With festival and market screenings less than a week away, Latinofusion is ready to depart for the 2008 Festival de Cannes and the Marché du Film.
With a strong focus on new Latin documentary features, Latinofusion’s Cannes lineup highlights Christiane Burkhard’s Tracing Aleida (Trazando Aleida)- which had its world premiere at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), in November and won the Award for Best Mexican Documentary at Guadalajara International Film Fest last March. She had also received a post-production grant from Gucci and the Mexican documentary program Ambulante, for this film. It follows a Mexican woman who reunites with her brother for the first time since their adoption by different families, after their parents’ disappearance during Mexico’s “dirty war” in 1975.
Tracing Aleida’s trailer
Another highlight is Matilde Michanie’s License Number One - an intimate portrait of the legendary Argentinean first professional female boxer Marcela Acuna better known as “la Tigresa”. The documentary that premiered at Buenos Aires International Film Fest (BAFICI) last month- reaches an intensity mostly reserved to the fictional genre as the story unveils how the protagonist, after growing up in one of the poorest regions of inland Argentina, manages to live out her dream: the wining the world boxing championship.
Fresh from its international debut at Tribeca, where it was honored with a special Gala Presentation, Latinofusion is proud to present in Cannes the film A Portrait of Diego (Un retrato de Diego). The documentary -a brilliantly crafted collaboration between Gabriel Figueroa and Diego López- revives 50-year-old footage on the great Mexican muralist Diego Rivera, whose huge frescoes exemplify his vision of the landmark moments in the history of Mexico. (see trailer)
Consolidating its sales and financing focus on hot non-fiction pics, Latinofusion is also representing Stolen (Fraude) the highest-grossing Mexican documentay in history. Directed by Luis Mandoki, the documentary feature claims that a right-wing conspiracy involving then-acting Mexican president Vicente Fox stole victory at Mexico’s disputed 2006 election from leftist candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. One of the most impressive angles of this documentary are the extensive use of amateur videos selected from the more of 30,000 hours sent to the director by Mexican citizens.
Trailer of the film “Stolen”
Other doc pic in Latinofusion Cannes lineup is Born Without (Nacido sin) -an intimate though unsentimental portrayal of armless musician-actor Jose Flores. The film surprises the audience as it dismantles the first hand impression that the protagonist is a disabled man barely hanging on to life. Under the eye of his friend - the late Eva Norvind, Jose emerges as an accomplished man, quite capable of carrying on an active living as a musician and actor; while clearly fulfilled in a loving and satisfying marriage to wife Graciela, who’s pregnant with their seventh child. Completed by Norvind’s daughter Nailea, Born wihtout has won several international prizes including the first Prize at its world premiere in 2007 Mexico City Film Festival (FICO). It was also showcased in Venezia last year.
Trailer of the film “Born without”
Nicolás Prividera’s “M” (also in Latinofusion slate) is not just another Latin American film to take on the subject of the political militancy of the 1970s and its brutal repression. According to Claire Rigby, from the Guardian, the doc “stood out like a lantern, illuminating some of the darkest corners of recent Argentinean history”. The film won, among others, the first Che Guevara award for best Latin American film at 2007 Mar del Plata International Film Fest.
Also at the Marché du Film in Latinofusion’s doc slate is Special Circumstances by Marianne Teleki & Héctor Salgado (Chile/USA). Patricio Guzmán, the legendary Chilean Documentary Filmmaker, dirctor of BATTLE OF CHILE is probably who best defined this moving first-hand documentary dealing with one victim’s reencounter with his torturers:
“Héctor Salgado is one of 35,000 Chileans who were incarcerated and tortured by Pinochet’s dictatorship. After many years of exile in the US he decides to return to Chile with a camera to show the world the face of his perpetrators. A dozen cowardly military officers appear before us incapable of explaining or take responsibility for their acts. This documentary, sincere and direct, gives audiences around the world a lesson in political memory. I ask myself what would have happened if each one of us 35,000 political prisoners would have done the same as Héctor. Surely we would have a much better democracy than the one we have today.”
Trailer of the film “Special Cinrcumstances”
Betting on the prospect of an untapped market for high quality international documentaries in the Latin American circuit, as proved by previous sucessfull experiences such Camila Guzman’s The sugar curtain, Latinofusion has taken Latin American rights of AFI winner Afghan Muscles by Andreas Dalsgaard and Lucio by Spanish directors Aitro Arregui and José Mari Goenaga.
