Colombian Documentary RÉQUIEM NN Will Open at MoMA

Fundación Puntos de Encuentro and Lulo Films have announced the U.S. theatrical premiere of Réquiem NN (pictured), directed by acclaimed Colombian artist Juan Manuel Echavarría, at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City starting Tuesday, October 8. The evocative documentary film tells the story of a community defies the culture of violence by keeping alive the memory of the disappeared.

The town of Puerto Berrío, which sits on a bend in Colombia's Magdalena River, has been at the center of the conflict between various armed groups such as guerrillas, the army, paramilitaries and drug traffickers, enduring uninterrupted cycles of violence. For over 30 years, local townspeople have fished out the remains of victims of violence, called No Names (NNs), drifting downstream.

Yet for over several years now, the locals have adopted these unidentified corpses and given them names. They decorate and visit their graves, and honor their memory as one would for a lost family member—all because, according to their faith, this guarantees divine protection and special favors.

Since 2006, Echavarría has traveled to the Puerto Berrío’s cemetery to document these rituals, first through photography (also titled “Réquiem NN”), then in the video  “Novenario en espera,” and now through film. With a lyrical and reflective eye, the film addresses the ways in which we respond to violence by portraying a community that restores the value and dignity of life while confronting bitter cruelty and loss. Réquiem NN is ultimately a tale of resistance and resilience.

An established artist with a cinematic vision, Echavarría’s work is easily at home at art galleries and film theaters. He has been featured at the Venice Biennale, MoMA, the San Francisco and Toronto Film Festivals, and the Flaherty Film Seminar, among other venues. He will be featured at the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris this September with the collective exhibition “Nocturnes de Colombie,” as part of the PHOTOQUAI, Photography Biennale of World Images. The artist will present his film on opening night and at selected screenings during its theatrical run at MoMA between October 8-14.

NY Film Series Will Observe 40 Years of Chilean Coup

Cinema Tropical, the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies at New York University (CLACS NYU) and the North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA) have announced the realization of 'Chile:40,' a special film series observing the 40th anniversary of the Chilean coup d’etat. The September 11, 1973 event overthrew the democratically-elected government of Salvador Allende and installed the notorious dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, lasting until 1990 and having immense international consequences.

Programmed by Jerónimo Rodríguez and José Miguel Palacios, 'Chile: 40' will present six different programs in different parts of New York City and in conjunction with other organizations including UnionDocs, New York University, and Columbia University. The series will feature recent and older films showcasing different aspects of the aftermath and of legacy of the coup in the South American country and internationally from 1973 to the present.

The series will present three films by Ignacio Agüero, one of the most prominent documenterians to emerge from Latin America and considered a cornerstone for understanding today's democratic Chile. The Chilean filmmaker will travel to New York to present his documentary films No olvidar (1982), which was secretly filmed during the dictatorship and follows the kidnapping and murder of five men whose bodies were found after five years of searching; Agustín's Newspaper (2009, pictured right) which questions the responsibility and role of El Mercurio newspaper in human rights violations committed during Pinochet's dictatorship; and Aqui se construye / Under Construction (2000), which isconsidered one of the most important films in the history of Chilean cinema, in which the director takes the stance of an anonymous war correspondent in an undeclared war where the battlefield is the city and its inhabitants never learn about the destruction of their past.

The series will also feature program “9/11/1973: The Public Life Of An Endless Day,” screening very-rarely-seen revolutionary films, video art, cine-tracts, performance pieces and televisual work. This program will also feature a roundtable discussion featuring prominent Chilean artists, scholars and filmmakers will also reflect on the coup's event status and on the extent to which it persists and reverberates in the present.

Jean de Certeau and Marcela Said's El Mocito andElena Varela's Newen Mapuche: The Force of the People of the Land complete the program, which will take place between September 11 and October 1. For complete schedule click here.

NY Latino Film Fest Closes Shop After 13 Years

By Andrew S. Vargas

After 13 years, Calixto Chinchilla, the founding co-executive director of the New York International Latino Film Festival, has decided to pull the plug on the City’s major festival.

Over the past several months, filmmakers and fans alike have clamored for information regarding the festival’s future, while promises of an official statement have been left unfulfilled. Concern was initially sparked by the fact that the festival, which is typically held in the summer, had not so much as opened their call for entries. Adding to the confusion, the organization’s official website had not been updated since the immediate aftermath of the festival’s 2012 edition.

According to Chinchilla, he and his team had found themselves in the midst of a crippling financial crisis and were evaluating a possible sale or merger of the festival until several weeks ago, when the decision was made to close up shop. Explaining the complex nature of the festival’s finances, Chinchilla insisted that in a corporate landscape where Latino budgets are being slashed, striking the delicate balance between reducing audience and maintaining sponsorship was no longer a realistic option.

Foreseeing a looming crisis, the festival, which cost approximately $500,000 a year to produce according to Chinchilla, had already been experimenting with cost-cutting techniques -- eschewing the use of the traditional paper catalogues one year in favor of an electronic version -- but despite this foresight and the continued support of HBO, the festival was simply no longer economically viable in the high-priced New York market.

According to Chinchilla, who founded the festival in 1999, the decision was a difficult one. "It’s my baby," he said in an exclusive interview for TropicalFRONT, “but you have to get emotions out of the way and think about what is the right decision." Nevertheless, Chinchilla sees the festival’s predicament as indicative of a larger sea change in the relationship between filmmakers and their audience. "The world of festivals is changing," he remarked. "Soon only the markets will survive... the filmmaking community needs to look to other avenues, look within themselves."

Regarding Latino film in particular, Chinchilla observed that a dearth of Latinos in sectors like publicity and marketing fosters a dependence on traditional promotional outlets that relegate Latino media to a niche market. "This is not a niche market," he insisted, "this is popular culture."  As for his own future, Chinchilla seemed quietly optimistic: "I’m just waiting to find what’s next," he said. Whatever that may be, we can rest assured that New York hasn’t heard the last of Calixto Chinchilla.

Correction: September 6, 2013. An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated the title of Mr. Chinchilla as "founding director", his correct title is "founding co-executive director."

Uruguayan Film WHISKY Named Best Latin American Film in 20 Years

The Uruguayan film Whisky (pictured) by Pablo Stoll and the late Juan Pablo Rebella was selected as the Best Latin American film of the past 20 years per a poll conducted by the Valdivia Film Festival as part of its 20th anniversary edition.

The Chilean film invited nine film festivals from all over the Americas to select their 10 essential Latin American films from the last two decades. The selected festivals were BAFICI (Argentina), FICUNAM (Mexico), Cinema Tropical (United States), TransCinema (Peru), Cali (Colombia), Tiradentes (Brasil), Havana (Cuba), the Muestra Cinematográfica de Montevideo (Uruguay) and FIDOCS (Chile). 

Argentina is the country with most films in the list, four in total, and besides Uruguay, the list is completed with one film from Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Paraguay and Chile, and features acclaimed filmmakers such as Lucrecia Martel, Carlos Reygadas, Lisandro Alonso and Martín Rejtman. The complete list, originally published by Argentinean site otroscines.com.ar, is as follows:

1. Whisky (Pablo Stoll & Juan Pablo Rebella, Uruguay, 2004)
2. Luz silenciosa / Silent Light (Carlos Reygadas, México, 2007)
3. Santiago (João Moreira Salles, Brasil, 2007)
4. La Libertad (Lisandro Alonso, Argentina, 2001)
5. La Ciénaga (Lucrecia Martel, Argentina, 2001)
6. Historias extraordinarias / Extraordinary Stories (Mariano Llinás, Argentina, 2008)
7. Un tigre de papel / A Paper Tiger (Luis Ospina, Colombia, 2007)
8. Hamaca paraguaya / Paraguayan Hammock (Paz Encina, Paraguay, 2006)
9. Silvia Prieto (Martin Rejtman, Argentina, 1999)
10. Aquí se construye / Under Construction (Ignacio Agüero, Chile, 2000)

All of the films featured in the list will be screened at the 20th edition of the Valdivia Film Festival, which will take place October 7 - 13 in Chile. 

Derbez Hits Bullseye at the U.S. Box Office

Mexican comedy Instructions Not Included / No se aceptan devoluciones (pictured), the directorial debut of comedian Eugenio Derbez scored big at the U.S. weekend box office landing in number five by earning an impressive $7.5 million from 347 theaters with a whopping $21,614 average per screen. The film marks the biggest opening ever for a Spanish-language film in the United States. 

The Mexican comedy was released by Pantelion, a joint venture between Lionsgate and Televisa, it marked the company's largest theatrical release to date and it's highest-grossing (it grossed six times the entire release of their previous release, Girl in Progress). Boosted by an A+ grade at CinemaScore, the film is expected to hit the $9.3 million mark in the four-day holiday weekend.

Instructions Not Included follows Valentin (played by Derbez), who is Acapulco's resident playboy-until a former fling leaves a baby on his doorstep and takes off without a trace. Valentín leaves Mexico for L.A. to find the baby's mother, but only ends up finding a new home for himself and his newfound daughter, Maggie. An unlikely father figure, Valentin raises Maggie for six years, while also establishing himself as one of Hollywood's top stuntmen to pay the bills, with Maggie acting as his on-set coach. As Valentin raises Maggie, she forces him to grow up too. But their unique and offbeat family is threatened when Maggie's birth mom shows up out of the blue, and Valentin realizes he's in danger of losing his daughter- and his best friend.

Winners Announced at Santiago and Monterrey

SANFIC, the Santiago Film Festival in Chile and FIC Monterrey, both in their 9th annual editions, have announced their 2013 winners respectively. At SANFIC, Los analfabetas / The Illiterate (pictured), the directorial debut by Moisés Sepúlveda, was the winner of the top prize for Best Chilean film, while José Luis Torres Leiva was awarded the prize for Best Director in the Chilean competition for his most recent film Ver y escuchar.

Los analfabetas is based on a theater play by Pablo Paredes, which tells the story of Ximena, an illiterate 50-year-old woman. A young unemployed school teacher offers her to read the newspapers and to teach her to read, but a letter from her father that Ximena has been keeping since he abandoned her while she was a kid, might invert the roles of the teacher and the student. 

In Monterrey, Salvadorean-born Mexican director José Luis Valle's Las búsquedas / The Searches was awarded with the top prize as Best Mexican Feature Film, while Alfredo Marrón's Celso Piña: El rebelde del acordeón was awarded with the prize for Best Mexican Documentary. Las búsquedas is a story of revenge, redemption and fate. A man runs his errands: cleans the house, picks up the dry cleaning, pays his debts and buys groceries. Then, inexplicably commits suicide. His death smites his wife, Elvira, who is unaware of the reasons for suicide. At another point, Ulises is assaulted and stripped of the portfolio that held the only photo he kept of her deceased daughter. He sets out to find the thief and kill him. The lives of Elvira and Ulises intersect unexpectedly.

The 9th edition of SANFIC took place August 23 - 31 in Chile, while the also 9th edition of FICMonterrey took place August 22 through September 1 in the northern Mexican city.