What to Watch Online This Week with Cinema Tropical
The festivities begin this coming Wednesday, March 31 with the 6th edition of “Neighboring Scenes: New Latin American Cinema,” the annual festival of recent Latin American film presented by Film at Lincoln Center and Cinema Tropical.
Featuring nine recently-premiered films from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, and Peru, “Neighboring Scenes” will also present a special restoration of the landmark Argentine film Silvia Prieto by
Martín Rejtman, which was the first film Cinema Tropical screened, in February 2001, at the Pioneer Theater in downtown Manhattan, and which
marked the launching of the organization.
Tickets for Neighboring Scenes are available now! Save 20% on all Neighboring Scenes virtual rentals: create your account and explore the full lineup here. Once you have selected your films or the all-access pass, hover over the thumbnail, click “Rent,” and enter promo code CINEMATROP21.
Films Premiering This Week:
‘ADIFF Women’s History Month Film Series’:
ANGÉLICA
(Marisol Gómez-Mouakad, USA/ Puerto Rico, 2016, 100 min. In English and Spanish with English subtitles)
Angélica, after a long absence from Puerto Rico, returns when her father, Wilfredo, suffers a stroke. This forced return and her father’s illness, forces Angelica to re-evaluate her relationship with her mother, and with her family members who don’t accept her because of her skin color. All this will force her to face herself and discover that she does not know who she is. Furthermore she does not like herself. After her father’s death, Angélica must decide whether to return to the comfort of her previous life, dissatisfied, but secure, or set on an adventurous path to rediscover herself as an independent, modern, strong, mulatto, and Puerto Rican woman in a globalized world that is in the cusp of the twenty-first century.
Streaming Friday, March 26 through Monday, March 29
THE CRUZ BROTHERS AND MISS MALLOY
(Kathleen Collins, USA, 1980, 54 min. In English)
Kathleen Collins’ first film, The Cruz Brothers and Miss Malloy is an adaptation of a series of short stories by Henry H. Roth about three young Puerto Rican men whose lives are watched over by their father’s ghost. New York’s rural Rockland County is an unlikely setting for the both the urban-born trio and the magic they encounter when they meet Miss Malloy, an elderly widow with a house that needs some loving care. The Cruz Brothers and Miss Malloy is a fresh and exciting discovery—not only is it one of the first films directed by an African-American woman, it is also one of the of the best celebrations of Puerto Rican culture in the Northeast US.
Streaming Friday, March 26 through Monday, March 29
Virtual Theatrical Release:
MY DARLING SUPERMARKET
(Meu Querido Supermercado, Tali Yankelevich, Brazil/Denmark, 2019, 80 min. In Portuguese with English subtitles)
Grocery store employees, today’s essential workers, get star treatment in My Darling Supermarket (made prior to the pandemic). Set within a bright, colorful supermercado in São Paulo, Brazil, this charming, funny documentary glides through a seemingly endless array of vibrantly designed shelves and displays, but it’s the store’s employees who take center stage. Rodrigo (in bread) discusses quantum physics and parallel universes; Santo (a forklift operator) builds video game cities; a security officer tracks possible shoplifters on closed circuit TVs (“Two suspects near the condensed milk!”); Ivan (a baker) likes to dress as Goku, a Manga character; and then there’s the artist who lovingly paints the prices. A panoply of individuals with fears, hopes, and questions about their place in the universe are celebrated in a quirky portrait that juxtaposes their idiosyncrasies with the assumed mundanity of bringing food to our table.
Virtual Theatrical Release:
IDENTIFYING FEATURES
(Sin señas particulares, Fernanda Valadez, Mexico/Spain, 2020, 95 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Middle-aged Magdalena (Mercedes Hernandez) has lost contact with her son after he took off with a friend from their town of Guanajuato to cross the border into the U.S., hopeful to find work. Desperate to find out what happened to him—and to know whether or not he’s even alive—she embarks on an ever-expanding and increasingly dangerous journey to discover the truth. At the same time, a young man named Miguel (David Illescas) has returned to Mexico after being deported from the U.S., and eventually his path converges with Magdalena’s. From this simple but urgent premise, director Fernanda Valadez has crafted a lyrical, suspenseful slow burn, equally constructed of moments of beauty and horror, and which leads to a startling, shattering conclusion. Winner of the World Cinema Dramatic Audience and Screenplay Awards at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.
Watch Now
Daily Recommendation:
STILL BURN
(Algo quema, Mauricio Alfredo Ovando, Bolivia, 2018, 77 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Alfredo Ovando Candia was a military general who served as co-president of Bolivia from 1965–66 (and again from 1969–70) after overthrowing President Víctor Paz Estenssoro. His political and military service connect him to the largest massacre of workers in the country’s history, as well as the military campaign in which Che Guevara was found and killed. Incorporating archival footage from Ovando’s de facto administration, home movies, and interviews with relatives, filmmaker-grandson Mauricio Alfredo Ovando’s debut feature studies the many profiles of his grandfather to juxtapose his family’s fond memories with the harsh official history. Winner of the Best Director and FIPRESCI awards at the 2018 Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema, Still Burn is a courageous, perceptive documentary about how collective and personal memories are created from—and ultimately shape—a complicated legacy.
Daily Recommendation:
WITH MY HEART IN YAMBO
(Con mi corazón en Yambo, María Fernanda Restrepo, Ecuador, 2011, 135 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
“‘You know when the struggles begin, but not when they end.’ When filmmaker Fernanda Restrepo Arizmendi’s father said this to her, he was speaking from experience. Every Wednesday, he goes to protest on the square of Ecuador’s Presidential Palace. Until her death in a car accident, Fernanda’s mother wrote letter after letter to the president. In 1988, when Fernanda was just 10 years, old, her brothers Santiago (17) and Andrés (14) mysteriously disappeared. A year later, the family discovered that the police had kidnapped, severely beaten, and then murdered the two boys for no apparent reason at all. The bodies were dumped in the Yambo River, never to be found again. With My Heart in Yambo is Fernanda’s heartrending contribution to the processing of a devastating family trauma.” —International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA)
Daily Recommendation:
SUSPENSION
(Suspención, Simón Uribe Martínez, Colombia, 2020, 75 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Deep in the misty jungle of southern Colombia, between treacherously steep mountain slopes, stands an unfinished concrete bridge as an absurd symbol of human folly. Once intended as a link in the new “bypass” that was supposed to replace the perilous old road from Pasto to Mocoa, it’s now a bizarre attraction for day trippers taking selfies and kids doing motorcycle stunts. In 1991 a devastating landslide hit the old road, known as the “springboard of death”, killing dozens of people. An engineer in his jeep describes the construction of this lethal road back in the 1940s as sheer madness. After all, Catholic missionaries had already found a better route decades earlier. Local residents view the futuristic design of the new bridge under construction on their laptops. Workers pour concrete in the midst of mud and fast-flowing waters, unaware of the impending doom. It’s as if there’s a conspiracy between nature, politicians and foolish arrogance.
Daily Recommendation:
UNDERDOGS
(Metegol, Juan José Campanella, Argentina, 2013, 107 min. In English)
Directed by Academy Award-winner Juan José Campanella, Underdogs is an animated comedy with a little bit of magic and a whole lot of heart. Jake is a shy, but talented, foosball player. His passion for the game is rivaled only by his love for free-spirited Laura. With her encouragement, he beats the town bully, Ace, in a foosball game. But everything changes when Ace becomes the world’s best soccer player and returns years later to turn their village into a new sports stadium. He starts to destroy everything and kidnaps Laura in the process. Just when it looks like all hope is lost, the toy figures from Jake’s foosball table come to life. He and the players embark on a wild adventure to save Laura and reclaim their village. With the help of his team, his town, and a little bit of magic, Jake will try to save the day.
Cinema Tropical at 20:
Picture of the Week:
AMORES PERROS
Actor Gael García Bernal and director Alejandro González Iñárritu with Cinema Tropical’s Carlos A. Gutiérrez, at a special sneak preview of Amores perros organized by Cinema Tropical in New York City, March 2001.
Now Available to Stream:
Virtual Theatrical Release:
THE FEVER
(A Febre, Maya Da-Rin, Brazil/France/Germany, 2019, 98 min. In Portuguese with English subtitles)
Manaus is an industrial city surrounded by the Amazon rainforest. Justino, a 45 years old Desana native, works as a security guard at the cargo port. Since the death of his wife, his main company is his youngest daughter with whom he lives in a modest house on the outskirts of town. Nurse at a health clinic, Vanessa is accepted to study medicine in Brasilia and will need to be leaving soon. As the days go by, Justino is overcome by a strong fever. During the night, a mysterious creature follows his footsteps. During the day, he fights to stay awake at work. But soon the tedious routine of the harbor is broken by the arrival of a new guard. Meanwhile, his brother’s visit makes Justino remember the life in the forest, from where he left twenty years ago. Between the oppression of the city and the distance of his native village, Justino can no longer endure an existence without place.
U.S. Latinx and Latin American Films at the 11th Annual Athena Film Festival:
LA MADRINA: THE (SAVAGE) LIFE OF LORINE PADILLA
(Raquel Cepeda, USA, 2020, 81 min. In English and Spanish with English subtitles)
Streaming through Sunday, March 28
‘Shorts’
INMACULADA
(Stephanie Sandoval, Chile, 2018, 16 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
PLAYBACK
(Agustina Comedi, Argentina, 2019, 14 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
BASTA
(Cecilia Albertini and Lesley Elizondo, USA, 2020, 12 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
LUPITA
(Monica Wise Robles, USA/Mexico, 2020, 21 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
LA INDEFINIBLE
(Agustina Biasutto, USA, 2019, 10min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
MARGARITA OF THE RIVER
(Pilar Garcia-Fernandezsesma, USA, 2018, 4min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
EXILED
(Exiliada, Leonor Zúniga, Costa Rica, 2019, 24 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
All shorts streaming through Wednesday, March 31
Virtual Theatrical Release:
LEONA
(Isaac Cherem, Mexico, 2018, 95 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Leona is an intimate, insightful, and moving film that tells the story of a young Jewish woman from Mexico City who finds herself torn between her family and her forbidden love. Ripe with all the drama and interpersonal conflicts of a Jane Austen novel, watching her negotiate the labyrinth of familial pressure, religious precedent, and her own burgeoning sentiment is both painful and beautiful – there are no easy choices to be made and the viewer travels back and forth with her as she struggles with her heart to take the best path.
Daily Recommendation:
THE LIBERATOR
(El libertador, Alberto Arvelo, Venezuela/Spain, 2014, 114 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
“There is arguably no single figure as important to the story of independence and democracy in the Americas as Simón Bolívar (1783-1830). The Venezuelan military and political leader played a critical role in ushering Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, Peru, and Ecuador toward autonomy in the wake of Spanish domination. History has long cemented Bolívar’s status as a visionary, but even during his lifetime he was commonly known by his people as “The Liberator.” Libertador is the title of Alberto Arvelo’s enthralling Bolívar biopic, which serves as both an epic of struggle and a cinematic history lesson. Written by Timothy J. Sexton (Children of Men), the film shows us the moments in Bolívar’s childhood that laid the seeds for his determination to defend the rights of indigenous and enslaved peoples.” —Toronto International Film Festival
Daily Recommendation:
THE RIVER
(El río, Juan Pablo Richter, Bolivia/ Ecuador, 2018, 92 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
“Flowing with intrigue, beauty and brutality, Bolivian writer-director Juan Pablo Richter’s feature debut transports us to a seemingly placid rural locale where a teenage boy gets pulled into dangerous waters. Sebastián leaves a fraught situation in the city to live with his long-estranged father Raphael, who resides on a ranch adjacent to a jungle-lined river. Sebastián is a scrapper, and Raphael seeks to channel those unruly energies through activities like hunting. But as life in this pastoral setting begins to reveal its true nature, Sebastián finds himself struggling against a current of corruption, humiliation and violence in which women are currency. Eschewing stylistic pyrotechnics in favor of eerily mounting tensions, Richter proves himself a keen observer of toxic masculine codes and the bracing velocity with which innocence can suddenly be washed away.” —Miami Film Festival
Watch Now
Daily Recommendation:
ENTRANCED EARTH
(Terra Em Transe, Glauber Rocha, Brazil, 1967, 111 min. In Portuguese with English subtitles)
“A pivotal film from one of the key figures of Brazil’s Cinema Novo movement, Entranced Earth is an urgent and poetic account of political corruption, the systems that shape it, and the challenges of active citizenship in times of political upheaval. Made three years after the right-wing coup d’etat in Brazil, the film is set in the fictional country of El Dorado, in which a young intellectual attempts to chart a political path. First joining the extreme right, and then a party of the left, he ultimately finds dispiriting power dynamics in each. Told through a mesmeric style, and mixing surrealist and realist aesthetics, Entranced Earth is a resonant work of political cinema that pushes its audience to examine its own role in civil society.” —Film at Lincoln Center
Daily Recommendation:
SO MUCH WATER
(Tanta agua, Ana Guevara and Leticia Jorge, Uruguay/Mexico/ Netherlands, 2013, 102 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
“Alberto has lost custody of his children in a divorce, but is determined to keep his bonds with Lucia and Federico. For his visitation week, he plans a vacation to a hot springs resort, but as soon as he picks up Lucia and Federico from their mother’s home, it begins to rain. And rain. And rain! It does not stop raining, and Alberto’s plans for creating quality family memories are washed away in the cramped cabin he has rented, which does little to remedy the adolescent resentments and rebellion of Lucia, and the boredom of Federico. The unique, wry humor of the Uruguayan character brings a richness to this wonderfully atmospheric tale of a father and a daughter trying to find a common ground.” —Miami Film Festival