Alfonso
FICG is the best appreciation, promotion and distribution of Mexican and Ibero-American films
By GTVW Staff
Photos By: Alfonso De Elias
The Guadalajara International Film Festival is a week-long film festival held in Los Angeles at Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood for its fifth year and runs from Thursday, August 27 to Sunday, August 30.The festival is considered the most prestigious film festival in Latin America and among the most important Spanish language film festivals in the world. The festival is the premier showcase for new work from Mexican and international independent filmmakers.
FICG in LA will offer the premiere of other titles that have emerged in the world of cinema throughout the year to great critical acclaim with the best of contemporary Mexican and Latin American cinema. Eugenio Derbez will receive the Tree of Life award in representation of the Derbez dynasty. Oscar winner Eugenio Caballero (Best Art Direction, Pan Labyrinth), Ofelia Medina (Mexican actress), Josep Parera (Entertainment Editor La Opinion) and LPB (Latino Public Broadcasting) will also receive the festival’s Tree of Life Award for their contributions to Mexican, Latino and Ibero-American culture.
13 Feature and documentary films and 12 short films will be showcased in this year’s festival.
Opening Night Gala – August 28, 2015
MESSI, Dir. Álex de la Iglesia (Spain, 2014, L.A. Premiere)
Closing Night Gala – August 30, 2015
Ciudad Delirio, Dir. Chus Gutiérrez (Colombia, 2014, 100 min., L.A. Premiere)
Special Events:
• KIDS GALA: EL JEREMÍAS (JEREMY) Dir. Anwar Safa (Mexico, 2015, US Premiere)
• MAGUEY (LGBT) GALA: MADE IN BANGKOK Dir. Flavio Florencio (México – Alemania, 2015, US Premiere)
• ART, HEALTH & HEALING SPECIAL SCREENING: JUANICAS
Dir. Karina García Casanova (Mexico – Canada, 2015, US Premiere)
and La Teta de Botero, Dir. Humberto Busto, Mexico (short film)
• HUMAN RIGHTS SPECIAL SCREENING: LA PRENDA (The Pawn)
Dir. Jean-Cosme Delaloye (Guatemala – Suiza, 2014, Sneak Preview) in Association with the Mill Valley Film Festival.
• FREE SCREENING: LA ONCE (Tea Time) –Dir. Maite Alberti (Chile, 2014)
Other Feature Films
El PATRÓN, RADIOGRAFÍA DE UN CRIMEN (THE BOSS, ANATOMY OF A CRIME)
Dir. Sebastián Schindel (Argentina, 2014, L.A. Premiere)
HBO Latino presents – HEROES COTIDIANOS – “El cometa”
Dir. Alejandra Sánchez (Mexico, 2014, Sneak Preview)
IXCANUL Dir. Jayro Bustamante (Guatemala – France, 2015, Sneak Preview)
LOREAK (FLOWERS) Dir. Jon Garaño, José Mari Goenaga (Spain, 2014, L.A. Premiere)
POCHA (Manifest Destiny) Dir. Michael Dwyer (USA – Mexico, 2015)
QUE VIVA LA MUSICA (LIVEFOREVER)
Dir. Carlos Moreno (Colombia -Mexico, 2015, L.A Premiere)
Short Films
MEXICAN ANIMATED SHORTS SHOWCASE & PANEL (in chronological order)
Como preparar un sandwich (How to Prepare a Sandwich) Dir. Rigo Mora
Hasta Los Huesos (Down to the Bones) Dir. René Castillo
Jacinta Dir. Karla Castañeda
Jaulas (Cages) Dir. Juan José Medina
Prita Noire (Black Doll) Dir. Sofía Carrillo
La Casa Triste (The Sad House) Dir. Sofia Carrillo
La Noria (The Waterwheel) Dir. Karla Castaneda
Lluvia en los Ojos (Rain in the Eyes) Dir. Rita Basulto
Zimbo (Zimbo) Dir. Rita Basulto & Juan Jose Medina
Shorts Before Features
ELLA (Her) Dir. Ximena Urrutia (Mexico, 2014, 23 min)
MESTIZO, Dir. Talon Gonzalez (USA, 2014, 10 min.)
LA TETA DE BOTERO, Dir. Humberto Busto (Mexico, 2015, 18 min., US Premiere)
The screening of the selected work-in-progress films will be for industry accredited to the festival. These screenings are not open to the general public or member of the press.
Guadalajara Construye in Los Angeles 2
• Angelica, Dir. Marisol Gómez-Mouakad, Puerto Rico/USA
• Dementia (Demencia), Dir. Jose Luís Valenzuela, Mexico/USA
• Lupe under the Sun (Lupe bajo el sol), Dir. Rodrigo Reyes, Mexico/USA
• No Dresscode Required (Etiqueta no rigurosa), Dir. Cristina Herrera Borquez, Mexico/USA
• Looking at the Stars (Olhando pras estrelas), Dir. Alexandre Peralta, Nicaragua/Brazil/USA
• Omar & Gloria (Omar y Gloria), Dir. Jimmy Cohen, Mexico/Canada
A hurt childhood in “The boy”
By GTVW Staff
Photos Agency
Directed by Craig William Macneill and written by Craig William Macneill and Clay McLeod Chapman, this film based on the novel Miss Corpus by Clay McLeod Chapman begins with a nine-year-old Ted Henley (Jared Breeze) and his father John (David Morse) are the proprietors of The Mtn. Vista Motel, a crumbling resort buried in the mountains of the American West. This boy is a chilling, intimate portrait of a 9-year-old sociopath’s growing fascination with death.
During 105 min you will have suspense, drama, strong performances. Morse as alcoholic makes the father’s emotional desolation and someone who doesn’t care his child. Definitely the mystery in each scene will surprise you when this boy is incapable of understanding how to form real bonds with new acquaintances and reflects certain violence close to death in which boy’s imagination is the best part of the film.
Fantastic Four deal with problems on a more cosmic scale
By Jenny Alvarez
Photos Agency
From director Josh Trank and screenplay of Jeremy Slater and Simon Kinberg & Josh Trank, based on the Marvel Comic Book by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby FANTASTIC FOUR, a contemporary re-imagining of Marvel’s original and longest-running superhero team, centers on four young outsiders who teleport to an alternate and dangerous universe, which alters their physical form in shocking ways. Their lives irrevocably upended, the team must learn to harness their daunting new abilities and work together to save Earth from a former friend turned enemy.
Although this cast is full of young lead actors, the most interest part of this film was the way how was developed each character evolution with great brotherhood for some characters especially when they were younger. I really enjoyed a tale of superhero beginnings with a very long predictable opening sequence. As boys growing up on Long Island, Reed and Ben are good buddies and the way the support each other. This film is very familiar, full of good visual effects and reasonably and easily watchable in the world of comic-book movies.
The Diary of a Teenage Girl is a fascinating film you can see it again and again
By Jenny Alvarez
Photos Agency
Like most teenage girls, Minnie Goetze (Bel Powley) is longing for love, acceptance and a sense of purpose in the world. Minnie begins a complex love affair with her mother’s (Kristen Wiig) boyfriend, “the handsomest man in the world,” Monroe Rutherford (Alexander Skarsgård). What follows is a sharp, funny and provocative account of one girl’s sexual and artistic awakening, without judgment.
The Diary of a Teenage Girl is based on Phoebe Gloeckner’s novel of the same name, hailed by Salon as “one of the most brutally honest, shocking, tender and beautiful portrayals of growing up female in America.” Although is related to a confused young woman, during 1 hr. 42 min. the spectator will enjoy many magnificent scenes from the sunshine of ’70s San Francisco. Minnie is the perfect combination of immaturity and youth full of emotions, sex and drugs so her womanhood might be inspirational or educational and parents might have a big responsibility to show the consequences of bad behavior of their children.
It is a complex film which reflects creativity of some animated images of Aline Kominsky-Crumb’s comics. This teenage girl is the only victim of a delusional mindset, little attention to her physical and psychological needs. Definitely is a film you can have a good learning and somehow create awareness that our teenagers should have the right path in life to have a happy life without having to face the misfortune that may cause the misuse of drugs or unbridled sexual life.
A romantic melodrama in a broken world for “Phoenix”
By GTVW Staff
Photos Agency
From acclaimed director Christian Petzold (BARBARA, JERICHOW). Nelly (Nina Hoss), a German-Jewish ex-nightclub singer, has survived a concentration camp, but with her face disfigured by a bullet wound. After reconstructive surgery, Nelly emerges with a new face, one similar but different enough that her former husband, Johnny (Ronald Zehrfeld), Johnny (Ronald Zehrfeld, BARBARA), doesn’t recognize her. Rather than reveal herself, Nelly walks into a dangerous game of duplicity and disguise as she tries to figure out if the man she loves may have been the one who betrayed her to the Nazis.
During 1 hr. 38 min. this great film with a radiant cast so the relationship between the two anchors and the beautiful photography for each scene, and wardrobe for each character makes this production with great quality. The existence of a once-lively woman, the repression, cruelty, betrayal and passion for love will surprise you with a magnificent end.
Memories of silence in “The look of Silence”
By GTVW Staff
Photos Agency
Executive produced by award-winning filmmakers Werner Herzog and Errol Morris, The look of Silence Is about director Joshua Oppenheimer’s footage of perpetrators of the 1965 Indonesian genocide. A family that survives the genocide in Indonesia confronts the men who killed one of their brothers.This film focuses on where the murderers remain in power: he confronts the men who killed his brother and, while testing their eyesight, asks them to accept responsibility for their actions. Definitely in 1h 43m, the voice of time dull of devastating events such as death threats, betrayal, war atrocities, and for those victims of Indonesia’s communist purge and more will amaze you. Despite the U.S. government played an important role in the 1965/66 mass killing in Indonesia takes a sensitive subject of the history. This unprecedented film initiates and bears witness to the collapse of fifty years of silence. Silence, in other words, is the sound of reconciliation with different ideologies that only emphasize the abyss.
“Samba” reflects the goodwill of French films style
Photo courtesy
From Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano, the acclaimed writing and directing duo of The Intouchables, are back with “Samba.” For ten years, Senegalese immigrant Samba (Sy) has stayed under the government radar, taking menial kitchen jobs in the hope of becoming a professional chef. Suddenly, as his longtime ambitions for a better life seem just within reach, immigration authorities hit Samba with an order to leave France immediately. Stubbornly holding onto his dream, Samba pins his hopes for a reprieve on a local immigration advocacy center and Alice (Gainsbourg), an emotionally vulnerable volunteer with little experience but plenty of heart. He finds a second home at the center with Alice and her colleagues, including brusque law student Manu (Izïa Higelin), do-gooder Marcelle (Hélène Vincent) and naïve Maggy (Jacqueline Jehanneuf), as they search for a way for him to stay in France.
During 1 hr. 58 min Olivier Nakache and Éric Toledano reflect a new comic drama style. Both are versatile and irresistible. This film is, in the context of French society, quite embarrassing. The French are often loved for being articulate and sophisticated. But this film reveals that there is still profound resistance to engage with the issues of representation of French society because of resistances to debate about immigration, multiculturalism, and race. Anxiety, confusion, and discomfort are elements seen in this film in which ending will surprise you.
Love not always is so aboveboard as in Paper Towns
By Alfonso De Elias
Photos Agency
Adapted from the bestselling novel by author John Green (“The Fault in Our Stars”) and director Jake Schreier, Paper Towns is a coming-of-age story centering on Quentin and his enigmatic neighbor Margo, who loved mysteries so much she became one. After taking him on an all-night adventure through their hometown, Margo suddenly disappears–leaving behind cryptic clues for Quentin to decipher. Here is when true love will be as profound as friendship.
Although this great film involves a particular social group of high school friends and this exploration of the kind of relationship that can’t help but teach us a little bit about ourselves and how some young lovers react after loving an idea of a person. With a great cast Nat Wolff, Cara Delevingne, Halston Sage, Austin Abrams, Justice Smith, Jaz Sinclair, thus film has awesome things should happen and adventures should be started.
Your behavior might be wilder than ever in Wild Tales
Review by Alfonso De Elias
Photos Agency
From Director Damián Szifron and a great cast Ricardo Darín, Oscar Martínez, Leonardo Sbaraglia, Érica Rivas, Rita Cortese, Julieta Zylberberg, and Darío Grandinetti that makes each character a different world around you. A waitress adds a special ingredient to an arrogant loan shark’s meal in one of several tales dealing with extremes of human behavior. With great energy in some stories more than others, stress and depression for many people could result in a well and interesting dark comedy with certain tragedy. It was co-produced by Agustín Almodóvar and Pedro Almodóvar. The film’s musical score was composed by Gustavo Santaolalla so now debuts on Blu-ray, DVD and digital HD in 122 minutes in Spanish language with English subtitles. All these elements can be enjoyed in each scene with deception and revenge make it true artistic vision.
