The 27th Mar Del Plata International Film Festival took place in late November and with the closing ceremony came the much-awaited awards. The short film competition, split in two categories National (Argentine) and Latin American, is a great opportunity to get an early look at young film directors that may play an important part in the region’s cultural future. Here is a review of this year’s winners with directors from Mexico, Argentina, and Brazil.

Víctor Orozco Ramírez – Reality 2.0 – Mexico – Best Latin-American Shortfilm

Reality 2.0 is a gripping short film somewhere between real-life images and a poetic aquarelle painting. The subject of the film, though, is much darker than the colourful and light tones it beams. Reality 2.0 deals with violence in Mexico, or more precisely with the exhibition of violence in Mexico.

Not only is the North American country one of the most violent on the planet, in the last few years the wars waged by drug cartels, policemen and the army have become ever more gruesome and bloody. No longer satisfied by just eliminating opponents, drug cartels have started a morbid competition as to who can send the strongest and most terrifying message to its enemies. Videos of executions broadcast on youtube and news channels, bodies hanging from motorway bridges, and mass decapitations have become the grim reality of many of Mexico’s cities.

Víctor Orozco Ramírez denounces those shocking images and practices that have become banal in his home. More importantly he does so without falling in the trap of showing the violence himself, by veiling it with the artistic effects of a visually stunning film. A worthy winner of the most prestigious prize for short films at the 27th Mar Del Plata International Film Festival, Ramírez in his acceptance speech, said he hopes the recognition of his work will “help, at least a tiny bit the problems my country is facing.”

Trailer: http://vimeo.com/36997740

Pablo Gonzalo Pérez – Ojos – Argentina – Best Argentine Shortfilm

Ojos consists of one continuous shot of, as its name indicates, two eyes. The film starts as if it were a typical romantic flick: on a stormy night, two eyes stare out at the screen declaiming poetry for a long lost love.

Then the lights switch on.

What follows is a surprising and hilarious dialogue between actor and director on a film set. Their surreal argument had the audience laughing their heads off throughout the six minutes the film lasts.

Thankfully when the director, Pablo Gonzalo Pérez, went on stage to get his award he did so accompanied by the main actor. A fact he had to explain himself, as it wouldn’t be obvious for the crowd to recognise Sebastian Edreira’s eyes. Edreira’s acting is impressive in how much suppressed rage he can actually transmit just with his intensity of his eyes. His acting is even more commendable considering that the final version was filmed in just one continuous take (the 19th take, as producer Jorge Gentile insists).

Seizing the opportunity, Pérez gave what sounded a rather desperate cry for a producer to step forward to cover the costs of a full-length film he has ready to shoot. If his project promises to be as funny and entertaining as this one, not taking a look at the project would seem a glaring business opportunity gone begging.

Amir Admoni – Linear – Brazil – Jury’s Prize Latin American Shortfilm

How many people walk past cleaning personnel, construction workers, trash collectors, on the streets or public transport, as if they lived in parallel worlds, cut off from our life and undeserving of the slightest thought? And yet if would they disappear for one day, or just a few hours, we would quickly notice the immense contribution they offer, and how much our society relies on them. Linear is in many ways a tribute to these “invisible” men and women that keep our cities and lives functioning while we seemingly ignore them. A clever animation film detailing a day at work for a road line painter, the Brazilian short film manages to be visually pleasing, at times very funny, and still deliver a social message.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hj4U3_TVtnU

As the 14th international BAFICI film festival gets underway and the city is awash with cinephiles, we thought we’d give you a run down of great Argentine directors so that you can hold your own this week when chatting to the moustache-twiddling, beret-sporting, Deleuze loving (that one’s for the real pros) film enthusiasts.

Far from a comprehensive list, our Top 5 Argentine Directors sets out to tell you five directors you should know about, and should give you plenty to chew on while BAFICI is underway.

Leopoldo Torre Nilsson (1924-78)

The grandfather of Argentine film, Leopoldo Torre Nilsson helped bring prestige to Argentine cinema and was the most important figure in inspiring the younger generation of film-makers who started the new-wave in Argentine cinema at the beginning of the 1960s. According to international filmmaker Roman Polanski, he helped bring Argentine cinema up to international quality without ignoring subjects that were integral to Argentina.

Obsessed with the decline of the bourgeois society in his country, his films were often filled with sexual and societal frustration and peopled with dark characters with shadowy pasts who move in decadent environments. He directed. with humour and finesse.

Born in Buenos Aires, the son of the pioneering Argentine director, Leopoldo Torres Ríos, Leopoldo spent his formative years working under with his father and lost in the books of Jorge Luis Borges, Marcel Proust and James Joyce. His mother was an Argentine of Swedish descent and he cited her compatriot, the director Ingmar Bergman, as one of his greatest influences. He lived young and directed fast, making 30 features in little over 25 years.

His most fruitful collaboration was with his wife, the writer Beatriz Guido. Together, they adapted her novels ‘La mano en la trampa’ and ‘La casa del ángel’ into screenplays that became two of his most successful and critically acclaimed films. When the latter came out, French filmmaker and critic Éric Rohmer called it “the best film to have arrived from South America since the beginnings of cinema.”

No stranger to Argentine literature, Torre Nilsson was a friend of the author Ernesto Sabato and also known for directing screenplays based on the work of other Argentine writers including Roberto Arlt, Adolfo Bioy Casares, Jorge Luis Borges, and gauchesque poet, José Hernández.

For more information find Leopoldo Torre Nilsson on IMDB or visit his website

Leonardo Favio (born 1938) 

Born Fuad Jorge Jury, Leonardo Favio lived through a tough childhood in a small town in the north of Mendoza. An Argentine of Syrian descent, he is a true artistic polymath who built a career out of directing, writing, composing, singing and acting. Much lauded in his home continent, many believe he never got the recognition he deserved on the international scene.

Working under the tutelage of Argentine director Torre Nilsson, he was invited to act in films at the end of the 1950s, and the beginning of his career as a director followed shortly after with the production of his first short film in 1960. Four years later, his debut feature ‘Crónica de un niño solo’ cemented his place at the forefront of Argentine cinema.

The influence of filmmakers like the Spanish born Luis Buñuel and founder of French new-wave cinema François Truffaut was evident, although his personal style and strong aesthetics also shone through. He turned the focus away from a popular fixation with the urban bourgeoisie, towards the tough life at the fringes of society. For this reason he is credited with helping to break the barrier between popular culture and high art.

His films, despite shirking away from the mainstream and embracing the experimental, enjoyed a mass appeal in Argentina. Another of his most acclaimed films, ‘El romance del Aniceta y la Francisca’, is considered by many to be one of Argentina’s best.

An element in his life that cannot be ignored is his vehement support of Peronism. In 1999 he released an exhaustive 340-minute documentary about his political idol: ex-president and controversial figure Juan Domingo Perón.

In 2010, he was appointed Argentina’s Cultural Ambassador by fellow Peronist and current president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.

For more information find Leonardo Favio on IMDB

Fernando ‘Pino’ Solanas (born 1936)

Fernando ‘Pino’ Solanas was born in Buenos Aires province and has made his name as one of the most important Argentine directors and documentary-makers.

Unlike Favio, Solanas has gained a global recognition, winning the Golden Bear at Germany’s Berlinale, the Special Jury prize at the Venice film festival and the Best Director award at Cannes.

Solanas’ work comes inextricably linked with politics. Any discussion on the director must surely go hand-in-hand with the mention of ‘Grupo Cine Liberación’ – a cinematic movement with which he was strongly affiliated. In the 1960s and 70s, the movement offered a reaction to Latin American politics and global cinema, focusing on making films that were socially and politically committed rather than purely entertainment driven. With their militant cinema they tried to demonstrate that Argentina was a society in crisis.

Their trademark was to make films anonymously, a move that encouraged collective creative processes and also protected them from political repression at a time when dictatorships were starting to emerge across the continent. Their most acclaimed film from the period was a four-hour documentary titled ‘La hora de los hornos: Notas y testimonios sobre el neocolonialismo, la violencia y la liberación’. The film became a symbol of activist cinema during the zenith of leftist politics.

For more information find Fernando ‘Pino’ Solanas on IMDB or visit his website

Armando Bó (1914-81)

The inclusion of director Armando Bó in this list might raise a few eyebrows, but his influence and cult following should not be underestimated.

US filmmaker John Waters once said that when he was searching for inspiration he would look to the Argentine director’s films and wish he spoke Spanish. And well, that’s about as apt an introduction as the director could hope for. He described ‘Fuego’ (Bó’s best-known film) as “a huge influence”, admitting “I forgot how much I stole”.

In a time when sexploitation films were taken more seriously and the line between art-house and soft-core was slightly blurrier, Armando Bó was king. This auteur of sorts made 30 films between 1954 and 1980 – none of which were too subtle or nuanced. He hacked his way through plots, played for slapstick laughs and flashed a lot of flesh but the audience loved it and kept coming back for more.

He made 27 films starring the now retired model and actress Isabel Sarli. Sarli was Miss Argentina 1955, the Brigitte Bardot of Latin America and the filmmaker’s real-life lover.

“You inspired us all to a life of cheap exhibitionism, exaggerated sexual desires and a love for all that is trash-ridden in cinema,” Waters once said of Sarli, but it’s a comment that works just fine for Bó too.

For more information find Armando Bó on IMDB 

Juan José Campanella (born 1959)

Probably the most recognisable name on this list for a contemporary audience, Juan José Campanella is a member of the exclusive two-man club of Oscar-winning Argentine directors. He has spent much of his working life in the United States and has directed several English language films as well as a number of North American television series.

Born and raised in Buenos Aires, he began studying engineering at university but famously dropped out with only a year to go to pursue a career in filmmaking.

He is credited with helping to restore pride in the Argentine film industry which has historically suffered from “chronic self-depreciation”. “In Argentina, a Hollywood movie is innocent until proven guilty. An Argentine movie is the other way around. I have to work really hard to break down that barrier,” he told one US publication in an interview.

Having been previously nominated for an Oscar in 2001 for his film ‘El hijo de la novia’ (‘The son of the bride’), Campanella’s talents as a director were finally recognised in 2010 when his film ‘El secreto de sus ojos’ (‘The secret in their eyes’) was awarded the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.

A classy, unpredictable film noir set in 1975 Buenos Aires – it brought the spotlight back on Argentine cinema and helped make him the most bankable homegrown director in Argentine history.

He is currently working on an animated feature called ‘Metegol’ (‘Foosball’) and, the way things are going, it probably won’t be the last time we see him fumbling at his collar nervously at another red carpet event.

For more information find Juan J. Campanella on IMDB

It’s a brisk and rainy day and the Plaza Belgrano R is overcast and lusciously green, the perfect setting for an opening scene. Andrés Di Tella arrives at Bistro Jolie and slides into a seat at one of the outdoor tables, looking out from under his fedora to see if he knows anyone there. He prefers English for the interview, he says, because “otherwise you’ll be able to make me say whatever you want.”

Di Tella, a documentary filmmaker, is the founding director of BAFICI, the Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema, one of the most important film festivals in Latin America. He is known for his feature documentaries, including ‘La televisión y yo’ (2003), ‘El país del diablo’ (2008) and ‘Hachazos’ (2011). Documentary cinema expert Paulo Antonio Paranaguá has placed Di Tella among the fifteen most significant documentary filmmakers in Latin America.

To talk about the beginnings of BAFICI, we go back to late 1998. That was when the cultural secretary of the City of Buenos Aires, Darío Lopérfido, contacted Di Tella to discuss the possibilities for organizing a film festival in the city. Lopérfido and Di Tella had met a few years earlier at the Centro Cultural Rojas, where Di Tella had screened his first documentary film, ‘Montoneros: una historia’.

“In his mind – and in my mind as well – it was very important that I was a filmmaker, because this meant that I would actually be able to ‘produce’ the festival. In fact, at the beginning, I would say that 90% of my tasks were related to organising the festival, as opposed to viewing films or talking with filmmakers. Again, this was very close to filmmaking because I had to start with an idea and then find a way to make it happen.”

Di Tella knew he couldn’t organise a festival all alone, and contacted two other local filmmakers, Esteban Sapir and Eduardo Milewicz, to help. “I think people are often unaware that BAFICI is a film festival created by filmmakers. I think it would have been a very different festival if it had been created by critics or curators. We wanted to create a space for local and independent filmmakers, a place where any of us would be able to show our films, meet filmmakers from other parts of the world and find markets for co-productions. We were also one of the few festivals to invite short film makers to the festival and pay for their expenses. Rosa Martínez Rivero curated the short film section, and she is currently responsible for the general production of the festival.”

The focus of the festival shifted when the next artistic director, Eduardo “Quintín” Antín, took over. “When Quintín took over as the artistic director of the festival, BAFICI became more of a festival for the critics. That was a very smart move because it put the festival on the international critics’ radar. He was also able to do this without shifting focus away from the filmmakers, and that was really important. In fact, Sergio Wolf—the current artistic director—is a filmmaker himself.” Over the years, BAFICI has expanded by leaps and bounds: while the first edition attracted 120,000 spectators in 1999, last year’s selection brought in an astounding 300,000 movie goers. As the quantity of viewers has increased, so has the number of films, venues and new sections like the free outdoor films and this year’s fulldome screenings at the planetarium.

Another important issue at any festival is programming: how do the organizers go about choosing the hundreds of films that will be included? “My priority was making sure that every film chosen for the festival was there for a reason. One of my sole critiques of the current festival is that in my opinion, there are just too many films. We programmed 120 films for the first BAFICI and there are now over 400. I really think it’s a little extreme because part of what is important to me at a film festival, is that a group of people can gather, very intensely, to watch films together for ten days. And it’s hard to watch more than two or three films a day. So let’s say that in ten days, each person sees 30 films, at least some of which are also viewed by others attending the festival. So these people have shared these films, and that’s really an essential part of the festival.” Di Tella acknowledges, however, the excitement of such a myriad program. “It is sort of amazing to be able to choose from among this ocean of films.”

As for the documentary filmmaker himself, how does he decide which films to see? “I read about films, I go to festivals, and I hear rumors about films. Then there are people who post lists, write up films on blogs. And of course, there are filmmakers I follow—for instance, Miguel Gomes, a Portuguese filmmaker who will be here this year to present his new film, Tabu, which was hailed by many as the best film in the Berlin film festival. There is a section of the BAFICI called Careers, which is for established filmmakers. This is an interesting development, because at the beginning, we focused on young filmmakers. This was slightly strategic: we thought it would be easier to get little Sofia Coppola than Francis! Though we got both, in the end. So I would definitely go see the films from the Careers section, because they are always interesting.”

“I also make it a point to see Argentine films. The last ten years or so have truly been a Renaissance for Argentine cinema.” Argentine film production has flourished over the past decade. Before 1994, the country was producing around eight feature-length films per year, now it produces around 100. Young Argentine filmmakers like Pablo Trapero (Carancho, Mundo grúa), Daniel Burman (El nido vacío, El abrazo partido), Juan José Campanella (El secreto de sus ojos, El hijo de la novia) and Santiago Mitre (El estudiante) are now recognised both in Argentina and abroad. Campanella’s last film, in fact, won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film in 2010.

This resurgence in local cinema has not been lost on BAFICI’s organisers, who chose an Argentine film, ‘El último Elvis’ (directed by Armando Bo, the grandson of the mythical Argentine director of the same name) to inaugurate this year’s featival.

Although Di Tella is no longer involved in organising the festival, he still attends almost every day. “As a film buff, I just love the festival. I look forward to those ten days in April all year. I love walking into a theatre and not knowing even what language the film is going to be in, not knowing what it is – a documentary, fiction, or what. That is a real privilege, because normally you see a film because you’ve heard about it or you’ve read about it, or you’ve seen the trailer. What fascinates me about BAFICI is that it always gets me thinking about all that film can be – not just ‘popcorn films’ or certain kinds of art films—French art films, for example. You really get to see some strange films at BAFICI.”

For Di Tella, BAFICI is also the city’s chance to get its fill of avant-garde cinema. “What Buenos Aires is missing is good art movie houses. It hasn’t had them for thirty or forty years. There used to be several cinemas on Av. Corrientes in the 60s—there was the Lorraine, Loire, Losuar, they all started with “Lo” and were owned by the same guy—and they would screen Godard and Bergman and sell out! That was the highest point for cinephiles in Buenos Aires. Now, luckily, we have BAFICI. These are fragile films, so they need to be screened in the best conditions. To see these films in a crummy theater, or on a laptop—it just doesn’t work.”