Robert Fontaine’s Gripping Murder Mystery MI AMERICA Opens in Theaters this October

Industrial House Films has announced the theatrical release of Mi America, the gripping murder mystery by Latino filmmaker Robert Fontaine, which opens Friday, October 16 at the Village East Cinema in New York City, and on Friday, October 23 at the Laemmle Music Hall in Los Angeles.

As the immigration debate takes center stage in a presidential campaign marked by increasingly divisive and racially charged rhetoric, Mi America offers an on-the-ground look at some of the reality of this conflict.

Inspired by true stories from around the country, Mi America delivers a harrowing narrative on the conflict between disenfranchised Americans and immigrant workers. The film explores the circumstances surrounding a brutal hate crime that has upset the delicate balance of the small, ethnically diverse waterfront city of Braxton in upstate New York. Five Hispanic migrant labors are beaten, shot, then ditched near an abandoned warehouse, by the waterfront. The bodies are discovered six months later.

Rolando Ramirez (played by Fontaine) is a Hispanic-American Detective, and a longtime resident of this community, who has been assigned to this case by chance. Or was it fate? His journey will force him to question his own identity and beliefs on what it means to be a North American, and in turn, attempt to bring those who committed this crime to justice… His former best friends.

Violence against Latinos and the story told in Mi America is not unfamiliar to cities and towns across the U.S. where the conflict of disenfranchised Americans and immigrant workers has resulted in tragedy. The immigration dilemma and debate continues to rage on as we enter the politically charged battlefield of the 2016 election and Latinos continue to be targeted. This timely and urgent drama offers a potent opportunity to take a closer look at a dire issue in the media.

Urbanworld Fest Awards Multiple Latino Films

The 19th Annual Urbanworld Film Festival announced their winners yesterday, the Festival is the nation’s largest competitive multicultural film festival and screened over 80 titles last week. This year’s Latino winners took home top prizes in Narrative Feature; Narrative Feature, World Cinema; Narrative Short; Best Screenplay; Best Documentary, as well as Honorable Mention.

Best Narrative went home to Michael Dwyer for his film Pocha (Manifest Destiny) (pictured left). Claudia is deported from the US after getting involved with credit card fraud and is forced to return to her estranged farther’s ranch in Northern México. Struggling to adapt to family and a way of life she has never known, she partners with a dangerous smuggler who promises to get her back to America if she helps him trespass on her family’s ranch.

Carmín Tropical (pictured right( tells the story of a successful trans nightclub singer Mabel who returns to her hometown in Mexico to investigate the murder of her best friend Daniela. Rigoberto Perezcano’s drama took home the award for Best Narrative Feature in World Cinema.

Best Screenplay went home with Yohanna Baez. Y Los Hipsters Que? follows Paloma who is frustrated in her third-world country. Her only source of relief is leading an artistic group of vandals – think Caribbean Banksy- responsible for the political graffiti/performance art around the city. Charismatic Sergio has recently moved back to Dominican Republic from New York and a chance encounter brings to together as they explore love, art and politics.

Mathew Ramirez Warren’s documentary We Like It Like That explores the Latin boogaloo, a lesser-known, but pivotal moment in Latin music history, through original interviews, music recordings, live performances, dancing and rare archival footage and images. The film was awarded Best Documentary.

Best Narrative Short went home to Standing by Michael Molina Minard. During a grueling ten-round undercard match-up, journeyman boxer Abdul loses control and kills his opponent Luis Hernandez in the ring. Months later, Abdul has to prepare for his next fight—the biggest fight of his career. No one suspects the deadly duel with Luis still haunts Abdul’s every move, threatening his grip on reality and life.

Last but not least, Alexandre Peralta’s Looking at the Stars was named Honorable Mention. In a world built on sight and sound, Peralta explores the only ballet school for blind, located in São Paulo, Brazil. He follows Geyza, one of the instructors and the star of the academy who lost her sight at the age of nine, but the gift of ballet changed her life forever.

The 19th Annual Urbanworld Film Festival took place September 23-27, 2015 in New York City.

3 BEAUTIES and GONE WITH THE RIVER Awarded in NY

Carlos Caridad Montero’s debut feature 3 Beauties / 3 Bellezas and Mario Crespo’s Dauna, lo que lleva el río / Gone With the River were the top winners of the third edition of the Venezuelan Film Festival in New York, it was announced this evening. The jury composed by music film editor Suzana Peric, Tribeca Film Festival’s Loren Hammonds, and Cinema Tropical’s Carlos A. Gutiérrez decided to award two films as Best Fiction Film.

3 Beauties follows Perla, a mother with three children: Carolina, Estefania and Salvador. She is obsessed with turning one of her daughters a beauty queen and fulfill her own childhood dream. But her desire and obsession encourage the competition among her daughters since childhood. While Salvador, the only son, is always looking for a place in the affections of his mother, who is always focused on her “two princesses”. Years later the unlimited efforts to achieve Perla’s dream will be transformed into a nightmare for both of her daughters.

Mario Crespo’s film, which is this year’s Venezuelan submission to the Oscars, is the story of Dauna -a young indigenous woman living by the Orinoco Delta- who has a husband that loves her, but who refuses to understand her passions. Dauna, who was raised free, must decide between living a frustrated life beside her husband or devoting herself fully to her vocation, even at the risk of facing serious consequences.

The feature film Margaritas para los pobres / Daisies for the Poor by Rafael Lacau was awarded for Best Documentary, while the Audience Award was presented to the documentary film Francisco Massiani by Manuel Guzmán Kizer.

The third edition of the Venezuelan Film Festival in New York screened 17 feature films and took place September 23-27 at the Village East Cinema in downtown Manhattan.

Santiago Mitre's PAULINA Wins Best Latin American Award at San Sebastian

The Argentinean film Paulina / La Patota, the sophomore production by Santiago Mitre (pictured left), was awarded the top prize for Best Latin American Film in the Latino Horizons competition at the 63rd edition of the San Sebastian Film Festival. Mitre’s film was also presented with two ancillary prizes: the TVE-Another Look and the EZAE Youth Awards.

Starring Dolores Fonzi in the title role, Paulina tells the story of a young woman, who gives up a brilliant lawyer’s carrier, in order to dedicate herself to teaching in a depressed region in Argentina. In a rough environment, she sticks to her teaching mission and to her political engagement, accepting to sacrifice her boyfriend and the trust of her father, a powerful local judge. Upon her arrival, she is violently attacked by a gang of young people, some of them being her own students. Despite the trauma and the inability to understand, Paulina will strive to stand for her convictions.

The jury in the Latino Horizons competition decided to give two Special Mentions: one for Venezuelan actor Luis Silva from Desde allá / From Afar, and to the Mexican film Te prometo anarquía / I Promise You Anarchy by Julio Hernández Cordón

Other Latin American winners at San Sebastian include El apóstata / The Apostate by Uruguayan director Federico Veiroj who was presented with the Special Jury Awardd in the official competition and the FIPRESCI Award, and the Colombian film La tierra y la sombra / Land and Shade by César Augusto Acevedo was the winner of the Spanish Cooperation Award.

Argentinean actor Ricardo Darín received the Silver Shell for Best Actor (ex aequo) for his work in Cesc Gay’s Truman, while Cuban actress Yordanka Ariosa was the winner of the Silver Shell for The King of Havana / El rey de la Habana by Agustí Villaronga. In the New Directors competition, the Chilean film Vida sexual de las plantas / Sex Life of Plants by Sebastián Brahm was presented with a Special Jury Mention.

The 63rd edition the San Sebastian Film Festival took place September 18 - 26 in Spain.

Larraín's THE CLUB Leads Fénix Awards Nominations

The Chilean film El Club / The Club by Pablo Larraín leads in the nominations of the second edition of the Fénix Awards honoring the best films from Latin America, Spain, and Portugal. Larraín’s film received nine nominations (the same number as La isla mínima from Spain) including for Best Film and Best Director. The Club, Larraín’s fifth feature film which stars Roberto Farías, Antonia Zegers, Alfredo Castro, was recently announced as Chile’s Oscar submission.

Competing for Best Film of the Year are also Latin American films El abrazo de la serpiente / Embrace of the Serpent by Ciro Guerra from Colombia, and Ixcanul by Jayro Bustamante from Guatemala.

In the non-fiction competition, Allende mi abuelo Allende / Beyond My Grandfather Allende by Marcia Tambutti and El botón de nácar / The Pearl Button by Patricio Guzmán from Chile; Últimas conversas by Eduardo Coutinho and Jia Zhangke, a Guy from Fenyang by Walter Salles from Brazil; and No todo es vigilia from Hermes Paralluelo from Colombia are competing for Best Documentary Film.

The second edition of the Fénix Awards will take place November 25 in Mexico City.

Margaret Mead Fest to Screen Ten Latin American Films

The 2015 edition of the Margaret Mead Film Festival once again offers a window into the complexity of the peoples and cultures in the Latin American region. Between October 22 and 25, ten works from countries all throughout the region will be screened as part of the festival at the American Museum of Natural History.

Founded in honor of anthropologist Margaret Mead, this year’s edition of the festival explores thresholds and boundaries— ranging from lyrical explorations to political exposés, from authorial to community indigenous productions, this year’s works reflect in part the diversity of the region.

Offering a look from Mexico to the world, Balance and Resistance / Bering. Equilibrio y Resistencia is perhaps unusual exploration for Mexican photographer Lourdes Grobet, known mostly for her portrayal of the lucha libre tradition. In this work, she takes a close look at a small Inuit community that has traversed the US / Russian border for years.

Fernando Llanos’ Matria (pictured above left) on the other hand, offers a look within one of Mexico’s most emblematic figures: that of the charros, or horseman. Combining personal story with historical narrative, the director explores the figure of his grandfather, a distinguished charro. The film was the winner of the Best Documentary Award at the Morelia Film Festival. In a look at the limits between traditional and alternative medicine, Juanita by Ximena Amezcua follows the everyday life of a practitioner of Mayan traditional medicine.

Central America arrives to the festival charged with a political look. The short documentary El Cacao exposes the dark side of Latin American chocolate production. Marcela Zamora’s El cuarto de los huesos / The Room of Bones (pictured right) follows a group of forensic anthropologists unearthing the remains of the Salvadorian desaparecidos or missing persons.

Venezuela is present in the festival through a depiction of its remote island Cubagua, with a population of 51. In Flor de la Mar, Jorge Thielen Armand traces the attempts of the Venezuelan government to revitalize this historic island, home of the ruins of the first European city in the Americas.

Two works peer into Peruvian Indigenous groups. Earth’s Children / Hijos de la Tierra is a production of a Kechwa-Lamista native community in Peru, following the daily lives of their youngest members, as part of the Indigenous Amazonian Video Project. Icaros looks at the ancestral uses of ayahuasca, a traditional psychoactive drug by, among others, the Shipibo indigenous people.

From the Southern Cone comes Juan Álvarez’s Avant, a work that narrates how renowned ballet dancer Julio Bocca revived the Uruguayan National Ballet Company. After a twenty-year observation by director Aldo Garay, El hombre nuevo / The New Man (pictured left) follows Stephania, a Nicaraguan-born transgender woman living in Uruguay whose life has been shaped by poverty, war, and communist theory, as well as sexual politics. The film was awarded the Teddy Award at the last edition of the Berlin Film Festival.