Film Archive

BECLOUD (VAHO) | México  |   2009   |   111 minutes
Spanish, with subtitles in English
Drama | Directed by: Alejandro Gerber Bicecci

Synopsis: In a dry lake bed in 1964, a trucker and his companion find a baby boy at the dry breast of its dead mother. Years later the trucker operates an ice factory in a poor urban district with his son, José, who dreams of one day striking out on his own.

THE GENERAL (EL GENERAL) México |   2009 |   83 minutes
Spanish with English subtitles
Documentary | Directed by: Natalia Almada

Synopsis: Past and present collide in this extraordinarily well-crafted documentary in which filmmaker Natalia Almada, winner of the Sundance Film Festival's U.S. Directing Award for Documentary, brings to life audio recordings she inherited from her grandmother.

Awards:
Grand Coral Award 2009, Havana Film Festival
Directing Award 2009, Sundance Film Festival

LA YUMA | Nicaragua   |   2009   |   91 minutes
Spanish with English subtitles
Drama | Directed by: Florence Jaugey

Synopsis: Managua. Today. La Yuma longs to become a boxer. Down in the slums, gang members fight to control the street. At home, coldness is the name of the game.

Awards:
Best Actress 2010, Cartagena (Colombia) International Film Festival
Best Opera Prima Award 2010, Guadalajara International Film Festival
Best Actress 2010, Guadalajara International Film Festival
Best Actress 2010, Malaga (Spain) Film Festival

LEO'S ROOM (EL CUARTO DE LEO) | Uruguay   |   2009   |   92 minutes
Spanish with English subtitles
Drama | Directed by: Enrique Buchichio

Synopsis: In the heart of Montevideo, the affable but secretly troubled Leo wraps himself in the comfort of his small rented room, unmotivated to finish his college thesis or find a job, and content with infrequent visits from his girlfriend. After their six-month relationship ends, Leo begins to break out of his shell by cruising the Internet for a new companion, enlisting the aid of a sympathetic therapist along the way. However, it isn't until he has a chance reunion with a classmate that he is forced to consider the true meaning of his reclusive lifestyle, and a future outside the metaphoric safety of his room. Featuring a compelling soundtrack and an equally endearing cast of characters, director Enrique Buchichio's affirming drama is a unique vision of isolation and coming-of-age set against a modern tale of romance and friendship.

SHORT FILM INVERNESS | Brazil   |   2009   |   8'34"
Portuguese with English subtitles
Directed by: André Vicentin

Film produced during the third semester of a filmmaking course at Academia Internacional de Cinema (AIC) in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Synopsis:A man loses his wife and is haunted by vivid memories of her.

JUST WALKING (SOLO QUIERO CAMINAR) | Spain / México   |   2008   |   129 minutes
Spanish, with subtitles in English
Thriller | Director: Agustín Díaz Yañes

Synopsis: Aurora is serving a prison sentence for a robbery gone wrong. Her accomplices are Gloria, Paloma, and her sister Ana.

Awards:
Best Actress 2009; Cinema Writers Circle Award, Spain, plus 16 other nominations  (Diego Luna, who plays the main role, was nominated as for Best Actor by the Goya Awards).
Best Cinematography 2009, Goya Awards, Spain

FELICITAS | Argentina   |   2009   |   128 minutes
Spanish with English subtitles
Drama / History | Directed by: Ma. Teresa Constantini

Synopsis: Buenos Aires, 1862. Felicitas is the tragic story of a young couple torn between love and duty, passion and guilt in a time of bloody wars, yellow fever and the uncontrolled race toward social progress.

Awards:
Best Costume Design 2009, Argentinean Academy
Best Supporting Actress 2009, Clarin Entertainment

SOUTHERN DISTRICT (ZONA SUR) | Bolivia   |   2009   |   109 minutes
Spanish with English subtitles
Drama | Directed by: Juan Carlos Valdivia

Synopsis: Unlike other cities, in La Paz the wealthy live in the lower parts of town. Life passes by uneventfully in this large house surrounded by a lovely garden.

Awards:
Directing Award 2009, Sundance Film Festival
World Cinema Screenwriting Award 2009, Sundance Film Festival
Tokyo Grand Prix 2009, Tokyo International Film Festival

NIKTE | México |   2009 |   92 minutes
Spanish with English subtitles
Animation / Comedy / Children | Directed by: Ricardo Arnaiz Nuñez

Synopsis: If you want to be the biggest, first you have to learn how to be the smallest. This is what Nikte has to learn as a young girl of 11 living in the splendor of the Olmeca Culture in 2000 AC. She dreams of being a powerful princess even though she is very far down on the social scale.

MEMORIES OF OVERDEVELOPMENT (MEMORIAS DEL DESARROLLO)
USA / Cuba |   2010 |   120 minutes
Spanish/English with English subtitles
Drama | Directed by: Miguel Coyula

Synopsis: What happens when a socialist revolutionary intellectual asserts creative freedom? In Memories of Overdevelopment, ideological clashes and contradictions explode and fragment within a Cuban émigré while they spurt across the world stage.

Awards and Festivals:
World Premiere 2010, Sundance Film Festival
Havana Star for Best Film 2010, Havana Film Festival New York
Honorable Mention for Narrative Feature 2010, Cine Las Americas International Film Festival

GODS (DIOSES)| Peru   |   2008   |   91 minutes
Spanish with English subtitles
Director: Josué Méndez

Synopsis: Elisa, the soon-to-be-wife of a wealthy industrialist, is eager to shed her working-class background in favor of the opulence of her fiance's elite lifestyle.

Awards:
Golden Sun Award 2008, Biarritz International Festival of Latin American Cinema
Best Sound Award 2008, Havana Film Festival

SHORT FILM CINEMINHA (GOING TO THE MOVIES)
Brazil |   2009 |   5 minutes
Portuguese with English subtitles
Fiction | Directed by: David Leskinski
Film produced during the third semester of a filmmaking course at Academia Internacional de Cinema (AIC) in Sao Paulo, Brazil. 

Synopsis:Two old ladies mistakenly end up in a porno movie theater.

PORTRAITS IN A SEA OF LIES (RETRATOS EN UN MAR DE MENTIRAS)
Colombia | 2010 | 90 minutes
Spanish with English subtitles
Drama | Directed by: Carlos Gaviria

Synopsis: After the death of their grandfather in a mudslide, Jairo, an itinerant photographer, and Marina, his young amnesic and mute cousin, decide to go back and try to recover the land from which she was displaced years ago.

Awards and Festivals:
Official Selection: Berlin 2010, Generation
Best Film / Best Actress 2010, International Film Festival Guadalajara
Best First Feature 2010, Cartagena de Indias (Colombia) International Film Festival
Honorable Mention for Julián Román, Los Angeles Latino Film Festival.

SEGUIR SIENDO, CAFÉ TACVBA | México   |   2010 |   80 minutes
Spanish with English subtitles
Music/Documentary | Directed by: Ernesto Contreras and J. M. Craviotto

Synopsis: A rock band travels around different latitudes of the earth. In planes, trucks, hotels and dressing rooms we discover the creative process that unites them, as well as the friendships, problems, frustrations and desire to continue being a rock band, in their twentieth year of being Café Tacvba.

THE BLACK PANTER (LA PANTERA NEGRA) | México |   2010 |   105 minutes
Spanish with English subtitles
Drama/ Film Noir | Directed by: Iyari Wertta

Synopsis: Nico Beamonte, an alcoholic, decadent private detective, is hired to find the "Black Panther" by someone calling himself "God."

SMOKE GETS IN YOUR EYES (É PROIBIDO FUMAR) | Brazil |   2009 |   86 minutes
Portuguese with English subtitles
Drama/ Film noir | Directed by: Anna Muylaert

Synopsis Baby, a chain-smoking guitar teacher in her forties, craves a romantic relationship. When musician Max (Paulo Miklos) moves into the apartment next door, Baby sees in him the possibility of turning her lonely life around.

Awards and Festivals:
2009 Brasilia Film Festival:
Best Film & Screenplay (Anna Muylaert)
Best Actress (Gloria Pires), Best Actor (Paulo Miklos)
Best Supporting Actress (Daniela Nefussi)
Best Editing (Paulo Sacramento), Art Direction (Ana Mara Abreu)
Best Music (Marcio Nigro)
Sao Paulo Association of Art Critics:
Best Director (Anna Muylaert), Best Actress (Gloria Pires)

SHORT FILM PROFESSOR GODOY | Brazil |   2009 |   13 minutes
This film was produced as graduation project for a filmmaking course at Academia Internacional de Cinema (AIC) in São Paulo.
Portuguese with English subtitles
Fiction | Directed by: Gui Ashcar

Synopsis: Professor Godoy teaches math in a private High School. Stern and intransigent, Godoy has a methodic, uneventful life. When he completes 25 years of teaching, something unexpected happens that disturbs his academic daily routine, causing him to face his fears and impulses.

HERMAPHRODITE (HERMAFRODITA) | Dominican Republic |   2009 |   96 minutes
Spanish with English subtitles
Drama | Directed by: Albert Xavier

Synopsis: A powerful drama about the politics of sexual identity. Set amongst the picturesque mountains of the village of San Jose de Ocoa in the Dominican Republic, the film centers on the figure of Maria, a hermaphrodite born in the village, who suffers social discrimination.

Awards:
Audience Choice Awards 2009, Chicago Latino International Film festival
Best Film 2009, San Juan International Film Festival

DANCING WITH THE DEVIL | Brazil / UK |   2008   |   105 minutes
Portuguese with English subtitles
Documentary | Directed by: Jon Blair

Synopsis: A film by Academy Award Winning director Jon Blair, tells the story of three men who stalk the gloomy back alleys of the city's notorious slums: Spiderman, a 28-year-old drug lord, embarks on a routine patrol through the shadowy streets of Coréia, the sprawling favela he controls; Inspector Leonardo Torres, a muscle-bound cop from Rio's drug squad, inches through the alleys of another shantytown, shots ringing out around him; and Pastor Dione, an evangelical preacher intent on ending the city's drug conflict, trawls the slums for lost souls while trying to broker peace among all parties.  

HAVANAYORK | México / Cuba / USA  |  2009  |  90 min.
Spanish with English subtitles
Documentary | Directed by: Luciano Larobina

Synopsis: The rebellious and confrontational discourse of the musicians invites us to reflect on the counterculture and the parallel realities that arise in every government system.

TOURISTS (TURISTAS) | Chile  |   2009   |   104 minutes
Spanish with English subtitles
Drama | Directed by: Alicia Sherson

Synopsis: Carla hesitates. She is 37, married, possibly pregnant, and supposed to be happy while she heads for summer vacation along with her husband and a jet ski hooked to the back of the car.

BACKYARD | México |  2009 |   120 minutes
Spanish with English subtitles
Drama / Crime | Directed by: Carlos Carrera

Synopsis: Blanca Bravo investigates a string of murdered women, two per month on average, all of them young and pretty, most of them workers from the maquiladoras.

Awards:
Best Editing, Havana Film Festival 2009
Best Screen Play, Havana Film Festival 2009