Shorts from Brazil and Colombia Selected for Cannes' Official Competition

Cannes announced their 2016 Short Films Competition yesterday. After receiving over five thousand entries they narrowed down the competition to ten. Two of the selected films are from the Latin American region.

Colombian-Swedish production Madre / Mother by Simón Mesa Soto tells the story of 16 year-old Andrea who leaves her poor neighborhood in the hills of Medellin to attend a downtown casting call for a porno film. Soto’s MA graduation film at London Film School Leidi won the short film Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2014. From Brazil is João Paulo Miranda Maria’s A Moça Que Dançou Com O Diabo / The Girl who Danced with the Devil which will also compete in the short films competition.

The Cinéfondation Selection has chosen eighteen films among over two thousand submitted this year by film schools from all over the world. Fifteen countries from three continents are represented and this marks the first year with an entry from Venezuela. Competing from Latin American will be Universidad de Los Andes, Venezuela with Michael Labarca’s La culpa probablemente / The Guilt, Probably from Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica, Mexico with Ernesto Martínes Bucio’s Las razones del mundo / The Reasons in the World and from Universidad del Cine, Argentina with Malena Vain’s Business.

The 69th edition of Cannes Film Festival will take place May 11-22, 2016 in Cannes, France.

PACIENTE Premieres in New York

By Juana Suarez, @cinembargo

Jorge Caballero's Paciente / Patient (2016) follows the story of Nubia as she moves through the maze of Colombian health care system in an effort to provide services for her daughter Leidy, a young cancer patient. The title of the documentary refers both to Leidy´s condition and to the patient tenacity her mother must demonstrate to guarantee dignity in the treatment to her daughter. Through these women´s case, Paciente tells the story of thousands of Colombians who are trapped in an inefficient Kafkaesque network of “EPS” (Empresas Promotoras de Salud), acronym for Colombian HMOs.

Paciente results from painstaking observation and elaborated cinematographic work where the filmmaker offers a minimalist portrayal, yet effective, that privileges an ethical approach to the issue. The documentary is part of a larger transmedia storytelling project, made up of 9 shorts by other Colombian filmmakers, an interactive documentary (Impaciente) and a digital book.  The project pursues a new kind of social activism, promoting education about the health system and proactive reaction to specific situations. Paciente is a touching document, set in the Colombian context but extensive to a debate on health as a human, social and collective right.

The film is premiering in New York this week as part of the Havana Film Festival New York with the presence of the filmmaker.

EL SILENCIO DEL RIO Tops Colombian Film Fest in NY

The 4th edition of the Colombian Film Festival New York announced its winners over the weekend at Village East Cinema in Manhattan. For six days, the festival screened more than 19 world and national premieres in the categories of fiction and documentary.

Carlos Tribiño won Best Fiction Movie with his feature debut El silencio del río / Silence of the River (pictured). The film follows two parallel stories which are connected by a river— Anselmo is a boy who has lost his father and Epifanio is a poor countryman who sees his world threatened by violence.

Winner for Best Documentary was Aislados / Isolated (pictured below) by Marcela Lizcano. Lizcano’s documentary takes us to the most densely populated island in the Colombian Caribbean to ponder the role of men in society, looking at this island as a metaphor of our world.

Taking home the prize for Best Short Film was Cien años más viejo / One Hundred Years Older by John Chaparro. Irene and Andrés have been together 66 years and have 13 children but, Irene no longer remembers.

There were special mentions for actress Juana Acosta for her role in Anna, a young Colombian mother living in Paris and struggling with their fragile emotions and filmmaker Esteban Arango for Blast Beat about two brothers who are undocumented immigrants living in the U.S..

The Audience Award went to La ciénaga, entre el mar y la tierra / Between Sea and Land by Carlos del Castillo and Manolo Cruz which is the story of a man diagnosed with dystonia, a muscular degenerative illness, which completely limits his movement and dooms him to stay connected to an artificial respirator keeping him from fulfilling his greatest dream: to meet the sea, which is located just across the street.

Día Crucis, the directorial debut of caleño director Harold De Vasten took second place among the favorites of the public with a special mention.

The Colombian Film Festival was founded in Manhattan in October 2012 by Juan Carvajal, in order to bring and connect the diaspora in the country with its roots and talents. The 4th edition of the festival took place March 22-27 in New York City.

Lucrecia Martel’s ZAMA Pushed Back to 2017

The release of Zama, Lucrecia Martel’s highly-anticipated film adaptation of the novel by Antonio di Benedetto, has been postponed until 2017, it was communicated this week by the production company.

As reported by some Argentinean media outlets, producer Benjamin Domenech from Rei Cine has expressed that due to personal reasons, Martel had to leave the postproduction of the film for four months, delaying its finishing process.

Starring the Mexican actor Daniel Giménez Cacho, the film is a co-production between eight countries: Argentina, Brazil, Spain, France, Mexico, Portugal, Netherlands, and the USA. It is produced by Rei Cine and Bananeira Filmes, and co-produced by El Deseo, MPM Film, Patagonik Film Group, Louverture Films, Canana, Lemming Film, O Som e a Fúria, KNM, and Picnic Producciones.

Set at the end of the 18th century, Zama is the story of an officer of the Spanish Crown born in South America who awaits a letter from the King granting him transfer to a better location. His situation is delicate as he must ensure that nothing overshadows his transfer. He is forced to accept submissively every task entrusted to him by successive Governors who come and go as he stays. Of course, the letter from the King never arrives, and when Zama notices that he has lost everything waiting, he decides to join a party of soldiers that go after a dangerous bandit.

Zama is Martel’s fourth feature after La mujer sin cabeza / The Headless Woman (2008), La niña santa / The Holy Girl (2004), and La Ciénaga (2001), all of which were included in Cinema Tropical’s list of Best Latin American Films of the Aughts.

RIO, I LOVE YOU Opens in U.S. Theaters this April

Screen Media Films has announced the U.S. theatrical release of the collaborative film Rio, I Love You, an anthology created by 10 visionary directors from across the globe that features multiple Oscar nominees and winners among the cast and crew, and the third in the ‘Cities of Love’ trilogy of films after Paris Je t’Aime and New York, I Love You.

The film offers audiences an opportunity to embrace the cherished Brazilian city through the lens of some of the greatest filmmakers from around the world. It will be released in theaters starting on Friday, April 15th in New York, followed by Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, San Francisco, and Washington D.C., among other cities, in a traditional platform theatrical release throughout April and May.

Featuring 10 short stories and their respective transitions of love in the city of Rio de Janeiro, the film is directed by Andrucha Waddington, Paolo Sorrentino, Fernando Meirelles, Stephan Elliott, John Turturro, Guillermo Arriaga, Sang-soo Im, Carlos Saldanha, Jose Padilha, Nadine Labaki, and Vicente Amorim.

Rio, I Love You boasts an impressive international cast including Fernanda Montenegro, Emily Mortimer, Basil Hoffman, Vincent Cassel, Ryan Kwanten, John Turturro, Jason Isaacs, Roberta Rodrigues, Rodrigo Santoro, Wagner Moura, Vanessa Paradis, Claudia Abreu, and Harvey Keitel.

The story line of each segment focuses on an encounter of love in a different neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro, demonstrating the distinctive qualities and character of the ‘Marvelous City’ known for its natural beauty, sensuality and warmth. The film serves to bridge gaps between cultures, educating and entertaining the audience, while celebrating unique and universal expressions of love.

Chilean Filmmaker Ricardo Larraín Dies

Chilean director, producer, writer and editor Ricardo Larraín died yesterday at the age of 58 in Santiago Chile.

With over almost four decades of artistic career, he is best known for his 1991 debut feature film La Frontera / The Frontier (pictured below), winner of the Silver Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival, the Goya Award to Best Ibero-American Film, and Best Director at the Havana Film Festival.

Set during Chile’s military dictatorship and starring Patricio Contreras, Gloria Laso and Héctor Noguera, the film is the story of school teacher Ramiro Orellana who is sentenced to internal exile for questioning the disappearance of a colleague in this examination of dictatorship and military rule. La frontera is a desolate land inhabited by the world's castaways, who live lives of dreams and frustrations.

Larraín also directed  the films El entusiasmo / The Enthusiasm in 1998, Chile Puede / Chile Can Do It in 2008, and El niño rojo / The Red Child in 2014.

The Chilean filmmaker studied in the School of Communication Arts in the Catholic University of Chile. On the last years he centered his work in the life of the Chilean independence leader Bernardo O´Higgins and he presented a miniseries of his life in open television.

He was founder of the film school at Chile’s University Mayor of Chile, where he taught, and was developing a new project under the title of El Guerrero enamorado / The Warrior in Love.