THE WAVES / LAS OLAS
Directed by Adrián Biniez
(Uruguay/Argentina, In Spanish with English subtitles, 2017, 88 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)

New York Premiere!

The third feature film by Argentine-born, Uruguay-based filmmaker Adrián Biniez (Gigante, El Cinco) is a playful, imaginative, and existentialist time-traveling tale about a man’s misadventures. Exhausted after leaving work, Alfonso, a man in his late thirties, goes to the beach and dives into the sea. Coming to the surface, he finds himself on another beach, in another time. His parents are waiting for him, calling to him from the water’s edge.

Alfonso sees and understands everything as an adult, even if they treat him like an 11 year old. So begins a fantastic, achronological voyage through the various holidays of his life, as he comes face to face with past girlfriends, teenage and childhood pals, his daughter, and his own loneliness.

This screening is part of: If You Can Screen It There: Premiering Contemporary Latin American Cinema

First Look 2019 Presents
Going Beyond: New Films from Ambulante Más Allá

An offshoot of the annual Ambulante traveling film festival, Ambulante Más Allá, (a.k.a. Ambulante Beyond) is a program for documentary production aiming to train new filmmakers coming from different corners of Mexico and Central America who have limited access to the tools needed to share their stories with a wide audience. Through workshops, Ambulante Más Allá promotes independent filmmaking to get these stories to be told from within a community’s own cultural and aesthetic perspective, not arising from the imposition of conventional film parameters. Ambulante allows communities to recover and strengthen their identity, claim their rights, as well as break stereotypes. These films represent a selection of recent works by Ambulante filmmakers, presented by Programming Director Meghan Monsour. All New York premieres.

Weck: Words Are My Voice
(Weck: la palabra es mi voz, Aldo Arellanes Antonio. Mexico. 2018, 24 min. In Spanish with English subtitles.)
Weck, an urban artist, decides to organize Rap Awareness—an event he hopes will reclaim hip-hop culture in Pinotepa Nacional, Oaxaca. Weck and his friends face many challenges as they work to fulfill their dreams in a town mostly indifferent to their need for creative expression.

The Sound of Waves 
(El sonar de las olas, Vanessa Ishel Castillo Ortega. Mexico. 2018, 15 mins. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Elida is an enthusiastic teenager with many passions, including playing the violin and spending time with her friends on the beach. But what she really loves is surfing—she’s known to her friends as “Candy Surfer.” She surfs in defiance of her mother, who considers it too dangerous; not only because Elida is fifteen, but because she is missing her right hand.

Caress 
Caricia). Dir. David Montes Bernal. Mexico. 2016, 20 mins. In Spanish with English subtitles. Caricia, a trans woman from the Costa Chica region in Guerrero, never thought shewould become a hairdresser. But after overcoming a relationship with a violent man, Caricia decided to go back to her hometown and start her own business. La Paloma de Paris (Paris’s Dove) is a modest—yet liberating—beauty parlor, where other trans women can feel at ease. 

Magda, or the Fish Folk 
Magda o el pueblo de los pescados). Dir. Dahlia Sosa Hernandez, Xareni Zafra Gatica. Mexico. 2016, 30 min. In Spanish with English subtitles. Magda, a 23-year-old midwife trainee, follows a message she received in her dreams: helping to combat the violence that surrounds the women of her town, San Mateo del Mar, a fishing community. 

THE TERRITORIES / LOS TERRITORIOS
(Iván Granovsky, Argentina/Brazil, 2017, 93 min. In Spanish, English, Arabic, and Basque with English subtitles)
New York Premiere

After the attack on Charlie Hebdo, Iván, a young film producer and self-proclaimed “frivolous” son of a prominent Argentine journalist, sets off on a journey to sites of contemporary geopolitical conflict. It is no easy undertaking. Determining where the frontline ends and this wannabe war correspondent’s ego trip begins proves even more difficult. It’s seemingly a miracle that this film even exists. As the director and protagonist Iván Granovsky relates with a sense of self-mockery, his three previous attempts to make a film turned into fiascos, so he decided to follow in the footsteps of his father. But from the refugee crisis in Greece to the less-democratic Brazil, from the Basque Country to Jerusalem, Granovsky is always too late, too early, in the wrong place, or asking clumsy questions. The Territories is a coming-of-age fiction nestled inside a geopolitical documentary.

Tuesday, December 18, 7:15pm

TORQUATO NETO - TODAS AS HORAS DO FIM  / TORQUATO NETO - EVERY HOUR OF THE END
(Eduardo Ades, Marcus Fernando, Brazil, 2017, 88 min. In Portuguese with English subtitles) 

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Torquato Neto (1944-1972) lived ruptures passionately. Engaged on multiple fronts - in film, music, and journalism - the poet from the far-northeastern state of Piauí partook faithfully in the revolution that changed the course of Brazilian culture in the 1960s and 70s. Neto was one of the most active thinkers and lyricists of the Tropicália movement, a partner of Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso and Jards Macalé. Through producing and partaking in marginal art forms, Neto radicalized his performances and cultural criticisms alongside such figures of Brazil’s counter-culture as Waly Salomão, Ivan Cardoso, and Hélio Oiticica. Finally, he ruptured with his own life - committing suicide on his twenty-eight birthday. 

As part of Reverse Shot 15: Filmmakers on the Rise, this double-feature program pairs two films by Brazilian director Adirley Queirós.   

WHITE OUT, BLACK IN
(Adirley Queirós. 2014, 90 mins. In Portuguese with English subtitles)
With Marquim do Tropa, Dilmar Durães.
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One night in 1986, a baile funk club in a poorer district adjacent to Brazil’s capital city was raided by police and forcibly shut down. White patrons of the predominantly black club were allowed to exit, and the police assaulted those who remained. Adirley Queirós investigates this event by boldly layering sci-fi tropes on top of documentary evidence in the form of a time traveler from 2075 sent to follow two real-life men crippled by the attack. 
Saturday, December 8, 5pm

ONCE THERE WAS BRASILIA
(Adirley Queirós. 2017, 100 mins. In Portuguese with English subtitles)
With Wellington Abreu, Andreia Vieira.
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In Once There Was Brasilia, Queirós maintains a toehold in nonfiction filmmaking, but in most other respects rockets off into the galactic cinematic beyond. Where his previous film, White Out, Black In, might be broadly categorized as a docu-fiction (albeit of a mutated strand), Once There Was Brasilia is a sci-fi epic about assassins from space and the impeachment of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, all executed with fantastic resourcefulness on a shoestring budget.
Saturday, December 8, 6:30pm

ALANIS

SIEMPRE ANDAMOS CAMINANDO / WE ARE ALWAYS WALKING
(Dinazar Urbina, Mexico, 2017, 62 min. In Spanish and Chatino with English subtitles)

We’re thrilled to be co-presenting the NYC premiere of Siempre andamos caminando / We Are Always Walking with UnionDocs and Ambulante and as a part of our ongoing collaboration with Proyector, a showcase of contemporary independent Mexican films.

We Are Always Walking is a film about the trips undertaken to the coast by people of Santa Cruz Zenzontepec—a chatino municipality in Oaxaca’s Sierra Sur— in order to work, mainly, as farmers or traders. The journey to Santa Rosa de Lima, a small coastal town whose main income comes from agriculture and commerce, takes seven hours by car. Julia, a 28 years old woman from Cofradía, Zenzontepec, was fifteen the first time she made the trip. She enjoys more living at the coast rather than at the sierra.

At a very young age, Catalina migrated from Xochistlahuaca and started working as a housekeeper. Nowadays, she sells food and feels like she belongs more in Santa Rosa than her birthplace. Alberta, a 21 years old woman also from Cofradía, isa single mom who travels, carrying her baby, to work.

‘FLAHERTY NYC: AFTERMATH’
Programmed by Dessane Lopez Cassell

Co-presented with Cinema Tropical

Through two radically different documentaries, the Mexico City-based filmmaker Betzabé Garcia creates a multi-layered record of the day-to-day in a once prosperous town in Mexico’s Sinaloa state. Flooded by the careless construction of a government damn, and abandoned by all but a few small families, these films examine the state of life in a landscape haunted by rising waters and nightly terrors from unseen intruders.

UNSILENCED
(Betzabé Garcia, Mexico, 2016, 10 min. In Spanish with Engish subtitles)

Atilano Román Tirado, leader of the Displaced Persons of Picachos Movement, murdered on-air by gunmen inside a radio station, reflects on the tragedy suffered by the residents of the towns flooded by the dam, the current climate of censorship and repression in Mexico, as well as the importance of developing public consciousness to combat injustices.

KINGS OF NOWHERE
(Betzabé Garcia, Mexico, 2015, 83 min. In Spanish with English subitltes)

Three families live in a village partially submerged by water in Northwestern Mexico. Despite their loneliness and fear, they refuse to leave.

Filmmaker Betzabé Garcia in person. Discussion moderated by independent curator and archivist Almudena Escobar López.

‘FLAHERTY NYC: AFTERMATH’
Programmed by Dessane Lopez Cassell

Co-presented with Cinema Tropical

The filmmaking duo behind the Dominican Republic-based Faula Films, Natalia Cabral and Oriol Estrada make films that speak to the sharp contrasts and lingering societal tensions of life in the often romanticized Caribbean. An understated meditation on the ever-present dynamics of race and class in the Dominican Republic, Tú y Yo offers a portrait of two individuals – an old widow and her young maid – inextricably bound to each other. Similarly, Lejos presents a day in the life of a young woman desperate to escape her mundane environment and obligations.

LEJOS
(Oriol Estrada, 2013, 10 min.)
Lidia, a woman who lives a monotonous life in the Cuban countryside, decides one day to do something different.

TÚ Y YO 
(You and Me, Natalia Cabral and Oriol Estrada, Dominican Republic/Spain, 2014, 85 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)

The Mrs., a 70-year-old widow, and Aridia, her young maid, live in isolation in a house in Santo Domingo where they have domestic chores to keep them occupied. Their relationship is tense, but at the end of the day, they know they only have each other.

Filmmakers Natalia Cabral and Oriol Estrada in person for a discussion moderated by Rachell Morillo, Senior Coordinator, Public Programs & Community Engagement at The Studio Museum in Harlem.

Frozen Revolutions: EL GRITO

(Leobardo López Aretche, Mexico, 1968-1970, 100 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)

As part of Frozen Revolutions, a series that revisits the documentation of social movements from the year 1968, we turn to the Olympics. To American eyes, the defining image of the Mexico City Olympics is probably John Dominis’ photograph of Gold and Bronze Medal winners Tommie Smith and John Carlos standing at the world’s attention, their fists raised from the podium. Yet for Mexicans it’s impossible to acknowledge the 1968 Summer Olympics without the Tlatelolco Massacre just days before the games began, wherein a squabble between graffitists and cops escalated into a massive confrontation between student activists and the Mexican military.

Small-scale protests, initially sparked by a feud between vocational schools in Mexico City, escalated into multiple weeks of nonviolent occupation: students and faculty alike from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) were unified in their protests against the repressive regime of then-president Díaz Ordaz. Specifically, the student and his ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), widely seen as corrupt for its accommodation of United States military and financial support ahead of the Games. The students issued statements alleging that the myth of Mexico as “a model for other underdeveloped countries to follow has been destroyed by the government forces themselves.”

A cluster of students armed with 16mm cameras began to capture the unfolding action in the streets, including a 24 year old film student named Leobardo López Aretche. Although its shooting was an open-ended and collaborative effort, López took control of the editing process to shape what would become the finished film: El Grito (The Scream). It tracks the escalation of the rallies into a full-bore standoff between demonstrators and anti-riot granderos, allegedly paid in cash per arrest, who put down an occupation of the nearby National Politechnical Institute. While the protests had grown to include all sections of progressive society (including middle-class citydwellers, labor activists, neighbors, faculty and students alike) in the Plaza de las Tres Culturas, the military ended up surrounding the protests in a “pincer movement” on October 2nd, opening fire with Ordaz’ permission. In the end, over 1300 people were arrested, and 400 protesters were killed.

Beyond the ensuing nationwide scandal, Tlatelolco is a critical event in public memory in Mexico – but was not depicted onscreen for over 20 years until Jorge Fons’ dramatization Rojo Amanecer in 1991. El Grito is the only feature-length work credited to López, who committed suicide two years later. (Also of interest is the contribution of journalist Oriana Fallaci, then covering the student movement, as “screenwriter”.) The film is considered the only primary-source documentary about the massacre, equal parts riveting tactical journalism and a bleak indictment of the repression undertaken by the PRI (whose control of Mexico’s government went uninterrupted from 1929 to 2000.) After decades spent as a suppressed, secret film, UNAM is now distributing it in a clean digital restoration. This will be the first screening of the film in the United States and the New York City premiere, fresh off a screening at the 2018 Viennale.

Thursday, November 8, 7:30pm
UnionDocs
322 Union Avenue, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
https://uniondocs.org/event/2018-11-08-el-grito/

TWO IRENES 
(As Duas Irenes, Fabio Meira, Brazil, 2017, 89 min. In Portuguese with English subtitles)

Q&A with director Fabio Meira
Presented as part of the ongoing series 'If You Can Screen it There: Premiering Contemporary Latin American Cinema.'

By chance, Brazilian teenager Irene (newcomer Priscila Bittencourt, in an assured performance) discovers that there is another 13-year-old Irene living in the same town. Curiously, she observes the confident, cheerful girl who lives alone with her mother. She is fascinated by this other world beyond the bounds of her own well-to-do and traditional family. This other Irene seems free. Soon the two girls, apparently so different from each other, are spending every day together, meeting up with boys in the cinema or going to the lake. When they start talking about their fathers, they notice that they have more in common than they had thought. Winner of the Best First Feature and Best Cinematography awards at the Guadalajara Film Festival, this debut feature by Fabio Meira is an exquisite mosaic that weaves a wonderfully delicate web around questions of identity, true friendship, and the first steps towards adulthood.

Monday, November 5, 7:15pm
Anthology Film Archives
32 Second Avenue (at 2nd Street), New York City
(212) 505-5181 

Tickets are sold the same day of the show.
For more information visit: http://anthologyfilmarchives.org/film_screenings/series/49892

CUATREROS / RUSTLERS

(Albertina Carri, Argentina, 2016, 85 min. In Spanish with English subtitles) 

Inspired by the first book written by her father, sociologist Roberto Carri, acclaimed filmmaker Albertina Carri (Los Rubios) travels to northern Argentina, following in the footsteps of Isidro Velázquez, the country's last cuatrero or rustler, accused of stealing cattle and shot dead by police in 1967. Building the narrative through archival footage, home videos, ads, movies and interviews, and framing it with the search for a lost film based on her father's book, Carri's visually fertile documentary—a favorite at the Berlin and Mar del Plata film festivals—tells a story full of legends, families, politics and cinema. 

Friday, October 19, 7:15pm

Anthology Film Archives
32 Second Avenue (at 2nd Street), New York City

(212) 505-5181 / www.anthologyfilmarchives.org
Please note: Tickets available at the box office the day of the screening only

BELLAS DE NOCHE
(María José Cuevas, Mexico, 2016, 91 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)

Bellas de Noche / Beauties of the Night, is an intimate glimpse into the past and present lives of Mexico’s biggest cabaret stars of the 70s and 80s. These five legendary showgirls represent the voices of the last generation of cabaret stars after the massive earthquake of 1985 in Mexico City destroyed these cabarets, which were never to be rebuilt. Director Maria Jose Cuevas spent eight years shooting over 180 hours of footage, crafting an honest work based on trust and friendship; weaving a unique portrait of each woman.

This film gives us insight into the world of showgirls, exploring the successes and failures of women’s power obtained through beauty and sensuality, as well as the dignity of their aging. It addresses both taboo and struggle for these aging stars, as each of them find their own way with love, strength, acceptance and perseverance.

Bellas de Noche was awarded best documentary, the Premio Guerrero Press Award, and best documentary by a woman at Morelia International Film Festival.

Join us for a screening followed by a Q+A with the director and stars of the film Lyn May, Princesa Yamal, and Olga Breeskin. Moderated by Carlos Gutiérrez, Executive Director, Cinema Tropical.

This event is co-presented with Cinema Tropical.

WILLIAM, THE NEW JUDO MASTER 
(William, el nuevo maestro del judo, Ricardo Silva & Omar Guzmán, Mexico, 2016, 96 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
U.S. Premiere!
Co-presented by Proyector

"Back in the 1950s, Swedish-American singer William Clauson had a worldwide hit with ‘La Bamba.’ Now he lives in a ramshackle garage in Tijuana, Mexico. In William, the New Judo Master, directors Ricardo Silva and Omar Guzmán show how a Mexican nurse washes his naked old body. ‘How did we get here?’ a voiceover muses. ‘What road led us here? When did we take it?’ This fascinating film essay is about the struggle against time, old age, and transitoriness. Silva’s debut film, Navajazo (2014), was already a hybrid form of documentary and fiction, but here (with Guzmán) he goes further, producing a surrealist collage. For example, going on a trip to the oldest tree in the world. Or having a middle-aged actor play Clauson, while he is visited by three male prostitutes. Meanwhile, the devil looks on, eyes glowing red." –International Film Festival Rotterdam  

Thursday, September 20, 7:30pm
Anthology Film Archives

RESURRECTION
(Resurrección, Eugenio Polgovsky, Mexico, 2016, 94 min, digital. In Spanish with English subtitles)
U.S. Premiere!
Co-presented by Proyector and the Flaherty Film Seminar

The final film by the late Mexican director Eugenio Polgovsky—one of the finest documentary filmmakers of his generation—is a poignant portrait of a family’s fight for survival and the regeneration of their local river. Once known as the Mexican Niagara, the waterfall of El Salto de Juanacatlán was a source of immense joy and continuous sustenance for the villages surrounding it. This natural paradise disappeared when an industrial complex was established across the Santiago River close to Guadalajara. Nowadays its poisonous waters destroy everything in their path, including the memories of the fishermen and farmers who watched their whole world disappear. From among the toxic ruins of the river’s banks, ancient specters emerge as an echo of a lost Eden. The destiny of a river goes hand in hand with that of a village, and humanity itself. The film is screened on the occasion of the first anniversary of the death of Polgovsky.
 
Preceded by Success (Eugenio Polgovsky, Mexico, 2014, 3 min.)

Tuesday, August 14, 7:30pm
Anthology Film Archives

(Miguel Faria Jr., Brazil, 2015, 70 min. In Portuguese with English subtitles)

An essential figure of Brazilian culture throughout the last 50 years, the author, playwright, and composer of an extraordinary compilation of songs, Chico Buarque engages in a dialogue with his own recollections in this film by Miguel Faria Jr.

Chico’s search for his German brother, whom he never got to meet (his father had a son in Berlin before getting married to Chico's mother), serves as one of the axis for the narrative and helps put the artist’s trajectory into perspective. “It is an artist revisiting his own past from a mature point of view,” summarizes Faria Jr.

Wednesday, August 1, 7pm
Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theatre at Symphony Space
2537 Broadway (at 95th Street), New York City
(212) 864-5400 / Buy your tickets in advance 

Screening sponsored by the Consulate General of Brazil in New York City. Presented as part of Brasil Summerfest. 

BADI
(Edu Felistoque, Brazil, 2017, 85 min. In Portuguese with English subtitles)

Directed by Edu Felistoque, Badi observes the personal trajectory and career of the singer, guitarist, and composer Badi Assad. From classical to pop, the film follows Badi and her guitar as they move through the hyper-masculine musical universe—persistently reinventing herself and confronting challenges, including the pressure of belonging to a family of virtuoso musicians, with lightness.

This gentle and strong woman, with her own creative process and enormous talent, is not afraid to take risks and charm the world without losing sight of who she is: a simple girl from the interior of São Paulo who values not strident success but the simple emotionality of art and life. 

The documentary features guest appearances by the Assad brothers, Larry Coryell, Toquinho, Naná Vasconcelos, Seu Jorge, and other great names of Brazilian and International music.

Monday, July 30, 7pm
The New School
55 West 13th Street, 5th Floor, New York City
Free Admission with RSVP.  Click here to RSVP.

Screening sponsored by the Consulate General of Brazil in New York City. Presented as part of Brasil Summerfest.

SO LONG, ENTHUSIASM
(Adiós entusiasmo, Vladimir Durán, Argentina/Colombia, 2017, 79 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)

U.S. Premiere!

The acclaimed debut feature by Colombian filmmaker Vladimir Durán—a favorite at the Berlinale’s Forum and winner of the Best Director and Best Colombian Film awards at the Cartagena Film Festival—follows Axel and his older sisters Antonia, Alejandra, and Alicia. They live in an apartment that becomes their kingdom ruled by extravagant policies that they’ve imposed, including locking up their mother, Margarita, in a room. The children communicate with their mother through a small window, giving her blankets, DVDs and reading material, and celebrating her birthday in the corridor. When she’s eventually had enough, it’s Axel who must decide what to do. Shot in Argentina, So Long, Enthusiasm establishes Durán as a talent to watch.

Thursday, July 12, 7:30pm

BADI
A film by Edu Felistoque
(Brazil, 2017, 85 min. In Portuguese with English subtitles)

Directed by Edu Felistoque, Badi observes the personal trajectory and career of the singer, guitarist, and composer Badi Assad. From classical to pop, the film follows Badi and her guitar as they move through the hyper-masculine musical universe - persistently reinventing herself and confronting challenges, including the pressure of belonging to a family of virtuoso musicians, with lightness.

This gentle and strong woman, with her own creative process and enormous talent, is not afraid to take risks and charm the world without losing sight of who she is: a simple girl from the interior of São Paulo who values not strident success but the simple emotionality of art and life.

The documentary features guest appearances by the Assad brothers, Larry Coryell, Toquinho, Naná Vasconcelos, Seu Jorge, and other great names of Brazilian and International music.

Preceded by History of Electric Guitar (5 min.) G.E. Smith performs the history of the electric guitar, from steel to squeal, in just one song!

Presented as part of the first annual Guitar Masters festival.

Friday, July 6, 4pm
Guild Hall
158 Main Street, East Hampton, NY 11937
(631) 324 0806 / For tickets and more information please visit: www.guildhall.org

Badi will perform at Guild Hall on Saturday, July 7 at 8pm. Click here for more information and to purchase tickets.

EN EL SÉPTIMO DÍA
(Jim McKay, USA, 2017, 96 min. In Spanish and English with English subtitles)

En el Séptimo Día (On the Seventh Day) is a fiction feature from director Jim McKay (Girls Town, Our Song, Everyday People) which follows a group of undocumented immigrants living in Sunset Park, Brooklyn over the course of seven days. Bicycle delivery guys, construction workers, dishwashers, deli workers, and cotton candy vendors, they work long hours six days a week and then savor their day of rest on Sundays on the soccer fields of Sunset Park. José, a bicycle delivery worker, is the team's captain—young, talented, hardworking and responsible.

When José's team makes it to the finals, he and his teammates are thrilled. But his boss throws a wrench into the celebration when he tells José he has to work on Sunday, the day of the finals. José tries to reason with his boss or replace himself, but his efforts fail. If he doesn't work on Sunday, his job and his future will be on the line. But if he doesn't stand up for himself and his teammates, his dignity will be crushed.

Shot in the neighborhoods of Sunset Park, Park Slope, and Gowanus, En el Séptimo Día is a humane, sensitive, and humorous window into a world rarely seen. The film’s impact is made quietly, with restraint and respect for the individual experiences, everyday challenges, and small triumphs of its characters. A Cinema Guild release.