Latin America Today - In Film and in Life

OK I’m back from what seems a decade in Latin America. The most notable real life events come from seeing society’s rich and poor working side by side without seeming to be aware of one another. Days are filled with commerce in Buenos Aires and life in the night (outside of the night clubs) is filled with refuse left from the day and scavengers collecting (and eating!) all that is salvageable.

In Cuba, as the Cubans are fond of saying Castro has democratized poverty, the scale seems to have tipped upwards since my last visit in 2003 after which Bush pulled the plug on travel. It is now legal again under general licenses; LAX hosts a weekly charter as do Miami and New York.

Most notable film events in Buenos Aires’ Ventana Sur, a $3,000,000 event (extravaganza?) which I hope will yield enough business for it to be repeated, perhaps not at the cost of junking the Plata Del Mar festival immediately preceding it, next year.

There were quite a few film sales including Ondamax's sales to South Korea. Zona Sur was picked up worldwide by Shoreline and will be showing in Sundance. It was the most stylish and interesting version I have seen of the rich decadents’ being replaced by the indigenous industrious. Last year's Sundance World Cinema selection from Chile, The Maid, was also a Shoreline pick up. Elephant Eye picked it up after Sundance for US and it is still running in theaters. Elephant Eye also picked up international rights to Precious. These are two canny companies to watch. Other pickups from Ventana Sur include TLA Releasing acquiring all UK rights from Wide Management to Enrique Buchichio’s Uruguayan film Leo’s Room and Jose Campusano’s Vile Romance from Argentina.

To return to Ventana Sur, my intellectual favorite was the Brazilian-Czech production Budapest about a ghostwriter being sold by Elo Audiovisual.

Cinando’s Screening Room, a 2 month extension on viewing all the films in the market, is brilliant. A specialist who is interested in music can find jewels among the market pertaining to music -- be it tango, Cuban music, Venezuelan, or Afro-Diaspora. There were six films about Cuba itself, four centering around tango, two about the Mapuche tribes of Indians who are still fighting for their rights in Chile and Argentina (they are the most apparent indigenous people to be successfully fighting off the exploiters of their lands and culture … to this day).

Seeing the young filmmakers in Cuba who work outside of the official ICAIC along with other artists, was inspiring. I came home with three projects I would like to promote: One a superbly animated ($500,000 to animate + post, etc) story of the legendary African gods worshipped in Cuba, Orishas, a modern day parable of a mortal beloved by the goddess Ochun causing the powers of the gods and humans to merge and flow only to separate again. This project should be grabbed by the top African American producers looking for a franchise. The other, Close Up, is a candid look at the marginalized youth in Havana today – from punks to gays to vampires who all hang out on the Paseo. The third project begins with the reissue of the 45 year old classic Nosotros La Musica which defined the soul of the Cuban by its music. The new version of Nosotros La Musica is being planned now. I myself am tempted to use Create Space, Amazon Video On Demand and iTunes to create a series of Cuban films or films on Latin music as a niche annuity in the film and music business, though I think it would be better served by an IFC, HBO or Magnolia who could make the event spectacular and back it up with a steady product flow.

Receiving a DVD of the IDFA competition film Eyes Wide Open (Gonzalo Arijón - winner of the Joris Ivens Award in 2007 for Stranded - and writer Eduardo Galeano - Open Veins of Latin America taking us on a journey through today's Latin America), being sold by Autlook, and being able to watch it among some politically astute Cubans in Havana, and then seeing Oliver Stone’s doc South of the Border on the closing night film in Havana were the high points of the trip. To see the democratic process working in favor of the indigenous people in Bolivia, Uruguay, Paraguay, Venezuela, Brazil (and the reaction we’re now seeing in Chile’s election and in Honduras’ non-election) was a transformational experience, provoking thoughtfulness and a new perception of world events. The last scene of Oliver Stone’s doc, proposing that perhaps the continuing migration of Latinos from these forward moving countries will influence their actions in the United States to create the changes in social legislation as proposed by Obama himself offers hope for the first time of a United America.

If I could program a double bill of South of the Border to be followed by Eyes Wide Open in every city with a Latin populace in the US, I would have performed my service to the country. Theatrical events, DVD and online marketing and sales, arranged around community discussion groups could rack up money comparable to the Robert Greenwald machine, or perhaps could even be sponsored by the Robert Greenwald machine, or MoveOn.Org…is anybody listening?

My next blog will be how I deal with the culture shock of return to the states. Stay tuned.

Ventana Sur, The First Latin American - European Film Market to be held on Latin American Ground.

The positive energy here is palpable. Everyone is not only happy to be here, but business is brisk. It feels like a natural place for a Latin American market with films, buyers and sellers all discussing Spanish language films con mucho gusto.

A lot of INCAA and Euro money went into this. Held in the magnificent space of Harrods next to Calle Florida where shopping deals rule, and in the Cinemark Theaters on the Rio de la Plata River, well organized with online screenings of films which will continue to be available to participants for the next two months on Cinando, it looks ordained as a key event on the market calendar.

How it will compare to Guadalajara Film Festival and Market in March is a question that hangs in the air. Cinando's participation there goes back four years with its active Co-Production Market.

On reading the list of 1,400 buyers and sellers it was a bit intimidating seeing the best names in the European business. There were far fewer American sellers, perhaps because of the Thanksgiving holiday, but there was Shoreline, Laguna, Outsider and Figa among the sellers' tables. Making an informal appearance as both buyer and seller was Maya who is proud of their first production, The Dry Land - to debut in Sundance - about a Tejano soldier returning from Iraq, produced by Sergio Aguero whose career path from the days of Trimark has been extraordinary.

Looking at the US buyers who came and who did not was also revealing. As ever, Peter Goldwyn was present. Condor's Peter Marai who is not only buying for Condor, his US video label but has already released three (European) films in his new Argentinean distribution company Mirada were here as were Richard Lorber, Film Movement, Kino and Zeitgeist, Strand, TLA, young, energetic Cuban and Brazilian owned California based Figa Films -- both buying and selling, Venevision, LAPTV, Latino Public Broadcasting, Magnolia, Music Box, Roadside Attractions (me!). Also present, Canadians Yves Dion of TVA, Mongrel, Lina Marrone representing Lolafilm sales were also here. And all the best European distributors, along with all the Latin American distributors make this intimate space very exciting.

Considering the elusive US market for foreign language films and the prevalence of French language films among them; not counting 2008 Fox Searchlight's Sundance acquisition Under the Same Moon which did gross $12,600,000, 2007's Lionsgate / Univision release of Robber of Robbers (Ladrón que roba a ladrón) which racked up $4,000,000, or 2006's Lionsgate My Brother's Wife (La Mujer de mi hermano) from Colombia which grossed almost $3,000,000, the few Spanish language films that have been released over the past three years have been few and far between and have grossed bupkas (all under $100,000). Experts in the US marketing and distribution of Latino films agree (see the blog on LALIFF) that if there were a steady flow of good product theatrically, an audience could and would be cultivated, but there has only been on film per year backed with enough marketing behind it to reach the audience.

The screenings in the Cinemark Theaters were somewhat sparse to start, with the possibility to going from one to another easy but also discouraging. Perhaps the distance from the Market itself discouraged attendance, although the last day of big screenings left me quite upbeat. Even if the films are not blatantly bidding-war-commercial, my favorites -- insightful, well produced and well directed -- were Elo Audiovisuals Budapest, Bolivia's Zona Sur with no sales agent on offer from the Cultural Center Yaneramai CCY-SRL. (NB DECEMBER 12: SHORELINE HAS PICKED UP WORLD RIGHTS AND THE FILM WILL SHOW IN SUNDANCE), and the Argentinean submission for the Best Foreign Language Oscar of 2009 El Secreto de sus Ojos. The Primer Corte (works in progress) was very well attended with distributors looking to get in on the upcoming releases earlier than their competition.  The most talked about film were Los Viejos and Vacas Flakas. The 450 titles available online in the viewing booths at the market itself were being consumed avidly and the sellers report considerable sales. The films? continuing viewing availability to participants on Cinando for the next two months can keep the heat up and will also alert film buyers and sellers and perhaps festivals to the expanding possibilities of online distribution both as a new trade tool within the trade and to the next step, beyond the trade.

We will see what sales were made and we hope that they match the optimistic positive energy so in evidence so that next year we can once again partake in what we hope will be a growing market and a growing supply of young original talent.