Chile Takes the Guadalajara Film Festival

Two Chilean films, Post Mortem by Pablo Larraín and Nostalgia for the Light by Patricio Guzmán, were the big winners at the 26th edition of the Guadalajara Film Festival that came to a close today. Both films got awarded the prize for Best IberoAmerican Film in the Fiction and the Documentary categories respectively. Additionally it was announced that the film El Premio by Paula Markovitch received the prize as Best Mexican Fiction Film, whilst Jacaranda Correa's Morir de pie took the prize as Best Mexican Documentary Film.

Mexican Filmmakers Add Additional Controversy to PRESUMED GUILTY

In a surprising and unexpected move by members of the Mexican film community that will surely stir additional controversy to an already highly polemic case, a letter signed by a noted group of  documentary filmmakers (including directors, producers and film professionals) was made public in local newspapers and blogs this morning in which they claim their serious concern for the precedent that the box-office success Presumed Guilty / Presunto culpable (pictured) is setting in the country.

The main issue for the signing filmmakers is whether freedom of speech and the right for information should be above than the individual rights of a person. "A documentary film should not be a tool for revenge, not even historic. The documentary filmmaker is not a judge and reality is not comprised of goodand bad people," says the letter.

Presumed Guilty a film by Roberto Hernández, Geoffrey Smith and Layda Negrete tells the story of Antonio Zúñiga, a young man who was wrongly imprisoned for a murder he didn't commit. After its release last February, the film rapidly went to become the highest grossing Mexican documentary ever. The film got additional attention after a federal judge issued a provisional suspension to stop the theatrical release of the film based on the complaint filed by Víctor Manuel Reyes, the witness of the case who argued that his image had been used without his consent.

The filmmakers and the film's distributors argued in their defense that since the filming happened within a public space, that being a courthouse, they had the constitutional right to use the image of the people present. The film was removed from Mexican screens for three days until the exhibition ban was lifted by another judicial order declaring the film's removal from screens as "detrimental to public interest and social order." However the case was still unfolding and the same judge who had originally issued the provisional suspension had asked to camouflage the image of  Reyes in the film.

The filmmakers in their letter support the right of Reyes "to not appear and be identified in the film, or alternatively, that the documents authorizing the use of his voice and image in the film are formalized." They argue that  in this particular case, "it is clear that in order to inform about the vices of the Mexican Judiciary System is not essential to portrait the witness in such a mean way, that is also putting his life at risk." The letter was signed by noted filmmakers such as Nicolás Pereda (Summer of Goliath), Everardo González (Old Thieves), Matías Meyer (The Cramp), Rigoberto Perezcano (Norteado), Lucía Gajá (My Life Inside), Francisco Vargas (The Violin), Jorge Michel Grau (We Are What We Are) and Julian Hernández (Raging Sun, Raging Sky), among others.

To read the full letter (in Spanish) click here.  

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.