LOS ÚLTIMOS CRISTEROS Tops Toulouse Latin American Film Fest

The Mexican film Los últimos cristeros / The Last Christeros (pictured) by Matías Meyer won the top prize at the 24th edition of the Toulouse Latin American Film Festival (Cinélatino, Rencontres de Toulouse), which ran March 24 through April 1. The jury also gave a Special Mention to the Chilean film Sentados frente al fuego / Seated by the Fire by Alejandro Fernández Almendras.

The Turkish-Nicaraguan co-production film Una vida sin palabras / A Life Without Words by Adam Isenberg took the top prize as Best Documentary, whilst Andrés Wood's Violeta se fue a los cielos / Violeta Went To Heaven from Chile took home the Audience Award. Additionally, on the Cinema en Construction section for films in development, the main prize went to the Colombian project La Sirga by William Andrés Vega.

For a list of all the awards click here.

Chilean Film POST MORTEM by Pablo Larraín Opens April 11 at NYC's Film Forum

The distribution film company Kino Lorber announced this week the theatrical premiere run of the acclaimed Chilean film Post Mortem by Pablo Larraín at Film Forum in New York City. The film will have a two-week engagement, from April 11 - 24.

A companion film to Larraín's critically acclaimed Tony Manero (2008), Post Mortem is a macabre, comic drama that begins during the onset of the bloody 1973 Chilean military coup that overthrew democratically elected President Salvador Allende.

Alfredo Castro (who starred as the disco-obsessed, white-suited title character in Tony Manero) is a dour coroner's assistant who, while obsessively wooing an erotic dancer at the Bim Bam Bum cabaret, is caught up in a historic, cataclysmic event. His ordinarily dull job is now under military command. As anonymous bodies chaotically pile up in the hallway of the morgue, he is given the task of performing an autopsy on a key government figure.

Once again, Lorraín invests his characters with metaphoric undertones, suffusing Santiago with rich period detail and a surreal visual texture that evokes the nightmarish landscape it was rapidly becoming. Post Mortem premiered at the 2010 Venice Film Festival and was featured at the New York Film Festival.

POV Celebrates 25 Years with Strong Mexican and Latino Component

POV (Point of View), the celebrated PBS award-winning documentary series has announced its lineup celebrating its 25th annual season which will air from June 21-October 18. The celebration will have a strong Latino component with five feature films and a short film, three of them featuring Mexican stories.

The Latin American documentary contingent that will be featured include the Mexican feature films Reportero by Bernardo Ruiz; El Velador / The Night Watchman by Natalia Almada (pictured); and Presunto culpable / Presumed Guilty by Roberto Hernández, Layda Negrete, and Geoffrey Smith. The lineup also includes the acclaimed Chilean film Nostalgia de la luz / Nostalgia for the Light by Patricio Guzmán; and two American productions focused on Guatemala: the feature film Granito: How to Nail a Dictactor by Peter Kinoy, Pamela Yates and Paco de Onís; and the short film Sin país / Without Country by Theo Rigby. 

Launched in 1988 to showcase new and challenging point-of-view documentaries on PBS, POV has grown to become American television's longest-running series dedicated to contemporary nonfiction programming. POV films have won virtually every major film and broadcasting honor, including Academy Awards®, Emmys® and Peabodys.

LOS ÚLTIMOS CRISTEROS and CUATES DE AUSTRALIA Winners of the Riviera Maya Film Fest Launching

The first edition of the Riviera Maya Film Festivalcame to a close last night in which Mexican films Los últimos cristeros / The Last Christeros (pictured) by Matías Meyer and Cuates de Australia / Drought by Everardo González were the big winners, each receiving a cash prize of $300,00 Mexican pesos (about $25,000 USD). The jury was composed by Uruguayan producer Sandino Saravia, Mexican documentary filmmaker Eugenio Polgovsky and Argentine film critic Diego Lerer.

In parallel to the official selection in the Mexican competitions, awards were given in the RivieraLAB for projects in development. Three projects were selected to receive a cash prize of $200,000 Mexican pesos (about $16,000 USD) for development: Tormentero / Stormmaker by Rubén Imaz (Mexico); Réimon by Rodrigo Moreno (Argentina); and Nueva España de new project by Raya Martin (Philippines). Additionally in the Work in Progress section, the Uruguayan project Tanta agua by filmmakers Ana Guevara and Leticia Jorge Romero won the main prize for postproduction, whilst the Brazilian project Material de composición by Pedro Aspahan received a Special Mention.

After its first edition, the Riviera Maya Film Festival promises to become an important showcase for Mexican cinema as well as a solid platform for international films.

Paraguayan Director Renate Costa: "I Cannot Longer Talk to Part of my Family Because of my Film"

By Lorena Ramírez-López

Last night, the Paraguayan documentary 108 / Cuchillo de Palo by Renate Costa was screened once again in New York City at the Exit Art gallery in midtown Manhattan, featuring a Skype conversation with the filmmaker afterwards. Costa pays homage to her late uncle, Héctor Rodolfo Costa Torres, as she investigates and reconstructs his life.

Matthew Freundlich, programmer of the ‘Digimovies’ series at Exit Art moderated the conversation with the filmmaker, which had a surprise guest as the director's father Pedro Costa (no relation to the famed Portuguese director), who is featured in the documentary, stopped by the conversation to answer few questions. In the Q&A Costa mentioned that it was very difficult making the film: “There’s a section of my family I can no longer talk to because of it. It is not easy, but there’s an acceptance because it’s a human film”, she said.

Her father commented how this documentary has allowed his relationship with his daughter to grow, and how it helped relate them to each other and their friends. It allowed many people from not only the family, but also the neighborhood to remember and relate to the event. Renate Costa gave a sneak peek to her new short film project, Resistance about a mystic premiering in July. Her focus on the human portrayal is humble and inspiring as it gives a new platform for Paraguayan cinema to stand on.

Picture: the Skype conversation with Paraguayan director Renate Costa last night at Exit Art. Picture by Lorena Ramírez-López.

Latino Films at Hot Docs 2012

Hot Docs, Canadian International Documentary Festival has announced its lineup for its 2012 edition running April 26-May 6 in Toronto, Canada, and the festival includes nine film from Latin America and/or with Latin American themes.

The official lineup includes Colombianos, a Swedish film by director Tora Mårtens that tells the story of two vastly different Colombian brothers who were raised in Stockholm. One has returned to Colombia to study medicine, the other is still in Sweden, partying with his friends. Eventually, one brother convinces the other to come and live with him in Colombia to hopefully get him on the right track; Cuates de Australia / Drought by Mexican director Everardo González, a cinema verite portrait of families living  communally owned land in Northeast Mexico; El Huaso (pictured) by director Carlo Guillermo Proto whose father moves back to Chile from Toronto to fulfill his childhood dream of becoming a Chilean cowboy.

The other Latino films in the selection are Abuelas / Grandmothers by director Afarin Eghbal, the testimonies of four of the grandmothers of Argentina's Plaza de Mayo; Inocente by directors Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine that recounts the story of a 15-year old girl who has grown up homeless on the streets of San Diego and uses her art and amazing creative ability as an outlet for empowerment; Laura (pictured) by Brazilian director Fellipe Gamarano Barbosa that tells the story of a South American socialite not quite making it in New York, yet desperate to keep up her persona.

And rounding up the lineup are Thomas Riedelsheimer's Garden of Sea, a visually stunning documentary that follows Spanish artist Cristina Iglesias as she creates an underwater installation in Mexico’s beautiful Sea of Cortez; Wildness by Wu Tsang about the historic Silver Platter Bar in Los Angeles, a staple in the Latino-LGBT community since 1963; the short film The Relationship Doctrine of Don Blanquito by Roger Nyard about a Rio-based rapper and his rants on sex and love; and Con mi corazón en Yambo / With My Heart in Yambo by Ecuadorian director Maria Fernanda Restrepo who goes back in time to follow the painful personal story of the disappearance of her brothers at the hands of the Ecuadorian police.

Mexican Films EL INFIERNO and THE TINIEST PLACE Win San Diego Latino

The San Diego Latino Film Festival announced that the Mexican films El Infierno by Luis Estrada and El lugar más pequeño / The Tiniest Place by Tatian Huezo were the big winners of the Premio Corazón Award in its 19th edition that ran March 8-18.

Estrada's feature won the prize for Best Narrative Feature whilst Huezo's film won as Best Documentary Feature. Alysa Nahmias and Ben Murray's Unfinished Spaces about Cuba's National Art Schools received a Special Jury Prize in the Documentary category, whilst Colombian film Pequeñas voces / Little Voices by Jairo Carrillo won the prize for Best Animated Feature. The Audience Award went to the Argentinean film Un cuento chino / Chinese Take-Away by Sebastián Borensztein.

Judge Orders Shelving of PRESUMED GUILTY DVDs in Mexico

As it was recenlty informed by some local newspapers, the ongoing saga for the Mexican documentary film Presunto culpable / Presumed Guilty (pictured) continues, as last February 29, a federal judge ordered the complete shelving of all of the DVDs for sale of the film in Mexico.

Judge Blanca Lobo ordered the recall of all of the DVDs that were for sale in Mexico (an estimated 20,000 according to the film's distributor Videomax) while waiting for the pronouncement of the Office of Radio, Television and Film of the Ministry of the Interior (Dirección General de Radio, Televisión y Cinematográfia de la Secretaría de Gobernación), in regards to whether the the documentary violent or not the right to privacy of Víctor Daniel Reyes. He was the witness that accused the film's protagonist Antonio Zúñiga for killing his cousin, a crime that Zuñiga never committed. Last year, when the film was released in theaters in Mexico, he filed a lawsuit claiming he never authorized the use of his image for the documentary.

Filmmakers Layda Negrete and Roberto Hernández announced today that they will contest the order as they claim they are not violating Reyes' privacy rights because the recording was done as part of a public hearing. The film was released on DVD in Mexico last July.

Bernardo Ruiz's REPORTERO to Have US Premiere at Full Frame Film Fest

Quiet Pictures announced today the US Premiere of Bernardo Ruiz's documentary feature film Reportero at the Full Frame Film Festival this April; followed by the Human Rights Watch Film Festival in Chicago and New York City in May/June; and it will air nationally on PBS through POV as part of the series’ 25th anniversary this fall.

The film, a gripping and timely documentary film that explores the crucial issues of violence on the border, corruption and power in Mexico, and the struggle for 'free-speech', follows veteran reporter Sergio Haro and his colleagues at Semanario Zeta, a Tijuana, Mexico-based muckraking weekly, as they stubbornly ply their trade in what has become one of the deadliest places in the world to be a journalist. 

“Impunity reigns in Mexico, especially here along the northern border,” explains Adela Navarro, Sergio’s boss and Zeta’s co-director. “With guns and money, drug traffickers have control over police, judges, prosecutors, and entire towns. More than 40 journalists have been slain or have vanished in Mexico since December 2006, when President Felipe Calderón came to power and launched a government offensive against the country’s powerful drug cartels and organized crime groups. This makes investigative journalism extraordinarily difficult.” So difficult, that Semanario Zeta continues to receive new threats .

Despite these threats and attacks, the weekly continues its singular brand of aggressive, investigative reporting. “Through Ruiz's brave and trenchant filmmaking we begin to understand the heavy sacrifices involved in refusing to be silenced,” writes Meghan Monsour, programmer of Ambulante, the celebrated traveling documentary film festival created by Gael García Bernal, Diego Luna, and Pablo Cruz. Combining the techniques of journalism and cinematic documentary, Reportero delves into

“the psychology of investigative journalism,” (Univision) taking the viewer in to the tough decisions that

journalists like Sergio Haro make every day.

Reportero, which was recently profiled and reviewed by San Diego Union-Tribune, Univision, Vice Mexico and cited in The New York Times, is currently on a 12-city tour of Mexico through, Ambulante.  The film just screened this past weekend to sold-out houses in Tijuana and a special “advance screening” at the San Diego Latino Film Festival, and it will play in the Northern Mexican city of Mexicali on March 20 and 21. The film will also be screened at select festivals and venues throughout the spring and summer.

Cinema Tropical/Interior 13 to Present NY Theatrical Run of Yulene Olaizola's ARTIFICIAL PARADISES

Cinema Tropical and Interior 13 have announced the US theatrical premiere run of Yulene Olaizola's acclaimed Mexican film Artificial Paradises / Paraísos artificiales, playing for one week engagement at Brooklyn's reRun Gastropub Theater March 30 - April 5. The director will travel to New York to introduce her film on opening night.

Hailed as a "poetic contemplation that balances a landscape's serene beauty with the small futile dramas of characters whose lives are ruled by intoxication" (Screen International) and acclaimed at Rotterdam and winner of the Best Cinematography Award at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival, Olaizola's elegant drama is a journey into the altered states and unlikely friendship of young heroin addict Luisa (Luisa Pardo) and pot-smoking, aging caretaker Salomón (Salomón Hernández).

Gloriously photographed, the film is an evocation of this odd couple's emotions, their attempts to escape from everyday life and reach an artificial Eden, as well as the storms brought on by their enjoyment of this experience in a crumbling Veracruz beach resort. This is Olaizola's second feature film, her debut feature film Intimidades entre Shakespeare y Víctor Hugo / Intimacies between Shakespeare and Victor Hugo (2009) received over 30 prizes in film festivals worldwide.

This is the first joint effort between Cinema Tropical and Mexico-City based Interior 13 to distribute films of emerging Latin American filmmakers in US theaters.

A Chilean and a Paraguayan Filmmaker Selected for Cannes' Cinefondation

The Cannes Film Festival announced today the 15 film projects from around the world that have been selected for Cinéfondation's L'Atelier 2012 which include two Latin American projects by Chilean filmmaker Alejandro Fernández Almendras (picrtured) and Paraguayan filmmaker Pablo Lamar.

Created in 2005, L'Atelier is a program focused on film financing and co-production. So far the program has supported 115 directors and 72 films have been made, with 20 currently in pre-production. L'Atelier will arrange meetings between May 18 - 25, during the Cannes Film Festival, with film industry professionals interested in the selected projects.

Alejandro Fernández Almendras will be present the project Matar a un hombre / To Kill a Man about a simple man who seeks revenge and justice with his own hands. This is would be Fernández Almendras' third feature film after Huacho (2009) and Sentados frente al fuego / (2011).

Pablo Lamar is participating with the project La última tierra / The Last Land, which is a reflection about death. Lamar was born in Asunción, Paraguay and he studied filmmaking at Universidad del Cine of Buenos Aires, Argentina.  La última tierra will be his debut feature film.

Full Frame Film Fest to Show Five Latino Docs

The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in Durham, NC has just released today its lineup for the 2012 NEW DOCS program consisting of 57 selections including five films about Latin America. Full Frame will present the US Premiere of Bernardo Ruiz's Reportero (pictured), that follows a veteran journalist and his colleagues as they challenge the drug cartels and the corrupt local officials in northern Mexico despite increasing danger.

Additionally the festival includes the North American premiere of the Chilean documentary El salvavidas / The Lifeguard by Maite Alberdo who uses the backdrop of a Chilean beach to tell the story of her subject;  Abuelas / Grandmothers by Afrain Eghbal, an animated doc about the grandmothers who fill Argentina's Plaza de Mayo in search of their grandchildren and in protest of their disappearance; the North American premiere of Raising Resistance by Bettin Borgfeld and David Bernet who contrast the contested relationship of Paraguayans to transgenic soy; and Unfinished Spaces by Alysa Nahmias and Benjamin Murray who examine the evolution of the architecture of the early Cuban Revolution.

The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival is an annual international event dedicated to the theatrical exhibition of nonfiction cinema, this year it will run April 12-15. 

Chilean Film BONSÁI Tops Miami Film Festival

Chilean film Bonsái (pictured) by director Cristián Jiménez won the prizes for Best Ibero-American Film and the Screenwriting Award at the 29th edition of the Miami Film Festival, as it was announced this evening at the closing night ceremony at the Gusman Theater in South Florida. Based on the novel by Alejandro Zambra, Bonsái tells the story of writer who taps into his past to inspire his new novel. The film will receive a cash prize of $30,000 as Best Ibero-American Film, and $5,000 for the Screenwriting Award.

Another Chilean film, Violeta se fue a los cielos / Violeta Went to Heaven by Andrés Wood, received the Grand Jury Discretionary Prize with a cash prize of $5,000. The festival also awarded Mexican film Fecha de caducidad / Expiration Date by Kenya Marquez for Best Ibero-American Film. Additionally, the documentary film Unfinished Spaces by Alysa Nahmias and Benjamin Murray about Cuba's National Art Schools received an Honorable Mention from the jury in the official documentary competition.

The festival opened on March 2 with the world premiere of Tom Gustafson's Mariachi Gringo (which won the prize for Best Mexican Film at the Guadalajara Film Festival today) and is showing the Argentine film Un cuento chino / Chinese Take-Away by Sebastián Borensztein in its closing night today.

MARIACHI GRINGO Wins Guadalajara Film Fest

The Guadalajara Film Festival (FICG27) just announced the winners of the Mayahuel Awards for its 27 edition, which comes to a close today. In a surprising decision, Mariachi Gringo by American director Tom Gustafson won the top prize, the Mayahuel Award for Best Mexican Film. The US-Mexico co-production, which had its world premiere  as the opening night of the Miami Film Festival last week, stars Shawn Ashmore as a small-town man that runs away to Mexico to become a mariachi singer. The film also stars Mexican actresses Martha Higareda and Adriana Barraza, and renowned singer Lila Downs.

Everardo Gout won the Mayahuel Award for Best Mexican Director for his debut feature film Días de gracia / Days of Grace, whilst Sebastián del Amo's El fantastico mundo de Juan Orol / The Fantastic World of Juan Orol, the biopic on the Mexican version of Ed Wood, won the prize for Best Mexican First Film.

The award for Best Ibero-American Film was for the Argentine film Abrir puertas y ventanas / Back to Stay by Milagros Mumenthaler, and a Special Jury Award for the Spanish-Swiss co-production Los pasos dobles / The Double Steps by Isaki Lacuesta. Sebastián Cordero got the award for Best Director in the same category for his film Pescador from Ecuador, and Brazilian Film Transeúnte / Passerby by Eryk Rocha was the winner for the Mayahuel Award for Best Ibero-American First Film.

The prize for Best Ibero-American Documentary was for ¡Vivan las antípodas! / Long Live the Antipodes!, the Argentine-Chilean-German-Dutch co-production directed by Russian director Victor Kossajovsky; whilst Chilean film El salvavidas by Maité Alberdi received a Special Mention from the jury.

Cuates de Australia / Draught by Everardo González won the Mayahuel Award as Best Mexican Documentary Film; and there were two Special Mentions in the same category for Juan Carlos Rulfo and Natalia Gil's Carrière, 250 metros / Carrière, 250 Meters and Alejandro Solar's El paciente interno / The Convict Patient.

The Audience Award prize was for the Mexican film Espacio Interior / Richness of Internal Space, Kai Parlange's debut feature film and the Argentine film Mía by Javier Van de Couter received the Maguey Award as Best LGBT Film, the first time the prize is given in the festival.


For the complete list of winners, click here.

San Francisco Film Fest Selects Four Latino Film for Official Competition

The 2012 San Francisco Film Fest lineup is out for its 55th edition that will run April 19 - May 3. Latin American films that will compete for the $15,000 New Directors Prize include the US premiere of Argentine film, Back to Stay / Abrir puertas y ventanas (pictured) by director Milagros Mumenthaler, the story of three sisters who are left alone in the home of their grandmother after she dies; Found Memories / Historias Que So Existem Quando Lembradas from director Júlia Murat, the Brazilian film that recounts the story of a photographer who enchants the elders of a small town with her camera; Neighboring Sounds / O som ao redor from Brazilian director, Kleber Mendonça Filho, depicting the happenings on city block on an upscale street in Recife; and Mosquita y Mari, a coming-of-age tale about two Chicana teens in Los Angeles by US-based director Aurora Guerrero.

Daniel Burman's New Film to Be Premiered at Tribeca

The Tribeca Film Festival announced today part of its lineup for its 11th edition that includes some Latino titles. The World Narrative Feature Competition includes the international premiere of Argentine film All In / La suerte en tus manos (pictured) by Daniel Burman, a story about a professional poker player who discovers love with an old flame starring Oscar®-winning Uruguayan songwriter Jorge Drexler and Argentine actresses Norma Aleandro and Valeria Bertuccelli; the world premiere of the US/Mexico co-production, The Girl by David Riker, that depicts the plight of a desperate mother who, after losing her job and the custody of her son, gets heavily involved in smuggling immigrants across the border. 

Additionally the festival will feature the North American premiere of the Cuban film Una Noche by Lucy Mulloy, the story of two Cuban teens who entertain the idea of fleeing to Miami. The festival runs April 18-29 in New York City.

PORFIRIO; EL ESTUDIANTE and THE TINIEST PLACE Top Cartagena

The Colombian film Porfirio (pictured) by Alejandro Landes won three main prizes at the Cartagena Film Festival (Festival Internacional de Cartagena de Indias - FICCI) that came to a close today in Colombia. The film, which tells the story of Porfirio Ramírez, won the India Catalina Awards for Best Film and Best Colombian Director in the Colombia al 100% competition, as well as Best Director in the official competition. The jury composed by filmmakers Claire Denis, Hector Babenco and film critic Dennis Lim, gave the top prize in the official competition to the Argentine film El Estudiante / The Student by Santiago Mitre, and gave a special mention to the Mexican film Machete Language / El lenguaje de los machetes by Kyzza Terrazas.

The Mexican film The Tiniest Place / El lugar más pequeño by Tatiana Huezo was awarded the prizes for Best Film and Best Director in the documentary section by the jury composed by Debbie Zimmerman from New York's Women Make Movies, Ricardo Giraldo, director of the Ambulante Film Festival and Ricardo Restrepo from the Colombian Association of Documentary Filmmakers. The Mexican film Cuates de Australia / Draught by Everardo González also received a special mention in the same category.

On its 52nd edition, the Cartagena Film Festival is the longest running film festival in Latin America and Monika Wagenberg, co-founder of Cinema Tropical, has been its director for the second consecutive year.