The renowned organization Film Society of Lincoln Center has released the complete schedule for its second annual showcase program called "Neighboring Scenes, a showcase of contemporary Latin American cinema," starting January 26 until January 31.
This second installment of the festival will expose impressive recent productions from across the region, featuring movies from Dominican Republic, Peru, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina and Chile. "Neighboring Scenes" celebrates the expanding range of contemporary Latin American filmmaking in its second edition.
"This year, we are pleased to highlight several emerging filmmakers, with many fantastic debut and second films in a range of styles—from political thriller and bleak comedy to observational documentary," said Film Society of Lincoln Center Programmer at Large Rachael Rakes. "Furthermore, half of the works on this year’s slate are directed or co-directed by women, who have been critically underrepresented in the region previously."
The festival will open with Mexican film “Maquinaria Panamericana” from Joaquín del Paso and will close with Marília Rocha's production “A Cidadde onde envelheco” from Brazil.
Check out the schedule and synopsis of all the movies below.
FILMS & DESCRIPTIONS
Opening Night, Thursday, January 26, 7:00pm (Q&A with Joaquín del Paso)
Panamerican Machinery / Maquinaria Panamericana
Joaquín del Paso, Mexico, 2016, 86m
Spanish with English subtitles
New York Premiere
Family businesses are hard to come by these days—and so are manufacturing plants. When the head of Panamerican Machinery dies on a Friday morning, his employees discover how rare their situation is: Don Alejandro had been paying them out of his own pocket, and that any severance or retirement funds are nonexistent. Rather than face the world that’s made them obsolete, the workers decide to lock themselves inside the plant until they reach a decision about how to proceed. Over the course of the weekend, everyone’s behavior grows increasingly strange. Shot on expired film stock, the film deftly moves between socioeconomic commentary and deadpan slapstick.
Closing Night, Tuesday, January 31, 7:30pm (Q&A with Lukas Rinner)
A Decent Woman / Los decentes
Lukas Rinner, Austria/South Korea/Argentina, 2016, 100m
Spanish with English subtitles
U.S. Premiere
In this exquisitely staged deadpan comedy in the vein of Jacques Tatí’s Mon oncle, a maid sent to work inside a gated community slowly becomes radicalized by a nudist resort next door. Belén, the wide-eyed and placid domestic, obediently tends to Diana, an overbearing socialite, and her sporty, temperamental adult son (hilariously referred to throughout only as “Juanchí”), and sparks a romance with a kind security guard. However, her curiosity leads her to visit the nudists, and she wholeheartedly embraces new understandings of sexuality and society. When the McMansion dwellers conspire to shut down their colony, violence erupts.
Sunday, January 29, 7:00pm (Q&A with Laura Huertas Millán)
Black Sun / Sol negro
Laura Huertas Millán, France/Colombia, 2016, 43m
Spanish with English subtitles
North American Premiere
Opera singers and addicts in recovery are certainly prone to melodramatic depictions in film, but Laura Huertas Millán’s austere portrait of her aunt Antonia—who happens to be both opera singer and addict—never crosses into the realms of exploitation. First glimpsed giving a young singer lessons on breathing and performance, the middle-aged Antonia is shown living at a rehab center, talking about her suicide attempt and relationship with her estranged son. Through the prism of her Facebook statuses, aria performances, and recollections of the director’s mother, we slowly gain an understanding of a woman still learning to understand herself.
Vacio(a) / Empty
Carmen Amelia Rojas Gamarra, Peru, 2016, 6m
Spanish with English subtitles
A tongue-and-cheek story of heartbreak told entirely through images from an IKEA catalogue.
The Grey House and the Green Mountains / A casa cinza e as montanhas verdes
Deborah Viegas, Brazil, 15m
Portuguese with English subtitles
The life of a stretch of highway is captured through a dreamlike single shot and hazy pastels.
Saturday, January 28, 3:00pm
Dark Animal / Oscuro animal
Felipe Guerrero, Colombia, 2016, 107m
Spanish with English subtitles
New York Premiere
A powerful allegory about the violence of Colombia’s 50-plus-year civil war, Felipe Guerrero’s harrowing film literally denies its protagonists a voice. Three women—one whose village was destroyed by troops, one who stabs her paramilitary boyfriend to death and flees, and a soldier who refuses to follow her inhumane orders to bury the slaughtered villagers—find new ways to survive in Bogotá after being displaced by their respective traumas. Guerrero’s trenchant symbolism explores gendered violence and the barbarism of humanity. Winner of the Spanish Cooperation Award at the San Sebastian International Film Festival.
Friday, January 27, 7:00pm (Q&A with Fernando Guzzoni)
Jesús
Fernando Guzzoni, Chile, 2016, 82m
Spanish with English subtitles
U.S. Premiere
Jesús, an arrogant, third-rate Justin Bieber-type, has essentially dropped out of high school and lives in an apartment with his fellow boy band mates. One night, he and his bros get really drunk and beat another teen so badly that he falls into a coma and dies. With the police eager to find the culprit or culprits, Jesús’s friends immediately turn on him, which leaves only his widowed father to help. Although their relationship has been strained, his dad goes to extremes to protect him. Exquisitely shot, and moodily lit, this tense thriller will keep you guessing about the outcome until the final frame.
Thursday, January 26, 9:15pm; Monday, January 30, 6:30pm
El Limonero Real
Gustavo Fontán, Argentina, 2016, 72m
Spanish with English subtitles
North American Premiere
Based on the novel by Argentine poet Juan José Saer, Gustavo Fontán’s beautiful film observes, over the course of a single day, three interrelated families who live around the Parana River. Wenceslao (Germán de Silva of Las acacias and Wild Tales) blames himself for his son’s death six years prior, but attempts to get his still-grieving wife to attend her sister’s New Year’s Eve party; she refuses, even after her nieces and other sisters join in the effort. Throughout, DP Diego Poleri captures the golden-hued radiance of the river during the day as spellbindingly as he does the charcoal-tinted night.
Saturday, January 28, 9:00pm
The Long Night of Francisco Sanctis / La larga noche de Francisco Sanctis
Andrea Testa & Francisco Márquez, Argentina, 2016, 78m Spanish with English subtitles Adapted from Humberto Costantini’s novel, this view of Argentina’s Dirty War is told from the perspective of the country’s silent majority. When an old girlfriend contacts him about republishing a communist-themed poem he wrote years earlier, Francisco is more preoccupied with whether or not he will receive a promotion at work. But when they meet, she asks him to notify two of her friends that the junta is looking for them. Over the course of one night, Francisco travels through the city, wrestling with his conscience—but he might or might not be alone. The Long Night of Francisco Sanctis is a timely investigation of what it means to be silent under a despotic government.
Saturday, January 28, 5:15pm
Site of Sites / El Sitio de los Sitios
Natalia Cabral & Oriol Estrada, Dominican Republic, 61min
Spanish with English subtitles
North American Premiere
Humans have significantly altered the natural world in a way that no other species has. In Natalia Cabral and Oriol Estrada’s film, an award-winner at the 2016 IDFA Documentary Festival in Amsterdam, we witness one of the more obvious modes of this change: the creation of an artificial beach on a Caribbean resort. Alternating between semi-direct addresses to the camera and more intimate fly-on-the-wall moments, the film shows us the wealthy denizens of the resort—a beach bum actress, golfers—and the laborers who are reshaping the land for their benefit. Subtly teasing out the intersection of race, class, and environment, this documentary is not to be missed.
Sunday, January 29, 5:15pm
Surire
Bettina Perut & Ivan Osnovikoff, Chile, 2015, 80m
Spanish with English subtitles
New York Premiere
Filmmaking team Bettina Perut and Ivan Osnovikoff present to the viewer the otherworldly landscape of the Salar de Surire, a salt flat located 4,300 meters above sea level in the Chilean Andes. Along with views of the unique geology (hot springs, now being tapped for a geothermal energy project) and wildlife (which include pink flamingoes), the film presents plenty of dryly comic moments shared by the people who live in this seemingly inhospitable land, who are descended from the Aymara tribe. Through gorgeously shot long takes, this extreme terrain slowly reveals itself to symbolize contrast—between humanity’s future and its past.
Sunday, January 29, 3:00pm; Monday, January 30, 8:00pm
Terra em Transe
Glauber Rocha, Brazil, 1967, 16mm, 111m
Portuguese with English subtitles
Special 50th anniversary screening
A pivotal film from one of the key figures of Brazil’s Cinema Novo movement, Terra em Transe is an urgent and poetic account of political corruption, the systems that shape it, and the challenges of active citizenship in times of political upheaval. Made three years after the right-wing coup d’etat in Brazil, the film is set in the fictional country of El Dorado, in which a young intellectual attempts to chart a political path. First joining the extreme right, and then a party of the left, he ultimately finds dispiriting power dynamics in each. Told through a mesmeric style, and mixing surrealist and realist aesthetics, Terra em Transe is a resonant work of political cinema that pushes its audience to examine its own role in civil society.
Saturday, January 28, 7:00pm (Q&A with Lina Rodriguez)
This Time Tomorrow / Mañana a esta hora
Lina Rodriguez, Colombia/Canada, 2016, 85m
Spanish with English subtitles
U.S. Premiere
Like most girls her age, 17-year-old Adelaida alternates between intentionally pushing her parents’ buttons and enjoying their affection (such as having mom bring her stuff when she’s too lazy to get out of bed). However, Adelaida’s rebellions over boys and curfews cease to matter after tragedy strikes her family. Without ever getting bogged down in tears or outbursts about grief, This Time Tomorrow deftly explores teenage girlhood and marriage through astutely constructed but low-key situations. Through the film’s disjointed narrative structure, director Lina Rodriguez brilliantly echoes her protagonist’s volatile, capricious emotional state.
Friday, January 27, 9:15pm
La última tierra
Pablo Lamar, Paraguay/Chile/Netherlands/Qatar, 2016, 77m
Spanish with English subtitles
North American Premiere
Stripping narrative down to its bare bones, Pablo Lamar’s debut feature is an elegant entry in the slow cinema canon. After an elderly man helps an ailing woman take her last bite of food, he undertakes preparations for a cremation ritual, which is then interspersed with shots of flowing water and fire. Meticulously composed and free of dialogue, the film conveys mourning and grief through rhythm and time, each carefully chosen element imbued with symbolism. The journey Lamar offers is exquisitely rendered, and one well worth taking.
Sunday, January 29, 8:45pm
Where I Grow Old / A cidade onde envelheco
Marília Rocha, Brazil, 2016, 80m
Portuguese with English subtitles
New York Premiere
Using nonprofessional actors, this fiction film from established documentarian Marília Rocha explores notions of nationhood and belonging. At the request of her mother, Portuguese expat Francisca welcomes old friend Teresa into her Belo Horizonte apartment. Both are nearly thirty, and find themselves at a crossroads, one created as much by the Portuguese financial crisis as their individual personalities. While Teresa eagerly embraces the rhythms and openness of Brazilian life, Francisca still desires to return to Portugal. Through largely improvised dialogue, Rocha’s beautifully shot film deftly explores their relationships to themselves and their surroundings.
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