the Best Documentary Prize at the Havana Film Festival New York, this deeply personal family love story, directed by Liliana’s sister, Olivia, is a poignant meditation on normality and the stigmas attached to mental illness. It’s a humanizing portrait of Liliana’s inner world, where her emotions take form.
Winner of the Best Director and FIPRESCI awards at the 2018 Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema, Still Burn is a courageous, perceptive documentary on the methods through which collective and personal memories are formed, and in turn shape, complicated legacies.
Alfredo Ovando Candia was a military general who served as co-president of Bolivia from 1965–66 (and again from 1969–70) after overthrowing President Víctor Paz Estenssoro. His political and military service connect him to the largest massacre of workers in the country’s history, as well as the military campaign in which Che Guevara was found and killed. Incorporating archival footage from Ovando’s de facto administration, home movies, and interviews with relatives, the debut feature from filmmaker Mauricio Alfredo Ovando, grandson of Ovando Candia, studies the many profiles of his grandfather in order to juxtapose and complicate his family’s fond memories with the harsh reality of the historical record.
Winner of a Special Jury Prize at the Cartagena Film Festival and acclaimed at Visions du Réel, Tú y Yo, the debut feature from Natalia Cabral and Oriol Estrada, is a poignant chamber piece that delves deeply into divisions of class and race.
The Mrs., an elderly widow, and Aridia, a young maid, live together in a house filled with orchids in the center of Santo Domingo. Aridia cleans, the Mrs. gardens, and when work is slow they share gossip. But sometimes the atmosphere gets tense: the Mrs. wakes up grumpy, she blames Aridia, and when Aridia tries to defend herself the Mrs. has to remind her “where her place is.” Then, as the hours pass, a telenovela begins on TV, or something happens in the neighborhood, and the Mrs. and Aridia become close again, ending the day by sharing a few laughs.
To celebrate Cinema Tropical’s partnership with OVID, the organization’s co-founder and executive director Carlos Gutiérrez has also hand-picked a selection of their top picks on OVID. You can watch his curatorial statement here.
