Film Screenings / Programs / Series
TO LOOK AWRY: LATIN AND SPANISH FILMMAKERS FAR FROM HOME
December 5 – December 8
December 5 - 8, 2013
Following the Spanish Civil War significant numbers of Spanish citizens fled the country, a phenomenon that was later reflected in the similar waves of emigration taking place in Latin America in the 1960s and 70s thanks to political repression throughout the region. In the realm of cinema, these movements generated, over the course of decades, a distinctive documentary tradition, inscribed in what was called Third Cinema. Today, for a variety of reasons, Latin American and Spanish filmmakers continue to leave their homelands with camera in hand. They are no longer political exiles (at least not in the previous sense), so the manner in which they look back to their homelands or integrate themselves into their host societies has changed, and their films are distinct from the Third Cinema tradition. The films that have resulted are heterogeneous and difficult to categorize, but they have largely taken the form of experimental documentaries, whose unstable, eccentric, de-centered nature mirrors the challenges facing their makers as they negotiate their cultural, social, and political relocation. This series surveys some of the films that have arisen as a result of these filmmakers’ fluid movements across national boundaries.
Curated by Josetxo Cerdán & Gonzalo de Pedro, TO LOOK AWRY is co-presented by Spain Culture New York-Consulate General of Spain (a member of the network Spain Arts and Culture), in collaboration with Cinema Tropical, The Flaherty Seminar, and Union Docs.
All films in this series are shot on and screening from digital video, and are in Spanish with English subtitles.
Chico Pereira & Pablo Chavarría will be here in person, with a special cocktail party to follow the Saturday night screening of TAPETUM LUCIDUM! Check out anthologyfilmarchives.org for more details.
FILMMAKER IN PERSON!
Chico Pereira
PABLO’S WINTER / EL INVIERNO DE PABLO
Spain, 2012, 76 min
PABLO’S WINTER is set in the mining town of Almadén, the filmmaker’s hometown. For Chico, to return to Almadén is to confront anew the history of the people who inhabit it. The film’s protagonist is a chain-smoking retired mercury miner who spends most of his time at his living room table, and has nothing to do but annoy his wife. But behind this facade of defeat lies a past of class and social struggle.
Thurs, Dec 5 at 7:00 and Sun, Dec 8 at 8:45
Sebastián Lingiardi
SIP’OHI – MANDURÉ’S PLACE / SIP’OHI – EL LUGAR DEL MANDURÉ
Argentina, 2011, 63 min
Gustavo Salvatierra returns to his hometown, Sipo’hi, in the north of Argentina, a forgotten place far from Buenos Aires, in order to collect stories of wichí culture, transmitted orally from generation to generation. This culture is alive in the people’s language, and in the faces and the singular mood of wichí men and women. Traveling with Salvatierra is Sebastián Lingiardi, the Buenos Aires-born filmmaker, whose goal is to make a movie about this unique culture.
Thurs, Dec 5 at 9:00
Germán Scelso
THE MODEL / EL MODELO
Spain, 2012, 45 min
&
EL ENGAÑO
Spain, 2009, 14 min
Scelso is an Argentinian filmmaker who lives in Barcelona: far from home, perpetually without money, and without regular employment, he can only get jobs that the Spanish reject. This way of living, on the edge of society, is one he shares with the characters he chooses to film: losers, liars, the disabled, old and rejected people. The two films presented here are disturbing portraits of a country convulsed by economic, political, and social crises, and both find Scelso questioning the ethical boundaries of documentary cinema.
Fri, Dec 6 at 7:15
Nuria Ibañez
THE NAKED ROOM / EL CUARTO DESNUDO
Mexico, 2013, 66 min
Offers a vision of a whole world within the confines of a single space: the examination room in a children’s hospital in Mexico City. By listening to the children, their parents, and the doctors during consultations Ibañez provides a profound and complex view of social reality and human nature.
Fri, Dec 6 at 9:00 and Sun, Dec 8 at 5:00
Andrés Duque
DRESS REHEARSAL FOR UTOPIA / ENSAYO FINAL PARA UTOPÍA
Spain, 2012, 75 min
As his father lies dying in a hospital room in Barcelona, the filmmaker’s thoughts travel to Mozambique. Images of dance and revolution, some culled from found footage, some newly shot, conjure up a spectral alternate reality. A spellbinding study of memory and sense of place.
Sat, Dec 7 at 5:00
Mercedes Moncada
MAGIC WORDS – BREAKING A SPELL / PALABRAS MÁGICAS (PARA ROMPER UN ENCANTAMIENTO)
Mexico/Guatemala/Nicaragua, 2012, 82 min
The filmmaker’s journey back to Nicaragua is also a journey from the ideals of the Sandinista revolution to the nightmare of the revolutionaries’ corruption. With her own history intertwined with the history of her homeland it is impossible to separate the public and the private – like dreams and nightmares, they are two sides of the same coin. An essay-film in the tradition of Chris Marker.
Sat, Dec 7 at 6:45
FILMMAKER IN PERSON FOR BOTH SHOWS!
Pablo Chavarría
TAPETUM LUCIDUM
Mexico, 2012, 64 min
The second film of this young Mexican filmmaker (22 years old at the time of the production), who studied biology rather than filmmaking, is shot in and focused on Chiapas. The film concerns the special relationship between men and animals in the region, and centers on a young woman, who, like Chavarría himself, lives there only temporarily, and is on the verge of an important decision. The camera portrays this melancholic universe with humility and sensitivity, allowing each situation to play out according to its own particular rhythm.
Sat, Dec 7 at 8:45 and Sun, Dec 8 at 6:45
