EL HOMBRE DE AL LADO at ND/NF

Tonight was the New York premiere of the Argentinean film El hombre de al lado / The Man Next Door directed by Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat as part of the New Directors / New Films Festival at the Museum of Modern Art. The film that tells the story of an uneasy relationship between neighbors in Buenos Aires, was introduced by the filmmakers accompanied by the screenwriter Andrés Duprat. In the Q&A session the screenwriter accepted that for the largest part the script was based on a true story that happened to him. When asked about their future plans, the directors made the audience chuckle with the title of their new film project: Querida, voy a comprar cigarrillos y vuelvo, that roughly translates as "Darling, I'm Going Out to Buy Cigarettes, I'll Be Right Back." The screening was followed by a reception for special guests hosted by the Consulate General of Argentina in New York.

Watch Jerónimo Rodríguez's video interview with the filmmakers at NY1 Noticias (in Spanish).

Pictured (from left to right): Min. Alejandro Bertolo, Consul General of Argentina in New York, co-director Gastón Duprat and Jytte Jensen, Curator at MoMA's Film Department.

Walter Salles to Be Feted at the San Francisco Film Fest

The San Francisco International Film Festival announced today that it will honor Brazilian director Walter Salles (Central Station, The Motorcycle Diaries) with the Founder's Directing Award as part of its 53rd edition (the longest-running film festival in the U.S.) The award will be given at an onstage tribute at the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas on April Wednesday 28. The festival also announced its lineup for this years edition which amongst its Latin American film selection includes Salles and Daniela Thomas' Linha de Passe (Brazil); Pedro González Rubio's Alamar from Mexico; as well as the documentary films Presumed Guilty (Mexico) by Roberto Hernández and Geoffrey Smith, and Simonal: No One Knows How Though it Was (Brazil) which was recently featured at Cinema Tropical's Music+Film Series.

Image credit: San Francisco International Film Festival.

Two Latin American Projects Awarded Global Film Initiative Production Funds

The non-profit organization The Global Film Initiative announced today the winners of their Winter 2010 grant cycle which includes two projects from Latin America. Costa Rican film Princesas rojas / Red Princesses by Laura Astorga Carrera, and the Mexican film Trampas / Tramp by Eduardo Villanueva were selected from a group of 68 applications from 34 different countries. Funds received from grants are used to subsidize post-production costs such as laboratory and sound mixing fees, and access to advance editing systems.

Martin Rejtman at Harvard Film Archives and Anthology Film Archives

Harvard Film Archive will be presenting the first complete US retrospective on celebrated Argentinean filmmaker Martín Rejtman (a Cinema Tropical favorite) April 2-4. Under the name 'The Comic Art of Martín Rejtman, or Love in the Time of Late Capitalism', the series will screen in Cambridge, Massachusetts, all of the director's work that include Doli vuelve a casa (short, 1986); Rapado (1992); Silvia Prieto (1999); The Magic Gloves (2003); Copacabana (documentary, 2006); and Elementary Training for Actors (co-directed with Federico León, 2009). Additionally Anthology Film Archives in New York City, in collaboration with Cinema Tropical, will be presenting Silvia Prieto and Los Guantes Mágicos on April 7 and 8. Rejtman will be attending some of the screenings for Q&A sessions with the audience in both cities.

New York Premiere of NORTEADO and Party at Casa Mezcal

Award-winning Mexican film Norteado / Northless by Rigoberto Perezcano had its New York premiere to a full house at the Museum of Modern Art last night as part of the 2010 edition of New Directors / New Films festival. Both the film's producer Edgar San Juan and the director responded questions from the enthusiastic audience. A packed party with special guests hosted by Tiburón Filmes, Cinema Tropical and the Mexican Cultural Institute, followed the screening at the brand new Casa Mezcal in the Lower East Side. With mezcal and Mexican beer the animated party went until the wee hours of the night.  More pictures here.

Pictured: Mexican singer Magos Herrera with filmmaker Rigoberto Perezcano. Photo by Kristine Treviño.

Special Guest Appearance by Jair Oliveira at Screening of THE ENCHANTED WORD

Famed Brazilian singer and composer Jair Oliveira was the special unannounced guest at last night's screening of Helena Solberg's The Enchanted Word / Palavra (En)cantada presented as part of Cinema Tropical's Music+Film: Janeiro in New York series. The musician introduced the film and spoke about the great tradition that exists between literature and music in Brazil. The screening was followed by a performance by Bahian musician Nanny Assis and his band The Apostles. Jair Oliveira offered an impromptu performance of one his songs. Check Cinema Tropical's Facebook page for more photos.

Pictured (from right to left): Music producer Alexa Burneikis, Jair Oliveira and his wife actress Tania Khalil, and Cinema Tropical's Mary Jane Marcasiano and Carlos Gutiérrez. Photo by Evangeline Kim.

Four Latino Films Projects Awarded Cinereach Grants

Cinereach, the NY-based non-profit organization, announced today the 15 winners of its Winter 2010 cycle grants which include four Latino projects: Bernardo Ruiz's documentary feature Garden of Paradise, a Mexican/US co-production; Charge a Bolivia/US co-production by Michael Plunkett; the Mexican fiction film in production Aquí y allí / Here and There by Antonio Méndez Esparza; and Laura by Fellipe Barbosa, a US/Brazilian Documentary currently in post-production. The 15 winners were selected among a pool of 77 proposals and each winner project will receive between $10,000 and $25,000.

PORTRAITS IN A SEA OF LIES and PERPETUUM MOBILE Top Guadalajara

The Colombian film Retratos en un mar de mentiras / Portraits in a Sea of Lies by Carlos Gaviria was awarded the prize for Best Ibero American Fiction Film at the 25th edition of the Guadalajara Film Festival that ended today. The prize for Best Ibero American Documentary Film went to Luciana Burlamaqui's Entre a luz e a sombra / On the Edge of Light and Shadow from Brazil; while in the Mexican competition, Nicolás Pereda's Perpetuum Mobile was awarded the top prize for fiction film and Roberto Hernández and Geoffrey Smith's Presunto culpable / Presumed Guilty won the prize for Best Documentary Film. It was also announced today that this was the last edition of Jorge Sánchez as director of the Mexican film event after five years.

Two Additional Latino Films to Tribeca 2010

Tribeca Film Festival announced today the rest of their programming selection for their Encounters, Discovery, Cinemania and Spotlight sections. Two additional Latino films made it to the festival including Elvis & Madonna by Brazilian filmmaker Marcelo Laffitte and the US-Mexico co-production The Sentimental Engine Slayer, written and directed by Omar Rodriguez Lopez. In total only six Latino feature films (out of a total of 85) will be participating in the 9th edition of the festival that will take place between April 21 and May 2.

ALAMAR and SINS OF MY FATHER Winners at the Miami Film Fest

The Miami International Film Festival announced the winners for its 27th edition that comes to a close today. Pedro González Rubio's Mexican film Alamar / To the Sea was awarded the Grand Jury prize for Best Iberoamerican Film. In that same section, Javier Fuentes-León's Peruvian-Colombian coproduction  Contracorriente / Undertow won the Audience Award. Argentine/Colombian film Pecados de mi padre / Sins of My Father by NY-based Argentine filmmaker Nicolás Entel was awarded both the Grand Jury prize and the Audience Award in the Documentary competition.

Minimal Latin American Representation at Tribeca 2010

The Tribeca Film Festival announced today the official competition lineup for its 2010 edition to take place April 21 - May 2 which only includes two Latino films in its World Documentary Feature selection, and two Latin American films in its Showcase section. Documentaries Monica & David by first time director Ali Codina and The Two Escobars by Michael Zimbalist and Jeff Zimbalist (Favela Rising) made it to the official competition while Colombian/Argentinean co-production Blood and Rain / La sangre y la lluvia by Jorge Navas along with Raoul Peck's Moloch Tropical will be screened in the Showcase section of the festival. The rest of their slate will be announced on March 15.

GIGANTE Wins at Cartagena

Uruguayan film Gigante by Adrián Biniez (which opened Cinema Tropical's ¡Go Uruguay! film series at BAMcinématek last October) swept the 50th edition of the Cartagena Film Festival receiving the awards for Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Actor. One of Latin America's most important film festivals, the Cartagena Film Fest gave the Best Colombian Film prize to Ciro Guerra's Los viajes del viento / The Wind Journeys. Both films are distributed in the US by Film Movement.

And the Oscar Goes to... Argentina!

Juan José Campanella's El secreto de sus ojos / The Secret in their Eyes won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film at the 82nd annual edition of the Academy Awards that were held in Los Angeles tonight. It's the second time an Argentine film gets the award since La historia oficial / The Official Story directed by Luis Puenzo won it in 1985. Campanella received the award from directors Pedro Almodóvar and Quentin Tarantino who announced the nominees for that category. The film has been bought for US distribution by Sony Pictures Classics (who also released two of the other nominees The White Ribbon and A Prophet) and will have its theatrical release on American screens this April.

New York Premiere of SPOKEN WORD at El Museo del Barrio

Independent film Spoken Word rocked the audiences last night at El Museo del Barrio Theater as part of their 'Nuevo Cine' program, which showcases recent film from Latin America every first Wednesday of the month. The story starring Kuno Becker and Rubén Blades, takes audiences up close and personal into an intimate journey on how surroundings can affect the strength of one's creative self-expression. An universal series of events between two brothers and their father that have grown apart because of their choices of lifestyles and lack of communication. When they are brought together by their father’s terminal illness, a number of deeper issues come to light turning this drama into a relatable situation establishing a direct connection with its viewers.

Acclaimed director Victor Nuñez, “painted” once more on a beautiful screen canvas the journeys of these characters suitably set in Santa Fe, New México. Although Rubén Blades wasn’t able to attend the screening as originally announced because of an unexpected situation in Panamá, Spoken Word's producer Bill Conway and co-screenwriter Joe Ray Sandoval were present to answer audience’s questions along with the screening curator Jason Silverman. Joe Ray Sandoval set up a welcoming ambiance when he stepped up the stage and delivered three solid and breath taking poems prior to the screening, getting us all geared up, ready and excited to what was coming. 

Pictured from left to right Joe Ray Sandoval, producer Bill Conway and Jason Silverman.
Text and photo by Melody Rose Vendrell.

Bollywood Wooes Latin America

The trailer for the upcoming Bollywood film Kites is now circulating on the internet and in theaters around the world. The film, directed by Anurag Basu, features popular Bollywood star Hrithik Roshan and Mexican-based Uruguayan telenovela (and film) actress Barbara Mori in the leading roles. At an estimated $30 million dollar budget, Kites tells the story of a salsa teacher (played by Roshan) in Las Vegas who madly feels in love with a Latina (played by you know who) who surprisingly doesn't speak a word of Hindi. The film will be released this summer around the world.