Latino filmmaking on display at cinema fest
The Havana Film Festival of New York, without a doubt one of the most interesting of the many similar events that take place every year in the city, begins Thursday and runs until April 20. It should not be missed. Having already carved a niche in New York’s cultural scene, in its 13th edition HFFNY introduces New Yorkers to the most recent, most provocative and most innovative of Latin American cinematography.
Audiences will be able to enjoy more than 40 highly anticipated and influential films from and about Latin America, the Caribbean, and Latinos in the U.S. — including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, and even Spain and the U.S.
“This time we also wanted to show different movies, to get away from what happens often at festivals where the same films are recycled and we all end up essentially seeing the same movies at different festivals,” said Diana Vargas, HFFNY’S artistic director.
That’s why this year audiences will be able to see movies like “Distancia”, the first feature film by Guatemalan director Sergio Ramírez. It tells the story of Tomás Choc, whose only daughter Lucía, 3, had been kidnapped by the army 20 years ago during the Guatemala civil war, a time when many indigenous families were forcibly separated.
Told that she had been found, Choc embarks on a two-day journey to be reunited with her. But she had been raised all those years in a different Mayan community with a different language. Without tears or emotional outbursts (“It’s not a Hollywood production,” Vargas said), and with the help of an interpreter, father and daughter — two strangers — begin the arduous and ultimately rewarding process of getting to know each other.
“One has to wonder how is it possible this story had not been told before,” Vargas said, “It is such a beautiful film.”
Another fascinating film is “Páramo,” (renamed “The Squad” in English), the first feature film by director Jaime Osorio. It was a great box office success in Colombia.
“Páramo” tells the story of a special high mountain military unit that is sent to a military base with which they have lost contact with and is believed to have been the target of an attack. Upon arrival they find only a woman in chains. The isolation, the incapacity to communicate and the impossibility of escape serve to undermine the soldiers’ judgment.
“Ultimately ‘Páramo’ is a thriller about the war and the paranoia it created,” Vargas said. “A definite must-see.”
And then there is Juan de los Muertos (Juan of the Dead), the first “zombie movie” made in Cuba, that closes the festival. It is the second feature film by Argentina-born, Cuba-educated director Alejandro Brugués. “It is very funny, very irreverent; it makes fun of many official things,” said Vargas, who saw it in Havana. “People laughed really hard because they understand the jokes about things that before were spoken only in whispers and now everybody talks about them out loud and nobody cares.”
This year the festival honors Cuban actress Eslinda Nuñez and cinematographer Raúl Perez Ureta, also Cuban. Both will attend the festival, and have have been part of some of the most important Cuban films as well as of many high quality international ones.
HFFNY opens its full schedule of activities on Friday, April 13, at 1 p.m. for a week of screenings at the Quad Cinema, 34 W. 13th St., with the New York premiere of the Venezuelan film, “La hora cero”/“the Zero Hour.”
For information and schedule visit www.hffny.com.