South American music and culture magazine

At the end of last year we held a small private screening of Esperando el Tsunami, a new film from Vincent Moon and Lulacruza logging a musical journey across Colombia. Now, with our good friends Movimientos, we will be holding an official screening of the film at Rich Mix in London (followed by great Afro-Colombian music from Cumbé). Prepare yourself for a truly original journey into Latin America! Continue Reading

The 11th annual MoMa Documentary Fortnight, a festival of international non-fiction media, will run February 16-28 in New York City. The festival will feature over 30 feature-length and short documentaries, including two films from Argentina. Most of the screenings during the two-week event are premieres, and filmmakers will be present to answer questions from the audience. Documentary Fortnight’s programming also includes a retrospective of three decades of media activism by Paper Tiger Television, as well as a seminar on new methods in documentary filmmaking.

Check out MoMa’s synopses of the two Argentinean films:

Argentinian Lesson 

2011. Poland/Argentina. Directed by Wojciech Staroń. Janek, a young Polish boy, is thrust into an unknown world when his family moves to Argentina. While his mother teaches their native tongue to locals of Polish decent, Janek struggles with a new language and an alien landscape—and begins to adjust to 11-year-old Marcia, with whom he experiences the joys of childhood and the woes of impending adulthood. His filmmaker father captures the young friends’ innocence and the beauty of their shared experiences. Program copresented with Ambulante and Cinema Tropical. 56 min.

¡Vivan las Antipodas! 

2011. Germany/Argentina/Netherlands/Chile. Directed by Victor Kossakovsky. This magnificent, poetic documentary looks at some of Earth’s antipodal pairs—locales at exact opposite ends of the globe: Rios, Argentina, and Shanghai, China; Russia’s Lake Baikal and Patagonia in Chile; Miraflores, Spain, and the beach at Castle Point, New Zealand. Kossakovsky turns his camera a kaleidoscopic 180 degrees between each site. Copresented with True/False Film Festival. 108 min.

Mexican films, “El Lugar más pequeño” (The Tiniest Place), directed by Tatiana Huezo Sanchez, and “Polvo” (Dust), directed by Angela Regianto, were also selected for the festival.

A full program for Documentary Fortnight is available on MoMa’s website.

Here’s a clip from “¡Vivan las Antipodas!” (Long Live the Antipodes!).

The Spanish speaking film festival, ¡Viva! 2012, returns to Cornerhouse, Manchester, for its 18^th year to showcase a range of films from the parts of the world which, for one reason or another, hablan español. Continue Reading

There will be a London Premiere for Nostalgia for the Light, the new film from Patricio Guzman – and one that featured in many Best of 2011 lists – on February 2nd that will be followed by a Q&A with Guzman himself. Continue Reading

A Useful Life is the second feature film from Uruguayan director Federico Veiroj. It tells the story of Jorge, a film critic whose life is thrown upside down when he loses his job. With a running length of just 70 minutes, this is a journey into Jorge’s life, from his existence surrounded by film, an existence which has become monotonous from the outside, to the excitement of being thrown out of that world. Continue Reading

Las Acacias is the story of truck driver Rubén who agrees to give a mother and her daugher a lift from Paraguay to Buenos Aires. Directed by Argentine Pablo Giorgelli it’s a truly unique film that slowly charms it’s way into your heart thanks to the understated performances from it’s stars, astute direction and the universal emotions that are at the film’s core. The film will be in UK cinemas from December 2nd. Here’s a list of some of the cinemas that will be showing the film in 2011 and early 2012. Continue Reading

Esperando el Tsunami is the new film from French film-maker Vincent Moon and Argentine/Colombian folk duo Lulacruza. The film documents their journey through Colombia meeting many of the country’s finest musicians while also discovering this country in all of it’s glory, revelling in the nature and the people that they meet along the way. On December 8th Sounds and Colours will be hosting a special screening of the film, and want to know whether you fancy coming along. Continue Reading

From March until June last year we documented Lulacruza’s journey across Colombia with film-maker Vincent Moon. The idea behind their journey was to discover Colombia, and especially the music of Colombia, documenting that experience in the form of a new album and a film. Well, the second part of that ambition is almost upon us, as Esperando el Tsunami – the film of their journey will be released on November 25th. Continue Reading

Mr Bongo have released a number of quality Brazilian film and music releases over the years. In the past it’s been a little tricky to find out more about those releases. Well, not anymore. They have just released a brand new Mr Bongo website which makes it easy to buy some fine DVDs, vinyl and CDs. Continue Reading

Las Acacias was one of the word-of-mouth successes of the BFI London Film Festival, albeit one that had already won the Camera D’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Well now it can add a Sutherland Award to that previous prize, as last night proved particularly fruitful for first time director Pablo Giorgelli. Continue Reading

Autumn is definitely the season for film festivals, with the new Cinema of Brazil line-up of films following the BFI London Film Festival and Brazilian Film Festival of London. Cinema of Brazil – which takes place in London – sets itself a theme each year, with this edition focusing on “Travel Stories.” Continue Reading

Two Argentine-directed music videos are in contention for the first ever International SinCity Film Award. Video directors from around the world were invited to produce a music video centred around the theme of “sin city.” The entries have been whittled down to 30, with the public being asked to vote for their favourite. Continue Reading