What to Watch Online This Week on Cinema Tropical
Cinema Tropical at 20:
TropiChat 20: Lourdes Portillo
Born in Chihuahua, Mexico, and raised in Los Angeles, Lourdes Portillo has been making award-winning films about Latin American, Mexican, and Chicano/a experiences and social justice issues for nearly thirty years. Since her first film, After the Earthquake / Después del terremoto (1979), she has produced and directed over a dozen works that reveal her signature hybrid style as a visual artist, investigative journalist, and activist. Portillo’s seventeen completed films include the Academy Award and Emmy Award nominated Las Madres: The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo (1986), La Ofrenda: The Days of the Dead (1988), Columbus on Trial (1992), The Devil Never Sleeps (1994), Corpus: A Home Movie for Selena (1999), Señorita Extravida (2001), My McQueen (2004), Al Más Allá (2008), and her new short film animated film State of Grace (2020). In 2017 she was recipient of the IDA Career Achievement Award.
Wednesday, May 5 at 7pm EDT on Facebook Live
50th Annual Edition of ‘New Directors/New Films’
ALL THE LIGHT WE CAN SEE
(Toda la luz que podemos ver, Pablo Escoto Luna, Mexico, 2020, 123 min. In Nahuatl and Spanish with English subtitles)
AZOR
(Andreas Fontana, Switzerland/ France/Argentina, 2021, 100 min. In French and Spanish with English subtitles)
EL PLANETA
(Amalia Ulman, Spain, 2021, 80 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
LIBORIO
(Nino Martinez Sosa, Dominican Republic, 2021, 99 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
MADALENA
(Madiano Marcheti, Brazil, 2021, 85 min. In Portuguese with English subtitles)
A LOVE SONG IN SPANISH
(Ana Elena Tejera, France/Panama, 2020, 24 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
HI, GRANDPA
(Hola, abuelo, Manuela Eguía, Mexico, 2020, 3 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
SUMMITS AND ASHES
(Cumbres y cenizas, Fernando Criollo, Peru, 2020, 18 min. In Quechua and Spanish with English subtitles)
In person and virtual screenings through Saturday, May 8
Virtual Theatrical Release:
MARIGHELLA
(Wagner Moura, 2019, Brazil, 155min. In Portuguese with English subtitles)
A searing and energized portrait of one of Brazil’s most divisive historical figures, Afro-Brazilian poet and politician, the legendary Carlos Marighella – played by famous Actor/Musician Seu Jorge (City of God). Driven to fight against the erosion of civil and human rights following the CIA-backed military coup of 1964 and the brutal, racist right-wing dictatorship that followed, the revolutionary leaves behind his wife and son to take up arms, becoming a notorious enemy to the power structure. Relentlessly pursued as the government’s number one enemy, Marighella cleverly evades capture, all the while continuing to inflict damage and further enraging his sadistic pursuers.
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.
Daily Recommendation:
PANAMERICAN MACHINERY
(Maquinaria Panamericana, Joaquín del Paso, Mexico, 2016, 86 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
“Family businesses are hard to come by these days—and so are manufacturing plants. When the head of Panamerican Machinery dies on a Friday morning, his employees discover how rare their situation is: Don Alejandro had been paying them out of his own pocket, and that any severance or retirement funds are nonexistent. Rather than face the world that’s made them obsolete, the workers decide to lock themselves inside the plant until they reach a decision about how to proceed. Over the course of the weekend, everyone’s behavior grows increasingly strange. Shot on expired film stock, the film deftly moves between socioeconomic commentary and deadpan slapstick.” —Neighboring Scenes, Film at Lincoln Center
Daily Recommendation:
TITO AND THE BIRDS
(Tito e os Pássaros, Gustavo Steinberg, Gabriel Bitar, and André Catoto, Brazil, 2018. 73 min. In Portuguese with English subtitles)
Tito is a shy 10-year-old boy who lives with his mother. Suddenly, an unusual epidemic starts to spread, making people sick whenever they get scared. Tito quickly discovers that the cure is somehow related to his missing father’s research on bird song. He embarks on a journey to save the world from the epidemic with his friends. Tito’s search for the antidote becomes a quest for his missing father and for his own identity.
Picture of the Week:
Matías Piñeiro, Benjamín Naishtat and Nicolás Pereda
(From left to right) Filmmakers Matias Piñeiro, Benjamín Naishtat and Nicolás Pereda at the opening night of the inaugural edition of Neighboring Scenes. Film at Lincoln Center, New York City, January 2016.
Films Available to Watch Now:
ADIFF Presents:
AFRO-LATINO FILM SERIES
TANGO NEGRO: THE AFRICAN ROOTS OF TANGO
(Dom Pedro, France, 2013, 93 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
THE MALI-CUBA CONNECTION
(Richard Minier, France/Mali/Cuba, 2020, 81 min. In French and Spanish with English subtitles)
LA PLAYA D.C.
(Juan Andres Arango, Colombia/ France/Brazil, 2012, 90 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
GOODBYE MOMO
(Leonardo Ricagni, Uruguay, 2003, 100 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
DENYING BRAZIL
(Joel Zito Araujo, Brazil, 2000, 92 min. In Portuguese with English subtitles)
MARIGHELLA
(Wagner Moura, Brazil, 2019, 155min. In Portuguese with English subtitles)
Afro-Latino Music of South American Program:
SUSANA BACA
(Mark Dixon, Peru/Belgium, 2003, 54 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
CANDOMBE
(Rafael Eugenio, Uruguay, 1993, 16 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Afro-Latino History:
SONS OF BENKOS
(Lucas Silva, Colombia/France, 2003, 52 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
ESMERALDAS BEACH
(Patrice Raynal, Ecuador/ France, 2020, 58 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
ANGELICA
(Marisol Gómez-Mouakad, Puerto Rico, 2016, 100 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
THE VALLEY OF THE BLACK DESCENDANTS
(Richard Salgado, Chile, 2017, 52 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
BLACK MEXICANS
(La Negrada, Jorge Perez Solano, Mexico, 2018, 104 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
EL MESTIZO
(Mario Handler, Venezuela, 1989, 82 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
KAFE NEGRO
(Mario Delatour, Haiti/Cuba, 2020, 52 min. In French and Spanish with English subtitles)
COUNCILWOMAN
(Margo Guernsey, USA, 2018, 52 min. In English)
Shorts Program:
INVISIBLE COLOR
(Sergio Girl, USA, 2017, 47 min. In English and Spanish with English subtitles)
WHITE LIKE THE MOON
(Marina Gonzalez Palmier, USA, 2001, 23 min. In English)
All films streaming through Monday, May 3
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.
Daily Recommendation:
INVASIÓN
(Hugo Santiago, Argentina, 1969, 122 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
The city of Aquilea has fallen under siege by sinister forces. A group of middle-aged men, led by a somewhat older man, resolve to mount clandestine resistance to the invaders and defend their city. Meetings are held, maps are studied, strategies are proposed—but can the invasion really be overcome? Lost for years then rediscovered in 2004, the history of Hugo Santiago’s debut and its magical genre fluidity (is it an avant-garde crime thriller, a political sci-fi?) are the stuff of legend. Co-written by Jorge Luis Borges, who said it “may well be the first example of a new fantastic genre.
Daily Recommendation:
306 HOLLYWOOD
(Elan and Jonathan Bogarín, USA, 2018, 82 min. In English)
The touching and formally audacious film 306 Hollywood directed by Venezuelan-American sister-brother artists and filmmakers Elan and Jonathan Bogarín, is a visually captivating and magical realist documentary. When Elan and Jonathan lose their beloved grandmother Annette, they face a profound question: When a loved one dies, what do we do with the things they leave behind? Turning documentary on its head, the Bogaríns embark on a magical-realist journey to discover who their grandmother really was, transforming her cluttered New Jersey home of 71 years into a visually exquisite ruin where tchotchkes become artifacts, and the siblings become archaeologists. With help from physicists, curators, and archivists—and the added inspiration of a decade of interviews with the vivacious octogenarian herself—they excavate the extraordinary universe contained in Annette’s home.
Daily Recommendation: WE ARE WHAT WE ARE
(Somos lo que hay, Jorge Michel Grau, Mexico, 2010, 90 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
“In We Are What We Are, first time Mexican helmer Jorge Michel Grau creates a deeply unsettling portrait of contemporary Mexican urban life which steady grows into many things all at once: a sincere family drama, an earnest exploration of the moral implications of cannibalism and a ribald satire of the seemingly intractable political and economic corruption that is haunting present day Mexico. All moody nighttime vistas and grim, claustrophobic interiors, Grau’s film manages both social commentary and grisly, bone-chilling terror the old-fashioned way, but it still manages to have a depth of human feeling that isn’t the stock and trade of this type of genre fare.” —Filmmaker Magazine