The Global Film Initiative (GFI) will be presenting the New York premieres of the Latin American films El premio / The Prize (pictured) by Paula Markovitch (Mexico/Argentina); El dedo / The Finger by Sergio Teubal (Argentina);Gordo, calvo y bajito / Fat, Bald, Short Man by Carlos Osuna (Colombia) as part of its annual Global Lens series, the annual collaboration between The Museum of Modern Art and GFI that is part of the touring film exhibition Global Lens, a project conceived to encourage filmmaking in countries with emerging film communities.
Now on its ninth season, Global Lens 2012 will also be presenting the Brazilian film Riscado / Craft by Gustavo Pizzi, along with ten other films from Albania, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Iran, Iraq, Mexico, Morocco, Rwanda and Turkey. The series runs January 12 - 28 at the Museum of Modern Art with the attendance of some filmmakers who will travel to New York to present their work to local audiences.
The most-awarded Mexican film of 2011 (in co-production with Argentina), winner of numerous international prizes including Best Film at the Morelia Film Festival, The Prize tells the story of an anxious young mother and her precocious daughter who flee Buenos Aires for the temporary seclusion of a ramshackle cottage on a remote beach. Her political activist’s life-in-hiding is jeopardized after her seven-year-old daughter is selected to participate in a local school’s patriotic essay contest. Set during the years of Argentine dictatorship and its notorious Dirty War (1975–83), director Paula Markovitch draws on his own experiences to capture the lacunae of childhood’s social and psychological worlds in this exquisitely acted and atmospheric drama about innocence in tumultuous times.
Also set in Argentina during the military dictatorship, in the face of electoral fraud and intimidation, the severed finger of a respected local leader points the way forward for independent-minded citizens and their town’s quest for democracy after dictatorship in Sergio Teubal’s The Finger. Based on real events, this charming dramatic comedy pokes fun at small town ways while celebrating the birth of true democratic values. In Carlos Osuna’s delightful animated feature film, Fat, Bald, Short Man, the prospects for Antonio, a lonely middle-aged notary unexpectedly change after he joins a self-improvement group. Whilst in Gustavo Pizzi’s Craft, Bianca, a struggling actress and celebrity impersonator, lands an audition and what may be her “big break” after an inspired director recasts his film around her socially marginalized life as an underrated artist in Rio. Craft was co-written with the astounding Teles, who inhabits the role of Bianca with heartbreaking poignancy.
