News

Cinema Guild has acquired North American distribution rights for “You Burn Me” (aka “Tú me abrasas”), directed by Argentina’s Matías Piñeiro.

The film had its world premiere at the Berlinale in February in the festival’s Encounters section. It won a special mention from the jury at Paris’s Cinéma du réel in March.

Cinema Guild will release the film in theaters following its currently unspecified North American festival premiere later this year. The company has also acquired rights to three earlies films by Piñeiro – “The Stolen Man” from 2007; “They All Lie” from 2009; and “Rosalinda” which will be released on home video and digital alongside “You Burn Me.”

An adaptation of “Sea Foam,” a chapter in Cesare Pavese’s Dialogues with Leucò, Piñeiro’s latest is an intimate and expansive meditation on death and desire. It is also a challenging exploration of the possibilities of adapting text to film.

There are filmmakers who draw the same motifs and plot points through every movie, like an artist who works with one brush and one set of watercolors, so that with every new picture, the colors become more intermixed. The prolific South Korean writer-director Hong Sang-soo (Right Now, Wrong Then, The Day He Arrives) is the most notorious example of this today, as half or more of his movies are about the romantic travails of backpack-wearing alter egos (often arthouse filmmakers) who are only in town briefly and could really use a drink and some company. A less extreme case is Matías Piñeiro, the Argentine writer-director of The Princess Of France, Viola, and Rosalinda, small films that revolve around Shakespeare plays being adapted or rehearsed by troupes of young artists. Although it’s largely set in New York City instead of Piñeiro’s usual Buenos Aires and leans less on the...

Well over a year ago, Vadim Rizov visited the set of Argentinian director Matías Piñeiro’s latest, Hermia & Helena, now premiering in competition in Locarno. He noted that Piñeiro’s first three features have all "started from a Shakespearean source text: As You Like It for Rosalinda, Twelfth Night for Viola, Love’s Labour’s Lost in The Princess of France." The key text this time around is A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Not only has Piñeiro set much of the film in New York for the first time, he's added a slew of newcomers to his cast of regulars: Agustina Muñoz, María Villar, Pablo Sigal, Kyle Molzan, Ryan Miyake, Oscar Williams, Mati Diop, Julian Larquier, Keith Poulson, Dan Sallitt, Laura Paredes, Dustin Guy Defa, Gabi Saidón and Romina Paula. We're collecting reviews and interviews. » - David Hudson...

Well over a year ago, Vadim Rizov visited the set of Argentinian director Matías Piñeiro’s latest, Hermia & Helena, now premiering in competition in Locarno. He noted that Piñeiro’s first three features have all "started from a Shakespearean source text: As You Like It for Rosalinda, Twelfth Night for Viola, Love’s Labour’s Lost in The Princess of France." The key text this time around is A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Not only has Piñeiro set much of the film in New York for the first time, he's added a slew of newcomers to his cast of regulars: Agustina Muñoz, María Villar, Pablo Sigal, Kyle Molzan, Ryan Miyake, Oscar Williams, Mati Diop, Julian Larquier, Keith Poulson, Dan Sallitt, Laura Paredes, Dustin Guy Defa, Gabi Saidón and Romina Paula. We're collecting reviews and interviews. » - David Hudson...

More often than not, when people think of an artist adapting a work from the legendary Bard himself, William Shakespeare, they conjure up visions of stilted costume pictures with more interest in production values than truly getting to the heart of Shakespeare’s tale they are adapting. And then there are the films of Matias Pineiro.

Pineiro, a young filmmaker from Buenos Aires, has become known as much for his dream like visuals and sensual storytelling as he has his brilliant re-imaginings of Shakespearean comedies. With a short film Rosalinda and his last feature, Viola, he has begun a new project of sorts, adapting As You Like It and Twelfth Night respectively, bringing his quiet and heady filmmaking to the works of Shakespeare.

That’s where his new film comes into play. Building off of this short and feature project, Pineiro is back with one of his greatest works to date.

The Princess of France is Argentine director Matías Piñeiro's third entry in his series of Shakespeare-inspired films, which he calls his "Shakespearead." The first two of these were his 43-minute short Rosalinda (2011), inspired by "As You Like It," and his 65-minute feature Viola, which reworked "Twelfth Night." The Princess of France, which takes on "Love's Labour's Lost," is, like those other films, less a direct adaptation of Shakespeare than a work which uses the Bard's texts - translated into Spanish - as inspiration and counterpoint to the present-day romantic complications of a group of young people who are involved in the arts and incorporate classics from literature, painting, and music, into their daily lives. The Princess of France clocks in at a mere 70...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

The Princess of France is Argentine director Matías Piñeiro's third entry in his series of Shakespeare-inspired films, which he calls his "Shakespearead." The first two of these were his 43-minute short Rosalinda (2011), inspired by "As You Like It," and his 65-minute feature Viola, which reworked "Twelfth Night." The Princess of France, which takes on "Love's Labour's Lost," is, like those other films, less a direct adaptation of Shakespeare than a work which uses the Bard's texts - translated into Spanish - as inspiration and counterpoint to the present-day romantic complications of a group of young people who are involved in the arts and incorporate classics from literature, painting, and music, into their daily lives. The Princess of France clocks in at a mere 70...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

In the films of Matías Piñeiro, young Argentinians "bide their time putting on Shakespeare and playing baroque word games, exchanging romantic partners and assuming different identities," writes Paul Felton, introducing his interview in the Brooklyn Rail: "they’re both conjurers and pawns in Piñeiro’s not-entirely-unpleasant vision of bohemian purgatory. Like his previous two films—Rosalinda (2011) and Viola (2012)—Piñeiro’s latest, The Princess of France (2014), concerns a company of young actors performing Shakespeare in modern-day Buenos Aires—a radio production of Love’s Labour’s Lost." We've got more reviews, the trailer and a clip. » - David Hudson...

In the films of Matías Piñeiro, young Argentinians "bide their time putting on Shakespeare and playing baroque word games, exchanging romantic partners and assuming different identities," writes Paul Felton, introducing his interview in the Brooklyn Rail: "they’re both conjurers and pawns in Piñeiro’s not-entirely-unpleasant vision of bohemian purgatory. Like his previous two films—Rosalinda (2011) and Viola (2012)—Piñeiro’s latest, The Princess of France (2014), concerns a company of young actors performing Shakespeare in modern-day Buenos Aires—a radio production of Love’s Labour’s Lost." We've got more reviews, the trailer and a clip. » - David Hudson...

It has been said that very few (modern) filmmakers are able to succinctly capture the enigmatic nature of women on film. Matias Pineiro is most assuredly one such filmmaker. In his (thus far) brief filmography, complex, spirited females are always at the forefront of his films, both in the focused frame, and in the often elliptical narratives. Drawing on the works of deceased Argentinean writer/statesman Domingo Faustino Sarmiento in his earlier two films, and then Shakespeare in his later films, Pineiro permeates his canvas with characters taken from some of literature’s most memorable texts. What could have been a stale English lesson, however, has Piniero instead brilliantly transforming the material into something altogether compellingly fresh and intoxicating. This week, Tiff Bell Lightbox is proud to present a retrospective of the master auteur’s work, with the filmmaker in attendance for each of the special screenings.

It is only...

For more than a decade, the annual Latin Alternative Music Conference (Lamc) has brought together the musical innovators and genre-benders at the forefront of a musical movement known simply as Latin alternative. It is a catch-all term, not a genre in itself. Some sing indie pop in Spanish while others take Latin beats like cumbia, regional Mexican music, or salsa and remix them with hip-hop, punk, electronica and everything in between.

The conference, organized by Los Angeles-based Nacional Records, took over NYC this past week and was a sweaty, sweltering marathon of acoustic showcases, electro-cumbia light shows, rainy SummerStage performances, and out-of-control dance parties. The long standing conference is a testament to the vitality of the Latino independent music scene.

Although the mainstream is still catching up to this “new” musical movement, Latino filmmakers have already tapped into this vast musical resource. Aurora Guerrero, director of Mosquita y Mari, told LatinoBuzz in a previous interview that, “I’m constantly on SoundCloud or Remezcla looking to see what new music is being produced by Latino artists. I’m not interested in producing soundtracks or scores that have been recycled in U.S. Latino films throughout the years. I’m looking for music that’s cutting-edge and contemporary.” Her film, a thoughtful portrait of two teenage Chicanas living in Los Angeles, is set to the music of local ska bands, the melancholy vocals of Carla Morrison, and other genre-remixing Latino artists.

The marriage of Latino independent music with Latino independent film seems natural. Both try to “hop borders” as Jon Pareles wrote in the New York Times and exist out of a desire to reach beyond the cultural boundaries in which they currently reside. It’s also a mutually beneficial relationship. Filmmakers deal with lower fees versus trying to license more commercial music while providing much-needed exposure to up-and-coming bands.

By happenstance Latinbeat, the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s week-long showcase of Latin American independent films, overlapped with Lamc over the weekend. It was a Lindie (a.k.a. Latino indie) takeover.

Latinbeat runs through Sunday, July 21 and there is still a ton to see. Here are the highlights.

Viola

Matías Piñeiro | 2012 | 65 mins

Wednesday, July 17 and Thursday, July 18 at 11:15am 1:45pm 4:15pm 6:45pm 9:30pm

A web of romantic intrigue and revelation is delicately unraveled in this dazzling riff on Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. Screening with Rosalinda (Matías Piñeiro, 2010, 43m).

Tanta Agua (So Much Water)

Ana Guevara | Leticia Jorge | 2013 | 100 mins

Filmmakers in person for Q&A. Thursday, July 18 at 8:30pm | Saturday, July 20 at 2:30pm

A divorced father’s vacation with his two children is marred by a storm that keep the three cooped up together as he desperately tries to remain enthusiastic and not let anything ruin their plans.

The Tears

Pablo Delgado Sanchez | 2012 | 66 mins

Filmmaker in person for Q&A. Thursday, July 18 at 6:30pm | Saturday, July 20 at 5:00pm

A camping trip in the woods becomes a painful but ultimately healing rite of passage for two brothers who are struggling to cope with their disturbing family environment in Sanchez’s taut, suspenseful debut feature.

Bring Me the Head of the Machine Gun Woman

Ernesto Díaz Espinoza | 2013 | 75 mins

Filmmaker in person for Q&A. Saturday, July 20 at 9:30pm | Sunday, July 21 at 8:30pm

This exuberant tribute to Peckinpah’s similarly titled 1974 film combines the plot of a Western with a video game aesthetic and structure in the story of a nerdy DJ who must undertake an action-packed mission to save his own life.

Magical Words (Breaking a Spell)

Mercedes Moncada | 2012 | 83 mins

Filmmaker in person for Q&A. Friday, July 19 at 6:30pm | Sunday, July 21 at 1:30pm

Moncada crafts a poignant and engaging personal perspective on her native Nicaragua from the 1979 Sandinista revolution through to modern times, weaving herself into the story at every historic step.

Written by Juan Caceres and Vanessa Erazo, LatinoBuzz is a weekly feature on SydneysBuzz that highlights Latino indie talent and upcoming trends in Latino film with the specific objective of presenting a broad range of Latino voices. Follow @LatinoBuzz on Twitter and Facebook.

★★★★☆ With latest effort Viola (2012), Argentine director Matías Piñeiro continues his fascination with Shakespeare's Twelfth Night in what could be seen as a fitting counterpart to his 2011 short film, Rosalinda. Ostensibly an unassuming tale about a girl working for her partner's pirate video delivery service in Buenos Aires, this deceptively simple drama is a fascinating treasure trove of rich ideas and intelligent storytelling. Capturing the leisurely tempo and pseudo-nonconformist lifestyle of this generation's middle-class BA urbanites, we observe protagonist Viola (Maria Villar) as she works with her boyfriend bootlegging DVDs.

Traversing the warren-like backstreets of the city, Viola's journeys to deliver these illicit goods leads her into a series of choice encounters, chiefly shared with a small troupe of actresses who perform random snippets of Shakespeare's plays - with all the roles performed by women. From intimate recitals, backstage gossip and mid-afternoon beers, Viola weaves a subtle tapestry of a...

The winners of the 3rd Annual Cinema Tropical Awards were announced at a special event at the New York Times headquarters in New York City,celebrating the best of the Latin American film production of the year in five different categories:

- Best Feature Film

- Best Documentary Film

- Best Director, Feature Film

- Best Director, Documentary Film

- Best First Film

The Cinema Tropical Awards are presented in partnership with Voces, Latino Heritage Network of The New York Times and 92YTribeca, with the support of the Mexican Cultural Institute. Special thanks to Lucila Moctezuma and Mario Díaz.

Best Feature Film

- O Som Ao Redor / Neighboring Sounds (Kleber Mendonça Filho, Brazil, 2012)

Best Director, Feature Film

- MatÍAs Meyer, Los ÚLtimos Cristeros / The Last Christeros (Mexico, 2011)

Best Documentary Film

- El Salvavidas / The Lifeguard (Maite Alberdi, Chile, 2011)

Best Director, Documentary Film

- JosÉ ÁLvarez, CanÍCula (Mexico, 2011)

Best First Film

- El Estudiante / The Student (Santiago Mitre, Argentina, 2011)

The films were selected from a list of Latin American feature films with a minimum of 60 minutes in length that were premiered between April 1, 2011 and March 31, 2012. The winners and final nominees were selected by a six-member jury panel from a list of fiction and documentary films compiled from the selections of a nominating committee composed of 14 film professionals from Latin America, the U.S. and Europe (see list below).

Fiction Jury

Dennis Lim writes about film and popular culture for various publications including The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times. He is the founding editor of Moving Image Source, the online publication and research resource of the Museum of the Moving Image and was formerly the film editor of The Village Voice. His work has also appeared in The Believer, The Oxford American, Blender, Spin, Espous, Indiewire, New York Daily News, The Independent on Sunday, The Guardian, and the film quarterly Cinema Scope, where he is a contributing editor. A member of the National Society of Film Critics and the editor of The Village Voice Film Guide (2006), he has served as a member of the New York Film Festival selection committee and he teaches in the Cultural Reporting and Criticism graduate program a New York University.

Matías Piñeiro is a filmmaker and professor at the Universidad del Cine in Buenos Aires. His first feature-length work, El hombre robado / The Stolen Man (2007), won awards at the Jeonju International Film Festival and at Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival. In 2009, his second feature, Todos mienten / They All Lie, premiered at Bafici (Buenos Aires Festival International de Cine Independiente), where it won two awards. It also won a prize at the Santiago Festival Internacional de Cine. In 2010, he was selected—along with James Benning and Denis Côté—to screen his third film, Rosalinda at the 11th Jeonju Digital Project. Piñeiro recently premiered his most recent film, Viola, at the Toronto Film Festival, and it's slated for a Us release in 2013. He earned a filmmaking degree from Universidad del Cine. His award-winning films have been screened around the world, including at Anthology Film Archives, Festival des 3 Continents, the Festival del film Locarno, the London Film Festival, Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires, the Museum of Modern Art, Rencontré Cinémas d’Amerique Latine de Toulouse, and the Viennale.

Frida Torresblanco served as a producer in Spain working on film including The Dancer Upstairs, directed by John Malkovich and starring Javier Bardem, as well as Susan Seidelman’s Gaudi Afternoon. She moved to New York City in 2002 to launch and lead Alfonso Cuaron’s film production company, Esperanto, where she served as Executive Producer and Creative On-Set Producer for The Assassination of Richard Nixon (directed by Niels Mueller, starring Sean Penn), among others. In 2006, Frida joined Alfonso Cuarón and Guillermo del Toro to produce El laberinto del Fauno / Pan’s Labyrinth (Three Oscars & another three Oscar nominations; three wins & five BAFTA nominations; a nomination for the Palm d’Or and a Golden Globe). The Hollywood Reporter named Frida one of the 50 most powerful Latinos in Hollywood. She also produced Rudo y Cursi (directed by Carlos Cuarón, starring Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna). In 2010, Frida launched her new film production company, Braven Films, with partners Eric Laufer and Giovanna Randall. Her next project, Magic Magic, produced through Braven Films, will star Michael Cera, Juno Temple and Emily Browning.

DocuMentary Jury

Ryan Harrington is the Director of Documentary Programs at the Tribeca Film Institute where he oversees the Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund, the Tfi Documentary Fund, Tribeca All Access documentary program and the Latin America Media Arts Fund while developing other initiatives and programs that support non-fiction filmmaking. Recent Tfi successes include Give Up Tomorrow, If a Tree Falls, The Redemption of General Butt Naked, The Oath, Enemies of the People, Marathon Boy and Donor Unknown. Independently he is currently working on the feature doc Hungry in America, with filmmakers Kristi Jacobson & Lori Silverbush and Participant Media, that explores why so many people in the USA go without food, and what can be done about it. Harrington managed production for A&E IndieFilms, the theatrical documentary arm of the A&E Network, for four years. Throughout his time there he championed the Oscar-nominated films Murderball and Jesus Camp, and the Sundance hits My Kid Could Paint That and American Teen.

Paula Heredia is a director and editor based in New York. She was awarded an Emmy for the HBO documentary In Memoriam, NYC 9/11/01, and an Ace Eddie Award for the acclaimed documentary Unzipped. Her directorial work includes the documentaries George Plimpton and the Paris Review, Ralph Gibson, and The Couple in the Cage. Her dramatic work includes Having a Baby, Tras La Ventana, Slings and Arrows, and La Cena de Matrimonio. Her short film La Pájara Pinta premiered at the Lincoln Center Film Society LatinBeat Film Festival. Heredia’s editorial work can be seen in the HBO feature-length documentary Addiction, which received the 2007 Emmy Governors Award, and Alive Day Memories—Home from Iraq, executive produced by James Gandolfini for HBO. Her new edit, The Art of Failure: Chuck Connelly Not for Sale and Jacques D'Ambois in China, will air on HBO this summer. Other editorial credits include: Modulations Cinema for the Ear, The Vagina Monologues, Finding Christa and Free Tibet. Paula’s work and creative process is featured in the book: The Art of the Documentary by Megan Cunningham. With partner Larry Garvin, she co-founded Heredia Pictures, heads the international committee of New York Women in Film and Television and serves on the board of advisors of Tribeca All Access and Clementina, Inc.

Chi-hui Yang is a film programmer, lecturer and writer based in New York. As a guest curator, Yang has presented film and video series at film festivals and events internationally, including MoMA's Documentary Fortnight, Robert Flaherty Film Seminar (“The Age of Migration”), Seattle International Film Festival, Washington D.C. International Film Festival and Barcelona Asian Film Festival. From 2000-2010 he was the Director and Programmer of the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival, the largest showcase of its kind in the Us. Yang is also the programmer of “Cinema Asian America,” a new On-Demand service offered by Comcast and currently a Visiting Scholar at New York University’s Asian/Pacific/American Institute.

Nominating Committee

- Isabel Arrate Fernandez, Idfa, The Netherlands

- Hugo Chaparro, film critic, Colombia

- Lucile De Calan, programmer, Biarritz Latin American Film Festival, France

- Denis de la Roca, programmer, Abu Dhabi Film Festival

- Mara Fortes, programmer, Morelia Film Festival

- Erick Gonzalez, programmer, Valdivia Film Festival, Chile

- Elías Jiménez, director, Festival Ícaro, Guatemala

- Roger Alan Koza, film critic and programmer, Filmfest Hamburg, Ficunam, Mexico

- Janneke Langelaan, Hubert Bals Fund, The Netherlands

- Diego Lerer, film critic, Argentina

- Rosa Martinez Rivero, film producer, Argentina

- Christian Sida-Valenzuela, director, Vancouver Latin American Film Festival

- Hebe Tabachnik, programmer, Los Angeles and Palm Springs Film Festivals

- Sergio Wolf, film programmer, Argentina...

“When history is what it should be, it is an elaboration of cinema.” —Ortega y Gasset

“The key for me is finding some rhythm of the film, not so much in the plot from a traditional sense but, rather, from its internal rhythm.” —Matías Piñeiro

1

There are works of art that affect in bulk, all at once; these are the aesthetic experiences that unify, that impose boundaries on the license of eye and ear. Other works of art achieve a dissociated and dissociating stylistic program; these are the works that cannot be experienced or understood as feats of synthesis, or as products of a single point of view.

While much of the art of the past century might be described as an effort toward a radical disaffiliation of elements—word and image, depth and surface, form and content—awareness of a quarrelsome relationship between two presumably incompatible ways of making...

Tonight marks the end of the 3rd annual Migrating Forms experimental media festival in NYC at the Anthology Film Archives. Films run all afternoon and evening, concluding with the meta-documentary You Are All Captains directed by Oliver Laxe. If you’re in NYC today, go check it out!

Richard Brody gave a glowing review of the film for the New Yorker, as did Lexie Delaney for VoxTalk.

The full lineup of films screening at Migrating Forms today is below. If you check out some films today, why don’t you come back here and leave a comment below about what you saw!

May 29

1:30 p.m.: “Group Program 8″

A Movie, dir. Jennifer Proctor

Coming Attractions, dir. Peter Tscherkassky

Despair, dir. Stephen Sutcliffe

Misty Suite, dir. James Richards

These Hammers Don’t Hurt Us, dir. Michael Robinson

3:15 p.m.: “Group Program 9 ”

Brune Renault, dir. Neil Beloufa

Rosalinda, dir.

The 3rd annual Migrating Forms is set to run on May 20-29 at the Anthology Film Archives with yet another stunning lineup of current and classic experimental and avant-garde films and videos.

New work includes the U.S. premiere of Melanie Gilligan’s experimental sci-fi feature Popular Unrest for the fest’s Opening Night event. Then, throughout the fest, will be Jacqueline Goss‘ meteorology meditation The Observers, Liu Jiayin’s two-part family drama Oxhide and Oxhide II, Madison Brookshire’s light processing experimentation Color Series, Oliver Laxe’s meta-documentary You Are All Captains for the Closing Night event, and more.

New short works in the group programs include films and videos by Adele Horne, Andrew Lampert, Kevin Jerome Everson, Shana Moulton, Fern Silva, Olga Chernysheva, Dani Leventhal and more.

Classic retrospectives include Brazilian films by Glauber Rocha and French films written by Georges Perec. Electric Arts Intermix presents little-seen personal videos by L.

Migrating Forms has just revealed the full program for its third edition, running May 20 through 29 at Anthology Film Archives in New York. And it's pretty impressive, so we're going to go the quickest route here and reproduce the release below the jump.

Special Events

Georges Perec Double Bill

Serie Noire Dir Alain Corneau (1979)

Georges Perec wrote dialogue made up almost entirely of cliches and aphorisms for this adaptation of Jim Thompson's A Hell of a Woman. "The only Thompson adaptation to truly express the author's deeply personal darkness." - Moving Image Source

Un homme qui dort (The Man Who Slept) Dir. Georges Perec and Bernard Queysanne (1974)

Adapted from Georges Perec's novel of the same name. Structured as a filmic sestina, Perec and Queysanne reimagine the framework of the novel while maintaining much of the original narration (read by Shelly Duvall in the English version!).

The Art of the...