8th Annual Reel Time at GALA
November 20 - 24
GALA Hispanic Theatre
Washington, D.C.
A series of groundbreaking films from the indigenous nations of Bolivia, vibrant contemporary work by young Mexican and Brazilian filmmakers, and a classic from Mexico’s Golden Age. Discussions and Q&As with the curator, filmmakers, actors, and film experts will be held after each screening.
For more information and tickets visit:
www.galatheatre.org
EL RÍO / THE RIVER
(Juan Pablo Richter Bolivia / Ecuador, 2018, 92 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Post-screening Q&A with lead actor Santiago Rozo. Reception courtesy of the Embassy of Bolivia.
“Flowing with intrigue, beauty and brutality, Bolivian writer-director Juan Pablo Richter’s feature debut transports us to a seemingly placid rural locale where a teenage boy gets pulled into dangerous waters. Sebastián leaves a fraught situation in the city to live with his long-estranged father Raphael, who resides on a ranch adjacent to a jungle-lined river. Sebastián is a scrapper, and Raphael seeks to channel those unruly energies through activities like hunting. But as life in this pastoral setting begins to reveal its true nature, Sebastián finds himself struggling against a current of corruption, humiliation and violence in which women are currency. Eschewing stylistic pyrotechnics in favor of eerily mounting tensions, Richter proves himself a keen observer of toxic masculine codes and the bracing velocity with which innocence can suddenly be washed away.” —Miami Film Festival
Wednesday, November 20, 7pm
SÓCRATES
(Alexandre Moratto, Brazil/USA, 2018, 71 min. In Portuguese with English subtitles)
Post-screening Q&A with lead actor Christian Malheiros. Reception following the screening.
Winner of the Independent Spirit Award, Alexandre Moratto’s acclaimed film follows Sócrates—played with bravura by newcomer Christian Malheiros—a 15-year-old on the margins living on São Paulo's coast who must survive on his own after his mother's sudden death. As he faces isolation because of his sexuality, his search for a decent, worthy life reaches a breaking point. In the longstanding Brazilian film tradition of social-realism drama, Sócrates is a refreshing and vigorous take on the coming-of-age tale. Fueled by breakthrough performances and accomplished filmmaking, Moratto’s debut feature is an engrossing, beautiful story about love, sacrifice and resilience.
Thursday, November 21, 7pm
CINDERELO
(Beto Gómez, Mexico/Dominican Republic, 2019, 91 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Post-screening Q&A with director Beto Gómez and festival curator Carlos Gutiérrez. Reception courtesy of the Mexican Cultural Institute.
Beto Gómez’ humorous screwball comedy Cinderelo follows Marlon Flores (the wonderful Miguel Rodarte), a talented photographer with an amazing ability to highlight anyone's inner beauty, but not his own. His ugliness attracts the rejection and ridicule of all women, except his assistant Maria, who can see him for who he really is. Tired of constant contempt, he unexpectedly encounters his fairy godfather (Joaquín Cosío, Narcos: Mexico, Me gusta pero me asusta, The Thin Yellow Line), a mysterious man who casts a spell on him, transforming him into an irresistible hunk named Brando (played by popular actor William Levy). The catch? It’s only in effect at night. With the help of his best friend Felix, Marlon turns the handsome Brando into the most coveted man in the city. But can you find true love with a double identity?
Friday, November 22, 7pm
TWO IRENES / AS DUAS IRENES
(Fabio Meira, Brazil, 2017, 89 min. In Portuguese with English subtitles)
Post-screening Q&A with director Fabio Meira.
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.
Saturday, November 23, 4pm
ALGO QUEMA / STILL BURN
(Mauricio Alfredo Ovando, Bolivia, 2018, 77 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Post-screening Q&A with director Mauricio Alfredo Ovando and Fadrique Iglesias.
Alfredo Ovando Candia was a military general who served as Co-President of Bolivia from 1965–66 (and again from 1969–70) after overthrowing sitting President Víctor Paz Estenssoro. His political and military service connected him to the largest massacre of workers in the country’s history, as well as the military campaign in which Che Guevara was killed. Incorporating archival footage recorded during Ovando’s de facto government, home movies, and interviews with relatives, filmmaker Mauricio Alfredo Ovando’s debut feature studies the many profiles of his grandfather to juxtapose his family’s memories with the official history. Winner of the Best Director and FIPRESCI awards at the 2018 Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema, Still Burn is a courageous, perceptive documentary about how collective and personal memories are created from—and ultimately shape—a complicated legacy.
Saturday, November 23, 7pm
EL REY DEL BARRIO / THE KING OF THE NEIGHBORHOOD
(Gilberto Martínez Solares, Mexico, 1949, 100 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Post-screening Q&A with critic Anne Wakefield Hoyt
In this classic comedy, Mexican icon “Tin Tan” (Germán Valdés) leads a gang of small-time con artists whose crimes include conning wealthy women by acting as musicians. Everything gets complicated when one of the victims (Silvia Pinal) falls in love with him and is hell-bent on marrying him. The persona of Tin Tan was intimately linked to Hollywood through his trademark character of the pachuco. With his zoot suit, swagger, streetwise sensibility, bilingual wordplay and embrace of swing, Tin Tan became the cinematic embodiment of a cultural figure forged between two nations. This movie is considered by many critics to be one of the top five comedies in the Spanish language.
Sunday, November 24, 4pm
WIND TRACES / RESTOS DE VIENTO
(Jimena Montemayor Loyo, Mexico, 2018, 93 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Post-screening Q&A with critic Anne Wakefield Hoyt
“Mexican writer-director Jimena Montemayor Loyo’s hauntingly atmospheric second feature stars the formidable Dolores Fonzi as the matriarch of a family working through a torrent of grief and addiction. In the wake of husband’s death, Carmen finds herself succumbing to alcohol and its promise of oblivion. Unable to either process her own grief or help her children through theirs, she tells her son and daughter that their father will return—an illusion heightened by the appearances of a strange creature. Wind Traces wends through a labyrinth of magic and loss, handling overwhelming emotion with delicacy and intelligence and displaying an acute understanding of the sometimes spectral nature of childhood trauma. —Miami Film Festival
Sunday, November 24, 7pm
