 |
|||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|||||||
 |
|||||||||||
| Back to Films - 2001 | |||||||||||
5:30 PM - "Opening Night Reception" at Planet Hollywood, Horton Plaza
7:00 PM - "La Ciudad"
Opening Short Film - Sístole-Diastole (1998, 20 min., 35mm, Spanish w/ English Subtitles, Mexico)
Director: Carlos Cuaron
The lotería of life gets played out splendidly in Cuaron's film. The light-as-magic-dust cast features Selma Hayek, Roberta Sosa, and the luminous Lumi Cavazos.
La Ciudad (1998, 88 min., 35mm, USA)
Director: David Riker
This festival is extremely blessed to have David Riker's LA CIUDAD as our opening night keynote film. LA CIUDAD is composed of four vignettes involving the struggle for survival among the immigrant community in New York City. The first tells of a young bricklayer who is severely injured when an old factory wall collapses on him; the second finds a young man newly arrived from Mexico who meets a young woman from back home only to lose her.
The third deals with a homeless puppeteer who has contracted tuberculosis from staying in a shelter. He trys to get his daughter in school only to be refused when he cannot produce a rent receipt. The final sequence follows a seamstress who hasn't been paid in weeks as she struggles to get her pay in order to deal with a medical emergency back home in her native country. LA CIUDAD is a powerful example of how film can transform life's tragic experiences into visual poetry. One of the magical elements in LA CIUDAD is Riker's inspired direction of nonprofessional actors who were workshopped over a period of time. All of the elements of LA CIUDAD bond together patiently to provide one of the most moving and unique film experiences you will ever have.
9:30 PM - "Paulina"
Opening Short Film - Sometimes My Feet Go Numb (1997, 3 min., 35mm, USA)
Director: Lourdes Portillo
MY FEET GO NUMB is director Lourdes Portillo's filmed ode to the magic of performance. It is a lyrical balm for death and the sometimes beautiful mystery of despair.
Paulina (1997, 88 min., 16mm, Documentary, Spanish w/ English Subtitles, USA/Mexico/Canada)
Director: Vicky Funari
PAULINA, a new feature film by Vicky Funari and Jennifer Maytorena-Taylor, is filled with fingerprints. Small hands brush against plants and trees and leave their traces. Fingers press on to grills with crackling green chiles. Hands clutch and grasp, labor and keeping busy while a mind voyages with curiosity and fervor. The film documents Paulina Cruz Suarez's life as a domestic worker and through the slow revealing, or peeling back of layers, a childhood secret is unearthed. Several histories emerge through Paulina's testimonial: the struggle of women both in rural and urban communities, the elusiveness of memory and history in constructing a personal narrative, and notions of silence and repression that charge not only family structures, but that of entire communities.
The collaboration among Funari, Maytorena-Taylor, and Cruz Suarez involves a negotiation with the codes of documentary and the attributes of narrative cinema. Docudrama sequences involving performers (with a cameo role for Funari as the inquisitive foreigner with a camera in the bus scene) interact with interviews, at times providing Rashoman-like variations. For example, several dramatic recreations of one pivotal event in Paulina's life reflect the conflicting mindsets of the generations involved. Hands break through frames displaying snap-shots (both falsified documents and family portraits), all the visual and audio elements blend to tell the sometimes more -fantastic-and-terrifying- than-fiction account of one woman's (formerly invisible) history. By Rita Gonzalez.
Influence is a strong order to put on someone; Influence me teach me entertain me. Director/Artist Lourdes Portillo has strongly influenced the new Latino film movement. She has made it Lourdesque. In paying homage to her SDLFF did not want to freeze her work in a moment, our festival, but to show that her work breeds and breathes
The works we have chosen four our tribute night all reflect the sensibilities that Portillo has brought to the Latino aesthetic. Tonight's films all share Portillo's love of fun, love of color, and love of self in film. Her works are all self-conscious in the best sense of the phrase, she trusts her taste and her style. The 1999 San Diego Latino Film Festival is proud and lucky to pay tribute to Lourdes Portillo. Thank you Lourdes.
5:00 PM - "The Portillo Influence"
From Here To There (1998, 41 min., Video, Documentary, USA)
Director: Maria Teresa Rodriguez
FROM HERE TO THERE is a refreshingly new way to look at the age old issues of family and identity. We are all tugged by the desire to know who we really are, and who are fathers are. FROM HERE TO THERE takes it one step farther by raising questions and issues about being bi-racial, in this instance Irish and Colombian.
A Day Without a Mexican (1998, 28 min., 16mm, USA)
Directors: Sergio Arau & Yareli Arizmendi
Serious issue raising filmmaking can be fun; A DAY WITHOUT A MEXICAN makes that very clear in it's 28 minutes of mock investigative reporting. What would it be like if there were no Mexicans in California?
The Apple is Delicious (1998, 13 min., 16mm, USA)
Director: George Reyes
In THE APPLE IS DELICIOUS we visit the heart of George Reyes. His beautiful film mixes poignant questions about growing up new in this culture, questions that all children of color have, with heartbreakingly beautiful filmmaking. This film is delicious.
The Absolution of Anthony (1998, 13 min., 16mm, USA)
Director: Dean Sloter
The Absolution of Anthony is a provocative film about an adolescent boy coming to terms with his feelings of desire for members of the same sex. This difficult process of self-discovery is heightened by the frustrations Anthony experiences while making erotic, anonymous telephone calls. These frustrations are compounded by a lack of privacy at home, awkward interactions with a sympathetic local priest (Victor Garber), and alienation from th other youths in the neighborhood. There is also a power struggle between Anthony, his grandfather, and his Latino heritage -- a heritage that traditionally embraces machismo and rejects sensitivity or perceived weakness in males. It is against significant odds that Anthony is battling for acceptance, both from others and himself. By Joe Ferrelli., FilmOut San Diego.
7:00 PM - "Corpus: A Home Movie for Selena" (Film Sponsor: Sempra Energy)
Opening Short Film - Barbacoa (1998, 24 min., Video, USA)
Directors: Mike Cevallos & Gibby Cevallos
BARBACOA presents a charming look at one Tejano family as seen through the eyes of its youngest son. A tribute to Sunday morning ritual and the typical suburban Chicano childhood, BARBACOA is filled with humor and small precious moments, culminating in the all-important Sunday meal. From the morning newspaper route to church and to a game of street baseball, this film reminds us that culture is transmitted, almost unobserved, through the small simple occurrences of an average day. By Victor Payan.
Corpus: A Home Movie for Selena (1999, 47 min., Video, USA)
Director: Lourdes Portillo
CORPUS is brilliant, intense, visceral, and certainly one of the warmest documentaries about Latinas ever made. CORPUS made me think about Selena in a whole new way. Was that really what she looked like? Is that really her smiling out at us from the tour bus in this video? Lourdes Portillo makes us realize that when Selena was killed at that Day's Inn everything changed. We charged backwards into our collective brown psyche. The difference CORPUS shows us is that as Mexicans we also charged down into our hearts for answers to what life deals us and for the answer to the tragedy of Selena Quintanilla.
9:30 PM - "Chile: Obstinate Memory"
Chile: Obstinate Memory (1997, 52 min., 35mm, Spanish w/ English Subtitles, Canada)
Director: Patricio Guzman
In CHILE OBSTINATE MEMORY, director Patricio Guzman returns to his native country to screen his long-banned film THE BATTLE OF CHILE. While in Chile Guzman films the sometimes agonizing reaction of survivors of that dark period of Chilean history plus the startling awakening of a new generation of students who must all come to grip with the horrors of the past. CHILE: OBSTINATE MEMORY beautifully combines questions of memory with raw emotion; It is a powerful viewing experience.
5:00 PM - "Doces Poderes"
Doces Poderes (1997, 98 min., 35mm, Portuguese w/ English Subtitles, Brazil)
Director: Lucia Murat
Director, Lucia Murat, brings her background as a Brazilian journalist into focus in her second film DOCES PODERES (Sweet Power). Bia (Marisa Orth), TNA Branch Director, heads the news coverage of the gubernatorial race in Brasilia. As the race unfolds, two candidates take the lead. It is upon the covert interactions with race, sex and money that the candidates, their marketing strategists and news journalists trampoline for power. Never mind the political issues of the day. Murat cleverly approaches the infrastructure of the political campaign. How each person responds to their work within a campaign is a constant question. As each candidate is further revealed, each of those people must pause and decide how to respond. The boundary of what is right or wrong keeps shifting depending on who you are or what you want. Chico (Antonio Fagunes) heads the opposition's campaign, and Alex, (Tuca Andrada) is Bia's chief news writer. The vague romanticism between the two men and Bia serve as an underscore to the thin ice of committing to anyone or anything. There is one scene in the movie that makes this for mature audiences only. By Eloisa de Leon.
7:00 PM - "Baile Perfumado" (Film Sponsor: Sempra Energy)
Opening Short Film - Decisao (1997, 18 min., 35mm, Portuguese w/ English Subtitles, Brazil)
Director: Leila Hipolito
DECISAO is gleefully polite filmmaking that is interesting for the chances it doesn't take but rather lets the leading man take. The chemistry in this short is wonderful between the leads, the love of soccer and the clever soundtrack featuring a classic tune by Redbone we all know.
Baile Perfumado (1997, 93 min., 35mm, Portuguese w/ English Subtitles, Brazil)
Directors: Lirio Ferreria & Paulo Caldas
In the 1930's in Brazil, a Lebanese photographer and filmmaker set out to find a legendary and elusive bandit. Using truth and finesse, the photographer manages to interview the bandit as well as film him in his private life. BAILE PERFUMADO is an intelligent mix of docu-drama and good old fashioned cops and robbers.
9:30 PM - "Amor & Cia"
Amor & Cia (1998, 100 min., 35mm, Portuguese w/ English Subtitles, Brazil)
Director: Helvecio Ratton
AMOR & CIA; In Brazil, at the end of the 19th century, Godofredo Alves, a rich businessman, finds his beloved wife Ludovina in the arms of his partner Machado. From that moment on Alves' world collapses and his life changes into hell. AMOR & CIA tells in a good-humored way the story of a man who is betrayed by the people whom he trusted. He is a man tormented by a dilemma: what is more important in life, fight for one's love or defend one's own honor?
5:00 PM - "La Vendedora de Rosas" (Film Sponsor: Sempra Energy)
La Vendedora de Rosas (1998, 35mm, 129 min., Spanish w/ English Subtitles, Colombia)
Director: Victor Gaviria
Lady is only 13 and already a rebel against the world. She has created a world of he own in the street and pluckily fights to hold on to the little she has: her girlfriends, all kids like her, her drug-dealer boyfriend, her dignity and her pride. She makes concessions to no one. On Christmas Eve, as on any other night, she is selling roses to make a living and to indulge in the dream of a holiday complete with fireworks, trying on new dresses and going out with her boyfriend. But life one again brings her face to face with loneliness, drugs and death. Lady embodies the hidden face of a merciless city, Medellín, a city like any other where street children who have no place in this world fritter away the futile days of their lives.
"¡Mexico, Mexico!"
Co-Presented by: Mexican Cultural Institute of San Diego & IMCINE
7:00 PM - "Fibra Optica"
Opening Short Film - Sístole-Diastole (1998, 20 min., 35mm, Spanish w/ English Subtitles, Mexico)
Director: Carlos Cuaron
The lotería of life gets played out splendidly in Cuaron's film. The light-as-magic-dust cast features Selma Hayek, Roberta Sosa, and the luminous Lumi Cavazos.
Fibra Optica (1997, 100 min., 35mm, Spanish w/ English Subtitles, Mexico)
Director: Francisco Athie
FIBRA OPTICA is a political thriller but it is also a love story set in the world's largest city, Mexico. The characters live within a complex electronic web. FIBRA OPTICA takes place in a Mexico in which the modernization of communication media and computer sciences has become a tool of power and intimidation in an atmosphere of social and economic crisis. Our cities were transformed from streets, cafes and bars into a vast network of telephones, fax machines, and e-mail. As we acquire more tools to stay in touch we speed farther and faster into isolation and beyond.
9:30 PM - "Santo Luzbel"
1:00 PM - "Discovery 1"
Running for Bogota (1998, 60 min., Video, Documentary, USA)
Director: Odile Iralson
In Colombia, a country wrought with drugs, violence, and rampant corruption, a singer and a housewife decide to throw a wrench in the political machine by running for political office. This is their story.
Batadinia (1998, 50 min., Video, Documentary, USA)
Director: Megan Mylan
BATADANIA explores music as means of protest for the children Banda AfroReggae, an African-Brazilian youth drum corps from one of Rio de Janeiro's most violent slums, or favelas.
3:00 PM - "Discovery 2"
The Double Life of Ernesto Gomez-Gomez (1998, 56 min., Video, Documentary, USA)
Director: Gary Weimberg
DOUBLE LIFE is a biographical documentary/self portrait of a Mexican-American- Puertican teenage boy who learns that he is adopted and that his biologicalmother is a Puertican revolutionary hero and political prisoner in the U.S.A.
Ni Aqui Ni Alla (1998, 26 min., Video, Documentary, USA)
Director: Nora I. Cadena
NI AQUI, NI ALLA follows a day in the lives of Latino street vendors and musicians roving San Francisco's Mission District. While focusing on the resourcefulness of some undocumented workers at finding work at a time when California grows increasingly intolerant of foreigners the film explores the emotional toll of being caught between two disparate countries.
4:45 PM - "Adventures of a Catholic Atheist (work-in-progress)"
"Work-In-Progress: A Rough-Cut Viewing and Discussion with Director"
Adventures of a Catholic Atheist (Work-in-Progress, 90 min., Video, USA)
Director: John Mendoza
It's the mis-education of Martin, played by Carlos Leon, who decides to tell his family that he no longer believes in God. He decides to drop this emotional bomb on Christmas Eve, you do the hyper-fanatic Catholic family math. Adventures is a brave new film in the making that tells it's audience to join us in the here and now. The performances are engaging and the dialogue smart and funny. Aye, but it's Tia Patricia, played by Karmin Murcello, who steals the film. William Freidkin and THE EXCORCIST have nothing on Tia Pat.
5:30 PM - "Discovery 3" (Film Sponsor: Sempra Energy)
Afternoon in the Park (1998, 20 min., 16mm, USA)
Director: Mike King
This afternoon in the park is no trip to the park of the idyllic American small town, but rather a trip to the dangers of modern day urban life. The young man is this story is confronted with violence and fear, but maybe more importantly he is confronted with having to make a crucial moral decision that could shape the rest of his life.
Neto's Run (1998, 20 min., 16mm, USA)
Director: Alfredo de Villa
We remain in the strife of urban life for this gritty and emotionally taxing story of Neto. He is just trying to survive and save enough money to bring his family to New York to be with him; But the obstacles seem endless and increasingly more horrendous. Will Neto sell his soul for what he wants, and who will pay the price?
Mi Abuela (1999, 24 min., 35mm, USA)
Director: Albert G. Caballero
It is always terrific to see a strong Mexican-American story that is steeped in tradition but also realistic about the difficulties of life today. MI ABUELA is that story. It takes us this time to Los Angeles and the experience of being young and scared. MI ABUELA is a beautiful film with gorgeous photography, and fine acting throughout. MI ABUELA shows us that in the Mexican-American culture, maternity is still everything
7:00 PM - "El Norte"
"A Tribute to Gregory Nava"
Co-Presented by: Latin Heat
Gregory Nava set the mark for Latino film with EL NORTE. Since then he has continued to be a leader in the Latino film movement. In many ways his films tell the stories of our lives. In MI FAMILIA we felt like we were finally being celebrated at a big Mexican-American cinematic pachanga; and in SELENA, Gregory Nava gave us a contemporary fairytale complete with the absolute mark of 90's culture, the obsessive fan and the slain idol; but this time they were raza. More than once I have heard young Latino filmmakers say that they wanted to become filmmakers because of Gregory Nava and EL NORTE. So Gregory Nava is responsible not only for the beautiful work that he has given us, but also for the beautiful work that his inspiration will give us.
El Norte (1983, 139 min., 35mm, USA)
Director: Gregory Nava
Over 15 years after it first appeared in the movie theaters, San Diego Latino Film Festival is proud to provide the San Diego/Border Region another opportunity to experience this remarkable film on the big-screen. EL NORTE is an emotional saga of a brother and sister who leave their violence-torn village in Guatemala to find a better life in the United States. After receiving clandestine help from friends and humorous advice from a veteran immigrant on strategies for traveling through Mexico, they make their way by truck, bus and other means to Los Angeles, where they try to make a new life for themselves. A compassionate, heart-rending, and unforgettable film, EL NORTE was nominated for an Oscar at the 1985 Academy Awards for Best Screenplay.
9:30 PM - "The Buena Vista Social Club"
The Buena Vista Social Club (1998, 90 min., Documentary, 35mm, USA)
Director: Wim Wenders
In 1996 Ry Cooder gathered together some of the greatest names from the history of Cuban music to collaborate on the best selling and Grammy winning album The Buena Vista Social Club. This ground-breaking documentary directed by Wim Wenders (Wings of Desire, City of Angels), inspired by the album, includes appearances by legendary performers Ibrahim Ferrer, Ruben González, Eliades Ochoa, Omara Portuondo, Compay Segundo and many other renowned Cuban musicians. Award-winning recording artist Ry Cooder has composed the musical score for several Wim Wenders films including Paris, Texas and The End of Violence. Wenders now turns the camera on Cooder and his friendship with these legendary musicians. Excited by these colorful characters and their extraordinary music, Wim Wenders traveled to Havana, Cuba to chronicle the cooperation and camaraderie between Ry Cooder and his veteran friends - now known in Cuba as "Los Superabuelos" (the super-grandfathers) - as well as their dazzling sell-out concerts in Amsterdam and New York's Carnegie Hall in April and July 1998. Wenders explains that he had no concept for the film other than trying "to do justice to this wonderful, warm, miraculous yet altogether real music." "Music is a treasure hunt," says Cooder "you dig and dig and sometimes you find something. In Cuba the music flows like a river," continues Wenders, "I want to make a film that'll just float on this river. Not interfere with it, just drift along."
9:30 PM - "Closing Night Party & Dance"
Location: 4th & B (345 B St., San Diego) - 21 & Up
1:00 PM - "Atomic Blue"
Opening Short Film - Columbus on Trial (1994, 19 min., Video, USA)
Director: Lourdes Portillo
Festival Tributee Lourdes Portillo's 1993 video is a satirical courtroom clash over the issue of Christopher Columbus. It is visually stunning and still today, very fresh, sick silly fresh; featuring Culture Clash.
Atomic Blue Mexican Wrestler (1998, 127 min., 16mm, USA)
Director: Richard Salazar
ATOMIC BLUE brings a time honored tradition, the Mexican wrestling film and drops it in modern day Los Angeles. The story is pure hero fodder as a young Mexican-American boy goes desperately searching for a hero to save all the days. He finds Atomic Blue, Mexican Wrestler. Blue is running away from his past but as long as he is wearing that blue mask he must always fight evil. The film skips along at break-neck speed thanks to a vibrant soundtrack andexciting wrestling sequences. Sometimes we have to suspend belief and just get sweeped up in a film, and in the case of ATOMIC BLUE, we won't be sorry.
3:30 PM - "Aventurera" (Film Sponsor: Sempra Energy)
Opening Short Film - Cuba 15 (1997, 12 min., 16mm, USA)
Director: Elizabeth Schub
Tzumani, a small town Cuban girl celebrates her 15th birthday and brings us along for the wild dance. Tzunami and this film will utterly charm you and literally dance their way into your heart.
Aventurera (1949, 93 min., 35mm, Spanish w/ English Subtitles, Mexico)
Director: Alberto Gout
AVENTURERA has been lauded as the quintessential cabaretera, the melodramatic musical films made popular in the 1950's Mexican Cinema. Starring the legendary Ninon Sevilla as Elena, a schoolgirl in Chihuahua City living a seemingly happy life in a comfortable home. When Elena comes home one day and discovers an unexpected devastating situation her charmed life starts a downward spiral that ends up in Elena's warped cabaret stardom. Along the way there are jewelry store heists, failed romances, mistaken identities, and fabulous musical numbers. This film is a must see and a very special presentation of the 1999 San Diego Latino Film Festival.
5:30 PM - "Por Si No Te Vuelvo a Ver"
Opening Short Film - Santo Golpe (1997, 35mm, 11 min., Animation, Mexico)
Director: Dominique Jonard
A charming animation piece about a holy heist in Chiapas. the language is unique, as is the voice of this piece created by the children of this region.
Por Si No Te Vuelvo a Ver (1997, 90 min., 35mm, Spanish w/ English Subtitles, Mexico)
Director: Juan Pablo Villaseñor
Five elderly men form a music group and dream of playing for a live audience. A concert for friends at the nursing home where they live is not exactly what they have in mind. They escape from the nursing home in search of their dream. Along the way, they confront the city, nursing home authorities, the police, their family and everyone else who is determined to destroy their only chance to perform. Finally, it seems like life is too good to be true when they are hired to play musical backup for a group of strippers in a run-down nightclub. A compelling, funny and moving film, Por Si No Te Vuelvo a Ver is about life, death, and the quest for happiness.
*Parental Guidance recommended. Suggested audience: 8 years-old and up.
Home || Advertise || Arte Latino || Awards || Call for Entries || Cine Cubano! || |
||