CASA GRANDE by Fellipe Barbosa to Open Latinbeat's 15th Edition

The Film Society of Lincoln Center has announced the lineup for the 15th edition of Latinbeat, their annual showcase spotlighting contemporary cinema from Latin America. Brazilian film Casa Grande (pictured), the fiction debut feature by Fellipe Barbosa' will be the opening night selection for the series which will feature 16 films and will take place July 11-20 in New York City.

Set in Rio, Casa Grande is a portrait of a teenager who strives to transcend the limitations of his upper-middle-class family life. Latinbeat will also feature films from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominica Republic, Ecuador, Mexico, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

"Fifteen years after the reawakening of Latin American cinema in the 1990s there is greater and more varied film production, more interconnectedness among national cinemas, more organized governmental funding, more young people studying film, and more film festivals in the region," said Latinbeat programmer Marcela Goglio, quoted in the Film Society of Lincoln Center's blog. "However, it is exciting to see that the formal exploration and sense of urgency of those early films persists in the works of many new directors today, giving the region a sense of perpetual cinematic rebirth."

Other highlights include All About the Feathers / Por las plumas, the directorial debut by Costa Rican filmmaker Neto Villalobos; Cristo Rey, a Dominican contemporary take on Romeo in Juliet directed by Leticia Tonos Paniagua; Cartagena winner's Dust on the Tongue / Tierra en la lengua by Rubén Mendoza and Mateo by María Gamboa.

Brazil will also be represented by Brazilian filmmaking duo Marcelo Gomes and Cao Guimarães with O homem das multidões / The Man of the Crowd, based on an Edgar Allan Poe tale. From Argentina, the series will feature Matías Lucchesi's coming-of-age story Ciencias naturales / Natural Sciences and Rodrigo Moreno's poignant Reimon. Mexican films Paradise / Paraíso by Mariana Chenillo, The Searches / Las búsquedas by Jose Luis Valle, and We Are Mari Pepa / Somos Mari Pepa by Samuel Kishi round up the program.

Click here to see the full lineup.

TropicalFRONT on Intelatin Cloudcast: May 2014 Show

In the May 2014 edition of TropicalFRONT on Intelatin Cloudcast features an interview with Brazilian director Petra Costa on her acclaimed documentary film Elena, an interview with Mexican filmmaker Claudia Sainte-Luce on her directorial debut The Amazing Catfish. VOD Selection: Colombian film The Wind Journeys by Ciro Guerra plus music by Tears for Fears, The Deal Sisters, Cocteau Twins and Frikstailers.

Listen to the show on PodBean or iTunes.

Enjoy!

Mexican Directors Awarded at the Brooklyn Film Fest

Rezeta (pictured), the debut feature film by Mexican director Fernando Frías, was awarded with the Spirit Award for Feature Narrative as well as the Best Actress Award for Rezeta Veliu at the 17th edition of the Brooklyn Film Festival. Additionally, the short film Toñita's co-directed by Mexican filmmaker Sebastián Díaz Aguirre was presented with the Brooklyn Pride Award.

Rezeta tells the story of a 21 year old model born in Albania who arrives in Mexico after making a living out of her beauty all around the globe. She soon meets Alex, a tattooed musician who cleans up the trailer where she waits during a commercial photo shoot. They quickly become friends, and then their relationship becomes something more. This is the story of their complicated romance, set against a backdrop of bands, parties and everyday life in modern Mexico.

The documentary short Toñita's (pictured right) dives into the microcosm of The Caribbean Sports Club in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Known as 'Toñita's' because of its owner, Maria Toñita, the club is a social hub for longtime residents of the neighborhood. Her colorful regulars reveal the gritty history of this once predominantly Caribbean neighborhood, as well as the club's resistance to the area's rapid gentrification.

The 17th edition of the Brooklyn Film Festival took place May 30th - June 8th in New York City.

THE INVISIBLE COLLECTION Wins Brazilian Film Fest of NY

Bernard Attal's debut feature film A coleção invisível / The Invisible Collection (pictured) was the winner of the Crystal Lens Award as most popular film of the 12th edition of the Brazilian Film Festival. The winner of the Crystal Lens Award for short film went to Guilherme Aguilar and Luis Ferraz's Tempo da navalha / Razor's Age. The winners were announced at the closing night ceremony that took place last night at Central Park's Summerstage which featured a live concert by acclaimed Brazilian musician Toquino. 

Adapted from a short short story by Stefan Zweig that originally takes place in Germany during the Weimar Republic, The Invisible Colletion tells the story of Beto, who divides his time between partying and working jobs without prospects. After the death of his friends in a car accident, he returns to the financially precarious family business. To solve the financial bind of the antique shop, Beto travels to the Brazilian countryside in search of a collection of rare drawings. There he meets Samir, a collector, and his family that were ruined by the demise of the cacao plantations. The journey and encounter will irrevocably change the young man's soul.

French-born Attal has been living and working in Brazil since 2005. He studied filmmaking at the New School in New York and directed the short films 29 Inches, Rat Island, and A Bike Ride, which participated in numerous festivals around the world, including Clermont Ferrand and Palm Springs. In 2010, he made the film The Magnificent, a documentary for Brazilian public TV about the rise and decadence of three families of cocoa planters.

The 12th edition of the Brazilian Film Festival of New York took place June 1-7 at the Tribeca Cinemas.

Mexican Film THE EMPTY HOURS by Aarón Fernández is Headed to the U.S.

The Mexican film Las horas muertas / The Empty Hours (pictured) the sophomore film by Aarón Fernández will be released in U.S. theaters this summer by the hand of Los Angeles-based distributor Strand Releasing. The film will open on Friday, July 11 at the Village East Cinema in New York City, and a week later on Friday, July 18 at the Laemmle's Noho 7 and Playhouse theaters in LA.  

Set on the desolated coast of Veracruz, in The Empty Hours, 17 year-old Sebastián takes over running his uncle’s small and cozy rent-by-the hour motel. There he meets Miranda, a regular customer who comes to the motel to meet a lover who always keeps her waiting. As Sebastián and Miranda get to know each other, an ambiguous game of seduction begins between them.

Starring Kristyan Ferrer and Adriana Paz, The Empty Hours had its world premiere at the San Sebastian Film Festival last September to positive reviews including Variety, which hailed it as an "infectiously engrossing drama (...) with unstated longing and superb character development."

Born in Chihuahua, Fernández studied in Paris, France, where he obtained a Master’s degree in Film at the Sorbonne University. He directed four short films, prior to his acclaimed debut feature film, Partes usadas / Used Parts, which was presented in 40 festivals around the world and won various prizes. His second film, The Empty Hours, was written in the Cannes Cinefondation Residence.

Watch the trailer:

The Little Film that Could: ELENA Grosses an Impressive $12K in Opening Weekend

The Brazilian documentary film Elena (pictured) by Petra Costa grossed an impressive $12,100 in its opening weekend at the IFC Center, landing in the second spot of the specialty box office, just behind Sebastian Junger's documentary Korengal and beating Kelly Reichart's Night Moves in per-screen-average.

Fueled by strong reviews, Petra Costa's debut feature film scored high at the arthouse box office, making it an impressive opening, not an easy feat for a foreign documentary film in the U.S.  

In Elena, a young Brazilian woman, travels to New York with dreams of becoming an actress. She leaves behind a childhood spent in hiding during the military dictatorship, and she leaves behind Petra, her seven-year-old sister. Two decades later, Petra goes to New York to pursue acting… and in search of Elena. But the film and the filmmaker cannot escape the similarities between Petra and Elena’s stories, and as they overlap, they begin to blur.

Presented by executive producers Tim Robbins and Fernando Meirelles, the film is distributed in North America by Variance and Syndicado. The film will open on Friday, June 13 at the Laemmle Royal in Los Angeles, followed by a national rollout.