SPANISH/LATIN AMERICAN CINEMA

FILM:

<center></center> Directed by Fernando Kalife | MEXICO | 2010 | 6min | Subtitled | (Q&A) US PREMIERE Watch Movie Trailer Perennially unsuccessful conmen Salvador (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) and Dario (Rodrigo Cachero) finally conned the wrong man. Trying to get a lucrative contract with a team desperate for a championship for an extremely talented but very injured soccer player named Gasparotto (Juan M. Jauregui), the duo face a series of innocuous events. These events lead them back to Martin (Daniel Martinez), a mobster Salvador once tried to swindle. In the middle of a life-or-death situation, Salvador tries to make sense of seemingly minor moments, causing him to question if he should change his less than morally upright ways—even if it means costing him his own life. Should he believe in something higher than himself? In director Fernando Kalife’s poignant drama, 180° takes us on a wondrous journey and raises the questions, can someone change course in life, and how far can one go down a path before it is too late?

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<center></center> Directed by Cacau Amaral, Cadu Barcelos, Luciana Bezerra, Manaira Carneiro, Rodrigo Felha, Wagner Novais, Luciano Vidigal | BRAZIL | 2010 | 94min | Subtitled US PREMIERE 5 X FAVELA, NOW BY OURSELVES is a five-episode film created by young favela (slum) residents from Rio de Janeiro. A new and vigorous culture emerging in the favelas prompted producers Carlos Diegues and Renata de Almeida Magalhães to grant access to young talents from these communities to the same production resources as any medium-budget Brazilian film. Source of Income, Rice and Beans, Concert for Violin, Let it Fly, Let There be Light, five independent narratives, both comic and tragic, reflect the multifarious facets of day-to-day life and steer away from the stereotypes of violence, which are generally employed to represent life in these communities. - Abridged and Adapted from Cannes Film Festival

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<center></center> Directed by Achero Mañas | SPAIN | 2010 | (Q&A) Achero Mañas’s third feature imagines how a father might respond to being thrust into a role traditionally held by a woman. Leo and Alicia live together in Madrid with their four-year-old daughter, Dafne. Alicia spends the most time with their child while Leo is more concerned with his job at a law firm. All is well until Alicia’s unexpected death. Reeling from loss, Leo must find the strength to be both mother and father to Dafne. With the help of a new friend, Leo discovers a way to overcome his own prejudices about gender roles and provide his daughter with the kind of nurturing she needs during her difficult grieving period. As displayed in his previous work, Mañas has the ability to strike an emotional chord while presenting morally complex situations with intelligence and compassion. Complemented by stand-out performances by both Juan Diego Botto and four-year old Lucía Fernández, ANYTHING YOU WANT demonstrates the power of unconditional love. - Abridged from Toronto International Film Festival Director, Diana Sanchez

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<center></center> Directed by Alejandro Chomski | ARGENTINA | 2010 | 83min US PREMIERE In this Argentine trip to the Twilight Zone, Director Alejandro Chomski introduces us to our protagonist Lucio (Luis Machin), a watchmaker and devoted husband. His beautiful but troubled wife Diana (Esther Goris) is overcome by depression. Convinced by a family friend, Lucio decides to admit the willing Diana to a phrenopathic institute for treatment. Upon visiting the institute, Lucio is given no answers, but he is assured that she is being cured. Frustrated and lonely, Lucio buys a dog for his wife as a gift for when she returns. But when she does, although she seems cured, she is not quite herself. Demanding an explanation for her strange behavior, Lucio returns to the clinic. He discovers that the doctors have their own agenda—and healing the sick is the least of it. - Tara Perillo

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<center></center> Directed by Alejandro Molina | MEXICO | 2010 | 90min | Subtitled | (Q&A) It’s the distant future. Our planet is overcrowded and lacking necessary resources for the human race to survive. A controversial decision is made. The human population will be split in half, never to interact; one half awake during the day and the other half awake at night. A mother wakes up one night to find that her daughter is missing. A young girl wakes up in an unfamiliar place and time; the sunlight hits her face. Separated by light and dark, will Aurora be able to unlock the mystery behind her daughter’s miraculous disappearance? A visually provoking cerebral drama, BY DAY AND BY NIGHT delves into the idea of what is ethical when the survival of the human race is at stake. This is director Alejandro Molina’s directorial debut. - Vince Palomarez

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<center></center> Directed by Helena Ignez, Icaro Martins | BRAZIL | 2010 | 83min | Subtitled | (Q&A) US PREMIERE This existential and comically political narrative is set in the colorful backdrop of civil unrest in São Paulo, Brazil, during a time when prisons were filled and the law was unjust. LIGHT IN DARKNESS follows the trajectory of two of the country’s most notorious criminals. While the Red Light Bandit (Ney Matogrosso) sits in the cell of a maximum-security prison recollecting his career and reading philosophy, his son, an outlaw known as All or Nothing (Andre Guerreiro Lopes), follows in his father’s footsteps leading a life of violence, women, and excess. Through flashbacks and comic book imagery, we experience the multitude of influences on the revolutionary minds in a city infected with corruption. Both the Red Light Bandit and All or Nothing are recognized as celebrities amongst the poor, only feeding a desire for more crime. In an ironic turn of events, justice is served, leading the estranged father and son to learn more about one another than they ever expected. - Tara Perillo

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<center></center> Directed by Carlos Cesar Arbelaez | PANAMA / COLOMBIA | 2010 | 90min | Subtitled US PREMIERE Watch Movie Trailer A small farming community in the Colombian mountains is under threat. Local rebels have waged a war against the government and are in need of additional soldiers. Their motto is, “You are either with us or against us.” Ernesto, a proud father unwilling to commit to the rebels for fear of the safety of his family, avoids the rebels at all costs. Remaining neutral is not an option. Unaware of the dangers around him, Ernesto’s 9-year-old son Manuel has only one desire—to play soccer with his friends. Things change when a mine is set off near the field where the boys play. Forbidden to play near the field again and with tension growing in the community, will Manuel and his family succumb to the violence erupting around them? This is Carlos César Arbeláez’s first feature film. - Vince Palomarez

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<center></center> Directed by Oscar Aibar | SPAIN | 2010 | 100min | Subtitled Watch Movie Trailer: http://www.latidofilms.com Barcelona-born director Óscar Aibar started out as a cartoon scriptwriter, and in that world, “people only talked about one thing: Vázquez. They were always telling you about Vázquez’s latest trick, the latest prank he’d got up to.” Aibar celebrates Spain’s legendary comic book artist Manuel Vázquez, who wrote for the Bruguera publishing house during the Franco regime of the 1960s. It is a fascinating story of a rebel who turned his life into a work of art. Telling his own stories through a character called Uncle Vázquez, he broke down the boundaries between reality and fiction. Albar maintains that fluidity between worlds by creating a look similar to the four-color processes of the Bruguera comics of the 1960s and a style reminiscent of the cartoons themselves. THE GREAT VAZQUEZ screened in official competition at the San Sebastian International Film Festival and the Monte Carlo Comedy Film Festival. - Adapted from Cineuropa.org

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<center></center> Directed by Sérgio Bianchi | BRAZIL | 2009 | 103min | Subtitles | (Q&A) US FESTIVAL PREMIERE THE TENANTS showcases the work of the talented Sergio Bianchi as he rediscovers a new and multifaceted vision of 21st-century Brazil. Here he tackles the issue of urban violence from the point of view of the working class family. The story of a family’s arduous and uphill battle to hold itself against middle-class ideals of social mobility and continuity deals with the effect of crime on the lives of “well-mannered citizens.” Valter works a fulltime shift and goes to school at night—if not to get a better life for himself, at least to set “the right example to his kids.” But this narrative of steady social enhancement quickly finds its counterpoint when three loud, sexually active, testosterone-filled and ethnically compromised men crash at the house next door and decide to live there for an unforeseeable time. With stunning performances by its lead actors Marat Descartes and Ana Carbatti (the vigilant mother of the family), THE TENANTS is a tour-de-force of cinematic tension. Its gorgeously composed shots and frame-within-frame schematics are similar to a Michael Haneke film. - Adapted from MoMA

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<center></center> Directed by Nacho G. Velilla | SPAIN | 2010 | 105min | Subtitled Eliseo was dealt a bad hand in life. Unattractive and unlucky in love, he spends his days regretting his decision to give up a chance to study at a prestigious music school in order to look after his family’s farm and butcher shop. Only his time spent playing the trumpet with his band provides him any type of escape. Things change when the sudden death of his mother turns his world upside down. Forced to run the farm with his sister-in-law Nati, a free spirit who has learned to laugh at life’s challenges, Eliseo must put his own choices in perspective while trying to fight his growing attraction to the woman he despises—the woman who is married to his brother. TO HELL WITH THE UGLY is a comedy that proves that love can be found in the most unusual situations. - Vince Palomarez

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