Valdivia Announces Winners

The documentary film Los castores / The Beavers (pictured) by Nicolás Molina and Antonio Luco was awarded the prize for Best Chilean film at the 21st edition of the Valdivia Film Festival, it was announced today.

The film follows Derek and Giorgia, a young couple of biologists, settle in Tierra del Fuego, to develop their thesis. Loaded with traps and a video camera, they research how to stop a plague of beavers that is devastating the area. The beavers observe these scientists, isolated, exposed to the cold and hunger, just like their prey, exploring the link between nature and humans.

Carolina García Bloj's Respirar helado was awarded the Special Jury Prize in the Chilean competition. In the official international competition, the Mexican film El resto del mundo by Pablo Chavarría was the winner of the Special Jury Prize, while the Chilean film Matar a un hombre / To Kill a Man by Alejandro Fernández Almendras won the Audience Award.

The 21st edition the Valdivia Film Festival took place October 7-12 in Chile.

Rio Film Festival Announces Winners

Blue Blood / Sangue azul (pictured) by Lírio Ferreira was the top winner at the 2014 edition of the Rio de Janeiro Film Festival receiving the awards for Best Film and Best Director in the Premiere Brazil competition. Starring Daniel de Oliveira, Caroline Abras, and Sandra Coverlone, the film offers a parallel between cinema and circus that speaks of the sea, art and love.

Twenty years in the time, on a volcanic and tropical island a 10-year-old boy was separated from his sister. The mother, fearful that an incestuous attraction would develop between the two, sent her son to the mainland with Kaleb, the magician from the Neptune Circus that had visited the island. On the mainland Kaleb teaches the boy the arts of the circus and the spirit, and the ex islander becomes Zolah, the Bullet Man. Zolah is now back visiting the island with the circus.

Chico Teixeira's Absence / Ausência was awarded the Special Jury Prize. In the documentary category the big winner was Point Blank / Á queima roupa by Theresa Jessouroun, which won the awards for Best Documentary Film  and Best Director. The Audience Awards were handed to Fellipe Gamarano Barbosa's Casa Grande and Rodrigo Felha's Favela gay.

The winner in the Novos Rumos section was Davi Pretto's Castanha, and Alfeu Franca's A deusa branca was awarded the Special Jury Prize. The 2014 edition of the Rio Film Festival took place September 24 - October 8 in Brazil.

TropicalFRONT on Intelatin Cloudcast: October 2014

 

The October 2014 edition of TropicalFRONT on Intelatin Cloudcast features a dialogue with Carlos A. Gutiérrez of Cinema Tropical; an interview with director Rodrigo Reyes on his film Purgatorio: Journey Into the Heart of the Border; an interview with Ian Brookfield for Art Redefined; Music by Bostich + Fussible, Mark Knopfler & Emmylou Harris, Roberta Flack, AC/DC and Jungle Fire. Produced by Sergio C. Muñoz at Intelatin.

Listen to the show on PodBean or iTunes.

Enjoy!

MoMA to Fete Cuarón

The Museum of Modern Art in New York City has announced that Mexican writer/director Alfonso Cuarón will be honored at the the Museum's 2014 Film Benefit, to be held on Monday, November 10. Cuarón is the Academy Award-winning director of Gravity (2013), A Little Princess (1995), Y Tu Mamá También (2001), Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), Children of Men (2006), and Sólo con tu Pareja (1991).

The Museum's Film Benefit will be highlighted by a tribute recognizing Cuarón's acclaimed work and a gala dinner. Rajendra Roy, The Celeste Bartos Chief Curator of Film at MoMA, states: "Alfonso Cuarón is the rare auteur who is completely fluent in both the grandest studio-scaled pictures as well as the dirt-road indies. There's no one else I'd rather take a cinematic voyage with, whether it be to a hidden beach in Mexico or to orbit upper-Earth."

MoMA's vast film collection includes: Y Tu Mamá También, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Gravity. Cuarón has also participated in MoMA's Contenders series, engaging in a post-screening discussion with his son, Jonas Cuarón, after Gravity was screened as a part of the exhibition in November 2013.

The Film Benefit raises funds for the acquisition and preservation of great film works, as well as providing support for upcoming film exhibitions at MoMA. Previous honorees include Tilda Swinton, Quentin Tarantino, Pedro Almodóvar, Kathryn Bigelow, Tim Burton, and Baz Luhrmann.

TropicalFRONT Festival do Rio Report: Rio and Samba in Focus

By Mary Jane Marcasiano

A Brazilian friend recently told me that Cariocas love to see themselves on screen. I imagine they are very happy this week! In the Premiere Brazil section of this year's Festival do Rio, as well as other sections, we find Brazilian and foreign filmmakers looking at Rio and particularly at one of Rio's iconic cultural forms, the samba.

Jefferson Mello's Doc, Samba & Jazz (pictured left), premiered September 26th and explores the synergy between samba and jazz and the similarities between the cities and inhabitants of Rio and New Orleans. The following day, a film that was originally shot in 2005, on the Velha Guarda of Rio's samba schools, was finally finished in 2013, after the passing of some of these old samba personalities. Directors Eric and Marc Behassen's documentary shows the past and present samba worlds through the eyes of these Guardioes Do Samba.

On October first, at Rio's classic Teatro Municipal, the fiction film Trinta (pictured right) had its world premier. Based on the real life story of Joãosinho Trinta, the famed carnival parade director, Paulo Machline's film, set in 70's Rio, chronicles Trinta's rise from a corp de ballet dancer at Teatro Municipal to his first assignment as the artistic director of Rio's famed Salgueiro Samba School. As Trinta struggles with his first Carnival he ultimately reinvents the genre and starts a career that will have a lasting effect on the samba schools Salgueiro and Beija-Flor, making him one of the most beloved and influential figures of contemporary Carnival. Matheus Nachtergaele, asTrinta, captures this artist's fiery drive for fame and the screenplay, along with the beautiful sets and costumes, creates the excitement and tension of a community's quest to become carnival champions.

A few nights earlier, George Gachot's film O Samba (pictured left), premiered in the Panorama section of the festival, in the company of some of Rio's samba royalty. Gachot, a Swiss filmmaker who's genre is the music documentary, has previously made beautiful films on Brazilian singers Maria Bethania and Nana Cayami. O Samba focuses on the samba school Vila Isabel and Martinho da Vila, the schools famed composer, telling the story of Samba's roots and exploring its contemporary identity. In the film and in attendance were Mart'nalia, Beth Carvalho and many of Vila Isabel's members.

Also premiering in the Panorama section of the festival is British director Julien Temple's film, Rio 50 Graus, referring to the high Celsius temperature that heats up Rio to its max. This prized documentarian (The Filth and The Fury and Joe Strummer:The Future is Unwritten) offers a look at the cultural and social history of Rio from the end of slavery up until the preparations for the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics. Interviewing former revolutionaries, the city's current mayor, transvestite prostitutes and favela citizens, the film explores many aspects of the cities joys and problems. Of course samba plays an important role in this telling of Rio's history.

Mexican GÜEROS Awarded at San Sebastian

The Mexican film Güeros (pictured) the debut feature film by director Alonso Ruizpalacios was awarded with the prize for Best Latin American film at the 62nd edition of the San Sebastian Film Festival. The film which was competing in the Latino Horizons section was the favorite by the jury over eight films from Argentina, a Colombian, and a Chilean film.

Two other films were awarded Special Jury Mentions in the same category: the Colombian film Gente de Bien by Franco Lolli, and Argentinean film Natural Sciences / Ciencias naturales by Matías Lucchesi.

Güeros, which premiered at the last edition of the Berlin Film Festival where it was awarded with the Best First Film prize, the film is equal parts road movie and coming of age story that pays homage to the French New Wave. Tomás moves in with his older brother who is studying in Mexico City. He and his roommate are currently striking against the strike which their fellow-students are organising at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.

Tomás has brought a cassette along with him; the tape is part of his father’s legacy and contains the music of Epigmenio Cruz. When the trio learns that their idol is in hospital fading fast and alone, they set off in their rusty heap of a car to pay their last respects to this one-time rock star.

The 62nd edition of the San Sebastian Film Festival took place September 19-27 in Spain.