What to Watch Online This Week on Cinema Tropical
Films Available to Stream Now:
“6th Annual Neighboring Scenes: New Latin American Cinema”
Opening Night:
ALL THE DEAD ONES
(Todos os Mortos, Caetano Gotardo and Marco Dutra, Brazil/France, 2020, 120 min. In Portuguese with English subtitles)
Cinema Tropical 20th Anniversary screening:
SILVIA PRIETO
(Martín Rejtman, Argentina, 1999, 92 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
ONE IN A THOUSAND
(Las mil y una, Clarisa Navas, Argentina/Germany, 2020, 120 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
LOS FANTASMAS
(Sebastián Lojo, Guatemala/Argentina, 2020, 75 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
PANQUIACO
(Ana Elena Tejera, Panama, 2020, 80 min. In Portuguese and Dulegaya with English subtitles)
SAMICHAY: IN SEARCH OF HAPPINESS
(Samichay: En Busca de la Felicidad, Mauricio Franco Tosso, Peru/Spain, 2020, 87 min. In Quechua and Spanish with English subtitles)
BETWEEN DOG AND WOLF
(Entre perro y lobo, Irene Gutiérrez, Cuba/Spain/Colombia, 2020, 75 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
CHACO
(Diego Mondaca, Bolivia/Argentina, 2020, 77 min. In Aymara, Quechua, and Spanish with English subtitles)
NIGHT SHOT
(Visión nocturna, Carolina Moscoso, Chile, 2020, 80 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
THE HOWLS
(Se escuchan aullidos, Julio Hernández Cordón, Mexico, 2020, 68 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
All films streaming through Monday, April 12
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.
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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:
UNDER CONSTRUCTION (OR THE PLACE I WAS BORN NO LONGER EXISTS)
(Aquí se construye (o ya no existe el lugar donde nací), Ignacio Agüero, Chile, 2000, 77 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
In the Providencia barrio of Santiago, Chile, a neighbor lives through the demolition of the house next door and the construction of a building in the same place, over a two- year period. Under Construction is about the passing of time and the transformation of a space where minor and major events occur: a death and a birth; neighborhoods disappearing; buildings being demolished and built; winters and springs passing. In the end, when the building is finished, the protagonist looks up at his new neighbors, while they look down at him from their balcony: evidence of a space (and a past) that they now control.
Daily Recommendation:
THE AMAZING CATFISH
(Los insólitos peces gato, Claudia Sainte-Luce, Mexico/France, 2013, 89 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
In director Claudia Sainte-Luce’s debut feature The Amazing Catfish, the worlds of a rambunctious matriarchy and a withdrawn misfit collide and combine in a moving reflection of living and dying with courage. When solitary protagonist Claudia (Ximena Ayala) winds up in the hospital with appendicitis, she makes an unexpected connection with a fellow patient, single mother Martha (Lisa Owen). Martha’s four children, who range in age from pre-adolescent to mostly grown, create a rowdy atmosphere in and out of the hospital, starkly contrasting with Claudia’s muted existence. But as their lives become increasingly more entwined, each breaching the defenses of the other, Claudia becomes a quietly integral part of their rough-and-tumble household: part confidante, part caretaker, part cautious changeling. At the core of the film is Martha’s struggle to live each day with intention, even as her illness diminishes her physically, and this infuses her home with ferocious passion. Confidently filmed by Claire Denis’ long-time cinematographer, Agnès Godard, this spare but colorful film—set in Guadalajara and based loosely on true events from Saint-Luce’s own life—embraces the inclination to define a family as the people you choose and are chosen by, not necessarily the ones you’re born to.
Special Event:
Neighboring Scenes Free Talk: Director Martín Rejtman
Join us for a special conversation with Argentine director Martín Rejtman, which kicks off Cinema Tropical’s 20th anniversary celebration. A key figure of contemporary Argentine cinema, Rejtman will discuss his filmography and his landmark deadpan comedy, Silvia Prieto, which was Cinema Tropical’s very first screening in February 2001.
Tuesday, April 6, 6pm EDT – Register for Free
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.
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Daily Recommendation:
LA SALADA
(Juan Martín Hsu, Argentina, 2014, 88 min. In Korean, Mandarin, Quechua, and Spanish with English subtitles)
“La Salada depicts the experience of new immigrants in Argentina told through three stories that take place in La Salada—the largest informal market in Argentina. A group of characters from different ethnic origins struggle against loneliness and uprooting. For three days each week, from the afternoon to the early hours of the morning, thousands of people flock to the outskirts of Buenos Aires to buy discounted wares at “La Salada,” South America’s largest informal market. Begun by Bolivian immigrants in 1991, and fuelled by Argentina’s financial crisis, the market has become an entire economy unto itself. In his poignant debut, La Salada, director Juan Martin Hsu presents this unique and vibrant locale from the vantage points of new immigrants to Argentina. La Salada depicts its characters’ experience as one of heart-rending limbo: they’re not at home in Argentina, yet they no longer belong to the countries they were born in. It’s a middle ground that the marketplace seems to embody, and in exploring its myriad stalls and spaces, Martin Hsu’s gorgeous film captures the singular spirit of a fascinating reality.” —Toronto International Film Festival
Watch Now
Daily Recommendation:
LOVELING
(Benzinho, Gustavo Pizzi, 2017, Brazil/Uruguay, 95 min. In Portuguese with English subtitles)
“Irene is raising four rambunctious sons in a home that is physically crumbling but warm and happy. As Irene simultaneously shelters her sister Sonia (who just left a volatile marriage), supports her own husband through a financial crisis, and plans her own long-awaited high school graduation, Irene’s eldest son, Fernando, suddenly announces he has been recruited by a professional handball team in Germany and will be leaving in just three weeks. Consummate caretaker Irene prickles at the idea of emancipating the 16-year-old so he can travel and live alone, and she becomes increasingly anxious about what her future holds. Writer/director Gustavo Pizzi exquisitely captures a family’s home and life in intimate, crisp, fully realized detail, while co-writer/actress Karine Teles embodies Irene with delicacy and passion, articulating in equal measure her fierce familial devotion, seemingly endless reserve of warmth and patience, and growing existential doubt. Loveling thoughtfully contemplates the complicated balance between the destructive and restorative elements of our bonds to the people we love and cherish most.” —Sundance Film Festival