This film festival will bring you straight to Latin America this weekend

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines was a colony of Spain for nearly 400 years. That’s four centuries long. So, although we are located halfway around the world from most of Spain’s colonies in South America, we undeniably share a heritage with them that’s unique in most of Asia or the ASEAN region.

Apart from having indigenous populations in our countries, we are also predominantly Catholic, noted Roberto Bosch – ambassador of the Argentine Republic – during a press conference for CINE LATINO – Latin American Film Festival.

Rodrigo do Amaral Souza, ambassador of the Federative Republic of Brazil told representatives of media organizations during the press conference that the festival will feature movies in the afternoon and evening from Wednesday, December 6, till Sunday, December 10 this week at Shang Cineplex in Shangri-La mall.

The filmfest was the brainchild of Bosch. Avid lovers of film (and well, football) may have experienced the Argentine Film Festival in the Philippines in the last three years. So successful has it been that Bosch quipped, “We’ve had too much work among ourselves, we decided to share it with our colleagues.” He said that it would be interesting to start Cine Latino with seven “small” embassies as the films reflect “the cultural identity of the region, a culture most of us share.”

“Highlighting a mix of drama, comedy, romance and relevant flicks, the festival is set to introduce films from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Panama and Venezuela that are truly unforgettable,” a press release issued by Shang stated.

There will be 10 full-length movies – one from each country – with the exception of Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela, which are showcasing two films each. Apart from a full-length movie, Mexico will exhibit 6 short films.

Argentina’s El Hijo de la novia to open Cine Latino Filmfest

Souza said that the filmfest will open with director Juan Jose Campanella’s El Hijo de la novia (Son of the Bride) from Argentina at 7:30 on Wednesday, December 6.

 

According to a press release from Shang, “El hijo de la novia is the story of Rafael, who is having a crisis and tries to reconstruct his past and look at the present in a new perspective.”

Campanella dropped out of college in 1980 to pursue a film career. Known in Latin America as a critically-acclaimed director since the 1980s, Campanella won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film for El Secreto de sus Ojos (The Secret in Their Eyes) in 2009. He was also nominated for El Hijo de la Novia in 2001, and is behind Moon of Avellaneda, 2004.

Bosch said that the two movies they’re showcasing are in the top 5 movies in the list of every Argentinian.

He added that Alejandro Doria’s Esperando la Carroza (Waiting for the Hearse) is a 1980s cult film with interesting characters about a dysfunctional family; and is also about the Italian tradition of Argentina. One in six Argentinians is of Italian descent.

 

“It is a comedy about Mama Cora who tries to help her son, but unfortunately everything she does, she does wrong,” a release from Shang states.

Souza said it is the first time Latin American countries in the Philippines are joining forces to come up with a film festival featuring movies from Latin American countries. It is a pilot project that he said he hoped would continue in the years to come, as the impact would be greater and bigger as more countries from South America will join in future filmfests.

Two true-to-life stories from Brazil

The films Brazil will showcase are based on two real-life stories, according to Souza.

Cidade de Deus (City of God) “put Brazil again on the map of cinema,” according to FDCP’s SineScreen, receiving worldwide acclaim for having been nominated for four Academy Awards (Oscars) in 2004.”

 

Souza said, “It is about a boy who grows up amid poverty, and finds a way out of it through his passion for photography.” Cidade de Deus was “a housing project built in the 1960s,” but which “became a dangerous place in Rio de Janeiro. Busca-Pe will bring you to a very violent environment through his lenses.”

“It gave a career boost to the career of its director Fernando Meirelles, who has since made Maids in 2000, and Constant Gardener in 2005; he has also won quite a number of awards in Brazilian filmfests and is considered one of the country’s most exciting directors,” according to SineScreen.

Breno Silveira’s 2 Filhos de Francisco (2 Sons of Francisco) tells the rags-to-riches story of two poor rural boys who grew up to become one of Brazil’s biggest sertanejo or national country music singers: Zeze di Camargo and Luciano. It was one of the most succesful movies in Brazil in the last 20 years and the biggest box office draw in 2005,” according to the Shang press release.

 

Incidentally, among all the participating countries in this filmfest, only Brazil was colonized by Portugal; it is also the largest Portuguese-speaking country in the world.

Comedy films from Panama and Colombia

Rolando Anibal Guevara Alvarado, ambassador of the Republic of Panama revealed that it will be the first time that Panama will show a film in the country, and he looks forward to it, as the lifestyle in Panama is “the same as the Philippines.”

He called the festival a “nice initiative” that would be a way “for us to promote the Spanish language,” and show some commonalities among the Latin American countries such as “siestas, tradition, lifestyle,” and even “gastronomy.”

The hilarious comedy, Abner Benaim’s El chance (The chance) from Panama “tells the story of Toña and Paquita, housekeepers (of) the aristocratic González-Dubois family who have been mistreated for quite some time and are tired of their situation. So when the family plans a shopping trip to Miami, the maids take control of the mansion. Unexpectedly, they will also discover a family secret,” said Alvarado during the presscon.

Victor Hugo Echeverri, ambassador of the Republic of Colombia said that the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP) is “most supportive of this idea.” And although we may “feel too far (from) the region” where these Spanish- and Portuguese-language films are from, we actually are “so much closer than what (we) think,” Ambassador Echeverri said.

The 2012 drama comedy, Andres Burgos’ Sofia y el terco (Sofia and the stubborn) from Colombia is about “the story of a couple who lives in a small village in the Colombian countryside. Their life has just been a long repetition of facts for years. They grew and married here, and they know everybody in the village. She has an old dream: she wants to go to the sea whereas she has always known nothing but mountains. But Gustavo always has good reasons to delay the trip. He cannot let his grocery; his employee cannot get by himself.”

 

Latin America as epicenter of international cinema

The film industry has recently borne witness to the incredible influx of Ibero- and Latin American filmmakers making international waves. There was a boom in Latin American cinema in the 1970s. The quality of the films are of such level that “In the last 10-15 years, we have advanced so much. Our films have been awarded in the biggest film festivals in the world,” noted Jose Miguel Capdevila, ambassador of the Republic of Chile.

After all, it has been almost two decades since Latin America emerged “as an epicenter of international cinema,” wrote Carlos Gutierrez, co-founder of Cinema Tropical, a New York-based non-profit media arts organization that is “the leading presenter of the cinema of Latin America in the United States” according to ithaca.edu/fleff tropianoandzimmermann/gutierrez/.

“The region has experienced an unprecedented boom. The explosion of Latin American cinemas has enabled a solid, eclectic film production,” and has “fostered the careers of countless filmmakers, and created an incommensurable artistic and political body of work,” Gutierrez said.

It is crucial that we gain an understanding of “the way we are…in Latin America. The more you know (of us), the better our ties will be,” opined Capdevilla.

Capdevilla said that Marcelo Ferrari’s masterpiece Subterra, one of the good films of Chile, is about “extremely difficult, living conditions of coal mining workers.”

 

“It tells a story of a workers’ uprising that took place in what was – at the time – the largest coal mine in the world. The quest to improve conditions both spiritual and material begins in the heart of one courageous man. But while the bosses plan the expansion of their vast empire, the workers experience an awakening, and begin to demand change.”

One full length and 6 shorts from Mexico

The films undeniably share “values (that are) common to the Philippines,” noted Press Attache Luis Gerardo Regalado, who represented Gerardo Lozano Arredondo, ambassador of the United Mexican States (Mexico), such that we will probably have empathy for the characters depicting situations involving family, and the determination of the characters, with humor thrown in for good measure.

Regalado said that prolific short films from Mexico in 2015 will show the Mexican way of life. “Come and watch it!” he enjoined the media people present at the presscon.

The full length-film, Bernardo Arellano’s El comienzo del tiempo (The beginning of time) from Mexico is “a story about Antonio and Bertha who find themselves in deep trouble when pensions are suspended due to social and financial crisis. The lives of the couple changes when their son and grandson reappear in their lives.”

 

Mexico will also is showcase a collection of short films: Betzabe Garcia’s Porcelana (Porcelain) a struggle between childhood fantasy and reality; Denisse Quintero’s Carreteras (Roads) a two-day romance between Abril and Carmela; Mafer Galindo’s Mirar atras (Looking back) a confrontation of a ghost of Cecilia’s aunt and the tragic memories that shaped her life; Ulises Perez Mancilla’s O ser un elefante (Being an elephant) an 8-minute film where Ivan becomes obsessed with the personality of elephants, who they say, never forgets; Rebeca Bonola’s Papalotes rosas is a narrative of two small girls in a pink world see a little more of reality while their father figure falls apart. The last 5 shorts are dramas. A spoken portrait of the world of cinema in a Morelia of the past is Mariano Renteria’s Aun nos queda el recuerdo (We still remember).

Protagonists Daniel and Julio of Marcel Rasquin’s drama Hermano (Brother) of Venezuela “were shaken by a tragedy and an important decision of which is more important: the union of the family, the taste of revenge or the dream of their lives.

A family drama between Renato and grand daughter Carlota of Alejandro Garcia Wiedemann’s Patas Arriba teaches us the importance of simple things, the value of friendship and respect towards the views of other people.”

 

For inquiries, contact 370-2500 local 597 or log on to www.shangrila-plaza.com or visit the Shang’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/shangrilaplazaofficialfanpage. – Rappler.com