Latin American Film Festival
Boardman's Art Theatre, April 4-10, 2008
126 W. Church St., downtown Champaign, IL
FilMS
Schedule
Boardman’s Art Theatre
Press Release
SponsorS
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Films
The Aura (Argentina)
Director Fabián Bielinsky, 134 min., 2005
Fabián Bielinsky’s second feature, the follow-up to 2000’s international smash Nine Queens, sadly became his last when the writer/director died of a heart attack in June. The mature, complex atmosphere he creates with The Aura can only suggest what cinematic paths his genius might have led him down.
The film is a suspenseful slice of noir centered on a reticent, epileptic taxidermist (top Argentine actor Ricardo Darín) who believes his superior intellect can help him pull off the perfect crime. Espinosa is a master taxidermist and an epileptic who often speculates about committing the perfect crime.
When his friend invites him on an ill-fated hunting trip, the opportunity to put his idle thoughts into action becomes a tantalizing reality. But Espinosa's keen observational skills and meticulous planning may not be enough to navigate through the nefarious world he uncovers in the dark woods and backroads of southern Argentina.
Nominated for Grand Prize, 2006 Sundance Festival
Best Film 2005, Havana Film Festival
Web site (trailer included): http://www.uol.com.ar/buenavista/elaura/indexf.htm
Film times: April 5 at 5 pm, April 8 at 8:15 pm, April 10 at 6 pm
The Violin (Mexico)
Director Francisco Vargas, 98 min., 2006
Don Plutarco, his son Genaro, and his grandson Lucio live a double life: musicians and humble farmers, they also support the campesina peasant guerilla movement’s armed efforts against the oppressive government.
When the military seizes the village, the rebels flee to the sierra hills, forced to leave behind their stock of ammunition. While the guerillas organize a counter-attack, old Plutarco executes his own plan. He plays up his appearance as a harmless violin player, and makes it back into the military-occupied village to recuperate the ammunition hidden in his cornfield.
His violin playing charms the army captain, who orders Plutarco to come back daily. Plutarco has music, but he needs ammunition. The captain wants to stifle the rebellion, but he loves music. Arms and music play cat-and mouse and result in painful betrayal.
Cannes 2006, Best Actor
Huelva Latin American Film Festival 2006, Best Film and Best Cinematography
Web site (trailer included): http://www.filmmovement.com/filmcatalog/index.asp?MerchandiseID=106&gclid=CNLfs6rB9pECFQt8PAodnnKpxA&
Film times: April 4 at 7:30 pm, April 6 at 8:50 pm, April 9 at 6:30 pm
Madeinusa (Peru)
Director Claudia Llosa, 100 min., 2006
Madeinusa is a girl aged 14 with a sweet Indian face who lives in an isolated village in the Cordillera Blanca Mountain range of Peru.
This strange place is characterized by its religious fervor. From Good Friday at three o'clock in the afternoon (the time of day when Christ died on the cross) to Easter Sunday, the whole village can do whatever it feels like. During the two holy days sin does not exist: God is dead and can't see what is happening. Everything is accepted and allowed, without remorse.
Year after year, Madeinusa and her sister Chale, and her father Don Cayo, the Mayor and local big shot, maintain this tradition without questioning it. However, everything changes with the arrival in the village of Salvador, a young geologist from Lima, who will unknowingly change the destiny of the girl.
Havana Film Festival, 2006 Winner of Best Original Script
Cartagena Film Festival 2007, Best Actress
Web site (trailer included): http://www.filmmovement.com/filmcatalog/index.asp?MerchandiseID=94
Film times: April 5 at 10:10 pm, April 7 at 8:50 pm, April 8 at 6 pm
Alice’s House (Brazil)
Director Chico Teixeira, 92 min., 2007
Alice is in her forties and works as a manicurist in a beauty salon. She lives in a neighborhood in the outskirts of Sao Paulo, sharing an apartment with her mother, Dona Jacira, her husband, Lindomar, a taxi-driver, and their three sons, Lucas, Edinho, and Junior.
After 20 years of marriage, neither Lindomar nor Alice expects much in the way of reconciliation. The taxi-driver saves his sexual impulses for the affairs that he maintains, with a preference for teenage girls. Alice pretends not to acknowledge her husband's infidelities.
Enter Nilson, Alice’s old boyfriend from adolescence. Alice sees in him the possibility to realize her romantic dreams, changing the course of her love life and finances. Once more she creates illusions that will lead her to nothing.
Best Actress, 2007 Miami International Film Festival
Best Film-Grand Prix/Le Regard D’Or-21st Fribourg International Film Festival
Web site (trailer included): http://www.figafilms.com/alice.html
Film times: April 5 at 8 pm, April 7 at 6:30 pm, April 1- at 8:55 pm
Cocalero (Bolivia, Argentina)
Director Alejandro Landes, 95 min., 2007
An essential if incomplete look at the triumphant grassroots campaign of Bolivian president Evo Morales, "Cocalero" reps a fine debut for director Alejandro Landes.
The documentary brings a trans-Latin American perspective to understanding Morales' efforts to unify Bolivia's coca farmers, miners' unions and indigenous poor for an unprecedented national coalition.
Landes' agile camera tracks Morales' campaign from its small-budget start through Bolivia's poor highlands, and observes this former coca farmer's wily ability to connect with deep-pocket donors. A side story with local congressional candidate Leonilda Zurita suggests how Morales' MAS party has empowered Bolivia's marginalized minority.
Sundance Festival 2007, Nominated Grand Jury Prize
Web site (trailer included): http://www.cocalerofilm.com/
Film times: April 4 at 9:45 pm, April 6 at 6:30 pm, April 9 at 8:45 pm
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Schedule (print)
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Press Release (print)
Latin American Film Festival to feature award-winning movies
SECOND ANNUAL LATIN AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL
April 4-10, 2008
Boardman’s Art Theatre, Champaign
CONTACT: Melissa Mitchell, News Editor (217) 333-5491; melissa@uiuc.edu
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Some of the best new films from Latin America will be screened locally during the second annual Latin American Film Festival April 4-10.
The festival is organized by the University of Ilinois’ Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies with collaboration and support from Boardman’s Art Theater. All screenings will take place at the theater, 126 W. Church St., Champaign. Tickets, priced at the theater’s standard rates, will be available for sale at the box office in advance of each showing.
Films featured this year are “The Violin,” a 2006 Mexican film directed by Francisco Vargas about humble farmer-musicians who surreptitiously support a homegrown guerilla movement: “Cocalero,” a 2007 documentary on the grassroots campaign of Bolivian president Evo Morales that debuts the directorial talent of Alejandro Landes; “The Aura,” a 2005 thriller directed by the late Argentine filmmaker Fabian Bielinsky; “Alice’s House,” a 2007 film about domestic drama by Brazilian director Chico Teixeira; and “Madeinusa,” Peruvian director Claudia Llosa’s depiction of how life in a remote mountain suddenly changes with the arrival of an outsider.
“All of the films have been awarded prestigious national and international prizes and have never been shown locally,” said festival coordinator Angelina Cotler, the U. of I. center’s associate director.
Cotler said the festival was designed to appeal not only to university students, faculty and staff members but to the community as well – “with the goal of strengthening and disseminating knowledge of the cultural diversity and creativity of the Latin American region.”
“Given the increased importance of the region and the Spanish and Portuguese languages for U.S. society and culture, a film festival of this nature will benefit the community and the university by offering representations and portraits of different cultural, political and social phenomena in Latin America,” Cotler said.
Films will be screened throughout the week on the following rotation:
April 4: “The Violin,” 7:30 .m.; “Cocalero,” 9:45 p.m.
April 5: “The Aura,” 5 p.m.; “Alice’s House,” 8 p.m.; “Madeinusa,” 10:10 p.m.
April 6: “Cocalero,” 6:30 p.m.; “The Violin,” 8:50 p.m.
April 7: “Alice’s House,” 6:30 p.m.; “Madeinusa,” 8:50 p.m.
April 8, “Madeinusa,” 6 p.m.; “The Aura,” 8:15 p.m.
April 9, “The Violin,” 6:30 p.m., “Cocalero,” 8:45 p.m.
April 10: “The Aura,” 6 p.m.; “Alice’s House, 8:55 p.m.
More information about the festival, including a printable schedule and movie trailers, is available online at http://www.clacs.uiuc.edu/.
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Sponsors
Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies
Spanish, Italian & Portuguese
Unit for Cinema Studies
College of Liberal Arts
Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities (IPHR)
Anthropology
Journalism
Sociology
International Program Studies
Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory
Latino/ Latino Studies
Center for Global Studies
Lemann Exchange Fund
Parkland College
Jon’s Pipe Shop