What to Watch Online This Week on Cinema Tropical
DOC NYC, America’s largest documentary film festival, has announced a special encore program and will continue to stream online across the U.S. through this Sunday, November 29.
One of the films still available to watch is Maite Alberdi‘s The Mole Agent, recently announced as Chile’s official submission to the 93rd Academy Awards. A heart warming spy movie that follows Sergio, an 83 year old would-be secret agent who infiltrates a retirement home in order to investigate a suspected case of elder abuse, The Mole Agent is not to be missed!
Take advantage of this extended opportunity and check out all of this year’s Latin American selections, proudly presented by Cinema Tropical. Enter the code DOCNYC20-TROPICAL at checkout for a special ticket discount!
Lincoln Center’s annual hybrid documentary film showcase, Art of the Real, also continues this week, with two Latin American titles still available to rent through Friday, November 27: Ignacio Agüero‘s I Never Climbed the Provincia and Kaori Oda‘s Cenote. Don’t miss out!
Films Available to Stream Now:
Latin American Films at DOC NYC 2020:
A LA CALLE
(Nelson G. Navarrete and Maxx Caicedo, USA, 2020, 110 min. In Spanish and English with English subtitles)
EL FATHER PLAYS HIMSELF
(Mo Scarpelli, Venezuela, UK, Italy, USA, Canada, 2020, 105 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
FIVE YEARS NORTH
(Zach Ingrasci and Chris Temple, USA, 2020, 88 min. In Spanish and English with English subtitles)
LA MADRINA: THE [SAVAGE] LIFE OF LORINE PADILLA
(Raquel Cepeda, USA, 2020, 81 min. In English and Spanish with English subtitles)
LANDFALL
(Cecilia Aldarondo, USA, 2020, 93 min. In English and Spanish with English subtitles)
THE BROTHERS
(Los hermanos, Jarmel and Ken Schneider, USA, 2020, 83 min. In English and Spanish with English subtitles)
MIRACLE FISHING
(Miles Hargrove, USA, 2020, 107 min. In English, Spanish and German with English subtitles)
MISSING IN BROOKS COUNTY
(Lisa Molomot and Jeff Bemiss, USA, 2020, 80 min. In English and Spanish with English subtitles)
OFF THE ROAD
(José Permar, USA, 2020, 78 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
ONCE UPON A TIME IN VENEZUELA
(Érase una vez en Venezuela, Anabel Rodríguez Ríos, Venezuela, 2020, 99 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
SONGS OF REPRESSION
(Estephan Wagner and Marianne Hougen-Moraga, Denmark/The Netherlands, 2020,
88 min. In German and Spanish with English subtitles)
STATELESS
(Michèle Stephenson, USA/Canada, 2020, 95 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
THE LAST OUT
(Sami Khan and Michael Gassert, USA, 2020, 84 min. In Spanish and English with English subtitles)
THE MOLE AGENT
(El agente topo, Maite Alberdi, Chile/USA/Germany/ Spain, 2020, 90 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
THINGS WE DARE NOT DO
(Cosas que no hacemos, Bruno Santamaría, Mexico, 2020, 71 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
THROUGH THE NIGHT
(Loira Limbal, USA, 2020, 72 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Encore program streaming through Sunday, November 29
Latin American Films at Lincoln Center’s Art of the Real:
I NEVER CLIMBED THE PROVINCIA
(Nunca subí el Provincia, Ignacio Agüero, Chile, 2019, 92 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
CENOTE
(Kaori Oda, Japan/Mexico, 2019, 75 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Available to rent through November 27
The Cinema Tropical Collection:
WIÑAYPACHA
(Óscar Catacora, Peru, 2017, 86 min. In Aymara with English subtitles)
In a stone hut, over 5000m high in the snow-capped Peruvian Andes, the elderly Phaxsi and her husband Willka eke out a living far from the modern world. The 96 perfectly framed scenes flow gently like still life paintings, depicting the couple, their animals, and their magnificent mountain homeland. In traditional Aymara rituals they beseech Pachamama, Mother Earth, to provide them with sustenance, and to return the long-lost son who has abandoned them for the city, but the struggle to survive eventually prompts a dangerous mission for help. In this stunning and heart-breaking story about abandonment of the elderly and of traditions, Willka is played by the director’s real life grandfather, and Phaxsi by a non-professional who had never seen a film before.
Virtual Theatrical Release:
DIVINE LOVE
(Divino Amor, Gabriel Mascaro, Brazil, 2019. In Portuguese with English subtitles)
Brazilian director Gabriel Mascaro’s (Neon Bull) Divine Love (Divino Amor) world premiered at the Sundance Film Festival to critical acclaim and intense audience reactions. Sure to surprise and provoke, definitely recommended for adult-viewing only. It’s the year 2027 in this dystopian, fluorescent Sci Fi story of Joana (Brazilian star Dira Paes), who uses her bureaucratic job to convince divorcing couples to stay together. Her secret weapon is Divine Love, an evangelical cult she belongs to that mixes in a little swinging and group fun into its more traditional prayers and services. Joana herself can’t seem to get pregnant by her own husband, but in an attempt to save her own marriage, she prays regularly at a very unusual religious drive-in, looking for a miracle to help her conceive. Divine Love is an amped up, sexy and witty take on a future full of dance parties, ritualistic orgies, cults and fundamentalist Christianity, and a critique of today’s right-wing led Brazil.
Daily Recommendation:
ELENA
(Petra Costa, Brazil/USA, 80 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Elena, a young Brazilian woman, travels to New York with the same dream as her mother, to become a movie actress. She leaves behind her childhood spent in hiding during the years of the military dictatorship. She also leaves Petra, her seven year old sister. Two decades later, Petra also becomes an actress and goes to New York in search of Elena. She only has a few clues about her: home movies, newspaper clippings, a diary and letters. At any moment Petra hopes to find Elena walking in the streets in a silk blouse. Gradually, the features of the two sisters are confused; we no longer know one from the other. When Petra finally finds Elena in an unexpected place, she has to learn to let her go.
Daily Recommendation:
SEMANA SANTA
(Alejandra Márquez Abella, Mexico, 2015, 87 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Dali travels to Acapulco to spend the Easter holidays with her son Pepino and boyfriend Chávez. Her inner demons threaten the burgeoning family as her son and boyfriend try desperately to connect with her. Acknowledging her dismissal of them, Pepino leads a group of raucous young kids at the resort while Chavez takes off on a drug fueled binge with some teenage girls. Dali takes a solitary jet ski ride – something Pepino had asked to do for his birthday and has an emotional connection with an older American tourist. As morning comes, the transformed family reunites to await what destiny has in store for them.
Cultural Office of the French Embassy Presents:
RESSACA
(Vertige de la chute, Vincent Rimbaux and Patrizia Landi, Brazil/France, 2018, 84 min. In Portuguese with English subtitles)
After years of growth and hope, Brazil collapsed. From 2009, the year when Rio de Janeiro won the dispute to host the Olympics, to 2017, chaos replaced the prospect of a glorious future. The last 15 years have been marked by the expectations that the big events would be the peak of Brazil’s economic growth and bring international recognition as a world power, but it has never happened. Ten days after the end of the games, the country saw the former president Dilma Roussef undergo an impeachment process and since then, there has been a major political and economical crisis, the worst since the dictatorship period. All regions have felt the impact, specially Rio. The city, which is a worldwide reference, is bankrupt. Ressaca, in black and white, chooses as its characters, the artistes and the public employees of the Rio de Janeiro Municipal Theater to show the dark side of a city in contradiction with its clichés. Rio de Janeiro’s Teatro Municipal is the jewel of the nation’s opera scene but it is on the brink of collapse: the state is bankrupt and can no longer pay the employees’ salaries. The workers resist with all their might and try to save the theatre.
Streaming free through the end of November
Daily Recommendation:
IXCANUL
(Jayro Bustamante, Guatemala/ France, 2015, 91 min. In Kaqchikel with English subtitles)
Ixcanul tells the story of María, a 17-year-old Mayan girl, who lives and works with her parents on a coffee plantation in the foothills of a volcano. An arranged marriage awaits her, to Ignacio, the plantation overseer. A discouraged María seduces Pepe, a young coffee cutter, with plans to run away with him. When Pepe flees he leaves María pregnant, alone and in disgrace. Immersing us in its characters’ customs and beliefs, Ixcanul (which means “volcano” in Kaqchikel) chronicles with unblinking realism disappearing traditions and a disappearing people. Drawing from real-life stories, director Jayro Bustamante wrote the narrative with the point of view of the mother. Using non-actor members of the Maya community, Ixcanul explores the arbiters of a fading way of life against a backdrop of a dominating, Westernized culture.