November 5 - 11, 2021
BAM Rose Cinemas
Presented by the Brooklyn Academy of Music and Cinema Tropical
With the Support of the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS)
at New York University (NYU)
Celebrating the 20th anniversary of Cinema Tropical, the leading presenter of Latin American cinema in the United States, BAM presents unique and playful pairings of feature-length and short narrative, documentary, and experimental films that challenge traditional tropes of Latin American culture and politics.
Addressing issues of race, privilege, the indigenous experience, history, domestic service, and narcos, among other topics, Uncharted Cartographies offers novel ways to think about and creatively remap conceptions of Latin America in order to better reflect the often overlooked heterogeneity of the region.
Featuring films from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Peru, the United States, Paraguay, and Uruguay.
Programmed by Jesse Trussell, BAM Senior Programmer, Film; and Carlos A. Gutiérrez, Executive Director, Cinema Tropical. Special thanks to Cecilia Barrionuevo.
All screenings at:
BAM Rose Cinemas
30 Lafayette Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11217
For tickets and more information visit:
https://www.bam.org/uncharted-cartographies
The three films in this program—one set in Barcelona, another in Montevideo, and the third in an unspecified location in Argentina—provoke and play with notions of time travel and masculinity, both queer and heterosexual, from a decidedly existentialist perspective. Q&A with director Lucio Castro and actress Mia Maestro following End of the Century (which screens first).
END OF THE CENTURY / FIN DE SIGLO
A film by Lucio Castro
(Argentina, 2019, 84 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
An Argentine man from New York and a Spanish man from Berlin hook up by chance while in Barcelona. What seems like a one-night encounter between two strangers (played by Juan Barberini and Ramón Pujol) becomes an epic, decades-spanning relationship, which Lucio Castro depicts in a nonlinear fashion in which time and space refuse to play by the rules. Castro’s inventive and enigmatic debut feature is consistently surprising, turning a love story into a cosmic voyage with no clear beginning or end.
THE WAVES / LAS OLAS
A film by Adrián Biniez
(Uruguay/Argentina, 2017, 88 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
This intimate, nostalgic, and imaginative feature by Argentine-born, Uruguay-based filmmaker Adrián Biniez (Gigante, El Cinco) tells the story of Alfonso, a man in his late 30s who leaves work exhausted and goes to the beach. After diving into the water, he emerges on another shore, where younger versions of his parents await, calling for him. In this fantastic journey through different vacations of his life, chronology knows no bounds, and Alfonso encounters past girlfriends, friends from childhood, his daughter, and his loneliness.
COULD SEE A PUMA / PUDE VER UN PUMA
A film by Teddy Willians
(Argentina, 2011, 18 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
A rooftop accident sends a group of friends wandering across desolate landscapes until they plunge into the earth’s depths.
Friday, November 5, 7pm
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In recent years, numerous Latin American directors have turned to history to deconstruct the violent origins of the idea of nation-state in the Americas—think Lucrecia Martel’s Zama, Lisandro Alonso’s Jauja, or more recently, Rodrigo Reyes’ 499. These three highly stylized and fascinating films, from Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile, go in that same direction, challenging and revisiting traditional narratives of South American history and presenting them as political allegories of the present.
REY
A film by Niles Atallah
(Chile/France//The Netherlands/Germany/Italy/Qatar, 2017, 91 min. In Spanish and Mapuche with English subtitles)
In 1860, an adventurous French lawyer named Orélie-Antoine de Tounens tried to create an independent state for Indigenous people in Araucanía (in present-day Chile) and Patagonia (Argentina), declaring himself king. In this experimental, hallucinatory interpretation of events grounded in formal technique, history and memory swirl, reflecting the ambiguity surrounding his true identity. Recipient of the Special Jury Prize at Rotterdam.
THE MOVEMENT / EL MOVIMIENTO
A film by Benjamín Naishtat
(Argentina, 2015, 66 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
During the first half of the 19th century, an unhinged, despotic militia leader roams the desolated Argentina plains, where he kills and plunders settlers in the name of uniting and purifying society. Shot in black and white, this stark, highly stylized film continues director Benjamín Naishtat's exploration of Argentina’s violent past by dramatizing an extreme and terror-ridden period in its history.
THE BEAST / LA BESTIA
A film by Kiro Russo
(Bolivia/Argentina, 2015, 12 min.)
1538. In the Inca empire a strange visitor has arrived. The messenger Sisco will give the news.
Saturday, November 6, 3pm
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EXECUTIVE ORDER / MEDIDA PROVISÓRIA
A film by Lázaro Ramos (Brazil, 2020, 103 min. In Portuguese with English subtitles)
New York Premiere
In this New York premiere and directorial debut from Lázaro Ramos, one of Brazil’s most acclaimed actors, an authoritarian federal government orders that the Black population of a dystopian, near-future Brazil be sent to Africa. Three individuals try to fight for their rights, creating chaos, protests, and an underground resistance movement that inspires the nation.
Saturday, November 6, 7pm
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BARONESA
A film by Juliana Antunes
(Brazil, 2017, 70 min. In Portuguese with English subtitles)
Juliana Antunes’ debut feature offers an evocative, rigorously composed glimpse at life in the favelas of Belo Horizonte. Baronesa follows friends Leidiane and Andreia as their conversation flows freely across backyards and within cramped quarters, addressing the facts of life: family, drugs, sex, death. With its almost exclusively female crew and nonprofessional cast, Baronesa is structurally simple yet multilayered in its resonance, recalling the films of Pedro Costa as it establishes Antunes as a formidable new voice in Brazilian cinema.
LONG WAY HOME / TEMPORADA
A film by André Novais Oliveira
(Brazil, 2018, 113 min. In Portuguese with English subtitles)
This debut fiction film from André Novais Oliveira establishes him as a leading talent in contemporary Brazilian cinema. In a poignant story about everyday encounters and challenges, a woman moves from her Brazilian hometown to a larger city to work in the public health system, intent on eradicating disease. On the job, she meets new people, makes friends, and has new experiences that start little by little to change her life. At the same time, she feels she is losing touch with her husband as she waits for him to join her.
Sunday, November 7, 2pm
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From B movies and soap operas, to Hollywood and American independent cinema, the narco narrative has become a staple of the Latinx and Latin American representation globally. The films by these four filmmakers take a humorous and self-reflexive approach to tackle the fascination with these hegemonic narratives.
BEYOND THE BEYOND / AL MÁS ALLÁ
A film by Lourdes Portillo
(USA/Mexico, 2008, 43 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
When a clueless filmmaker leads a fictional documentary crew through a Mexican beach town to interview local merchants and tour guides, she quickly discovers that more than information stands between her and the truth. A hybrid documentary that creatively blends reportage and narrative techniques, Al Más Allá investigates the contemporary realities of shifting global wealth and drug trafficking along the Mayan coastline of Mexico.
¡CHAPORAZZI!
A film by César Martínez Barba
(USA, 2020, 14 min. In Spanish and English with English subtitles)
Outside of El Chapo's Brooklyn trial, his mythology appears in media spectacles, sidewalk conversations, and selfies.
FAUNA
A film by Nicolás Pereda
(Mexico/Canada, 2020, 70 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
An actress returns home to see her family and brings her boyfriend, an actor with a small part in a popular narco drama, and they cross paths with her estranged brother in this rural Mexican village. This trickster comedy of errors transforms into a more ominous story starring all the same actors, in different roles. Mixing realism and absurdity, it explores the unpredictability of place, culture, family, and performance.
BOLIWOOD
A film by Sergio Bastani
(Bolivia, 2015, 8 min. In Spanish and English with English subtitles)
A visual essay on the view of Bolivia in world cinema.
Sunday, November 7, 6pm
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In these two films, the filmmakers confront the conflicted legacies of their grandfather and great-grandfather—who were authoritarian presidents of Bolivia and Mexico, respectively—masterfully using family photo and audio collections and linking them to the convoluted history of their respective countries, while examining privilege from within.
STILL BURN / ALGO QUEMA
A film by Mauricio Alfredo Ovando
(Bolivia, 2018, 77 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Director Mauricio Alfredo Ovando looks deeper into the image created by his grandfather, Bolivian dictator Alfredo Ovando Candía, a military general who served as co-president of Bolivia after overthrowing President Víctor Paz Estenssoro. Examining the legacy of his impact—including the military campaign in which Che Guevara was killed—the filmmaker-grandson incorporates official archival footage, home movies, and interviews with relatives, weaving his family’s perspective with harsh events in history. Winner of the Best Director and FIPRESCI awards at the 2018 Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema.
EL GENERAL
A film by Natalia Almada
(Mexico/USA, 2009, 90 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
This feature-length documentary from Natalia Almada, MacArthur “genius” and two-time recipient of the Sundance Documentary Directing Award, combines personal, family, and political history. As the great-granddaughter of Mexican president Plutarco Elias Calles (1924—1928), one of the country's most controversial, even brutal, revolutionary figures, Almada creates a portrait of a family and a country under the shadow of the past. She examines her ancestors' impact to explore Mexico's history and shed light on current events, highlighting discrepancies between memory and fact.
Monday, November 6, 7pm
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LAS MARTHAS
A film by Cristina Ibarra
(USA, 2014, 68 min. In Spanish and English with English subtitles)
In 1939, the Society of Martha Washington was founded to usher each year’s debutantes (called “Marthas”) into proper society at the Colonial Pageant and Ball in Laredo, Texas. Celebrated as “a striking alternative portrait of border-town life” (The New York Times), the film follows two Mexican-American girls carrying this gilded tradition on their shoulders during a time of economic uncertainty and tension over immigration.
MOSQUITA Y MARI
A film by Aurora Guerrero
(USA, 2012, 85 min. In English and Spanish with English subtitles)
Two Latina teens in East L.A.—a predominantly Mexican, immigrant neighborhood—assigned as study partners fall into an unlikely romance that forces them to reevaluate their lives. As family backgrounds and outside pressures steer the girls in different directions, they must decide whether their newfound romance is worth fighting for.
Tuesday, November 9, 7pm
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HOUSEMAIDS
A film by Gabriel Mascaro
(Brazil, 2013, 76 min. In Portuguese with English subtitles)
Seven adolescents take on the mission of filming, for one week, their family´s housemaids and hand over the footage to the director to make a film. Their footage uncovers the complex relationship between housemaids and their employers, a relationship that confuses intimacy and power in the workplace. This confrontation provides insight into the echoes of a colonial past that linger in contemporary Brazil.
AMELIA & MORENA
A film by Andrea Franco
(Peru/USA, 2010, 10 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
A documentary short about a baker and her maid of 20 years during an afternoon at work, sharing the kitchen as their workspace.
Wednesday, November 10, 7pm
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‘GENERATIONAL CONVERSATIONS’
UNCLE YIM / TÍO YIM
A film by Luna Marán
(Mexico, 2019, 88 min. In Spanish and Zapoteco with English subtitles)
In her heartfelt and powerful debut feature, Zapotec director Luna Marán encourages her father Jaime Luna (Uncle Yim), an indigenous philosopher, social leader, and singer-songwriter, to compose a new song about his life after 15 years of silence. This time, though, he does so alongside his family; their memories and interpretations are contradictory and painful. Uncle Yim is a powerful documentary that immerses us in the identity of a family shaped by tradition, music, and communality.
TOTE_GRANDFATHER / TOTE_ABUELO
A film by María Sojob
(Mexico, 2019, 80 min. In Tzotzil and Spanish with English subtitles)
In her deeply personal debut documentary feature, Tzotzil filmmaker María Sojob documents the unexpected encounter between an old man, who is going blind, and his granddaughter, who has a limited memory of her childhood. As the grandfather weaves a traditional hat, the threads of family history are untangled. Between the silences, it becomes possible to understand the meaning of love in Tzotzil. A deceptively simple film, Tote_Grandfather / Tote_abuelo is a complex portrait that contrasts the point of view of a younger generation with a traditional world that was largely marginalized.
PARAGUAYAN HAMMOCK / HAMACA PARAGUAYA
A film by Paz Encina
(Paraguay, 2000, 8min. In Guarani with English subtitles)
A short film with ties to Encina’s later film with the same name.
Thursday, November 11, 7pm
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