Acclaimed Mexican comedian Roberto Gomez Bolaños "Chespirito" died today at the age of 85 in Cancun. Even though he's mostly known and celebrated for the characters he created for television, including "El Chavo del Ocho," and "El Chapulín Colorado" Chespirito also had considerable and popular film career having acted in several films, writing screenplays for several films, and directing a handful of feature films.
As a screenwriter, Gómez Bolaños worked in numerous comedy films between 1959 and 1970. His first incursion into film as an actor was in in 1960 in the comedy film Dos locos en escena directed by Agustín P. Delgado and starring popular comedians Viruta and Capulina. He also appeared in several films including Dos criados malcriados (Agustín P. Delgado, 1960), The Crazy World in Film (José María Fernández Unsaín, 1967), Operación Carambola (Alfredo Zacarías, 1967), and El Zángano (Agustín P. Delgado, 1968).
In 1979, based on the success of his television shows, he wrote and starred in the film El Chanfle (pictured right), directed by Enrique Segoviano. The film follows the adventures of a props of a football team who sees thwarted the dream of having a child after 10 years of marriage. The film was a huge success at the box office in Mexico and other countries in Latin America. Based on the popularity of the film Chespirito himself wrote and directed the sequel El Chanfle II in 1982.
He'd direct three other feature films starring the same actors of his popular TV shows: Don Ratón y Don Ratero (1983), Charrito (1994), and Música de viento (1988).
In 1996 he was appointed director of Televicine, the film arm of the Mexican media conglomerate Televisa. In his tenure as director of Televicine the company produced La última llamada (Carlos García Agraz, 1996), Elisa antes del fin del mundo (Juan Antonio de la Riva, 1997), and La primera noche (Alejandro Gamboa, 1998).
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Marcela Goglio studied Communication and Film in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where she was born. She lived in Mexico, El Salvador and Costa Rica before moving to New York to study Film and Literature at Columbia University. Since 1999 she has been the programmer of Latinbeat, Film Society of Lincoln Center’s annual festival of new Latin American cinema.
Naief Yehya
Daniela Alatorre
Rachael A. Rakes was recently appointed Programmer at Large at the Film Society of Lincoln Center, where she co-programs the annual Art of the Real series. She has worked as a programmer and curator for the past 13 years, most recently as Assistant Curator of Film at the Museum of the Moving Image and has organized exhibitions, and screenings for institutions such as Millennium Film Workshop, UnionDocs, Heliopolis Project Space, 92Y Tribeca, ArteEast, and Artists Television Access. She is currently editor of the film section for The Brooklyn Rail, and writes about art and film for Artforum, Art Papers, BOMB, and Hyperallergic. For the past 14 years, she has also worked in independent book publishing as an editor, publicist, and marketing manager at various presses including Verso Books, The Feminist Press, and AK Press.
José Rodríguez is the Manager of Documentary Programming at Tribeca Film Institute (TFI) where he oversees funding for all of the documentary funds and leads the TFI Latin America FundÙs Filmmaker Workshop series. A native of Puerto Rico, he grew up with a passion for movies that led him to Syracuse University, where he wrote a feature script and directed two shorts. After interning as an assistant to producer Amy Hobby, he settled in New York City and became a script/book reader for Overture Films while also working on commercials, short films and features (including Tze Chun's Children of Invention and the documentary Poor Consuelo Conquers the World).
Tammir Muhammad, as 
The Chilean films Aurora by Rodrigo Sepúlveda and La Once (pictured) by Maite Alberdi were the top winners at the 10th edition of the SANFIC Film Festival. Sepúlveda's third feature film was the winner of the award for Best Film in the international competition
Mexican directors José Cohen and Lorenzo Hagerman are the winners of the 2014 Margaret Mead Filmmaker Award for their feature documentary film H20 MX (pictured), it was announced last night in New York City.
Carmín Tropical (pictured) by director Rigoberto Perezcano was the winner of the award for Best Film at the 12th edition of the Morelia Film Festival. The third feature film by Perezcano (XV in Zachila, Norhless) follows Mabel, who returns to her hometown to find the murderer of her friend Daniela and finds herself on a journey that takes her through nostalgia, love, and betrayal in a town where transvestism takes on an unusual dimension in its day.
Cinema Tropical and FiGa Films present the US theatrical premiere of the acclaimed Venezuelan film Bad Hair / Pelo malo (pictured) by Mariana Rondón, beginning Wednesday, November 19 at the prestigious Film Forum in New York City.
Writer-director Mariana Rondón grounds her film in the cultural realities of working-class Venezuela – and, by dint of two remarkable performances, finds warmth and humor between mother and son, even as the uncertainties of pre-adolescence threaten to pull them apart. Samuel Lange as the mischievous, incipiently stylish Junior is a wonder to behold: whether arguing with adults, hanging out with his chubby gal-pal, or admiring his newly straightened hair. The rest of the cast exude believability as well as poignancy, emotional depth, and joie de vivre.
