Latinx and Latin American Films at the Tribeca Festival
June 8 — 19, 2022
Co-presented by Cinema Tropical
PETIT MAL
A film by Ruth Caudeli
(Colombia, 2022, 89 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Martina, Laia, and Anto are in a passionate, loving, playful throuple. Their relationship, replete with backyard barbeques, relentless teasing, and enough dogs to take up any of the space left in their double wide king bed, faces a test when Laia (multi-talented director Ruth Caudeli) is called away for a long-term project, and Martina (Silvia Varón) and Anto (Ana María Otálora) must temporarily reshape their own dynamic as just the two of them. As they contemplate the strength and flexibility of their love, the audience is invited into an ever-evolving romance that makes room for envy, loneliness, and deep affection to coexist without judgment.
With typical attention to detail, exquisite portrait photography, and effortless chemistry, Petit Mal is frequent collaborators Caudeli (writer-director of Eva + Candela, and Leading Ladies), Varón and Otálora at their most intimate and honest. It’s a chapter of queer life and queer women’s filmmaking steeped in authenticity and introspection, blending documentary and semi-autobiographical fiction to open a window on a uniquely sweet, hopeful vision of inevitable change.
Thursday, June 9, 8:45pm — Village East by Angelika: Theater 3
Friday, June 10, 8:15pm — Village East by Angelika: Theater 5
Saturday, June 11, 6pm — At Home
Saturday, June 11, 8:15pm — Tribeca Film Center
THE VISITOR / EL VISITANTE
A film by Martín Boulocq
(Bolivia/Uruguay, 85 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Humberto is an ex-convict with a tormented past. Three years sober, he returns home in search of a new life, but still plagued by a past tragedy. As he mulls over his future and any job prospects in front of him, a friend bluntly tells him: “A stigma is a stigma.”
He now has a real chance to reconnect with his estranged daughter Aleida, but first he has to contend with his in-laws, Carlos and Elizabeth, who now look after Aleida. Carlos, a wealthy Argentinian pastor deeply connected in the Evangelical community in Bolivia, decides to take a chance on Humberto and bring him back into the church fold. As Humberto begins to attend church in order to ingratiate himself into Carlos’ network—and bond with Aleida—he pursues a few jobs in the hopes of making enough income to retrieve his daughter from the influence of Carlos and Elizabeth. What quickly transpires is an emotionally fraught ‘tug-of-war’ between Humberto and Carlos, in their pursuit of ‘saving’ and commandeering Aleida’s future.
Martin Boulocq’s The Visitor is an arresting and melancholic drama with sharp socio-political insights and an impressive level of cinematic sophistication, one that deftly explores how intolerance can seep into religion and have hypnotic influence and power on vulnerable people.
Saturday, June 11, 6:45pm — Village East by Angelika: Theater 4
Monday, June 13, 6pm — At Home
Tuesday, June 14, 4:45pm — Village East by Angelika: Theater 5
Sunday, June 19, 1:30pm — Village East by Angelika: Theater 5
CARAJITA
A film by Silvina Schnicer and Ulises Porra
(Dominican Republic/Argentina, 89 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Carajita opens with the haunting image of a tropical beach at night, illuminated by the flashing red and blue lights of a police car. On the edge of the lapping waves, an object lies motionless on the beach. The camera lingers long enough for the viewer’s eyes to adjust, prompting a shocking realization: The object is actually a dead body of an unnamed local.
This juxtaposition of sinister mood and striking visuals runs throughout Silvia Schnicer and Ulises Porra’s sophomore feature. Carajita is a drama that plays like a psychological thriller, deriving oppressive tension from unspoken inequalities and the impunity of privilege. Cecile van Welie stars as Sarah, the pampered daughter of a corrupt oligarch whose family recently relocated to Las Terrenas.Magnolia Núñez co-stars as Yarisa, the Black Dominican domestic worker who Sarah thinks of as “part of the family.” That illusion is put to the test when Yarisa’s spirited daughter Mallory (Adelanny Padilla) goes missing, challenging Sarah’s naïve ideas about race, class, and family. Boasting intuitive storytelling and confident direction, Carajita is poised to become a haunting, lingering classic.
Monday, June 13, 6:45pm — Village East by Angelika: Theater 4
Wednesday, June 15, 6pm — At Home
Wednesday, June 15, 8:45pm — Cinépolis: Theater 5
Thurday, June 16, 5:45pm — Cinépolis: Theater 5
HUESERA
A film by Michelle Garza Cervera
(Mexico/Peru, 2022, 93 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
It should be the happiest time in Valeria’s life. She and her husband, Raul, have finally seen one of their longtime dreams come true: Valeria is pregnant. At first, everything seems perfect. Gradually, though, her mood darkens. With motherhood upon her, Valeria can't shake off heavy self-doubt and a pervasive dread, the latter stemming from visions of spider-like presences and other possibly supernatural threats, all of which may be the work of an entity known as “La Huesera.” Hoping to confront these demons, she reconnects with the old, more carefree life she once gave up for Raul, including rekindling an old flame with her first love, Octavia.
The fears and anxieties that come from being a first-time mother power this poignant and creepy feature debut from Mexican filmmaker Michelle Garza Cervera, whose bold and inventive short films have made waves in the genre festival circuit for nearly a decade. Tapping into themes similar to Maggie Gyllenhaal’s recent critical darling The Lost Daughter, Huesera provides a raw and intimate look at a complex character making difficult choices, the stakes of which are intensely heightened by Garza Cervera’s proficient ability to craft unsettling imagery and nerve-rattling set-pieces that’ll make your skin crawl.
Thursday, June 9, 8pm —Village East by Angelika: Theater
Friday, June 10, 9:30pm —Village East by Angelika: Theater
Saturday, June 18, 8:15pm — Tribeca Film Center
THREE HEADED BEAST
A film by Fernando Andrés and Tyler Rugh
(USA, 83 min. In English)
In the quiet of a hot Texas day, Peter (Jacob Schatz) goes to bed with his lover. Across town, Nina (Dani Hurtado) wakes up with hers. Without a word, each couple bids a fond, lingering farewell, and Peter and Nina return to their cozy shared home. They operate comfortably in smiles and silence, moving about their day in percussive rhythms and worn-in grooves of a long-term, healthy relationship; but something in the way they communicate is noticeably lacking. Though they are on the verge of closing their open relationship, something, and someone, is missing.
Co-directors’ Fernando Andrés and Tyler Rugh’s visually lyrical, intimate, and sometimes cheeky drama Three Headed Beast puts the widening chasms in our interpersonal communication on full view. With expressive performances from Hurtado and Schatz, this boldly experimental debut feature highlights what and whom we take for granted, even in relationships that intentionally step off the escalator to monogamy, marriage, and a normative life.
Monday, June 13, 9pm — Village East by Angelika: Theater 3
Wednesday, June 15, 6pm — At Home
Wednesday, June 15, 9pm — Cinépolis: Theater 6
Thursday, June 16, 8:15pm — Tribeca Film Center
SANSÓN AND ME
A film by Rodrigo Reyes
(Mexico/USA, 83 min. In English and Spanish with English subtitles)
Tribeca alum Rodrigo Reyes returns with a deeply compassionate and aesthetically adventurous exploration of a young immigrant’s journey from coastal Mexico to prison in California. Reyes first met Sansón as the court interpreter at the trial in which Sansón was ultimately sentenced to life imprisonment for his role in a gang-related murder. Haunted by that initial encounter and drawn by Sansón’s earnestness and their common roots as migrants from Mexico, Reyes reached out to Sansón to explore telling his story.
In addition to tracing Reyes’ evolving relationship with Sansón as a friend and a filmmaker, the film utilizes heart-wrenching recreations, with the participation of family and community members, to reflect on Sansón’s difficult upbringing, his migration to rural California, the hopeful beginnings of a family, and the circumstances that led to his incarceration. The result is a provocative meditation on poverty, migration, borders, incarceration, and the power of story to bind together fragmented lives.
Sunday, June 12, 5:30pm — Cinépolis: Theater 4
Monday, June 13, 4:30pm — Village East by Angelika: Theater 5
Tuesday, June 14, 6pm — At Home
Tuesday, June 14, 6pm — Cinépolis: Theater
MARS ONE
A film by Gabriel Martins
(Brazil, 115 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
An emotionally-layered ensemble drama, Mars One tells a classic story of a family in crisis. While a far-right politician takes power in Brazil, a young woman realizes she’s queer and falls in love for the first time. Her little brother has a new love as well: science. But as he looks to the stars his father tries to bring him back to Earth, pushing him into a soccer career he’s not sure he actually wants. Meanwhile, the matriarch of the family is going through her own private struggle, triggered by new trauma.
But a family often needs to fall apart to find their way back together, and Mars One brings poetry to their pain. Much like the flow of life, their troubles are punctuated by moments of blissful play, music, dancing and making love. With its gorgeous cinematography and heartfelt performances, Mars One is an emotional journey through changing times.
Tuesday, June 14, 5pm — Village East by Angelika: Theater 2
Thursday, June 16, 6pm — At Home
Friday, June 17, 5:45pm — Cinépolis: Theater 5
Saturday, June 18, 5:30pm — Cinépolis: Theater 4
‘LATINX SHORTS: CONDICIÓN HUMANA (HUMAN CONDITION)’
The shorts program Condición Humana spans unique creative sensibilities from five different Latin American countries. These seven compelling and visually-distinctive shorts explore fraught and emotionally-resonant human relationships – from tumultuous dynamics between siblings and the joys & violent struggles of Latinx youth, to the thoughtful connections we can have to the earth and our ancestors. Curated by Jose Rodriguez
Playing in this program:
Ñaños
Baby
Paraclete
Fifth of June
Desert Lights
Phonos
Mamá
