CESAR'S GRILL and SILENCE Top Ecuadorian Film Fest in NY

Darío Aguirre’s El grill de César / Cesar’s Grill (pictured left) and Tito Molina’s Silencio en la tierra de los sueños / Silence in Dreamland (pictured below right) were the winners of the top prize at the first edition of the Ecuadorian Film Festival in New York, EFFNY: All You Need Is Ecuador, which took place June 17-20 at the Tribeca Cinemas.

The jury composed by film graphic designer James Verdesoto, film programmer Diana Vargas, and Cinema Tropical’s Carlos A. Gutiérrez decided to give the top prize ex aequo to both film productions from the South American country. Additionally, Cesar’s Grill was also presented with the Audience Award as the most popular film of the festival. Director Darío Aguirre was in attendance to receive both awards.

In the personal family drama Cesar’s Grill, director Dario Aguirre gets called home to Ecuador to help save his father’s grill from bankruptcy. As the vegetarian son and meat-loving father circle each other warily amidst talk of spread sheets and the advantages of wholesale, a humorous and deeply touching family odyssey emerges. The film has played in numerous film festivals including Visions du Réel, Cartagena, Toulouse, and Vancouver.

In Silence in Dreamland, which was Ecuador’s submission to this year’s Academy Awards, silence and loneliness reign in an old lady's house after the death of her husband. She has made routine her best friend and faith her shelter. Only in her dreams she runs away from those four walls to a timeless magic land where the sea speaks without using words. Her days go by this way, between real life and her dreams... until a street dog comes to her door.

The first edition the Ecuadorian Film Festival in New York showcased 13 feature films with many filmmakers in attendance, and it closed with Feriado / Holiday by Diego Araujo.

MoMA to Present Mexican Film Noir Series

The Museum of Modern Art in New York City will be showcasing the film series “Mexico at Midnight: Film Noir from Mexican Cinema’s Golden Age” from July 23-29 presenting seven feature films with some of the country’s biggest stars such as María Félix, Dolores del Río, Pedro Armendáriz, Arturo de Córdova and Andrea Palma.

The selection includes four films directed by Roberto Gavaldón: La otra / The Other One (1946), La diosa arrodillada / The Kneeling Goddess (1947), En la palma de tu mano / In the Palm of Your Hand (1951), and La noche avanza / Night Falls (1952); two films directed by Julio Bracho: Distinto amanecer / Another Dawn (1943), and Crepúsculo / Twilight (1945); plus the film Que Dios me perdone / May God Forgive Me by Tito Davison (1948).

Of all the great national, popular cinemas that prospered in the 20th century, the one that remains least well known to American audiences is, paradoxically, the one that originated closest to Hollywood. The Mexican cinema’s época de oro extended from the mid-1930s to the early 1960s, when Mexican films dominated Latin America and made significant inroads into Spanish-speaking communities in the U.S.

At its height, in the decade during and following World War II, Mexican popular filmmaking achieved a level of quality fully comparable to Hollywood, with a robust star system (with such magnetic performers as Dolores de Rio, Pedro Armendáriz, Maria Felix, and Arturo de Cordova), world-class directors like  Gavaldón, Bracho, and Emilio Fernández, cinematographers such as Gabriel Figueroa and Alex Phillips, and the superb technical facilities of the Churubusco Studios.

With the support of Fundación Televisa and Filmoteca de la UNAM, MoMA presents a sampling of one of Mexico’s richest genres, the ciné negro or film noir. As the critic Rafael Aviña has written, these films present the culture of the Miguel Alemán administration (1946–52), a time when Mexico was trying to trace a path to modernity by “favoring foreign investment, industrial development and the exploitation of natural resources, which led to a certain sense of civil disorder and an explosion of the senses.”

Even seasoned noir fans will be startled and thrilled by these selections, which treat sexual passion and murderous jealousy with a vigor unimaginable in contemporary Hollywood productions.

This Mexican film noir series was originally screened at the Morelia Film Festival last October.

Ecuadorian Film Festival in New York: Diverse Country, Diverse Narratives

By Valeria C. Guerrero

For better or for worse, the notion of diversity is intrinsically associated with Ecuador. In an area equal to the state of Nevada, Ecuador has forty-six different ecosystems and is home to 10% of the world’s plant species. This literal diversity translates into the more abstract, but nevertheless, powerful and controversial notion of national identity. Indeed, in a country named by an imaginary line, made up of historically morphing geographical boundaries and marked by internal divisions, the identity mark of the Ecuadorian has been that of multiplicity and fragmentation.

The fragmented nature of the country’s national identity has influenced its cultural production— the filmic production is no exception. Indeed, if a common trend can be found among the films that make up the first edition of the Ecuadorian Film Festival in New York (EFFNY), it is, appropriately, that of diversity.

Beginning with Ecuador’s first fiction feature film, El tesoro de Atahualpa (1924), until 2004, thirty-six fiction feature films were produced in the country. Eleven of these were low-budget exploitation coproductions with other nations of the region that thus have been dismissed by local intellectuals. Although the country has had a few modest production booms throughout its history, mainly in the twenties and the seventies, production has been far from systematic until 2006.

Writing in the early 2000’s, Ecuador’s most famous filmmaker, Sebastián Cordero, stated that producing "cinema in Ecuador is almost a miracle. With an average of one feature film every three years, talking about an Ecuadorian film industry is still very far in the future." His statement draws on his experience with Ratas, Ratones y Rateros (1999), a milestone in Ecuadorian film history.

The panorama for Ecuadorian cinema has since changed radically. The country’s official body funding local productions, Consejo Nacional de Cine (CNCine), was created by the cinema law passed in 2006— as a result of the long-standing efforts of local filmmakers. This law marked a “before” and “after” in the local film market.

Since the creation of this body, sixty-two state-funded films have been produced— without taking into account the numerous independent productions. Last year was a breakthrough for Ecuadorian productions: a record of sixteen state-funded films premiered in the commercial theaters, and it is estimated that around fourteen additional privately-funded feature films were made that year.

The films of this first edition of EFFNY represent a sample of some of the works produced in the country over the past two years. Following the country and the region’s long-standing documentary tradition, seven of the thirteen films are documentaries. Opening the festival is Cesar’s Grill, the personal story of Germany-based Ecuadorian filmmaker Darío Aguirre.

Common trends in the films tend to be that of looking back. Feriado / Holiday, Diego Araujo’s opera prima, tells the coming-out story of a teenager during one of Ecuador's greatest economic crises, in 1999. Open Wound, on the other hand, is set in 1941, when the country was facing a war against Peru. Documentary, Blomberg’s Secret, explores part of the country’s historical filmic legacy—most of which has been lost. It tells the story of the Swedish explorer Rolf Blomberg, who made some films in Ecuador during the forties and fifties.

An important trend amongst Ecuadorian films seems to be that of personal and auteur-like productions. This is visible in Ecuador’s selection for the 2015 Academy Awards— Tito Molina’s Silence in Dreamland / Silencio en la tierra de los sueños. The film traces the daily routine and small pleasures of an aging widow living in a small fisherman community. It displays a prodigious high-contrast cinematography—done also by the director—, some of the best shots being those of the ocean. It follows the general trend of slow cinema— long shots and a loose plot. In its exploration of themes like silence, loneliness and old age, and its use of music, it’s reminiscent to Michael Haneke’s Amour (2012).

The funds provided by CNCine are not enough to sustain the local production. Filmmakers recur to international funds such as Ibermedia or collaboration with other countries. The directors of the notable but undervalued film, Highs and Lows / A estas alturas de la vida, Alex Cisneros and Manuel Calisto, conceived its project with a DIY logic. They opted for an ultra low budget and a crew made up of a grand total of eight people. Tragically, one of the filmmakers was murdered when the film was in its edition stage.

Highs and Lows is a dark comedy about the failures of two thirty-something long-time friends. In a direct homage to Hitchcock’s suspense films and Rear Window (1954), the film takes place mostly in a single space, a terrace, and the protagonist’s hobby is to look through a telescope. Some of its most notable feats are its ironic and entertaining dialogues and its black and white cinematography by Simón Bauer. Bauer also worked on the documentary Resonance which is also showcasing in the festival.

Indeed, if one element seems lacking in the local productions and which is necessary for the establishment of a film industry is that of popular appeal. To reach audiences, both locally and internationally, is the greatest challenge Ecuadorian cinema is facing today. Local productions have overall low results in the local box office and get little visibility internationally outside the festival circuits. Let us hope that this festival provides part of the impulse that Ecuadorian filmmakers need to boost this incoming wave of production.

The first edition of the Ecuadorian Film Festival in New York (EFFNY) takes place June 17-21 at the Tribeca Cinemas.

Travelling Film Series 'FOCUS Colombia' Debuts in the U.S.

FOCUS Colombia, is a new monthly film series bringing the best of contemporary Colombian cinema to the United States that kicked off last Wednesday June 3rd. The series will take place the first Wednesday of every month at Village East Cinema in New York, Reading Cinemas Manville in New Jersey, Angelika Film Center and Café in Dallas and Angelika Film Center and Café Plano in Texas.

The films in this year's line-up focus on comedy and music. The series was launched with the box office hit Drinking Once a Year Isn’t So Bad / Uno al año no hace daño by Dago García, Colombia’s highest-grossing film of last year. The comedy follows Marcos, a young journalism student, who decides to make a documentary about drinking in Colombia. Along with the help of friends and family Marcos captures more than a few hilarious moments in his family’s life and learns a thing or two about Colombia culture and tradition.

July’s film Se nos armó la gorda is a comedy about a couple facing their first martial crisis. They decide to take a break in which Fabiola heads to San Francisco and gets kidnapped by a Chicago gang. Now, Nelson, has no choice but to rescue her before it’s too late.

Grammy nominated artist Adriana Lucía, narrates and directs August’s film Porro hecho en Colombia. Lucía explores the traditional musical style from the Caribbean region of Colombia that celebrates the music’s indigenous, European and African origins. The film won the Audience Award at the New York Film Festival last year.

In September FOCUS will feature a homage to the art of salsa with Ciudad Delirio, a romantic-comedy set in Cali, the salsa capital of the world. Javier, a shy Spanish doctor travels to Cali for a conference and meets Angie, a dancer and choreographer who dreams of being part of the world's most famous salsa show: Delirio.

FOCUS plans to announce additional films as the year progresses.

The Ecuadorian Film Festival in NY Announces Lineup for Its Debut Edition

Maravilla, a New York-based organization dedicated to raising awareness of Latin America through films and the arts, in partnership with the Ministry of Tourism of Ecuador, has announced the first edition of the Ecuadorian Film Festival in New York, EFFY: All You Need Is Ecuador, the first film festival in the world dedicated to showcasing and celebrating the burgeoning cinema of the South American country.

The competitive festival will take place June 17-21 at the Tribeca Cinemas in New York City and will open with the acclaimed documentary feature César’s Grill / El grill de César. The personal family drama by director Darío Aguirre was a favorite at Visions du Réel, Cartagena, Toulouse, and Vancouver film festivals. The closing night film will be Holiday / Feriado, the acclaimed debut feature by Diego Araujo. Hailed as a “gentle, attractive coming-out story” (Variety), the film had its world premiere as part of the official competition at the Berlinale.

As a direct and exciting evolution of the seven-year-old Ecuadorian Film Showcase in New York, EFFNY will screen 13 feature films, with many of the filmmakers in attendance. Some of the other highlights include Tito Molina’s Silence in Dreamland / Silencio en la tierra de los sueños, which was Ecuador’s submission to this year’s Academy Awards®; Eva Zelig’s documentary feature An Unknown Country, which tells the overlooked story of European Jews who escaped Nazi persecution to find refuge in Ecuador; and Open Wound / Mono con gallinas, a powerful POW drama set in 1941 during the war between Ecuador and Peru.

In its inaugural edition, EFFNY will present two awards. A jury composed of renowned film professionals will present the award for Best Film, and the public attending the screenings will vote for the Audience Award. In addition to the film screenings the festival will present a special tasting of Ecuadorian products, and two special panel discussions, one featuring Ecuador as an attractive and convenient location for international film productions, and another a conversation with the guest filmmakers.

In the past few years, Ecuadorian cinema has gained momentum, spearheaded by the national film institute CnCine. Last year, the country saw a record-breaking number of 16 film productions released in local theaters, and Ecuador is fostering a new generation of filmmakers that is presenting diverse representations of the country. It is not surprising that many films in EFFNY’s inaugural lineup are made by first time directors.

“EFFNY, like the Ecuadorian Showcase did, will bring a part of Ecuador to the Ecuadorian community living in the New York Tri-State area; but for many others, it will serve as a great introduction to the small yet diverse and unique country. We hope our films will not only entertain people, but also give them a broader understanding of this magical place”, says Christian Ponce, co-founder of Maravilla and the festival’s director.

Piñeiro's PRINCESS OF FRANCE Opens this June at the Film Society of Lincoln Center

Cinema Guild has announced the theatrical release of the romantic-drama The Princess of France / La princesa de Francia by Argentine writer-director Matías Piñeiro. The film opens Friday, June 26 at the Film Society of Lincoln Center. This marks the young-filmmaker’s fourth feature-length film and the third film in his Shakespeare-inspired series. Piñeiro’s films singularly create an incredible tension between literature and image— blurring the lines between fiction and reality.

In The Princess of France, Víctor returns to Buenos Aires after his father’s death and a stay in Mexico to prepare a radio production of Love’s Labour’s Lost. Reuniting with his repertory, he finds himself sorting out complicated entanglements with girlfriend Paula, sometime lover Ana, and departed actress Natalia, as well as his muddled relations with the constellation of friends involved with the project.

As the film tracks the group’s crisscrossing movements and interactions, their lives become increasingly enmeshed with the fiction they’re reworking, potential outcomes multiply, and reality itself seems subject to transformation. An intimate work that takes characters and viewers alike into dizzying realms of possibility, The Princess of France is the most ambitious film yet from one of world cinema’s brightest young talents, a cumulatively thrilling experience.

Piñeiro sticks to his original casts from Rosalinda and Viola bringing back Julián Larquier Tellarini, Agustina Muñoz, Alessia Rigo de Righi, María Villar and Romina Paula. Although the cast is still largely female, unlike his other films which tend to focus on female characters, this time Piñeiro shifts his attention to Víctor. 

Shot on location in Buenos Aires, The Princess of France, had its world premiere at the Locarno International Film Festival, and has been an official selection at numerous film festivals including Toronto and New York. The film won the prize for Best Argentine Film at the Buenos Aires Independent Film Festival (BAFICI), and the Audience Choice Award at the Chicago International Film Festival.