Good Pitch Returns to Argentina

By Richard Shpuntoff, Buenos Aires

Good Pitch² Argentina hold its second edition in Buenos Aires last week. Bringing together documentary filmmakers with foundations, NGOs, campaigners, philanthropists, policy makers, brands and media around leading social and environmental issues and sponsored by Britdoc and Sundance Institute, the Good Pitch programs aim to forge coalitions and campaigns that are good for all these partners, good for the films and good for society.

Four projects were selected for this year’s edition:

Quipu, an interactive “living” documentary piece, focuses on the impact and damage done by a federal sterilization program in Peru. Co-directors María Ignacia Court and Rosemarie Lerner are developing this project in collaboration with some of the 272,000 women and 20,000 men who were often coerced, manipulated or in some cases lied to in order to get them sterilized.

Emiliano Mazza’s Nueva Venezia is a portrait of life in a floating town in the middle of one of the largest lakes in Colombia where residents (many of whom were victims of a paramilitary massacre) where everyday existence is a matter of struggle and survival.

Grown Ups is a vérité-style documentary by Maite Alberdi about a group of friends who have Down syndrome and are looking to lead independent lives away from their school of over 40 years. Alberdi’s goal is to “is to make you forget that the characters have Down, and explore with them the frustration of aging without having lived.”

Sumercé by Victoria Solano follows a group of farmers in their fight against the Colombian government and the mining companies that have tossed them off their lands and are destroying their culture and livelihood.

Picture above left source: Good Pitch Facebook page; Picture above right by Richard Shpuntoff.

Films from Argentina, Colombia and Brazil Selected for Cannes' Critics' Week

Two feature films and one short films will be representing Latin America at the 54th edition of the International Critics’ Week, the parallel competitive section of the Cannes Film Festival it was announced today.

Paulina / La Patota by Argentinean director Santiago Mitre and Tierra y sombra / Land and Shade by Colombian director César Augusto Acevedo form part of the seven feature films in competition, while Brazilian film Command Action by João Paulo Miranda is in the short film competition composed by 10 films.

Mitre’s follow up to his highly praised El Estudiante, Paulina / La Patota is a splendid portrait of an dedicated woman, having to face her own beliefs. By following her frantic journey, the film starring Dolores Fonzi and Esteban Lamothe, is also a reflection, both luminous and intelligent, on politics and justice.

Land and Shade, the debut feature film by Acevedo, takes place in a sugarcane plantation in Colombia. It is a slice of life, torn between the age-old ties to this land and the urge to leave it behind. The sharp sense of the location and the space, driven by the masterful direction, leads us to a time in which the bodies take root.

The 54th edition of the Critics’ Week will take place May 14-22 in Cannes, France.

Lerman's REFUGIADO Wins Havana Film Fest New York

The Argentinean film Refugiado by Diego Lerman was the winner of the Havana Star Prize Best Film at the Havana Film Festival New York, it was announced Friday. The jury composed by the Havana Film Festival director Iván Giroud, screenwriter/filmmaker Alberto Ferreras, and actress/vocalist Cristina Morrison also offered a Special Jury Mention to the Cuban film Venecia by Kiki Álvarez.

Refugiado, Lerman’s fourth feature film, tells the story of 7-year-old Matías and his newly pregnant mother, Laura, who flee their house after another outburst of violence from his father. Through the eyes of Matías, the story follows their escape and their search for a new, secure home.

Cuban film Boccaccerías Habaneras / Boccaccio in Havana by Arturo Sotto was awarded with the prize for Best Director and Best Screenplay.

In the documentary competition, the jury -composed by film scholar Michelle Farrell, filmmaker Catherine Murphy, cinematographer Germán Gutiérrez, and film scholar/programmer Richard Peña- gave the prize for Best Documentary to the Cuban film La otra isla by Heidi Hassan.

Colombian film Un asunto de tierras / A Matter of Land by Patricia Ayala and Venezuelan film El silencio de las moscas / The Silence of the Flies were presented with a Special Jury Mention.

The 16th edition of the Havana Film Festival New York took place April 9-17.

Mexican GÜEROS to Open at Film Forum this May

New York-based distribution company Kino Lorber has announced the acquisition of all North American rights to Güeros, the award-winning and critically acclaimed feature debut by Mexican writer/director Alonso Ruizpalacios.

Winner of the Best First Feature award at the 2014 Berlin International Film Festival, the Best Cinematography award (given to DP Damian Garcia) at last year’s Tribeca Film Festival and the winner of a Special Jury Mention for Screenwriting and the New Auteurs Audience Award at AFI Fest 2014, Güeros was recently nominated to 12 Ariel Awards (Mexico’s Academy Awards), receiving more nominations than any other title this year.

Kino Lorber opens the film on May 20, 2015, at New York’s Film Forum, before taking it to key urban markets throughout the summer. Digital and home media release are scheduled for later in the year.

“Wry, visually audacious film” (Filmmaker Magazine), Güeros is set in 1999, when a year-long university strike both engaged and set adrift thousands of students in Mexico City. Sombra and Santos, who had been living in angst-ridden limbo due to the strike, begin to look for strange ways to kill time.

The unexpected arrival of Tomás, Sombra’s kid brother, pushes the trio into a long road trip in search of the recently hospitalized Epigmenio Cruz, a Mexican folk-rock hero who “made Bob Dylan cry.” But what they thought would be a simple trip to find their childhood idol, soon becomes a voyage of self-discovery across Mexico City’s invisible frontiers.

Beautifully shot in black-and-white (and in 4:3 aspect ratio), this coming of age comedy pays homage to the French New Wave (the director names Monte Hellman's Two-Lane Black Top and Godard’s Bande A Part as powerful influences), and American indie cinema, (such as the films by Jim Jarmusch), proving once again the global reach and confidence of a new generation of Mexican cinema that can win Academy Awards, reference international cinema and yet, create a unique aesthetic that captivates audiences nationwide.

Kino Lorber CEO Richard Lorber comments: “Güeros is an incredibly assured debut that has already captivated critics and audiences across the globe with its inimitable style, lovely pace and wry sense of humor. It’s exactly the type of film that we love to discover and bring to US audiences.”

VIAJE: A New Departure for Costa Rican Cinema

By Yoshua Oviedo Ugalde

yoviedou@yahoo.es

The effervescence of the emerging Costa Rican cinema is not weakening. As the production expands in new directions, each new film brings forth new formal postures, highlighting the different artistic paths filmmakers are using for self-expression.

Viaje, Paz Fábrega’s second feature film, follows her 2009 debut, Cold Water of the Sea/ Agua fría de mar, winner of the Tiger Award at the Rotterdam Film Festival. Her new film, making its international premiere in the official competition at the prestigious Tribeca Film Festival this week, makes of its simplicity its greatest strength. A central story, without subplots, that connects with the spirit of current generation.

The film is locally publicized as “the first Costa Rican cinematic love story,” however, that’s not entirely correct. With other parameters and different contexts, films have been made in the country in which a couple falls in love, or one in which the story revolves around a romance. What this new film offers is a realistic portrayal of the effective ties of contemporary youth.

In Viaje, Luciana and Pedro, who after a night of partying wake up together unexpectedly, embark on a journey in which they get involved further than either had anticipated. The film raises a common scenario familiar to the life of many young adults, who without feeling authoritarian or moralistic pressure, journey into self-discovery through their relationships, without necessarily feeling ownership over one another.

Their Eros–filled affair begins by chance at a party, although it could have been in a classroom or at a bus stop. Everything else gives way to their desire. They enjoy the momentary pleasure of their yearning and lack of inhibition. Their future is not planned, but a few hours together become days. The spectator comes to know very little about the characters, one might even forget the name of the protagonists, much like the female lead does. However, Luciana and Pedro are not stereotypes or a failed reproduction of a pretentious reality. 

It’s logical that with such Eros, the action takes place in an Eden, a place where time seems to stop. In the party scenes at the start of the film, the camera is in a fixed position, and only moves vertically as the characters go up or down the stairs. This changes when the action is transported to the Rincón de la Vieja Volcano National Park, whose natural exuberance erases the past. The camera is concentrated in the adventure of the present, acquiring greater mobility, closing in on the characters, whose emotions mimic the landscape.

Photographed in black and white, the main characters stay in the foreground in relation to the natural landscape. Fábrega notes that “because it is a movie more about expressions and people, it’s more about the human story than about nature.” The couple is the center of attention when they are exploring the forests or when submerged in the river.

In that Eden, they detach themselves from the rest of the world, living in the present, a detail that can’t be looked over. The fleeting nature of their romance is marked by the constant mentions of the bus that must be taken so Luciana may return to the capital, a sort of expiration date to the moments they share.

Moreover, the question is raised of what isn’t captured by the camera, such as the protagonists’ past, and the city that was left behind.  The Thanatos that ruptures the idealization of the moment is a character that doesn’t appear on screen, as well as the city-destiny that is mentioned but not seen. These elements serve to give a narrative turn to the film, creating a conflict the characters cannot avoid.

In one moment Luciana is alone submerged in calm waters, and her mind imagines an encounter with Pedro.  The director plays with the mise-en-scène with a slower rhythm reflecting the passivity of the situation. Luciana looks toward the left of the frame, Pedro looks the right; however, the editing makes it seem that they are together, looking at each other. Returning from the daydream, Luciana has already reached a decision.

Viaje shows and insinuates, it doesn’t judge or pretend to be moralistic. The narrative structure responds to experimentation and the scenes that emerge at the moment of filming, for what can be considered a more intuitive rather than rational film. And this is reflected, in the life of these two characters, who seem to respond better to their instincts than to logic, or to a conservative and traditional morality.  

Fernando Bolaños and Kattia Gonzalez are credible in their roles in this improbable romance.  The director manages to escape falling into clichés, and manages to create beautifully erotic scenes, with sensibility and genuineness, in which the acting flows in the general context of the film. Excellent lighting and photography also help achieve this effect.

Although there are continuity errors, a lag in the sound mix, and the use of songs with the clear intention to provoke in the spectator a determined state of mind, this does not subtract from the elegant mise-en-scène that in moments, and with an accentuated lyricism, leaves several images burned on the retina.

Yoshua Oviedo is a film critic based in San José, Costa Rica.

Text translated by José Raúl Guzmán.

This text is presented in a collaboration with the Costa Rica International Film Festival "Paz con la Tierra," as part of their Film Criticism Lab. Special thanks to Karina Avellán and Marcelo Quesada.

With One Exception, Cannes Snubs Latin America

The Cannes Film Festival has announced today the selection for its official competition and Un Certain Regard section for its 68th edition, mostly overlooking Latin America, as no film from the region made it to the official competition, and just only one Mexican production participating in the latter section. In the past decade, no Latin American films participated in the official selection in 2009 and 2011.

David Pablos’ sophomore production Las elegidas / The Chosen Ones will be the only Latin American entry representing Latin American at A Certain Regard section. Produced by Canana, The Chosen Ones is based on Jorge Volpi’s novel of the same name which focus on child prostitution in Mexico.

Born in Tijuana, Mexico, Pablos studied film at the Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica (CCC) in Mexico City, and at Columbia University in New York. He won an Ariel Award for his short film La canción de los niños muertos / The Dead Children's Song in 2010. His debut feature film La vida después / The Life After premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2013.

The 68th edition of the Cannes Film Festival will take place May 13-24 in France.