In the past years, San Francisco International Film Festival has shown
a real commitment to showcasing unique and well-crafted films from
Latin America, and this year is no exception.
Though this list of short reviews are by no means a comprehensive view
of the Latin American film catalogue, we will be adding to the list as
the festival progresses. As many of the filmmakers will be guests at
SFIFF 49, please check in for interviews and podcasts with the
directors of the following films.
DELICATE CRIME is a gently paced drama by Beto Brant about Antonio, a recognized theatre critic who falls in love with Ines, the muse of a local painter. Ines poses intimately with the painter and his paintings evoke the visceral expressionism of Dix or Klimt. But this expressionism isn't contained by the paintings, Antonio reviews revisions of Wozzyck and other borderline Brechtian obscurities, and through his eyes we see him transform the conversations of the world into awkwardly written dramatic dialogues - lit as if on stage. The dramatic high point of the film occurs when Antonio, obsessed with Ines, intrudes on her apartment and tells her she's imprisoned by the artist who paints her: tells her she's "the actress in his porno". The "Delicate Crime" alluded to by the title is not singly the gentle if plausible violation that occurs with Ines' consensual but none the less exploitative modeling, it also refers to other violations which repeat themselves in cycles, much like the "scenes" of sadness and jealousy Antonio silently judges as he watches the world from his disaffected barstool.
The Director is expected to Attend.
DIGNITY OF THE NOBODIES lyrically explores the lives of Argentines affected by the neo-liberal regime in Argentina in the late 90s and into 2002. A beautiful film essay in 5 parts, the film looks at the lives of 5 characters in their separate, if interconnected, groupings. The tax and land laws created by the administration have devastated each of the film's protagonists, and we watch as they build soup kitchens, build schools, write articles to organize movements and fight the banks for their farm land. Overwhelmingly hopeful, these people have been forced into a situation of abject poverty and they refuse to take it lying down. DIGNITY follows a pace we can only assume is akin to the pace of the world of the characters. Their resolve is gentle and deliberate but very very strong, and in the process of shadowing their work, we come away with a lesson stated most succinctly by one of the farmers. When told by a judge "sinking ships will sink all the way", she responded: ‘I see you're not on that ship'. The filmmaker does a beautiful job of celebrating these characters in their subjectivity and their strength.
The Director is expected to Attend.
Loosely grouped with the Latin American films (one of its producers is partially based in Argentina) GRONHOLM METHOD is set in corporate Madrid on the day of a rally against the IMF. Many stories above street level; an anonymous corporation has gathered seven executives of various backgrounds, while they can apply for (what they think is) the same position. During their "routine interview" they are asked to perform in a series of tests. At first the tests seem to highlight group dynamics: they're asked to pick a leader, they run an efficient election and when elected, their candidate's history as an ethical businessman is exposed to the group. The surveillance anxiety and stress for conformity persists almost beyond the scope of the film, when, the only character left standing leaves (or is she taken?) out of the skyscraper, to see a street destroyed by protests and abandoned as if après-guerre. Following a line of intrigue not unlike other paranoid cinematic treats such as THE GAME or DARK CITY, THE GRONHOLM METHOD deals with the lengths even the most ethical businessmen will stretch or skate to succeed.
The Director is expected to Attend.
HOUSE OF SAND is a Brazillian film by Andrushka Waddington that, in some ways, follows the tradition of magical realism, while not sojourning too far into the magical. Beginning in 1910, Aurea moves to a settlement with her husband and mother. She's pregnant and when they find the settlement, her condition threatens to keep her there. A month's journey from the place they come from, her husband's vision of the future looks uncannily like madness. When Aurea and her mother Maria are left alone, a community founded by escaped slaves confronts them and relating in their states of isolation, they help each other to co-exist. Though years pass, Aura's daughter (also named Maria) grows and Aurea's poorly founded house slowly sinks into the sand, she relentlessly holds onto her dream of leaving that land. Using the same two actors to play the mother/daughter Maria, and the mother/daughter Aurea, as they age, the family survives in their sandy wasteland while the rest of the world moves through wars and tumult as they live unaware.
The Director is expected to Attend.
FAVELLA RISING is an American made documentary about the social movement created by a group of ex-drug lords from the most dangerous favela in Rio de Janeiro. At first, the favela's rising happens in print. When it's seen that print is not as accessible to the favelas, the activists merge their political writing with Afro-Brazilian music, at first performing in the favela, and then organizing music classes for the favela kids. This outreach not only functions like a Boys and Girls club or sorts but it rejuvenates interest in Afro-Brazilian culture, a culture they discuss as widely ignored or forgotten. We hear these activists speaking with great command of language, describing from their depth of understanding, the reasons for the social issues the favelas face, and their solution to these problems is culture. Though it would seem logical to say they use music to unite the community, they explain, music is not just music if it speaks to the people.
Though the film is an HBO release that looks like an HBO release, the powerful moments of the film make it easy for you to forgive it's occasional histrionics. In sum, it successfully communicates the sense of youthful conquest that its protagonists share.
The Director is expected to Attend.
IN BED is a gem of imperfect cinema. A Chilean film by Matias Biaz this film is like the soft-core comedy genre of pronochanchada but without the comedy. Beginning in bed, a man and woman who don't know each other's names decide to share a motel room for the night. They call it "an adventure before the rest of their lives" and decide not to get attached. They playfully debate the value of getting to know each other, all the while exposing their pasts and the chemistry they share. Swimming in jump cuts and deliberate discontinuity, the film makes 90 minutes of talk quite palatable.
The Director is expected to Attend.
NEWS FROM AFAR is a film about an uncharted settlement in rural Mexico founded and inhabited by families who left Mexico City in search of a better life for their children. The frame story of the film identifies our narrator as an adult man who is searching for his brother and the settlement he grew up in. Though the film tracks the story of this man as a child in this settlement, the first act of the film jumps around in time and offers some moments of confusion, however thematically, this confusion may not be so accidental. The film's plot is full of detail, some of which is crucial, some that isn't - and identifying the essentials is as impossible for us as it is for the characters in the film. A deep feeling of ambivalence is felt throughout the major crises of the film, as the conflicts resonate with a feeling of meaningless and painful chaos. Filled with images of the isolated township and the vast, dry landscape, this film posits an intimate view of identity and its native Mexico that American films could hope to accomplish.
The Director is expected to Attend.
SOLO DIOS SABE is my favorite of the fest - so far. A moving journey film, this Brazilian Mexican co-production follows Dolores, a Brazilian studying in California, who goes on a night out to Tijuana where she loses her passport. There she meets Damian, who offers to help her while she's in Mexico and when getting a new passport becomes a dangerous task, she calls him for help. They drive together to Mexico City and on their three-day road trip Dolores discovers Damian's spiritualism and Damian slowly shows her his desire for her. When they finally make it to Mexico City, Dolores is beckoned home to Sao Paulo, where her spiritual awakenings begin. Taking place in three countries, three languages, and traveling through three personal journeys, the film is vast and insightful, but like it's protagonist Dolores, the film balances philosophy and pleasure. Utilizing a relatively western aesthetic with some sojourns into the "imperfect cinema" legacy of Brazil, SOLO DIOS SABE is fantastically versatile and joyously makes issues of spirituality both accessible and concrete.
Festivals 
