This week, don’t miss DOC NYC, the largest documentary film festival in the United States, which in its 15th edition will showcase a number of Latinx and Latin American films—co-presented by Cinema Tropical—spanning from Colombia to Brazil to the U.S., playing in theaters across New York City and available to stream online to audiences across the country!
Some of this year’s highlights include the Colombian documentary Soul of the Desert by Mónica Taboada-Tapia, the Chilean film The Fabulous Gold Harvesting Machine by Alfredo Pourailly De La Plaza, and the Brazilian documentary The Falling Sky by Eryk Rocha and Gabriela Carneiro da Cunha. Don’t miss this great selection of international non-fiction films, many of them with the filmmakers in person.
Also, be sure to check out one of Netflix’s most anticipated Latin American releases: the highly awaited adaptation of Juan Rulfo’s landmark novel Pedro Páramo, marking the directorial debut of Oscar-winning cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto.
‘Shorts: We Are Family’ SIMI (Maria de Jesus Mayo, USA/Mexico, 2024, 22 min. In Spanish with English subtitles) WHEN THERE ARE NO WORDS (Gabriella Canal, USA/Colombia, 2024, 23 min. In Spanish with English subtitles) Saturday, November 16 11:30am at Regal Union Square 15 in New York City
‘Shorts: A Whole New World’
THE AFRO MEXPATS (Ebony Marie Bailey, USA/Mexico, 2024, 17 min. In Spanish with English subtitles) THE RETURN (El Regreso, Samantha Ramirez-Herrera, Mexico,/USA, 2024, 23 min. In Spanish with English subtitles) PRIMERO, SUENÑO (Andrés Lira, USA, 2023, 17 min. In Spanish with English subtitles) Saturday, November 16, 12pm at Regal Union Square 12 in New York City
‘Shorts: I Feel Love’ CHIMERA (Kryzz Gautier, USA, 2024, 18 min. In English) FROG JUMPING (Ian Linn, USA, 2024, 9 min. In English) LA CASCADA (Pablo Delgado, Mexico, 2024, 22 min. In Spanish with English subtitles) Thursday, November 14, 5:30pm at Regal Union Square 12 in New York City
(Marco Calvani, USA/Brazil, 2024, 101 min. In English and Portuguese with English subtitles)
Heartbroken and adrift, undocumented Brazilian immigrant Lourenço searches for purpose in the queer mecca of Provincetown. As the summer season comes to a fade, he sparks an intense and unexpected romance with Maurice. Together, the two reconcile the pasts they’ve left behind and their uncertain futures.
(Rodrigo Prieto, Mexico, 2024, 132 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Based on Juan Rulfo’s masterpiece novel, considered one of the most important books in the history of Mexico and Latin America, the novel narrates the story of Juan Preciado, who upon his mother’s death, goes to the remote village where he was born in search of his father, Pedro Páramo. He encounters a ghost town, where he meets a series of mysterious people and learns about his dead father’s ruthless quest for wealth and power. The past makes itself present as we learn the truth behind Pedro Páramo’s own search for the love he once knew as a child. The line between the dead and the living and the past and the present is constantly blurred in this surreal tale of desire, hope, regret and resentment.
Streaming Release:
LA PALOMA: THE MELODY OF LONGING
(Sigrid Faltin, Cuba/USA, 2008, 52 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
This documentary follows the multiple lifes lived by “La Paloma”, born in the 1860s as a Cuban Habanera, composed by the Basque Sebastian Iradier, montaging glimpses of the many facets of “La Paloma” in Spain, Cuba, Mexico, Hawaii, Germany, Romania, Zanzibar. It also serves as an hommage to hand-crafted music, which is endangered in these days of MP3 and digitalized sounds: the Habaneras from Cuba, the slack key guitar sound in Hawaii, the Arabian Taraab music in Zanzibar.
(Mudos testigos, Jerónimo Atehortúa and Luis Ospina, Mexico, 2023, 79 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
This documentary tells the impossible love story between Efraín and Alicia during Colombia’s first half of the 20th century. Based on remnants of the few Colombian silent films from 1922-1937 that have withstood the test of time, and taking several key Colombian novels as a reference, this new imaginary story pays homage to this little-known found cinema. What begins as a melodrama, in which Efraín falls in love with Alicia, engaged to Uribe, a powerful and vengeful industrialist, turns into a journey into the heart of the jungle, in which Efraín will witness the humiliating living conditions of the peasants of southern Colombia and the genesis of an armed rebellion. Silent Witnesses is the posthumous work from one of the most prolific filmmakers in the Latin American cinematic and documentary tradition, Luis Ospina.
(El hombre que amaba los platos voladores, Diego Lerman, Argentina, 2024, 107 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Argentina, 1986. Journalist José de Zer and his cameraman travel to Córdoba after an odd proposal. At a burnt patch in the hills, they depict an alleged alien presence for their news show through increasingly bizarre staged scenes.
VOCES On PBS Presents MAMBO LEGENDS: THE MUSIC NEVER ENDS
(Mari Keiko, USA, 2024, 90 min. In English and Spanish with English subtitles)
The Mambo Legends Orchestra is committed to keeping the sounds of the great Afro-Cuban band leaders Machito, Tito Puente, and Tito Rodriguez alive for future generations. Comprised of several former members of these legendary orchestras, Mambo Legends provide a link to the golden era of music in New York in the early 1940s, when the Machito Orchestra fused the big-band sound of popular music with the rhythms of Africa, Cuba, and Puerto Rico to create an enduring musical genre beloved around the world.
(Alonso Ruizpalacios, Mexico/USA, 2024, 139 min. In Spanish and English with English subtitles)
It’s the lunch rush at The Grill in Manhattan, and money has gone missing from the till. All the undocumented cooks are being investigated, and Pedro (Raúl Briones) is the prime suspect. He’s a dreamer and a troublemaker, and in love with Julia (Rooney Mara), an American waitress who cannot commit to a relationship. Rashid, The Grill ́s owner, has promised to help Pedro with his papers so he can “become legal.” But a shocking revelation about Julia compels Pedro to spiral into an act that will stop the production line of one of the city’s busiest kitchens once and for all. La Cocina is a tragic and comic tribute to the invisible people who keep our restaurants running and our stomachs full, whilst chasing a perhaps unreachable version of the American dream.
(Llévame en tus brazos, Julio Brancho, Mexico, 1954, 91 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Class conflicts and erotic torments come to a head in Julio Bracho’s formally daring masterpiece, one of the most important melodramas of the decade. Take Me in Your Armsfollows a fisherman’s daughter (the incomparable Ninón Sevilla, also serving as an uncredited producer with brothers Pedro and Guillermo Calderón) through a nightmare of exploitation and misery—along the way becoming a famous soubrette—in order to erase her father’s debts while she tries, again and again, to reunite with her true love (Armando Silvestre). Bracho and esteemed cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa (Enamorada, The Pearl, Victims of Sins, Los Olvidados, Night of the Iguana) bring exquisite atmospherics to each shot with carefully calibrated lighting and meticulous compositions—on location in Veracruz or via stunningly designed and choreographed musical sequences—but the film equally belongs to Sevilla, whose unforgettable performance elevates this rapturous portrait of agitated desire into something far more complicated and ahead of its time.
(Jacques Audiard, France/Mexico, 2024, 132 min. In English and Spanish with English subtitles)
From renegade auteur Jacques Audiard comes Emilia Pérez, an audacious fever dream that defies genres and expectations. Through liberating song and dance and bold visuals, this odyssey follows the journey of four remarkable women in Mexico, each pursuing their own happiness. The fearsome cartel leader Emilia (Karla Sofía Gascón) enlists Rita (Zoe Saldaña), an unappreciated lawyer stuck in a dead-end job, to help fake her death so that Emilia can finally live authentically as her true self. Written and directed by Audiard (Rust and Bone, A Prophet), the double Cannes-winning film also stars Selena Gomez, Adriana Paz, and Edgar Ramírez.
(Alessandra Lacorazza, USA, 2024, 99 min. In English and Spanish with English subtitles)
Siblings Violeta and Eva live in California with their mother, but every summer they travel to Las Cruces, New Mexico, to spend time with their loving but unpredictable father, Vicente (René “Residente” Pérez Joglar). Over the course of four formative summers that span adolescence to early adulthood, Violeta and Eva learn to appreciate their father as a person, his flaws and limitations inseparable from his passion and tenderness. Lovers come and go, the backyard goes to seed, but the idea of home remains knotty and elusive. This powerful and deeply personal directorial debut from Alessandra Lacorazza offers a nuanced study of young people questioning their place within their families, their communities, and their identities. Winner of the US Dramatic Grand Jury Prize and Directing Award at Sundance, In The Summers proves both an emotional capsule of growing up within a fragmented family and a love letter to the resilience needed to survive.
(Los niños perdidos, Orlando von Einsiedel, Colombia, 2024, 132 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Four Indigenous children, ages 13, 9, 4 years, and 11 months are forced to survive 40 days in the Colombian jungle after a tragic plane crash kills their mother, and the other adults on board. This documentary features first-hand testimonies and extraordinary archive material from those who risked their lives to search for them, including the Colombian Army, Indigenous volunteer rescuers, and the children’s family. The Lost Children is a dramatic story that celebrates human endeavor, teamwork, and Indigenous knowledge, unraveling the mysteries of the Amazon rainforest.
(Caras vemos, Beto Gómez, Mexico, 2024, 103 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
The latest film by director Beto Gómez (Private Pérez, Flying Low) is a delightful comedy that follows an unconventional family caught in a peculiar body-swap after a mystical encounter with an ancient god. As a result, each family member finds themselves in someone else’s body: Laura, the mother, becomes a teenager obsessed with her phone and boyfriend; Luis, the father, is trapped in the body of his son, Dante; and the younger daughter takes over her father’s body. Meanwhile, in the body of Mariana, the teenage daughter, is her lethargic brother, and little Zoe becomes the wise mother.
(El lugar de la otra, Maite Alberdi, Chile, 2024, 99 min. In Spanish with English subtitles )
Based on the true story of a murder at the hands of María Carolina Geel in the Crillón Hotel, Maite Alberdi continues her exploration of the intimate worlds and the rich internal life of her protagonists, showing under her personal stamp the reality of two women in Chile from the mid-20th century: Mercedes and María Carolina Geel. With different life stories and professions, they face the complexities of being a woman in a society in which they are made invisible. Filmed in Chile and with the script work of the writer Inés Bortagaray and Paloma Salas, the production is Alberdi’s cinematographic reinterpretation of one of the stories from the book Las homicidas by Alia Trabucco Zerán.
(El apego, Valentín Javier Diment, Argentina, 2024, 103 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Argentina, 1970s. A desperate young woman goes to a clinic to have a clandestine abortion. As her pregnancy is already through the fourth month, the doctor refuses. Instead, she proposes to sell the baby to one of her clients and offers to provide shelter in her house until the child is born. Their disturbed personalities will become intertwined in a strange and dangerous relationship.
(La casa lobo, Cristóbal León and Joaquín Cociña, Chile, 2018, 72 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Maria, a young woman, finds refuge in a house in the south of Chile after escaping from a sect of German religious fanatics. She is welcomed into the home by two pigs, the only inhabitants of the place. Like in a dream, the universe of the house reacts to Maria’s feelings. The animals transform slowly into humans and the house becomes a nightmarish world. Inspired on the actual case of Colonia Dignidad, The Wolf House masquerades as an animated fairy tale produced by the leader of the sect in order to indoctrinate its followers.
