Some Rotterdam Fest & Cinemart Tallies on Women and Latinos

Before going into my Women Directors Tracking which I have vowed to continue until women reach a parity with men in the film business and Latino Directors groove, I want to thank Howard Feinstein for watching the most obscure films of Rotterdam to find the jewels!  Scratching Below the Surface for Some Rotterdam Fest Gems - indieWIRE.  Kudos!  I wish I could have seen these!

Howard spotted this one: "A young woman named Rusudan Pirveli brought to the 'Bright Future' section Susa, another story of hard financial times. 'The Lost Generation' is represented here by the absent father of an adolescent boy, who, working for his mother, sells bootleg vodka in bottles. Sadly, he lives under the delusion that dad’s return would ease his and his mom’s hardship. Like Koguashvili, Pirveli eschews unnecessary authorial intervention: Both directors understand all too well that they are living amidst powerful, if sad, narratives, which can carry their own weight without a lot of artsy fuss.

Other women directors of festival films: Les signes vitaux aka Morbid Fascination by Sophie Deraspe (France) which will also be in SXSW, the multi prize winning and Latina too! Agua fria de mar by Paz Fabrega (Costa Rica), Fuwaku no Adagio aka Autumn Adagio byInoue Tsuki (Japan), Li fa dian de nu er aka My Daughter by Charlotte Lay Kuen Lim (Malaysia), La vie au Ranch by Sophie Letourneur (France), Mama by Nikoly Renard and Yelena Renard (Russia), My Queen Karo by Dorothee van den Berghe (Belgium/ Netherlands), Ejszaka, hajnal aka Europa, East by Anita Doron (Hungary), Everyday is a Holiday by Dima El-Horr (France/ Germany/ Lebanon), Listicky aka Foxes by Mira Fornay (Czech Replblic/ slovakia/ Ireland), God No Say So by Brigitte Uttar Kornetzky (Sierra Leone/ Switzerland), My Tehran for Sale by Granaz Moussavi (Australia/ Iran), Paju by Park Chan-Ok (So. Korea), El Pasante aka The Intern by Clara Picasso (Argentina), Pepperminta by Pipilotti Rist (Austria/ Switzerland), Separations by Andrea Seligmann Silva, Mieke Bui (Netherlands), Lost Persons Area by Caroline Strubbe (Belgium/ Hungary/ Germany/ Netherlands), Hotel Atlantico by Suzana Amaral (Brazil), White Material by Claire Denis (France), Once Upon a Time Proletarian by Guo Xiaolu (UK), Lourdes by Jessica Hausner (Austria/ France/ Germany), Tian shui wei di ye yu su aka Night & Fog by Ann Hui (Hong Kong), Ruzhaye Sabz aka Green Days by Hana Makhmalbaf (France/ Iran), Russian Lessons by Andrei Nekrasov and Olga Konskaya (Russia/ Norway), Zanan bedoone mardan aka Women Without Men by Shirin Neshat (Austria/ France/ Germany), A falta que me faz aka Like Water Through Stone by Marilia Rocha (Brazil), Synok aka Sonny by Larisa Sadilova (Russia), Vlees aka Meat by Maartje Seyferth and Victor Nieuwenhuijs (Netherlands), De vliegenierster van Kazbek aka The Aviatrix of Kazbek by Ineke Smits (Belgium/ Netherlands), Mundane History by Anoucha Suwichakornpoing (Thailand). Total: 30 films, hardly a record breaking number. 

Cinemart projects have a better percentage with 11 of the 33 projects and include By the Time It Gets Dark by Anocha Suwichakornpong (Thailand) awarded the Prince Claus Fund Film Grant of €15,000. The jury, chaired by documentary filmmaker Bregtje van der Haak, was impressed by the “unconventional episodic storytelling” of Suwichakornpong's proposal – a highly personal take on contemporary Thailand.  The award, now in its tenth year, is given to a CineMart project by a filmmaker from Africa, Asia, Latin America or the Caribbean, to support early-stage development. Anocha Suwichakornpong's feature debut, Mundane History, was also competing the IFFR 2010 Tiger strand.

Other Cinemart women's project included Erased by Patrice Toye (Belgium) who arrived directly from Sundance where her latest project The Spring Ritual was awarded the NHK Award, Island by JO Eun-kyung (South Korea), Je suis mort mai j’ai des amis by Guillaume Malandrin and Stephanie Malandrin (Belgium), Layla Fourie by Pia Marais (So. Africa/ Sweden/ Germany) winner of Art France Cinema Award for the best CineMart 2010 Project. The drama, written by Marais (who won a 2007 Tiger for her debut Die Unerzogenen), is set in present-day South Africa and revolves around a single mother who works as a polygraphist in a casino. The €10,000 prize is intended to support the production of independent filmmaking.

Also in the Cinemart: Leones by Jazmin Lopez (Argentina), A Life Half Lived by Denie Pentecost (Australia), Malmi Murderaz by Susanna Helke (Finland), My Sister Came By Today by Yan Ting Yuen (Hong Kong), Ola’s Universe by Coco Schrijber (Netherlands), Postcards from the Zoo by Edwin (Indonesia), Todos Nosotros by Paz Fabrega (Costa Rica) Tiger Award winner for Agua fria de mar.

And Latino directors: Agua fria de mar by Paz Fabrega, prize winning Alamar by Pedro Gonzalez-Rubio (Mexico), El Sol aka The Sun by Ayar Blasco (Argentina), El camino entre dos puntos aka The Way Between Two Points by Sebastian Diaz Morales (Argentina/ Netherlands), Vaho aka Becloud by Alejandro Gerber Bicecci (Mexico) and Los viajes del viento aka The Wind Journeys by Ciro Guerro (Argentina/ Colombia/ Netherlands/ Germany), Avenida Brasilia Formosa aka Defiant Brasilia by Gabriel Mascaro (Brazil), El calambre aka The Cramp by Matias Meyer (Mexico/ France), Manuel De Ribera by Christopher Murray and Pable Carrera (Chile), Norteado aka Northless by Rigoberto Perezcano (Mexico/ Spain), El Pasante aka The Intern by Clara Picasso (Argentina), The Sentimental Engine Slayer by Omar Rodgriguez Lopez (USA), Hiroshima by Pablo Stoll (Uruguay/ Colombia/ Argentina/ Spain), Hotel Atlantico by Suzana Amaral (Brazil), Rabia by Sebastian Cordero (Colombia/ Mexico/ Spain), Moscou aka Moscow by Eduard Coutinho (Brazil), Todo, en fin, el silencio lo ocupaba aka All Things Were Now Overtaken by Silence by Nicolas Pereda (Mexico/ Canada), A falta que me faz aka Like Water Through Stone by Marilia Rocha (Brazil). Cinemart projects include Another World by Alexis Dos Santos (Argentina/ Germany/ Mexico), Heli by Amat Escalante (Mexico), Leones by Jazmin Lopez (Argentina)

Latin America in Sundance (and Slamdance!)

This blog, Latin America in Sundance, will continue to be updated at least up to the day of the World Cinema round tables January 28 which Caroline Libresco inaugurated several years ago.  The focus of this blog obviously will be the selection of Latin American films from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Columbia, Cuba, Mexico, and Peru.  We shall see if any creates enough of a stir - or what I consider a stir - within my purview of buying and selling (the agents surely will discover the directors and other talent without my prompting) - for a longer span of my attention.  The politics of the films also interest me as Latin America is such an integral part of the USA today.

NALIP has this to say about the current state of Latino programming: "... in NALIP's 11th year, this seems worse than slow: it appears that diversity is really on a backburner..The dipstick on diversity reading is far too low for the 21st century, where Latinos and other minorities are the majorities in many states, and in consuming media across all platforms...What about in indieland? While we are very proud of LPA Fellow Nicolas Entel, who has been invited to Sundance TwentyTen with the wonderful documentary Sins of My Father, just licensed for broadcast by HBO, there is no LA MISMA LUNA as at Sundance 2007, no SLEEP DEALER as at Sundance 2008, no DON'T LET ME DROWN as at Sundance 2009. The U.S. Latino documentaries that are coming out of the Latino Producers Academy, LPB or ITVS are not represented there, either."

Starting with the film which caught my eye (and that of Shoreline) during Ventana Sur, Zona Sur, directed by Bolivian director Juan Carlos Valdivia and picked up for worldwide sales by Shoreline and will be showing in Sundance. It was the most stylish and interesting version I have seen of a Latin American theme we've seen in several films before, namely, 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 and they sold quite a number of territories and its US distributor Elephant Eye, (the international sales agent of Precious) did quite well at the box office in the US, grossing almost $500,000 and still playing.  Valdivia's direction is very accomplished and I look forward to seeing his next film.  The film has also been chosen by Tokyo Int'l Film Festival as one of the top 15 films of the world and is Bolivia's Academy Award submission for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.

As a partner in Cinenomada, Valdivia directed the company's first film Zona Sur, and is co-producing  Los Viejos, currently in post production, by a young Bolivian director, Martin Bouloucq. Per Valdivia, "we have a new film in development, which we plan to shoot this year. Cinenomada has a small production platform and we are interested in producing films that can have an impact in the market place by virtue of their artistic quality. We feel we have an enormous resource of unique themes, stories and new talent in our country. We are working to strengthen our own market and we seek to broaden our relationship to the world market place. We currently have a project about an indigenous nation within Bolivia seeking international co-production."

Referring back to my earlier blog on Latin America and in light of the discussion of Bolivia and their president elect Ivo as depicted by Oliver Stone in South of the Border (being sold by The Film Sales Co.), and Gonzalo Arijón's Eyes Wide Open, Galeano's sequel to The Open Veins of Latin America, (being sold internationally by Autlook) the subject matter of the indigenous nation within Bolivia is very interesting.

Counting the other Latino (Spanish language and not from Spain) films which will be in Sundance, the most riveting is Sins of My Father by Nicolas Entel, the son of Pablo Escobar, who was and still is at considerable risk to his own life for making this film. The HBO Arte produced documentary played at IDFA and the news of it caused quite a stir. The Google page on this film alone is enough to encourage many buyers.
UPDATE:  At the industry screening today, many international sales agents were eying the film.  My take on it:  After being moved by the dilemna of the son of Pablo and learning that the two politicians running for president were assassinated by Escbar leaving four more sons fatherless, and seeing Pablo's son make overtures to them to stop the violence expected in revenge, words failed to convey the full import of the story.  The film in the end seems better suited to television than to theatrical exhibition.  The animated opening credits were especially outstanding however.

Contracorriente (Undertow) from Peru, Colombia, France and Germany premiered in San Sebastian, also gay themed, is a small jewel and should surely sell at this festival 
UPDATE: Shoreline acquired worldwide rights just before the festival began.

Argentinean film The Man Next Door is stylish, taking place in a mid century Le Corbusier home. It depicts what seems like the neighbor from hell who is bent on making a window in his apartment which will destory the integrity of the perfect symetry of the Le Corbu house.  While a bit too long, and not very well attended by the trade, those who saw it were drawn to the story whose keystone was the moral cowardice shown by the sophisticated apartment owner. Abel is the directing debut of Diego Luna, exec produced by John Malkovich, Russell Smith, Lianne Halfon and Gael Garcia Bernal and said to be worth the great interest of acquisitions excutives.

Memories of Overdevelopment (a play on words of the classic Cuban film Memories of Underdevelopment) is of interest by nature of its Cuban roots. The issue of what happens when a socialist revolutionary intellectual asserts creative freedom is an issue Castro has had to deal with throughout his tenure and still must deal with as a new generation grows up in Cuba. It is part of the New Frontier, so the format is very artistic, beautiful if too avant garde for commercial exploitation, and the protagonist, a lecturer on revolution, is such a depressive that it is difficult to like him.  However the subject is very interesting and the film is very well made, though difficult.

The Imperialists are Still Alive might count as there is a Mexican in the film, but there are also Arabs and Koreans and it concerns post 9/11 Manhattan.  The Dry Land does not explicitely call itself Latino, but it was produced by Sergio Aguero and Maya who has worldwide, including U.S. rights.  It concerns a Tejano soldier returning from Iraq with Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome.

And further into the political aspects of Latin American film,  must see is the short doc The Fence (La Barda) by acclaimed producer, director and writer Rory Kennedy about "Our Wall", the 700 mile long fence snaking its way from Texas to California along the US-Mexico border.  This35 minute HBO production about our 2,000 mile shared border and the 700 mile fence which has cost taxpayers $3 billion epitomizes the ultimate stupidity of Bush's administration to date, destroying lives of people and wildlife for pure idiocy.  I could barely sit through it as its revelations of short sightedness piled one on top of another.

In addition to the Spanish language Latino films, there are two Portuguese language Brazilian documentaries. Secrets of theTribe is an investigation into the Yanomami Indians of the Amazon Basin in the 1960s and 70s is revisited and revised by the Yanomamis themselves and the original scholars who represented the "virgin" society 30 years ago.  And Waste Land, an uplifting feature documentary highlighting the transformative power of art and the beauty of the human spirit in which top-selling contemporary artist Vik Muniz takes us on an emotional journey from Jardim Gramacho, the world's largest landfill on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, to the heights of international art stardom. Vik collaborates with the brilliant catadores, pickers of recyclable materials, true Shakespearean characters who live and work in the garbage quoting Machiavelli and showing us how to recycle ourselves.

Competing at Slamdance this year, Betty M Park, Director, Producer and Editor, a Korean American filmmaker based in Brooklyn, New York, makes her debut as a feature film director with Mamachas del Ring about cholita wrestlers in Bolivia! Please take a look if you have a minute:
http://www.mamachasdelring.com/ or go to http://mamachasdelring.blogspot.com/.

LATINO FILM RELEASE BY ROADSIDE ATTRACTIONS TODAY

Roadside Attractions is releasing both Good Hair and From Mexico with Love today. We all know about Good Hair, the Toronto premiering doc by Chris Rock inspired by his daughter’s hair styling concerns. Check out Roadside Attraction’s Facebook Page and you’ll see more on this hands-down, well-loved film.

It’s From Mexico with Love which offers the challenge and possible new insights into distribution to the niche Mexican audience. Starring Kuno Becker a big star in Mexico and known here for the Goal Films and costarring Danay Garcia, a well loved Mexican telenovela star who also has a regular role in Fox's upcoming series Prison Break, it will be released on 281 screens in California, New Mexico and Arizona. (Good Hair will go out on 185 screens.)

The film is a Rocky-esque inspirational story in which a washed-up trainer takes a self-destructive young boxer under his wing. It is receiving important radio notice on Latino stations. While A Day without a Mexican played in Sundance, this film played in the San Diego Latino Film Festival. Whether that impacts the film is interesting to speculate upon, though I don’t think Sundance is a relevant factor, and San Diego’s impact is uncertain. The film did quite well in Mexico which could mean it’s been seen already in US illegally or that its reputation will create interest here.

Most interesting is the chance to compare and perhaps replicate the success of A Day Without a Mexican whose opening weekend was $620,000. It played theatrically from May to November 2004 finally grossing $4.18 million in US. Very little has hit the Latino (primarily Mexican) market to that tune since -- with the exception of Fox Searchlight's 2007 Sundance pickup Under The Same Moon in 2008 which grossed $12,589,108 -- but the majors and their P&A budgets essentially take their films out of the league we are discussing here.

***Late posting: Opening weekend From Mexico with Love was $334,340 (#26 rank, 279 theaters, $1,198 average) % of Total Gross: 66.1%
Widest Release: 279 theaters In Release: 10 days / 1.4 weeks. Now at $505,606.

It doesn't compare with A Day Without a Mexican whose Opening Weekend:
$628,807 was in 56 theaters averaging$11,228 and ranking #15. % of Total Gross:
15.0% View All 31 Weekends

Latino programming has been out of the spotlight lately after its 2004 to 2007 whirlwind of activities by companies looking to cash in on the elusive Latino market and riding in on the wave of ADWOM. We haven’t heard much news of Lionsgate Latino programming section who in 2006 hired Arturo Chavez to head up its Latino video division. Jim McNamara was named non executive chairman in August 2008 of Cine Latino and in principle is continuing to run production company Panamax Films which has a distribution deal with Lionsgate. Its last credits were 2007's Ladron que roba el ladron (Robber of Robbers) released by Lionsgate and Univision and grossing $4m and Sangre de mi sangre, (Blood of My Blood), which won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival in 2007, was released by IFC and grossed $54,000 and 2006's La mujer de mi hermano (My Brother's Wife) from Colombia which grossed $2.8m. The only news of other Latino oriented distributors was last summer's Latino showcase tour starting at the Aero and initiated by Maya's Moctezuma Esparza. Maya's 2009 releases, Casi divas, Máncora and Sleep Dealer grossed $46,200, $29,700 and $75,700 respectively.

LA Latino Film Festival (LALIFF) is featuring a panel discussion on distribution in these markets October 15 at 4pm at the Renaissance Hotel in Hollywood, 3rd floor. I’ll be moderating it and panelists will include

• Ignacio Darnaude who is credited in IMDb for the idea and as exec producer of Casi Divas and whose day job is with Sony Pictures Releasing International as EVP International Creative Adverstising where he is responsible for the creation of international print and audiovisual marketing materials of all major Sony Pictures releases. He developed the international campaigns for some of the highest grossing pictures in Sony’s history, including “The Da Vinci Code”, “Spider Man 3” and “Casino Royale”. In addition to his marketing responsibilities, Mr. Darnaude initiated and executive produced two of the highest grossing films in Mexican history: “Ladies’ Night” and “Ninas Mal” (“Charm School”); “Ladies’ Night” was the first film produced in Spanish by the Walt Disney Company.
• Jim McNamara – CineLatino, discussed above as Founder and Chairman of Panamax Films, Chairman of Cine Latino, the leading premium Spanish-language movie channel in the U.S. McNamara was most recently President and Chief Executive Officer of Telemundo Communications Group, Inc., headquartered in Hialeah, Florida.
• Santiago Pozo, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of ARENAS.
  Santiago is considered one of the foremost authorities on entertainment and film marketing to U.S. Latino audiences. Over the past 20 years, Pozo and the ARENAS team have worked on marketing over 300 films, including Transformers, Star Trek, Madagascar, Beverly Hills Chihuahua, Chronicles of Narnia, Apocalypto, Shrek, Empire, Selena, and Like Water for Chocolate.

We will be discussing reaching the elusive Latino market which is by no means monolithic and whose members want to see mainstream films as much as the next guy. But the niche has recognized spending power. The big question is, what films will tap into that cash flow? For that reason we will be watching From Mexico With Love.

Cannes see: Los viajes del viente (Travels of the Wind)

Los viajes del viente, the second film (after La sombra del caminante), of Ciro Guerra is one to see in Cannes. There is no attached international sales agent nor is any distribution deal set as yet. A musician travels a great distance throughout Colombia to return an instrument to his elderly teacher. It is one of two coproductions by Berlin based producer Razor Film which will be screening in the Official Cannes Film Festival sidebar Un Certain Regard.

Los viajes del viente Official site shows its prizes, awards and showings:
Selection for L'Atelier (ACE), Cannes Int'l Film's A Certain Regard
World Cinema Fund, Berlin Int'l Film Festival
Hubert Bals Fund, Rotterdam Int'l Film Festival
Latino Screenwriters Award, Festival de Cine Latino de Los Angeles
Programa IBERMEDIA
Fondo para el Desarrollo Cinematográfico (Fund for developing filmmakers)