July - August 2010
Instituto Cervantes New York
This summer, Instituto Cervantes partners with Cinema Tropical to present films from the organization's celebrated film collection, showcasing the diversity of Latin American production over the past few years. Verano Tropical will feature eight films from different Latin American countries including a wide variety of genres, from ingenious comedies to highly stylized dramas and stirring documentaries.
Free admission. All film (digitally) screened in their original language with English subtitles
All screenings at:
Instituto Cervantes at Amster Yard
211 - 215 East 49th Street, New York City
(212) 308-7720 / www.nuevayork.cervantes.es
SOCCER STORIES / HISTORIAS DE FÚTBOL
(Andrés Wood, Chile, 1997, 90 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Introduction by film critic and writer Naief Yehya.
Just in tune with the 2010 edition of the World Cup, the 'Verano Tropical' film series kicks off with Andrés Wood acclaimed soccer film. Some say in Latin America, football (soccer to the US) is the center of everything. Soccer Stories uses this incredibly favored sport to explore a diverse Chilean geography and culture and link three Chilean lives: a third-division player from Santiago de Chile is handed a life-changing offer; a boy living in the Calama Desert must face making a bold sacrifice; and a football fan stuck in a remote corner of the southern island of Chiloé is given an unexpected chance to experience another kind of passion.
Wednesday, July 7, 6:30pm
SUITE HABANA
(Fernando Pérez, Cuba/Spain, 2003, 80 min.)
A poetic homage to the city of Havana, this breathtaking film portrays Cuba's capital as no other art form has before. A loving and melancholic picture over a 24 hour period of life of this city, the film follows ten ordinary Habaneros as they go about their daily routine. There is no dialogue and no need for it either; music and natural sound accompany the multiplicity of images that weave a unique and intimate picture of a city full of contradictions and contrasts, a city of accomplished and frustrated dreams. Edited like a musical composition, Suite Habana oscillates between documentary and fiction. The ten characters range from ages 10 to 97, and represent the diversity of groups that form the city's social fabric. Each of them follows a narrative, and we follow their transformations as the workday ends and they prepare themselves to welcome the night, which brings about the daily renewal of this exceptional and fascinating city.
Wednesday, July 14, 6:30pm
THE SUPREME UNEASINESS: INCESSANT PORTRAIT OF FERNANDO VALLEJO / LA DESAZÓN SUPREMA: RETRATO INCESANTE DE FERNANDO VALLEJO
(Luis Ospina, Colombia, 2003, 90 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Colombian biographer, linguist, filmmaker, novelist, musician and biologist Fernando Vallejo came to global acclaim through filmmaker Barbet Schroeder's adaptation of his novel, "Our Lady of the Assassins." Vallejo's writing has been praised for its force and rigor, and critics have singled him out as one of the leading Latin American authors. Considered a provocateur by many for his politically incorrect and bold accusations, he is nonetheless an essential critic of the atrocities committed in his beloved country, from which he was forced to exile (he has lived in Mexico over 20 years). An intimate and extraordinary documentary about an eccentric iconoclast.
EL PERRO
(Carlos Sorín, Argentina, 2004, 96 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
"Lovely! flawlessly directed by Carlos Sorin" — A.O. Scott, The New York Times
In this warm-hearted and poignant road movie, a man and a dog embark on a delightful adventure across the stunningly beautiful Argentine Patagonia. Fifty-two-year-old Juan is laid off when the gas station where he has worked for the last 20 years is sold. Unemployed, middle-aged, unskilled, his luck turns in a most unexpected way. An elderly widow with little money gives Juan her late husband's dog, Lechien, as payment for repairing her car, but Lechien ends up being not just any dog; he is a pure breed Dogo Argentino, a potential dog show winner who may hold the key to Juan's future in his paw.
Wednesday, July 28, 6:30pm
MY LIFE INSIDE / MI VIDA DENTRO
(Lucía Gajá, Mexico, 2007, 120 min. In Spanish and English with English subtitles)
"In January 2003, 21-year-old Rosa Estela Olera Jiménez, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico working as a nanny in Austin, Texas, is brought to trial for the homicide of 21-month-old Bryan Gutierrez, a young boy who died under mysterious circumstances while in her care. The prosecution is relentless in its demonization of Jiménez, a soft-spoken mother of two who was working to one day buy her mother a house and build a better life for herself in the land of opportunity. With a sweeping, lyrical focus, the film encompasses the obstacles, prejudices and Sisyphean struggles faced by many Mexican migrant workers who leave their lives behind to pursue the American dream. A powerful and heart-wrenching documentary, My Life Inside alternates between tense courtroom drama and moving personal profile, providing a cautionary tale about the experience of outsiders in the United States." – Hot Docs Film Festival.
Presented as part of the 'Indocumentales / Undocumentaries: The US/Mexico Interdependent Film Series.'
Wednesday, August 4, 6:30pm
HERMANAS
(Julia Solomonoff, Argentina/Spain, 2005, 88 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Q&A with filmmaker
Natalia and Elena Levin, two sisters forced to separate as teenagers in 1975, right after Natalia's militant boyfriend Martin was disappeared by the military dictatorship, reunite in 1984 in a country foreign to both of them. Natalia, who has been living in exile in Spain, travels to visit Elena, who has just moved to suburban Texas with her husband and son. It's been nine years since they've seen each other and Natalia arrives eager to rebuild the ties of family love that she has missed so much. When she finds out that Elena has brought along the manuscript of their deceased father's last novel, Natalia reads it with anticipation that soon becomes trepidation – the unpublished novel unveils the story of their family during the dictatorship. Exploring the secrets and silences of a family and a society that lived under a decade of fear, complicity with the dictatorship and concealment, Solomonoff debuts with a compelling story in a film that shines with exceptional performances by Valeria Bertuccelli and Ingrid Rubio.
Wednesday, August 11, 6:30pm
HASTA EL ÚLTIMO TRAGO CORAZÓN | TILL THE LAST DROP… MY HEART
(Beto Gómez, Mexico, 2006, 90 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
A declaration of love to Mexico and its cultural roots through the women who gave their voices and essence to Mexican music. This endearing documentary features the legendary Chavela Vargas, along with Lila Downs, Astrid Hadad, Eugenia Leon, La Negra Graciana, Iraida Noriega, and Chayito Valdéz, all of who share their intimacies, memories of their lives, their pain and feelings, and above all, their music.
Wednesday, August 18, 6:30pm
DÍAS DE SANTIAGO
(Josué Méndez, Peru, 2004, 83 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Selected by over 80 Film Festivals worldwide and winning no less than a dozen prestigious awards, Josué Méndez´s extraordinary debut explores the tragic impossibility of a war veteran to re-integrate into civilian life. 23-year old Santiago (Pietro Sibille, in a "volcanic performance," Variety) returns home, weary from years of jungle fighting, searching for hope. But his native Lima has become a less than welcoming place. Unable to get a job or credit, or afford an education, misunderstood by his family, wife and friends whom he finds decadent and distant, Santiago's estrangement from an increasingly hostile and chaotic world deepens, as his anger and frustration rise. Through a powerful and original style of narration, Méndez vividly examines the effects of war upon those who carry it out.
Wednesday, August 25, 6:30pm
