Brazil to be Guest Country at the 14th Annual Festival
The 14th Vancouver Latin American Film Festival (VLAFF), the largest festival of Latin American cinema in Canada, is proud to announce its 2016 lineup featuring Brazil as the guest country. The festival will be taking place from August 25 to September 4 across three main venues in downtown Vancouver: The Cinematheque, Vancity Theatre and SFU Woodward’s.
The team at VLAFF has carefully curated a lineup of films that showcases a healthy mix of Latin American auteur cinema and a cinema that is more accessible for all audiences. This year, festivalgoers can look forward to 60 films from 14 countries, including 33 feature-length films and 27 short films.
Due to high demand for films that discuss activism and current events in Latin America, VLAFF has added a new category to the festival called ¡Activismo!. In addition, the festival screenings have been organized in 7 feature sections, which include International Hits, New Directors, Short Film Competition, Canada Looks South and Indigenous Film from BC & Beyond, among others.
This year’s opening film, I PROMISE YOU ANARCHY (Te prometo anarquía), a film by director Julio Hernández Cordón, is one of the most awarded and widely screened Mexican films at festivals around the world in the last year.
As part of this year’s guest country programming, VLAFF will be presenting a retrospective on Anna Muylaert, in honour of her work as one of Brazil’s best contemporary directors. Her films take an intimate look into Brazil’s middle-class society; they all have very strong screenplays and are laced with dark comedy and subversive social commentary. Her award-winning film SMOKE GETS IN YOUR EYES (É proibido fumar) will be part of the retrospective as this year’s Closing Film.
“Having Brazil as a guest country this year is very significant – Brazil is very much in the spotlight as a result of the political moment that the country is living, as well as with the Olympics happening, and being put on the map due to cinematic talent is no exception,” said Festival Director Christian Sida-Valenzuela. “There is great support from the Brazilian government towards the local film industry and there have been great films directed and produced in the last decade.”
The VLAFF program includes the sixth year of the New Directors Competition, with seven films in competition, and 15 short films in competition for Best Short Film. For the sixth year, the program Canada Looks South will highlight films from Latin-Canadian filmmakers. Indigenous Film from BC & Beyond will showcase films by BC First Nations filmmakers alongside Indigenous filmmakers from Brazil.
Within the Brazil programming, VLAFF will also showcase two classic films by director Glauber Rocha: BLACK GOD, WHITE DEVIL and ENCHANTED EARTH. These films embody the spirit of the1960s Cinema Novo movement, which put Brazilian cinema on the international map.
VLAFF is proud to continue its partnership with SFU Woodward’s Cultural Programs (SFUW) for the sixth year. And is very grateful for all the support the organization has received from the Consulate General of Brazil in the name of having them be the guest country at this year’s festival.
VLAFF provides a unique opportunity for film lovers to experience the talent of Latin American filmmakers, as 98% of these films will not be commercially released in Canada. All films are subtitled in English and are open to the general public. Tickets will go on sale online on Wednesday, August 10 at www.vlaff.org.
VLAFF 2016 Complete Film Listings:
OPENING NIGHT FILM
I PROMISE YOU ANARCHY (Te prometo anarquía) (Mexico) – Dir. Julio Hernández Cordón
CLOSING NIGHT FILM (Part of retrospective)
SMOKE GETS IN YOUR EYES (É proibido fumar) (Brazil) – Dir. Anna Muylaert
RETROSPECTIVE: ANNA MUYLAERT
DON’T CALL ME SON (Brazil Special Presentation) (Brazil) – Dir. Anna Muylaert
THE SECOND MOTHER (Que horas ela volta?) (Brazil) – Dir. Anna Muylaert
SMOKE GETS IN YOUR EYES (É proibido fumar) (Brazil) – Dir. Anna Muylaert
DURVAL RECORDS (Durval discos) (Brazil) – Dir. Anna Muylaert
THE ORGIN OF BABIES (short film plays with Durval Records) (Brazil) – Dir. Anna Muylaert
WHILE MY GUITAR GENTLY WEEPS (Brazil) – Dir. Anna Muylaert
INTERNATIONAL HITS
EL CLUB (Chile) – Dir. Pablo Larraín
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING (Aquí no ha pasado nada) (Chile) – Dir. Alejandro Fernández Almendras
THE PEARL BUTTON (El botón de nácar) (Chile) – Dir. Patricio Guzmán
EMBRACE OF THE SERPENT (Colombia) – Dir. Ciro Guerra
LIVEFOREVER (¡Qué viva la música!) (Colombia) – Dir. Carlos Moreno
VIVA (Cuba/Ireland) – Dir. Paddy Breathnach
DESIERTO (México) – Dir. Jonás Cuarón
A MONSTER WITH A THOUSAND HEADS (México) – Dir. Rodrigo Plá
MAGALLANES (Perú) – Dir. Salvador del Solar
TRUMAN (Spain/Canada/Argentina) – Dir. Cesc Gay
¡ACTIVISMO!
TIME SUSPENDED (El tiempo suspendido) (Argentina/México) – Dir. Natalia Bruschtein
A DAY IN AYOTZINAPA 43 (Un día en Ayotzinapa 43) (México) – Dir. Rafael Rangel
PEPE MUJICA: LESSONS FROM THE FLOWERBED (Uruguay/Germany) – Dir. Heidi Specogna
NEW DIRECTORS
DITCHES (Zanjas) (Argentina) – Dir. Francisco Joaquín Paparella
ROAD TO LA PAZ (Camino a La Paz) (Argentina) – Dir. Francisco Varone
HOPEFULS (Aspirantes) (Brazil) – Dir. Ives Rosenfeld
NEON BULL (Boi neon) (Brazil) – Dir. Gabriel Mascaro
VIOLENCIA (Colombia) – Dir. Jorge Forero
IXCANUL (Guatemala) – Dir. Jayro Bustamante
THE GREATEST HOUSE IN THE WORLD (México) – Dirs. Ana V. Bojorquez, Lucía Carreras
CLASSIC BRAZILIAN CINEMA: GLAUBER ROCHA
BLACK GOD, WHITE DEVIL (Deus e o diabo na terra do sol) (Brazil, 1964) – Dir. Glauber Rocha
ENCHANTED EARTH (Terra em transe) (Brazil, 1967) – Dir. Glauber Rocha
CANADA LOOKS SOUTH
THE BALLAD OF OPPENHEIMER PARK (Canada) – Dir. Juan Manuel Sepúlveda
THE DNA OF CEVICHE (Canada/Perú) – Dir. Orlando Arriagada
HE HATED PIGEONS (with live score by Morning Show) (Canada/Chile) – Dir. Ingrid Veninger
ABYSS (Canada) – Dir. Pablo Diconca
51 MALECÓN (Canada/Cuba) – Dir. Francis Delfour
ACÁ ELSEWHERE / Acá Nada (Canada) – Dir. Sarah Shamash
OUR FOREST MOON (Nuestro Monte Luna) (Canada/Colombia) – Dir. Pablo Alvarez-Mesa
INDIGENOUS FILM FROM BC & BEYOND – CANADA
ASSINI – Dir. Gail Maurice
THE BLACK CASE (La mallette noire) – Dirs. Caroline Monnet & Daniel Watchorn
CLOUDS OF AUTUMN – Dirs. Trevor Mack & Matthew Taylor Blais
MIA’ – Dirs. Amanda Strong & Bracken Hanuse Corlett
PEARL – Dirs. Elisa Moar & Meky Ottawa
WITHOUT WORDS – Dir. Jules Koostachin
INDIGENOUS FILM FROM BC & BEYOND – BRAZIL
THE HYPERWOMEN – Dirs. Carlos Fausto, Leonardo Sette, Takumã Kuikuro
KENE YUXI, AS VOLTAS DO KENE – Dir. Zezinho Yube
MBYA MIRIM – Dirs. Patrícia Ferreira, Ariel Duarte Ortega
SHORT FILMS IN COMPETITION
BESTBOY (Argentina) – Dir. David Nazareno
MILA (México) – Dir. Óscar Enríquez
FRANK THE INDOMITABLE (México) – Dir. Andrés Eichelmann Kaiser
DAY OF ASHES (Ecuador) – Dir. Daniel Romero
ABSENT (Chile) – Dir. Joaquín Baus
SEEING YOU AGAIN (México) – Dir. Abraham Escobedo Salas
SO AS NOT TO FORGET (Brazil) – Dir. Rafael de Almeida
BULLETPROOF (México) – Dir. Héctor Bustamante
NEW MOON (Brazil) – Dir. Andrea Prado
FANTASTIC (Argentina) – Dir. Tomás Sposato
NORMAL (Venezuela) – Dir. Vadim Lasca
AMPHIBIAN (Venezuela) – Dir. Héctor Silva Núñez
ATOTÔ (Brazil) – Dir. Bruno Laet
VOLVER (Colombia) – Dir. Iván Luna
FIRE-WATER (It Yagutp) (Argentina) – Dir. Tomás Faiman
About the Vancouver Latin American Film Festival:
VLAFF is a registered charitable organization and the largest annual festival of Latin American film in Canada. The festival promotes dialogue among cultures and explores the art of contemporary Latin American cinema through the eyes of its filmmakers. Since 2003, VLAFF has provided audiences with the unique opportunity to watch inspiring films and interact with guest filmmakers from across Latin America and the diaspora. For more information please visit: http://www.vlaff.org.
