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Existentialism in New Latino Cinema by Adrián Carrasco Zanini
Well reviewed on Rotten Tomatoes, 'The Amazing Catfish', by Claudia Sainte-Luce, follows a character named Claudia as she befriends an ailing matriarch Martha. photo: courtesy C. Sainte-Luce
ALTHOUGH THE LATIN ENTRIES AT THE
San Francisco International Film Festival in April represent a small fraction of the best current features and documentaries in Latin America, it was a good survey of a new generation of filmmakers dealing with their day-to-day existence.
With entries from Mexico, Argentina, Venezuela, Colombia, Uruguay and, for the first time, Costa Rica, this year's selections expand on a tradition started ten years ago. The festival culls the best from Festival’s yearly World Cinema Spotlight, which showcased the internationally acclaimed "Amores Perros" by Alejandro González Iñárritu back in 2000.
The current crop of directors are mostly young—some doing their first film—and share a coming-of-age approach to their subject matter. They seem to be discovering the inner operation of human interaction as the characters go about their mostly working-class lives dealing with everyday obstacles like economic disparity.
Some of the films also reflect the frustration of filmmakers about the Latino world's insurmountable problems like drug trafficking, class hatred or the lack of opportunities available to young people due to the neo-liberal economic policies imposed upon Latin America.
Mexico was well-represented with "The Amazing Catfish" by Claudia Sainte-Luce and "Club Sandwich" by Ferrnando Eimbcke.
An uplifting portrait of family life, "Catfish" covers the last days of a mother with AIDS hanging out with her young children and a young woman she met in the hospital. Told in a fresh, almost comic fashion, the film reveals the remnants of Mexico's tradition of strong family ties that is disappearing thanks—yet again—to a modern, market economy.
Despite this trend, the family struggles to knit together a richly emotional life filled with love, solidarity and compassion. The film is well-directed by Sainte-Luce with strong performances by Lisa Owen, winner of the 2014 Ariel (the Mexican Academy of Film Award ) for best actress, as the ailing mother.
Felipe Dieste (2nd fr rt) is the half-hearted star in Manolo Nieto's 'The Militant', a masterful slice of activism, lethargy and hipsterdom in modern Uruguay. photo: courtesy M. Nieto
"Club Sandwich", Fernando Eimbcke's second feature, after his surprisingly successful "Temporada de Patos" released in 2004, is in fact a coming-of-age film about the sexual awakening of a teenager, in a chance encounter with a girl, and his relationship with his mother.
Told in the European-style of "slow food" storytelling, and with sets dressed minimally, as in Eimbcke's previous film, this simple but revealing story attempts to delve into the inner feelings of a young teenager prompted by hormones to finally exit childhood.
Slow and almost monochromatic, with little dialogue, the film concentrates on the seemingly close relationship between a young mother and her son while on a vacation in a modest and empty Pacific beach resort. There they meet an elderly father, his perennially silent wife and his daughter, who is also becoming a young woman.
Although the boy is infatuated with his mom, he falls in lust with the girl. Cute and sweet, the story unfolds around his struggle to overcome his shyness and lose his virginity, turning the film into a poignant investigation of this important life passage.
Uruguay's entry is "The Militant", Manolo Nieto's second and notably accomplished feature. The film concerns a young man with a physical disability who is part of the student movement occupying some campuses of the country's state university.
While showing the tedium and fragility of leftist student activism, which is no longer connected to the working class or peasant unions of the past, he suddenly learns that his father has died and he has become a member of the ruling class, since he has inherited a house in the country.
Taken from Nieto's actual experiences, we watch the student search for meaning and much needed love among the confusing paradigms of leftism, student activism and owning land, a telling tale of modern banality in a country that produced the most intelligent urban guerrillas of the '60s and the current visionary President José Mujica.
Venezuela came to the festival ready to rock with "Bad Hair," by Mariana Rondón, which sold out all its shows. Winner of the San Sebastian International Golden Conch for best film in 2014, the film tells a powerful story of a young boy of African descent discovering his identity.
Shot in the poor housing projects of Caracas, and depicting the current straightened reality of Venezuela, the story is about a unemployed security guard and her young son, who wants to have straight hair. Well-developed, "Bad Hair" effectively reveals the never-ending struggles of single mothers without stable employment or fatherly child support as well as issues of race.
"Bad Hair" is a strong reminder of the racial divide present in all of Latin America, perpetuated even by leftist regimes, although based on the inferiority complex imposed by European colonialism.
Rondón also touches on another taboo, that of sexual orientation and the stigmatization of gay people in male chauvinist societies. The director hints that the boy may want to become a woman and shows how his mother is unsupportive, perhaps understandably in her financial situation.
Samuel Lange Zambrano from the excellent 'Bad Hair' by Mariana Rondón from Venezuela, which sold out the festival. photo: courtesy M. Rondón
"Manos Sucias", represented Colombia, even though the film was produced entirely in the US and was directed by Josef Wladyka, a young graduate of NYU film school and recipient of a Spike Lee Fellowship.
It tells a compelling story of poor Colombians, again of African descent, engaged in the struggle to survive by pretending to be fishermen while transporting drugs.
Displayed in a fast and interwoven style, with excellent photography, the film bumrushes audiences into the saga of two youngsters trying to survive in a world devoid of economic opportunities and fraught with violent interactions between the state, the drug dealers and the guerrillas. Kudos to this young director who manages to render such a strong and intimate portrait of young Afro-Colombians.
Arguably on of the best entries was Argentina's, which graced the festival with the "History of Fear", Benjamín Naishtat's freshman offering and the winner of the SFIFF New Directors Prize of ten thousand dollars.
A moving portrait on how the fear develops in a divided society, "History" deeply explores the frail social contract between those who enjoy a leisurely life and those who are forced to occupy vacant lands in order to have a place to live. Cunningly told, this film reaches to the depths of social inequality and reveals the roots of the fear that permeates Argentinean society today.
Lastly Costa Rica was well represented with "All about the Feathers" by Neto Villalobos. A comedy of sorts, about the fate of a yet another young security guard (meta-themes anyone?) with a passion for cockfighting.
Made on a shoestring with non-professional actors, this modest comedy is a good example of how a film production driven by love and passion can be successful.
The San Francisco International Film Festival's mosaic of converging realities portrayed in these films confirm once again that filmmaking in this region of the world is strong thanks to magical realism, passion and a new generation of cineastes that are thriving in the ancient art of storytelling.
Adrián Carrasco Zanini is a filmmaker, photographer and multimedia specialist who used to teach media studies at San Francisco's New College, makes films in Latin America and can be reached . Posted on Jun 23, 2014 - 05:16 PM