New Films by Kogut, Veiroj, Katz, Rotter, to Toronto

The Toronto Film Festival has announced today the selections for its Contemporary World Cinema section which includes eight Latin American films.

Having their world premiere at the Canadian festival are the Brazilian film Campo Grande (pictured left) by Sandra Kogut, the Uruguayan film El apóstata / The Apostate by Federico Veiroj, the Argentinean films Mi amiga del parque /  My Friend from the Park by Ana Katz, and La luz incidente / Incident Light by Ariel Rotter, as well as the Argentinean-Spanish coproduction Truman by Cesc Gay.

The Peruvian film Magallanes (pictured right) by Salvador del Solar will be having international premiere at Toronto -after its recent premiere at the Lima Film Festival. Additionally El abrazo de la serpiente / The Embrace of the Serpent by Ciro Guerra from Colombia, and the Mexican film Te prometo anarquía / I Promise You Anarchy by Guatemalan director Julio Hernández will both be having their North American premiere at the festival.

A subtle, touching and sincere study of class disparity, Kogut’s Campo Grande, tells the story of a wealthy middle-aged woman who unexpectedly finds herself caring for two impoverished young siblings. In the gently absurdist comedy from Uruguay’s Veiroj, The Apostate (pictured above right) a young man finds himself navigating the baffling, labyrinthine bureaucracy of the Catholic Church when he attempts to formally renounce his faith.

In the comedy-drama My Friend from the Park, a guilt-ridden and stressed-out new mother discovers a newfound sense of freedom and autonomy when she befriends a very unconventional mom. Rotter’s Incident Light is a poignant period drama set in 1960s Argentina, in which a young woman struggling to raise her twin daughters alone after the tragic death of her husband accepts the courtship of a charming but mysterious older suitor.

In Truman, a man resolves to spend his last days putting his affairs in order, after being diagnosed with terminal cancer. Magallanes (pictured left) follows an aged Peruvian taxi driver, formerly an aide to a feared military officer in the bloodiest days of government repression during the Shining Path insurgency, who unexpectedly re-encounters a young indigenous woman that was brutally victimized by his superior.

Cannes’ winner Embrace of the Serpent tracks two parallel odysseys through the Amazon three decades apart. A visionary adventure epic from Colombian director Guerra offers a heart-rending depiction of colonialism laying waste to indigenous culture. And fresh from its world premiere at the Locarno Film Festival, I Promise You Anarchy, is the daring new feature from Hernández, which follows two teenage lovers in Mexico City who become embroiled in the city’s illegal, narco-run blood trade.

The 40th anniversary edition of the Toronto Film Festival will take place September 10-20 in Canada.

Morelia Announces Lineup

The Morelia Film Festival has announced this week the official lineup for its 13th edition, which will take place October 23 - November 1 in Mexico.

In the Mexican fiction competition, eight films will have their local premiere: Almacenados by Jack Zagha Kababie, La casa más grande del mundo by Ana V. Bojórquez and Lucía Carreras, Los herederos by Jorge Hernández Aldana, Mientras la prisión exista by Nicolás Gutiérrez Wenhammar, Sopladora de hojas by Alejandro Iglesias, Te prometo anarquía by Julio Hernández Cordón, Un monstruo de mil cabezas by Rodrigo Plá, and Yo by Matías Meyer.

Competing in the Mexican documentary section are Los días no vuelven by Raúl Cuesta, Don de ser by Néstor A. Jiménez Díaz, El hombre que vio demasiado by Trisha Ziff, Juanicas by Karina García Casanova, Nararachi by Susana Bernal, Parque Lenin by Itziar Leemans and Carlos Mignon, El paso by Everardo González, El patio de mi casa by Carlos Hagerman, El regreso del muerto by Gustavo Gamou, Los reyes del pueblo que no existe by Betzabé García, Sunka Raku Alegría evanescente by Hari Sama, Tiempo suspendido by Natalia Bruschtein, Tiyarus / Diablos by Emilio Téllez Parra

Two Colombian Films Take Top Honors at Lima

The Colombian film El abrazo de la serpiente / Embrace of the Serpent (pictured left) by Ciro Guerra was the winner of the award for Best Film at the 19th edition of the Lima Film Festival it was announced tonight at the closing night ceremony.

Guerra’s film, which had its world premiere at Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes where it won the top prize, tells two stories taking place in 1909 and 1940. Both star Karamakate, an Amazonian shaman and last survivor of his tribe, and his journey with two scientists, German Theodor Koch-Grunberg and American Richard Evan Schultes looking for the Yakruna, a sacred plant difficult to find.

The Cuban film La obra del siglo / The Project of the Century by Carlos Quintela was the winner of the Special Jury Prize, while Chilean director Pablo Larraín won the award for Best Director for his film El club / The Club.

The Mexican film 600 millas / 600 Miles by Gabriel Ripstein was presented with the awards for Best First Film, and for Best Actor (Krystian Ferrer). Salvador del Solar’s Magallanes from Peru was the winner of the Audience Award.

Another Colombian film was also awarded for Best Documentary: Carta a una sombra / Letter to a Shadow (pictured right) by Daniela Abad and Miguel Salazar. The film is a poignant portrait of human rights activist and professor Héctor Abad Gómez, who was murdered in 1987. The Mexican film Retratos de una búsqueda / Portraits of a Search by Alicia Calderón got a Special Jury Mention. 

The 19th edition of the Lima Film Festival took place August 7-15 in Peru.

Trapero and Mascaro Also Headed to Toronto

The Toronto Film Festival announced today the inaugural slate for the festival’s newest program -Platforms, a section dedicated to "director's cinema" picks from around the world— which includes 12 features, two from Latin America in their North American premiere: The Clan / El clan (pictured) by Pablo Trapero from Argentina, and Neon Bull / Boi Neon by Gabriel Mascaro from Brazil.

Starring popular actor Guillermo Francella, the new film from Argentine auteur Trapero (Crane World, White Elephant) recounts the astonishing true story of a seemingly normal middle-class family that trafficked in the kidnapping, ransoming and murder of the wealthy.

In Neon Bull, Writer-director Mascaro offers a wild, sensual, and utterly transporting look at life behind the scenes on the Brazilian rodeo circuit.

The 40th edition of the Toronto Film Festival will take place September 10-20 in Canada.

Ripstein, Ospina, and Guzmán to Toronto

The Toronto Film Festival has unveiled additional titles for its 40th edition which includes films by three acclaimed veteran Latin American directors: Luis Ospina from Colombia, Arturo Ripstein from Mexico, and Patricio Guzmán from Chile.

Luis Ospina will be presenting the world premiere of his documentary film Todo comenzó por el fin / It All Started at the End in the TIFF Docs section. The film recounts the history of "El Grupo Cali," the prolific bohemian artistic collective that revolutionized Colombian film and literature in the 1970s and '80s.

In the Masters section of the festival Mexican maestro Arturo Ripstein will be  presenting the North American premiere of La calle de la amargura / Bleak Street. Starring Patricia Reyes Spíndola, Nora Velázquez, Sylvia Pasquel, Alejandro Suárez, Arcelia Ramírez, and Alberto Estrella, Bleak Street is true-crime story about the bizarre 2009 murders of dwarf-wrestling brothers Alberto and Alejandro Jiménez.

The Masters section will also host the North American premiere of El botón de nácar / The Pearl Button, which chronicles the history of the indigenous peoples of Chilean Patagonia, whose decimation by colonial conquest prefigured the brutality of the Pinochet regime.

The 40th edition of the Toronto Film Festival will take place September 10-20 in Canada.

Icarus Films to Release Patricio Guzmán Eight-DVD Box Set

Icarus Films announced the release of the special eight-disc box set collection ‘Patricio Guzmán: A Country’s Journey,’ featuring five of the master documentarian’s seminal works. The box set will be released on Tuesday, September 29, 2015 in the U.S.

Filmed over more than 35 years, Guzmán’s films here depict Chile’s path over that time, coping with political trauma and trying to come to terms with its history.

From The Battle of Chile, filmed in black and white, on 16mm film, in the midst of social upheaval and revolution, to Nostalgia for the Light, filmed with modern digital technology, filled with vibrant colors, poetic connections and introspection, Guzmán’s epic body of work is the unprecedented record of one country’s journey and one filmmaker’s evolution.

Born in Santiago de Chile in 1941, Patricio Guzmán is one of the leading documentary filmmakers in the world. He studied filmmaking at the Film Institute at the Catholic University of Chile, and at the Official School of Film in Madrid.

After the 1973 Chilean coup Guzmán left the country and has lived in Cuba, Spain and France, where he currently resides. Six of his films have premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, including The Battle of Chile, The Pinochet Case, Salvador Allende, Nostalgia for the Light, for which he received the Grand Award from the European Film Academy in 2011.

Guzmán’s The Battle of Chile remains one of the most widely praised documentary films of all time, and was named “one of the 10 best political documentary films in the world” by Cineaste. His films have been extensively screened worldwide and he’s been the subject of numerous film retrospectives, most recently at the British Film Institute, Harvard Film Archive, and BAMcinématek. In 2013, he was invited to join the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, and last February he was awarded with the Silver Bear for Best Screenplay at the Berlinale for The Pearl Button, his most recent production (which is due to open theatrically in the US this fall).

The ‘Patricio Guzmán: A Country’s Journey’ box set includes five films by Guzman: The Battle of Chile: Part One (1975), Part Two (1976) and Part Three (1978), the epic and universally acclaimed chronicle of Chile's open and peaceful socialist revolution, and of the violent counter-revolution against it in 1973; Chile, Obstinate Memory (1997), the poignant portrait of a nation battling with historical reminiscences. The Pinochet Case (2001), the haunting story of the landmark legal case against General Augusto Pinochet before and after his arrest in London in 1998; Salvador Allende (2004), the poetic and definitive portrait of the Chilean leader. Nostalgia for the Light (2011), the gorgeous, personal meditation on astronomy, archaeology, and politics.

In addition the box set contains three bonuses elements: A 24-page booklet with a new essay written by José Miguel Palacios; the documentary film Filming Obstinately, Meeting Patricio Guzmán (2014) by Boris Nicot, an intimate journey of the filmmaker’s work in the shadow of the tumultuous history of Chile.

The ‘Patricio Guzmán: A Country’s Journey’ box collection offers an extraordinary opportunity to revisit the work by one of world’s leading documentarians, who is the only director with two films in the top 20 of Sight & Sound’s list of Greatest Documentaries of All Time.