Entering its second year, the Museum of the Moving Image’s First Look series provides a strong, welcome antidote to the generally anemic cinematic landscape that is January. Its eclectic selection of undistributed features and shorts, programmed by Dennis Lim, Rachael Rakes, and David Schwartz, occasions an invigorating mixture of moods and approaches from established as well as emerging directors. It’s indicative of the series’ dedication to distinctive, often divisive cinematic voices that Bruno Dumont’s decidedly non-crowd-pleasing Hors Satan was chosen as the opening night film nearly two years following its Cannes premiere.
Whereas earlier films like Twentynine Palms or Hadewijch pushed the French director’s worldview in new directions, Hors Satan sits solidly in Dumont’s comfort zone, down to the cryptically religious title that links it to his debut, The Life of Jesus. His protagonist is a drifter with a scruffy, narrow face like Pasolini’s proletarian Christ,...
Whereas earlier films like Twentynine Palms or Hadewijch pushed the French director’s worldview in new directions, Hors Satan sits solidly in Dumont’s comfort zone, down to the cryptically religious title that links it to his debut, The Life of Jesus. His protagonist is a drifter with a scruffy, narrow face like Pasolini’s proletarian Christ,...
- 1/11/2013
- by Fernando F. Croce
- MUBI
This week's announcement that Olivier Père, former programmer of Cannes's Directors' Fortnight, will be stepping down from his post at the helm of the Festival del Film Locarno marks the end of brief but important era for this film festival, one of the longest-running in the world. In just three years, Père has helped to put the annual event back on the festival map, drawing an annual influx of celebrities and industry-types for red-carpet world premieres, jury prizes, and lifetime achievement awards. Perhaps more than ever in its sixty-six-year history, Locarno is an important station on the fall festival circuit, forecasting the slates of Toronto and New York and providing useful international gateway for cinema from all over the world.
This year's festival featured a characteristically dizzying mix of international festival ephemera, an Otto Preminger retrospective, and much-heralded appearances by the likes of Kylie Minogue, Alain Delon, and Harry Belafonte on the festival's main stage,...
This year's festival featured a characteristically dizzying mix of international festival ephemera, an Otto Preminger retrospective, and much-heralded appearances by the likes of Kylie Minogue, Alain Delon, and Harry Belafonte on the festival's main stage,...
- 8/29/2012
- MUBI
While Cannes’ Quinzaine struggles to reframe its identity, its former artistic director Olivier Père continues to impress in his new job at the Locarno Film Festival. On Wednesday, he and his programming team unveiled a lineup that is absolutely salivatory, a who’s who for high-minded cinephiles. Perhaps most impressive of all, he has managed to once again nudge the festival’s selection aesthetic even deeper into esoteric ‘experimental’ territory without seeming all that radical. More than any other festival, Locarno is the home for the edgy projects that are too sophisticated for Cannes, whose cold shoulder to avant-garde narrative filmmaking becomes more glaring with each passing year. Check out the complete line-up at the bottom of this page.
In their International Competition, in which films compete for the increasingly prestigious Golden Leopard, we have a collaboration between João Pedro Rodrigues and his partner João Rui Guerra da Mata called...
In their International Competition, in which films compete for the increasingly prestigious Golden Leopard, we have a collaboration between João Pedro Rodrigues and his partner João Rui Guerra da Mata called...
- 7/13/2012
- by Blake Williams
- IONCINEMA.com
Last week we featured some of Mexico’s young filmmakers who have emerged as part of a recent revival in Mexican cinema. These new directors have pushed out the old guard and persevere in difficult situations, using public funding and micro-budgets to create films which take aim at Mexico’s social ills, broach difficult subjects, and take stylistic risks. These original and innovative artists are carving out a space for Mexican films in the international art house market. Here we continue to highlight even more directors from Generation Mex.
Gerardo Naranjo
Probably the most buzzed about Mexican director of late, Naranjo’s fourth feature Miss Bala (Isa:tcf) premiered at Cannes, went on to play festivals in Toronto and Los Angeles and was selected as Mexico’s official submission for Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. Loosely inspired by real events it tells the story of Laura, a young woman who aspires to compete in the Miss Baja beauty pageant. Instead she finds herself amidst narcos as an unwilling participant in Mexico’s drug war. Using long takes and very few cuts Naranjo accomplishes the difficult, a melancholy thriller and pensive allegory punctuated by intense moments of violent but often quiet action. 20th Century Fox released the film in limited theaters late last year. In his previous films Voy a explotar (I’m Gonna Explode) (Isa:Elle Driver), Drama/Mex, and Malachance he experimented stylistically but they all reflect his signature, emotionally resonant and sensitive depictions of characters on the edge.
Yulene Olaizola
Having only recently graduated from the Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica (Ccc), one of the two major film schools in Mexico, she has already directed three feature-length films. Her thesis project, the award-winning documentary Intimidades de Shakespeare y Victor Hugo (Intimacies of Shakespeare and Victor Hugo) (Isa:Interior13 Cine) traces her grandmother Rosa's friendship with Jorge Riosse, her young, troubled tenant. Paraísos Artificiales (Artificial Paradises) (Isa: Interior13 Cine), named after an anthology by the 19th century French poet Baudelaire, was her impressive fiction debut. It’s dreamy, serene, and breathtaking landscapes of the lush seaside hills of Veracruz, Mexico provide the backdrop, as a young woman addicted to heroin tries to free herself from the compulsive need for a fix while staying at a beach resort. Her newest film Fogo is days away from its world premiere at The Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes. In a departure from her previous projects, she chose to make a film in English focusing on the deterioration of a small community in Fogo Island, located off the coast Canada.
Pedro González-Rubio
In an effort to create an intimate environment for his second film Alamar (Isa: MK2 Diffusion), he wrote, directed, shot and edited the picture himself. Set in a small house on stilts that sits above the crystal-clear blue waters of the Yucatan Peninsula, it explores the bond between a father and son as they share a fishing trip together. When asked whether Alamar is a documentary or fiction at a festival screening he defiantly answered, “It’s a film.” Having invented parts of the story but documenting real events, he seamlessly blends reality and fiction in a picturesque and introspective cinematic meditation that at times almost becomes a photographic essay. Film Movement acquired the theatrical and DVD rights in North America. His directorial debut, Toro Negro, an unflinching look at an alcoholic bullfighter, won prizes at Havana, San Sebastian and Morelia Film Festivals.
Fernando Eimbcke
He had film festivals, critics and distributors clamoring for his attention after his black-and-white directorial debut, Temporada de Patos (Duck Season) (Isa: Traction Media) premiered at Cannes in 2004. It won prizes at AFI Fest and Guadalajara Film Festival and later several Ariel Awards (the Mexican equivalent of the Oscars.) The comedy-drama about two teenage boys who must entertain themselves after a power outage went on to play more than 70 festivals and was sold in more than 30 countries. He followed up this smashing success with Lake Tahoe, a minimalist quiet film in which teenaged Juan crashes his family's car into a pole and then scours the streets searching for someone to help him fix it. Eimbcke studied film in Mexico City at the Centro Universitario de Estudios Cinematográficos (Cuec).
Gerardo Naranjo
Probably the most buzzed about Mexican director of late, Naranjo’s fourth feature Miss Bala (Isa:tcf) premiered at Cannes, went on to play festivals in Toronto and Los Angeles and was selected as Mexico’s official submission for Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. Loosely inspired by real events it tells the story of Laura, a young woman who aspires to compete in the Miss Baja beauty pageant. Instead she finds herself amidst narcos as an unwilling participant in Mexico’s drug war. Using long takes and very few cuts Naranjo accomplishes the difficult, a melancholy thriller and pensive allegory punctuated by intense moments of violent but often quiet action. 20th Century Fox released the film in limited theaters late last year. In his previous films Voy a explotar (I’m Gonna Explode) (Isa:Elle Driver), Drama/Mex, and Malachance he experimented stylistically but they all reflect his signature, emotionally resonant and sensitive depictions of characters on the edge.
Yulene Olaizola
Having only recently graduated from the Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica (Ccc), one of the two major film schools in Mexico, she has already directed three feature-length films. Her thesis project, the award-winning documentary Intimidades de Shakespeare y Victor Hugo (Intimacies of Shakespeare and Victor Hugo) (Isa:Interior13 Cine) traces her grandmother Rosa's friendship with Jorge Riosse, her young, troubled tenant. Paraísos Artificiales (Artificial Paradises) (Isa: Interior13 Cine), named after an anthology by the 19th century French poet Baudelaire, was her impressive fiction debut. It’s dreamy, serene, and breathtaking landscapes of the lush seaside hills of Veracruz, Mexico provide the backdrop, as a young woman addicted to heroin tries to free herself from the compulsive need for a fix while staying at a beach resort. Her newest film Fogo is days away from its world premiere at The Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes. In a departure from her previous projects, she chose to make a film in English focusing on the deterioration of a small community in Fogo Island, located off the coast Canada.
Pedro González-Rubio
In an effort to create an intimate environment for his second film Alamar (Isa: MK2 Diffusion), he wrote, directed, shot and edited the picture himself. Set in a small house on stilts that sits above the crystal-clear blue waters of the Yucatan Peninsula, it explores the bond between a father and son as they share a fishing trip together. When asked whether Alamar is a documentary or fiction at a festival screening he defiantly answered, “It’s a film.” Having invented parts of the story but documenting real events, he seamlessly blends reality and fiction in a picturesque and introspective cinematic meditation that at times almost becomes a photographic essay. Film Movement acquired the theatrical and DVD rights in North America. His directorial debut, Toro Negro, an unflinching look at an alcoholic bullfighter, won prizes at Havana, San Sebastian and Morelia Film Festivals.
Fernando Eimbcke
He had film festivals, critics and distributors clamoring for his attention after his black-and-white directorial debut, Temporada de Patos (Duck Season) (Isa: Traction Media) premiered at Cannes in 2004. It won prizes at AFI Fest and Guadalajara Film Festival and later several Ariel Awards (the Mexican equivalent of the Oscars.) The comedy-drama about two teenage boys who must entertain themselves after a power outage went on to play more than 70 festivals and was sold in more than 30 countries. He followed up this smashing success with Lake Tahoe, a minimalist quiet film in which teenaged Juan crashes his family's car into a pole and then scours the streets searching for someone to help him fix it. Eimbcke studied film in Mexico City at the Centro Universitario de Estudios Cinematográficos (Cuec).
- 5/16/2012
- by Vanessa Erazo
- Sydney's Buzz
"It seems curious that as little biographical information exists in the recent books about the ethnographic filmmaker Robert Gardner as in his movies featured in the partial retrospective of his work starting today at Film Forum," writes Manohla Dargis in the New York Times. "For much of a career that has spanned more than a half-century and circumnavigated the globe, Mr Gardner has trained the camera on people whose lives, rituals, beliefs and bodily ornamentation can seem so far from early-21st-century Western life as to be from another galaxy. Yet despite Mr Gardner's seeming reluctance to share personal details, the work in Robert Gardner: Artist/Ethnographer makes it clear that he's been telling his own story all along."
J Hoberman in the Voice: "A man of many worlds, Robert Gardner is a descendent of Boston aristocrat Isabella Stewart Gardner (as in the Museum), the founder (and funder) of Harvard's Film Study Center,...
J Hoberman in the Voice: "A man of many worlds, Robert Gardner is a descendent of Boston aristocrat Isabella Stewart Gardner (as in the Museum), the founder (and funder) of Harvard's Film Study Center,...
- 11/12/2011
- MUBI
El Infierno, Chicogrande, and the other nominations of the 2011 Premio Ariel (Ariel Awards) have been announced. The 53rd Annual Premio Ariel (Ariel Awards) are presented by the Mexican Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences. “The Ariel is the Mexican Academy of Film Award. It has been awarded annually since 1947. The award recognizes excellence in motion picture making, such as acting, directing and screenwriting in Mexican cinema. It is considered the most prestigious award in the Mexican movie industry.” The 53rd Annual Premio Ariel (Ariel Awards) “ceremony will take place on May 7 [, 2011] at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City.” The full listing of the 2011 Premio Ariel (Ariel Awards) nominations is below
Best Picture
Abel
Chicogrande
El infierno (Hell)
Best Director
Felipe Cazals, Chicogrande
Luis Estrada, El infierno (Hell)
Diego Luna, Abel
Best Actress
Karina Gidi, Abel
Mónica del Carmen, Año bisiesto (Leap Year)
Maricel Álvarez, Biutiful
Úrsula Pruneda, Las...
Best Picture
Abel
Chicogrande
El infierno (Hell)
Best Director
Felipe Cazals, Chicogrande
Luis Estrada, El infierno (Hell)
Diego Luna, Abel
Best Actress
Karina Gidi, Abel
Mónica del Carmen, Año bisiesto (Leap Year)
Maricel Álvarez, Biutiful
Úrsula Pruneda, Las...
- 3/26/2011
- by filmbook
- Film-Book
"Film must provide audiences the opportunity to discover questions."--Lisandro Alonso. When I interviewed programmer Diana Sanchez at the 2010 edition of the Toronto International Film Festival (Tiff), she admitted--within the parameters of curatorial taste--her fascination with the appearance of a new genre she was noticing in such films as Pedro González-Rubio's sophomore feature Alamar (To the Sea, 2009), Oscar Ruiz Navia's debut feature Crab Trap (El Vuelco del Cangrejo, 2009), and the films of Lisandro Alonso, José Luis Guerín, and Miguel Gomes; a genre that she described as "a mix of documentary and fiction with a real sense of play between these two forms." The Pacific Film Archive (Pfa) celebrates the appearance and critical popularity of this new documentary-fiction hybrid with their upcoming series...
- 3/21/2011
- Screen Anarchy
The Arbor; Jackass 3; Alamar; Leap Year
I wrote previously in this column of the "subversion" of the documentary format by films as diverse as Catfish, I'm Still Here and Exit Through the Gift Shop, all of which provoked heated debate about authenticity versus artifice. Yet, adventurous as they may be, none of these titles come close to the generic redefinition of The Arbor (2010, Verve, 15), an extraordinarily impressive meditation upon the short life and troubled legacy of gifted playwright Andrea Dunbar. Indeed, whether this masterfully assured feature debut from director Clio Barnard even qualifies as a documentary at all remains a matter for debate, the strange mix of fact and fantasy being closer in tone (although not form) to the equally indefinable Waltz With Bashir.
At the centre of Barnard's mercurial film is a dramatic device which sounds like it shouldn't work at all: a series of intimate audio interviews with...
I wrote previously in this column of the "subversion" of the documentary format by films as diverse as Catfish, I'm Still Here and Exit Through the Gift Shop, all of which provoked heated debate about authenticity versus artifice. Yet, adventurous as they may be, none of these titles come close to the generic redefinition of The Arbor (2010, Verve, 15), an extraordinarily impressive meditation upon the short life and troubled legacy of gifted playwright Andrea Dunbar. Indeed, whether this masterfully assured feature debut from director Clio Barnard even qualifies as a documentary at all remains a matter for debate, the strange mix of fact and fantasy being closer in tone (although not form) to the equally indefinable Waltz With Bashir.
At the centre of Barnard's mercurial film is a dramatic device which sounds like it shouldn't work at all: a series of intimate audio interviews with...
- 3/13/2011
- by Mark Kermode
- The Guardian - Film News
Movie Poster of the Week is off to the Rotterdam Film Festival, always a treasure trove of international arthouse film posters. This one sheet for Thai Tiger Award competitor Eternity already caught my eye. Though it may feel as if we’ve seen this image in Asian cinema many times before, I like the way the jungle horizon is mirrored, framing the title (though the title itself could be prettier). One of fourteen international feature films competing for the award (won last year by Pedro González-Rubio’s wonderful Alamar, among others), Eternity, the debut film of director Sivaroj Kongsakul, is described as a film which “follows a man through three stages of being - as a ghost wandering through his childhood home, as a young man falling in love with his future wife, and as an absence in the life of his surviving family in the days following his death.
- 1/31/2011
- MUBI
With 2010 only a week over, it already feels like best-of and top-ten lists have been pouring in for months, and we’re already tired of them: the ranking, the exclusions (and inclusions), the rules and the qualifiers. Some people got to see films at festivals, others only catch movies on video; and the ability for us, or any publication, to come up with a system to fairly determine who saw what when and what they thought was the best seems an impossible feat. That doesn’t stop most people from doing it, but we liked the fantasy double features we did last year and for our 3rd Writers Poll we thought we'd do it again.
I asked our contributors to pick a single new film they saw in 2010—in theaters or at a festival—and creatively pair it with an old film they saw in 2010 to create a unique double feature.
I asked our contributors to pick a single new film they saw in 2010—in theaters or at a festival—and creatively pair it with an old film they saw in 2010 to create a unique double feature.
- 1/10/2011
- MUBI
Moving Image Source has made an annual tradition of gathering from their contributors, but also artists, writers and others, their pick for the "moving image moment or event" of the year. What makes this list so interesting is that it ranges far past just the movies, to include videos on the web, TV shows, news footage and more, from critics and from creators. The whole thing is worth perusing, but here's a sampling:
Dan Streible, director of The Orphan Film Symposium
Nothing was more compelling than the latest season of the HBO series In Treatment, in which psychotherapist Paul Weston (Gabriel Byrne) begins his own talk therapy with a young new doctor (Amy Ryan). She nails him on all of his rationalizations and offers devastating insights into his psyche and his practice. Their verbal duels are sharply written and Byrne, who must carry every episode, creates one of the deepest,...
Dan Streible, director of The Orphan Film Symposium
Nothing was more compelling than the latest season of the HBO series In Treatment, in which psychotherapist Paul Weston (Gabriel Byrne) begins his own talk therapy with a young new doctor (Amy Ryan). She nails him on all of his rationalizations and offers devastating insights into his psyche and his practice. Their verbal duels are sharply written and Byrne, who must carry every episode, creates one of the deepest,...
- 1/6/2011
- by Alison Willmore
- ifc.com
Alison Willmore:
If 2010 has been the year of the fuzzy line between fact and fiction, it's also been the year in which the truth became subjective and, often, incidental. These past 12 months saw the arrival of the avowed documentary many suspect is staged "Catfish," and the admitted staged film that pretended to be a documentary "I'm Still Here," but as the dust has cleared, what remains is the question of their bona fides as stand alone films. Does Banksy's puckish "Exit Through the Gift Shop" lose some of the bite of its bitterly funny art world commentary if it turns out to be more engineered than it claims? Is it important that "The Social Network" elides and ignores details about Mark Zuckerberg and the website he founded? Would "Alamar" be less of a movie if it were populated by unrelated actors instead of a father and son?
Your answers may differ,...
If 2010 has been the year of the fuzzy line between fact and fiction, it's also been the year in which the truth became subjective and, often, incidental. These past 12 months saw the arrival of the avowed documentary many suspect is staged "Catfish," and the admitted staged film that pretended to be a documentary "I'm Still Here," but as the dust has cleared, what remains is the question of their bona fides as stand alone films. Does Banksy's puckish "Exit Through the Gift Shop" lose some of the bite of its bitterly funny art world commentary if it turns out to be more engineered than it claims? Is it important that "The Social Network" elides and ignores details about Mark Zuckerberg and the website he founded? Would "Alamar" be less of a movie if it were populated by unrelated actors instead of a father and son?
Your answers may differ,...
- 12/16/2010
- by Alison Willmore
- ifc.com
The double feature is the moviegoing ritual most deserving of a comeback. It's the stuff of movie palaces, drive-ins, and getting more bang for your entertainment buck. The double feature is that magic that happens when two totally separate movies get juxtaposed together and begin talking to one another in strange and exciting ways. As part of IFC.com's year-end hullabaloo, I decided to list the five most interesting hypothetical double features of 2010, along with five more runners-up. In no particular order, they are:
Money, Family, and Escape in Modern Boston
"The Town"
Directed by Ben Affleck
with "The Fighter"
Directed by David O. Russell
Though these films are from totally different genres -- one a classic one-last-job heist movie, the other an inspirational boxing film -- they share a common theme at their respective cores: a working-class man's obligation to his friends and family and his realization of his...
Money, Family, and Escape in Modern Boston
"The Town"
Directed by Ben Affleck
with "The Fighter"
Directed by David O. Russell
Though these films are from totally different genres -- one a classic one-last-job heist movie, the other an inspirational boxing film -- they share a common theme at their respective cores: a working-class man's obligation to his friends and family and his realization of his...
- 12/8/2010
- by Matt Singer
- ifc.com
It's an exhaustive look at cinema of the old, and the new in Austria's capital. Starting today, and moving into November (3rd), Vienna celebrates almost two weeks' worth of film culture via the Viennale (a.k.a. Vienna International Film Festival). Bookended by Xavier Beauvois's Of Gods and Men, which took home the Grand Prix from this year's Cannes Festival, and Pedro González-Rubio's Alamar, Tiger Awardee in Rotterdam, the non-competitive fest tries to balance fiction, documentaries and short films in its main program. World premieres of this edition stem from German primary rocks like Rudolf Thome (The Red Room) and Klaus Wyborny (Studies for the Decay of the West). Another highlight is the first showing of Houchang Allahyari's fictionalised doc Die Verrueckte Welt der Ute Bock (The Crazy World of Ute Bock), portraying everyday life of a locally famed asylum helper. However, features like Sofia Coppola's...
- 10/21/2010
- IONCINEMA.com
My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done (15)
(Werner Herzog, 2009, Us) Michael Shannon, Willem Dafoe, Udo Kier, Chloë Sevigny, Grace Zabriskie. 93 mins
Herzog produced by David Lynch: it sounds like an outsider cinephile's fantasy but it's sadly not a patch on the best of their individual works, though worth watching for the cast alone. If it weren't supposedly based on a true story, you'd think the story came out of a late-night Lynch/Herzog weird-off. While delusional am-dram actor Shannon is holed up with two hostages, having just killed his mother with a sword, the cops try to work out how it came to this. Clues include ostriches, flamingoes, jelly, Greek tragedy and, yes, a dwarf.
Tamara Drewe (15)
(Stephen Frears, 2010, UK) Gemma Arterton, Roger Allam, Bill Camp. 111 mins
A postcard of the English countryside with a rude message on the back, Frears's pastoral satire balances bubbly comedy and cutting observation expertly,...
(Werner Herzog, 2009, Us) Michael Shannon, Willem Dafoe, Udo Kier, Chloë Sevigny, Grace Zabriskie. 93 mins
Herzog produced by David Lynch: it sounds like an outsider cinephile's fantasy but it's sadly not a patch on the best of their individual works, though worth watching for the cast alone. If it weren't supposedly based on a true story, you'd think the story came out of a late-night Lynch/Herzog weird-off. While delusional am-dram actor Shannon is holed up with two hostages, having just killed his mother with a sword, the cops try to work out how it came to this. Clues include ostriches, flamingoes, jelly, Greek tragedy and, yes, a dwarf.
Tamara Drewe (15)
(Stephen Frears, 2010, UK) Gemma Arterton, Roger Allam, Bill Camp. 111 mins
A postcard of the English countryside with a rude message on the back, Frears's pastoral satire balances bubbly comedy and cutting observation expertly,...
- 9/10/2010
- by The guide
- The Guardian - Film News
This gentle Mexican film about father-son bonding is rapturous in its appreciation of an idyllic fishing community, but curiously naive about human relationships, writes Peter Bradshaw
There are some lovely, gentle moments in this documentary-style feature from Mexican director Pedro González-Rubio, set around the ravishingly beautiful coral reef of Banco Chinchorro in the Caribbean off the Mexican coast. Alamar – that is, "to the sea" – shows Jorge (Jorge Machado), a Mexican man bonding with his five-year-old son Natan (Natan Machado Palombini) from a failed relationship with an Italian woman, Roberta (Roberta Palombini). He brings him for a visit to his fishing community, perhaps as a condition of their split, although this is one of many things left unclear. The child is enraptured with Banco Chinchorro – as well he might be. The movie is evidently taken directly from life, with the participants playing themselves, but it tells us nothing about why the...
There are some lovely, gentle moments in this documentary-style feature from Mexican director Pedro González-Rubio, set around the ravishingly beautiful coral reef of Banco Chinchorro in the Caribbean off the Mexican coast. Alamar – that is, "to the sea" – shows Jorge (Jorge Machado), a Mexican man bonding with his five-year-old son Natan (Natan Machado Palombini) from a failed relationship with an Italian woman, Roberta (Roberta Palombini). He brings him for a visit to his fishing community, perhaps as a condition of their split, although this is one of many things left unclear. The child is enraptured with Banco Chinchorro – as well he might be. The movie is evidently taken directly from life, with the participants playing themselves, but it tells us nothing about why the...
- 9/9/2010
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
The setup to “Alamar” — literally, “To the Sea” — reads like something out of a Harlequin novel. Roberta, a metropolitan Italian woman, moves to Mexico for work and meets Jorge, a traditional Mayan man with long wavy hair who refuses to put on a shirt over his smooth, toasted skin. They fall in love but their relationship can’t last — they’re just too different. However, they do share a five-year-old son, Natan. “Sometimes, I think God made us meet so that Natan could be born,” Roberta says.
When Roberta decides to move back to Rome, Jorge takes Natan on a trip to his father’s fishing shack on Banco Chinchorro, an atoll reef off the southeast coast of Mexico. A hybrid documentary drama, “Alamar” features real people — Natan is, indeed, Jorge and Roberta’s son — in a scenario orchestrated by director Pedro González-Rubio to comment on not only fathers and...
When Roberta decides to move back to Rome, Jorge takes Natan on a trip to his father’s fishing shack on Banco Chinchorro, an atoll reef off the southeast coast of Mexico. A hybrid documentary drama, “Alamar” features real people — Natan is, indeed, Jorge and Roberta’s son — in a scenario orchestrated by director Pedro González-Rubio to comment on not only fathers and...
- 7/16/2010
- Moving Pictures Magazine
The plot of the gorgeous Mexi can film "Alamar" -- a father-son vacation -- isn't what Hollywood calls "high concept." But thanks to director-cinematographer-editor Pedro Gonzalez-Rubio, the film might be called "high enjoyment." Five-year-old Natan's Italian mother is about to take him to live in Rome. But before he goes off to "civilization," his Mexican dad, Jorge -- "part Johnny Depp, part Peter Pan," according to the press notes -- takes him on a magical trip to the Banco Chinchorro coral reef in the Caribbean.
- 7/16/2010
- by By V.A MUSETTO
- NYPost.com
Pedro González-Rubio has said that he hesitates to call his film Alamar a documentary, since it contains some scripted moments. But then so did the films of Robert Flaherty, the father of the documentary feature, and if Alamar has any one clear progenitor, it’s Flaherty. Alamar begins with home movies and slide-show footage charting the brief, ill-fated love affair between Jorge Machado (a scrawny, long-haired Mexican who’s lived most of his life in the jungle and on the beach) and Roberta Palombini (an Italian who prefers the comforts of civilization). Before separating, the couple had a son ...
- 7/15/2010
- avclub.com
An Italian woman meets a Mexican man. They fall in love, they have a son. And when the relationship ends, like a fairytale in which someone has to return to the mortal world from which he or she came, the woman readies herself and the child to head back to Rome.
Well, Mexico is just as much mortal territory as anywhere else. But the setting of "Alamar," the Caribbean Sea's Banco Chinchorro reef, an extravagantly beautiful landscape of clear azure waters and giant skies scattered with floating seagulls, has an incontestable air of the otherworldly.
That's where Jorge (Jorge Machado) is from, where his father Nestór (Nestór Marín) still lives, and where he brings his five-year-old son Natan (Natan Machado Palombini) for a last bit of time together before he goes off to live thousands of miles away.
In an open-air wooden shack perched out on the water, the men...
Well, Mexico is just as much mortal territory as anywhere else. But the setting of "Alamar," the Caribbean Sea's Banco Chinchorro reef, an extravagantly beautiful landscape of clear azure waters and giant skies scattered with floating seagulls, has an incontestable air of the otherworldly.
That's where Jorge (Jorge Machado) is from, where his father Nestór (Nestór Marín) still lives, and where he brings his five-year-old son Natan (Natan Machado Palombini) for a last bit of time together before he goes off to live thousands of miles away.
In an open-air wooden shack perched out on the water, the men...
- 7/14/2010
- by Alison Willmore
- ifc.com
Two highly-anticipated second feature films from U.S. underground filmmakers will be making their World Premieres all the way over at the 64th annual Edinburgh International Film Festival, which will run for twelve days on June 16-27. The films are Rona Mark’s The Crab and Zach Clark’s Vacation!.
The Crab, which screens on June 21, is the touching story of a verbally abusive man born with two enormous, mutant-like hands; while Vacation!, which screens on June 20, tracks four urban gals let loose in a sunny seaside resort down South.
Both Mark and Clark previously screened their debut features at Eiff. Mark’s Strange Girls screened there in 2008 and Clark’s Modern Love Is Automatic screened in 2009. Both films also ended up as runners-up in Bad Lit’s annual Movie of the Year award, again Strange Girls in 2008 and Modern Love in 2009. Sadly, these two masterpieces are still unavailable on...
The Crab, which screens on June 21, is the touching story of a verbally abusive man born with two enormous, mutant-like hands; while Vacation!, which screens on June 20, tracks four urban gals let loose in a sunny seaside resort down South.
Both Mark and Clark previously screened their debut features at Eiff. Mark’s Strange Girls screened there in 2008 and Clark’s Modern Love Is Automatic screened in 2009. Both films also ended up as runners-up in Bad Lit’s annual Movie of the Year award, again Strange Girls in 2008 and Modern Love in 2009. Sadly, these two masterpieces are still unavailable on...
- 6/4/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Infusing last year's Cannes with such unique films as Greece's Dogtooth, Henri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno and the biking in the birthday suit comedy The Misfortunates, the all encompassing heavyweight French unit MK2 is on one of those odd winning streaks – managing to find/rep films that are celebrated at not only the major heavyweight film fests, but the “second tier” noteworthy fests as well – such as the Rotterdams and the Locarnos of this world we brought about Alamar (To the Sea) and Nothing Personal. This year they present films from distinguished auteurs in Kiarostami (see Binoche in still above) and Zhang-ke, but anyone who follows the site knows how much we look forward in seeing Abdellatif Kechiche's next feature – headed to and to be celebrated in, Venice. P.S: MK2 reps can invite me to see the first images of the biopic set way before our time. Black Venus...
- 5/12/2010
- IONCINEMA.com
The 53rd San Francisco International Film Festival wraps up this week after 14 days, and though I've seen some wonderful things, it's a real pleasure to rest my brain with a little Iron Man 2 this week. Among some of the gems I saw was the gentle Cairo Time (see my longer review), with its luminous performance by Patricia Clarkson. I also liked the new one from Portuguese director João Pedro Rodrigues, To Die Like a Man. Rodrigues' style is so blunt and frank that his filmmaking can be seen (and has been seen) as both clumsy and bold. He ventures into some unusual territory, like drag queens snipe hunting in a forest, but for all that, the film manages to find a steady heartbeat within its bizarre structure.
The outstanding Alamar won the New Directors Award for filmmaker Pedro González-Rubio; it's truly beautiful, almost incidental portrait of a boy spending...
The outstanding Alamar won the New Directors Award for filmmaker Pedro González-Rubio; it's truly beautiful, almost incidental portrait of a boy spending...
- 5/9/2010
- by Jeffrey M. Anderson
- Cinematical
The 53rd Sfiff winners have been announced, along with the San Francisco Film Society's Filmmaker Grants. Festival winners include Lixin Fan's Last Train Home (Golden Gate Award Investigative Documentary Feature), Pedro González-Rubio's Alamar (New Directors Award), and Babak Jalali's Frontier Blues (Fipreschi Prize). The complete list of winners is here. The twice-yearly San Francisco Film Society/Kenneth Rainin Foundation Grants, which total $170k, are given to narrative features that have themes of social justice and significance in the Bay Area. In addition to the monetary awards, the recipients are offered various benefits through the Film Society's filmmaker services programs. This Spring's winners include: Annie Howell's Black Kid, a coming of age story of a bi-racial 11 year old who is transplanted from San Francisco to an all-white ...
- 5/6/2010
- Thompson on Hollywood
Mexican director Pedro González-Rubio won the New Directors Award at the 2010 San Francisco International Film Festival for "Alamar" and Lixin Fan's "Last Train Home" won the investigative documentary prize at last night's ceremony in the Bay Area. Lilian Franck and Robert Cibis won the documentary feature prize for "Pianomania." Lixin Fan's acclaimed observational documentary, his first feature, charts the dramatic annual Chinese immigration, looking at how the situation affects just ...
- 5/6/2010
- Indiewire
Cannes's 6th Cinefondation Atelier has a lineup of directors which this year includes more known auteurs than previously. It has also joined with Mexico's Expresion den Corto for a summer residence program in Guanajuato, Mexico. Both programs include a dozen of the best young filmmakers in the world, offering them a platform designed to propel their careers with master's classes, workshops and meetings with public and private organizaitons to help obtain financing for their film projects.
The Cannes lineup of 15 films this year includes 4 films by first time directors one of whom is a woman and 2 Latino filmmakers.
Debuting directors:
Taiwan based former actress Show-Chun Lee from France, a protege of Claude Miller with Shanghai-Belleville
Karoly Ujj Meszaros from Hungary with Liza, the Fox-Fairy, a comedic serial killer nurse romp
Diego Quemada-Diez from Mexico with La Jaula de oro
Ruben Sierra Salles from Venezuela with Lucia
A third Latino filmmaker...
The Cannes lineup of 15 films this year includes 4 films by first time directors one of whom is a woman and 2 Latino filmmakers.
Debuting directors:
Taiwan based former actress Show-Chun Lee from France, a protege of Claude Miller with Shanghai-Belleville
Karoly Ujj Meszaros from Hungary with Liza, the Fox-Fairy, a comedic serial killer nurse romp
Diego Quemada-Diez from Mexico with La Jaula de oro
Ruben Sierra Salles from Venezuela with Lucia
A third Latino filmmaker...
- 4/15/2010
- by Sydney
- Sydney's Buzz
Chinlin Hsieh, programmer at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, Florence Almozini, BAMcinématek’s Director of Programming, Pedro González-Rubio, director of "Alamar," and Rutger Wolfson, International Film Festival Rotterdam’s Artistic Director at the Rotterdam @ Bam Opening Night party on Wednesday night at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The series, which showcases all 15 films from Rotterdam's Tiger Awards competition, kicked off with the Us premiere of González-Rubio's Tiger-winner "Alamar," followed by an ...
- 3/5/2010
- Indiewire
Updated through 2/11.
The last round of awards to be presented during this year's just-wrapped International Film Festival Rotterdam were announced Saturday night. The Iffr 2010 Audience Award goes to Álvaro Pastor and Antonio Naharro's Yo, también, the Dioraphte Award "for the Hubert Bals Fund film held in highest regard" to Hawa Essuman's Soul Boy, produced by Tom Tykwer.
2010's three winners of the Vpro Tiger Awards, given to debut or second features by new directors, are Paz Fábrega's Agua fría de mar, Pedro González-Rubio's Alamar and Anocha Suwichakornpong's Mundane History (I posted first impressions of those last two here; meantime, indieWIRE reports that Film Movement has picked up Alamar for distribution in the Us). The International Federation of Film Critics (Fipresci) has presented its Rotterdam award to Ben Russell's Let Each One Go Where He May and the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (Netpac) has selected Whang Cheol-Mean's Moscow.
The last round of awards to be presented during this year's just-wrapped International Film Festival Rotterdam were announced Saturday night. The Iffr 2010 Audience Award goes to Álvaro Pastor and Antonio Naharro's Yo, también, the Dioraphte Award "for the Hubert Bals Fund film held in highest regard" to Hawa Essuman's Soul Boy, produced by Tom Tykwer.
2010's three winners of the Vpro Tiger Awards, given to debut or second features by new directors, are Paz Fábrega's Agua fría de mar, Pedro González-Rubio's Alamar and Anocha Suwichakornpong's Mundane History (I posted first impressions of those last two here; meantime, indieWIRE reports that Film Movement has picked up Alamar for distribution in the Us). The International Federation of Film Critics (Fipresci) has presented its Rotterdam award to Ben Russell's Let Each One Go Where He May and the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (Netpac) has selected Whang Cheol-Mean's Moscow.
- 2/12/2010
- MUBI
"Alamar", the second film by director Pedro González-Rubio, deceived me. From a distance it seemed something superficial. A film that grabs its audience by merely setting it in a location many would like to spend their holiday; an idyllic coral reef. However, that would have been too easy. The fact that it took home a Tiger Award and placed number 10 at the audience award (with an average of 4.365 out of 5) at this year's International Film Festival Rotterdam hints that preconception had to be quickly adjusted.
- 2/9/2010
- Screen Anarchy
Berlin -- Films from Costa Rica, Thailand and Mexico won this year's trio of Tiger Awards at the 38th International Film Festival Rotterdam, which took place Jan. 27-Feb.6, with the prizes for first- and second-time directors going to Paz Fabrega's "Cold Water of the Sea," Anocha Suwichakornpong's "Mundane History" and Pedro Gonzalez-Rubio's "To the Sea."
The prizes, which are valued equally, each come with a cash bursary of €15,000 ($20,520).
Spanish drama "Yo, Tambien," which scooped the acting prizes in San Sebastian last year, won Rotterdam's audience award. The Dioraphte Award, which is given to a film supported by the Hubert Bals Fund, went to "Soul Boy" from Kenyan director Hawa Essuman. German filmmaker Tom Tykwer produced "Soul Boy" as the pilot project for his new One Fine Day Films shingle, which aims to help filmmakers in the poorer regions of Africa finance and produce their stories.
"Soul Boy...
The prizes, which are valued equally, each come with a cash bursary of €15,000 ($20,520).
Spanish drama "Yo, Tambien," which scooped the acting prizes in San Sebastian last year, won Rotterdam's audience award. The Dioraphte Award, which is given to a film supported by the Hubert Bals Fund, went to "Soul Boy" from Kenyan director Hawa Essuman. German filmmaker Tom Tykwer produced "Soul Boy" as the pilot project for his new One Fine Day Films shingle, which aims to help filmmakers in the poorer regions of Africa finance and produce their stories.
"Soul Boy...
- 2/8/2010
- by By Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
This evening at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, the three Tiger Award winners were announced. The winners were:
"Agua Fría de Mar"
(dir: Paz Fábrega, Costa Rica)
"Alamar"
(dir: Pedro González-Rubio, Mexico)
"Mundane History"
(dir: Anocha Suwichakornpong, Thailand)
The Tiger can only be won by directors who have made their first or second film. It is not just an award for good filmmaking, but also meant as an encouragement to make more films and includes a nice 15,000 Euro (each) to help do so.
The Fipresco award from the international film press went to "Let Each One Go Where He May" by Ben Russell, while the Netpac award for promoting Asian cinema was won by the Korean film "Moscow" from director Whan Cheol-Mean. ...
"Agua Fría de Mar"
(dir: Paz Fábrega, Costa Rica)
"Alamar"
(dir: Pedro González-Rubio, Mexico)
"Mundane History"
(dir: Anocha Suwichakornpong, Thailand)
The Tiger can only be won by directors who have made their first or second film. It is not just an award for good filmmaking, but also meant as an encouragement to make more films and includes a nice 15,000 Euro (each) to help do so.
The Fipresco award from the international film press went to "Let Each One Go Where He May" by Ben Russell, while the Netpac award for promoting Asian cinema was won by the Korean film "Moscow" from director Whan Cheol-Mean. ...
- 2/6/2010
- Screen Anarchy
There were a couple of little birdies at last year's Tiff that told me about a gorgeous little film from Mexico from helmer Pedro González-Rubio -- since the Toronto preem it has hit Rotterdam this year and will roll out at Berlin shortly. Back then it was going by the title of To the Sea, but we should get comfy with the title of Alamar -- as the Film Movement folks (who also got behind another small Mexican film in Lake Tahoe - a Top 20 film of mine from last year's theatrical releases) have picked up the rights to the film via France's MK2. - There were a couple of little birdies at last year's Tiff that told me about a gorgeous little film from Mexico from helmer Pedro González-Rubio -- since the Toronto preem it has hit Rotterdam this year and will roll out at Berlin shortly.
- 2/6/2010
- IONCINEMA.com
Film Movement has acquired U.S. rights to Pedro Gonzalez-Rubio's father-son drama "Alamar," which will be the opening night feature of the Generation section of the upcoming Berlin Film Festival.
The Spanish-language film, which is currently screening in competition at the Rotterdam International Film Festival, will open theatrically at New York's Film Forum on July 14 with a limited national roll-out to follow.
The acquisition was negotiated by Film Movement's Adley Gartenstein and Rebeca Conget, and MK2's Matthieu Giblin.
The Spanish-language film, which is currently screening in competition at the Rotterdam International Film Festival, will open theatrically at New York's Film Forum on July 14 with a limited national roll-out to follow.
The acquisition was negotiated by Film Movement's Adley Gartenstein and Rebeca Conget, and MK2's Matthieu Giblin.
- 2/4/2010
- by By Gregg Kilday
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Morelia, Mexico -- Pedro Gonzalez-Rubio's documentary-style drama "Alamar" (To the Sea) made a big splash at the seventh edition of the Morelia International Film Festival, winning best picture and the audience award.
Produced by Mantarraya Producciones, the shingle of filmmaker Carlos Reygadas, "To the Sea" centers on a father-son relationship and the bond they form with nature.
French distributor MK2 is handling international sales; Mantarraya will release the picture next year in Mexico.
Best documentary went to "Presunto Culpable" (Presumed Guilty), a compelling look at the inefficiencies of the Mexican judicial system during a murder case proceeding. Filmmakers Roberto Hernandez, Geoffrey Smith and Leyda Negrete received a standing ovation at an emotionally charged awards ceremony Saturday night in Morelia.
Lawyers by profession, Hernandez and Negrete formed the production company Abogados con Camera (Lawyers with Cameras) to document the case of a man falsely accused of homicide.
Also creating considerable...
Produced by Mantarraya Producciones, the shingle of filmmaker Carlos Reygadas, "To the Sea" centers on a father-son relationship and the bond they form with nature.
French distributor MK2 is handling international sales; Mantarraya will release the picture next year in Mexico.
Best documentary went to "Presunto Culpable" (Presumed Guilty), a compelling look at the inefficiencies of the Mexican judicial system during a murder case proceeding. Filmmakers Roberto Hernandez, Geoffrey Smith and Leyda Negrete received a standing ovation at an emotionally charged awards ceremony Saturday night in Morelia.
Lawyers by profession, Hernandez and Negrete formed the production company Abogados con Camera (Lawyers with Cameras) to document the case of a man falsely accused of homicide.
Also creating considerable...
- 10/10/2009
- by By John Hecht
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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