World Premiere of Natalia Almada's EL VELADOR at New Films/New Directors

The world premiere of Mexican director Natalia Almada's (pictured) most recent film El Velador was held last night to a sold-out house at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City as part of the 40th edition of New Directors/New Films festival. The film has been receiving a very positive response from US film critics, AO Scott writing for The New York TimesTime Out New York hailed it as "mesmerizing", The Wall Street Journal as "hypnotical detailed", and Variety as "an exquisite study of a rapidly expanding cemetery." Almada offered a Q&A after the screening that was moderated by MoMA's film curator Larry Kardish. The film will have a second screening as part of the festival this Tuesday March 29th at the Film Society of Lincoln Center's Walter Reade Theater.
described it as "an unsettingly quiet, even lyrical film about a world made and unmade by violence", whilst

Interviewed by TropicalFRONT, Almada said New Directors/New Films was an ideal place to premiere her newest work as the film was "silent, comtemplative and in that sense delicate. I feel that the film would have lost in the noise of a larger festival such as Tribeca or Sundance. The film has more room in ND/NF, and at the same time it's a great honor to be at MoMA and the Lincoln Center in New York.

US Theatrical Premiere of I TRAVEL BECAUSE I HAVE TO...

Last Friday Anthology Film Archives in downtown Manhattan held the U.S. theatrical premiere of the acclaimed Brazilian film I Travel Because I Have to, I Come Back Because I Love You / Viajo porque preciso, volto porque te amo by directors Marcelo Gomes and Karim Aïnouz. The film, structured as a road movie narrated in first person from footage of a trip that the filmmakers did together in 1999, will have a one week run playing through Thursday, March 31 in New York City. Codirector Aïnouz traveled to New York for the film opening and offered a couple of Q&A sessions after the screenings of the film on Friday. Check out the video interview with Aïnouz by TropicalFRONT collaborator Rodrigo Brandão, posted on BrazilNYC:

Brazilian Director Karim Aïnouz Talks About His Latest Film I Travel Because I Have To, I Come Back Because I Love You. from BrazilNYC on Vimeo.

Photo: Anthology Film Archive's programmer Jed Rapfogel and filmmaker Karim Aïnouz (right). 

Another Award for MARIMBAS FROM HELL

The Guatemalan-Mexican coproduction Marimbas del infierno / Marimbas From HellLatin American Film Festival of Toulouse, France that ended today. Additionally it was announced  that Chilean film Lucía by director Niles Atallah was awarded with a Special Jury Prize along with the International and French Critics Awards at the French festival. Hernández Cordón's follow up to his debut feature film Gasolina (2008) has had a successful touring around the film festival circuit, having won the prize as Best Film at the Morelia Film Festival and as Best Latin American Film just few days ago at the Miami Film Festival.  (pictured) by Julio Hernández Cordón won the prize for Best Film at the 23rd edition of the

PRESUMED GUILTY Out of Mexican Screens

The Mexican exhibition chain Cinépolis, that is acting as theatrical distributor of the controversial and box office-hit documentary film Presunto culpable / Presumed Guilty, pulled today the film from its theaters after they received a notification from the Ministry of the Interior to stop the screenings. The original order was issued by a judge last Wednesday after Víctor Manuel Reyes, the witness of the case filled a complaint arguing that he was featured in the film without his  consent. "We profoundly regret that because of this judicial order, thousands of Mexican will lose the opportunity to know the reality of our system of criminal justice," Cinepolis said in a statement where it announced that they would comply with the order, but they were contemplating the use of alternative legal instances to appeal the decision.

Mexican Judge Orders Suspension of the Theatrical Release of PRESUMED GUILTY

A federal judge ordered today in Mexico the temporary suspension of the screening of the documentary film Presunto culpable / Presumed Guilty in its theatrical release in Mexico, based on the petition of a person and former police officer that appears in the film who claims the improper use of his image, according to Mexican newspapers. The order came today after the film directed by Roberto Hernández, Geoffrey Smith and Layda Negrete, has had an impressive run in Mexican screens and is on its way to become the top grossing Mexican documentary of all time. Nevertheless the judicial order is not immediate and the Ministry of the Interior that grants the corresponding screening permits for films in Mexico has said through a spokesperson that they will appeal the decision of the judge. Both Hernández and Negrete have claimed the judiciary order is an attempt of censorship on their film. The film was broadcast in the U.S. last summer as part of PBS' POV series, it is distributed by Icarus Films.

Watch the trailer:

Pablo Larraín's POST MORTEM Wins Cartagena Film Festival

The 51st edition of the Cartagena International Film Festival that comes to a close today announced that the Chilean film Post Mortem by Pablo Larraín won the prize as Best Fiction Film. The jury composed by Mexican filmmaker Arturo Ripstein, Sundance programmer Caroline Libresco and
Screen International's editor Mike Goodridge decided to give a Special Jury Prize to the Peruvian film October by Daniel and Diego Vega. The Uruguayan film La vida útil / A Useful Life by Federico Veiroj was the winner of the Fipresci Award, whilst the Colombian film Pequeñas voces by Jairo Carrillo and Oscar Andrade and La sociedad del semáforo by Rubén Mendoza, took the prize as Best Documentary Film and Best Colombian Film respectively.