It's become trendy to invoke the "three amigos" – del Toro, Cuarón, and Iñárritu – while declaring that Mexican cinema has entered a second golden age. These filmmakers' critically acclaimed work certainly demand attention, yet using them as the definitive representation of film from Latin America (perhaps with Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar thrown in for good measure) would be incomplete. Just ask the organizers of the Cine las Americas International Film Festival. Now in its 10th year, the festival presents a pantheon of film from across the Americas exhibiting the rich cinema culture that operates outside the Hollywood system and is largely invisible to North American audiences.
Cine Las Americas opens this year's festival with Mexican filmmaker Francisco Vargas Quevedo's multi-award-winning drama, El Violín. Relatively unknown when compared to the Mexican triumvirate, Quevedo's El Violín is a stunning film that dazzles with its deceptive simplicity.
"I was a bit nervous about [El Violín] since it is the first time the festival will open at the Paramount. Nevertheless, the power of the film speaks for itself," says Cine las Americas Execu-tive Director Eugenio del Bosque. "Mexican directors figuring among the best in the world, while a new talent like Quevedo is struggling to release his film in Mexico, led us to believe that opening with El Violín is good for everyone, especially Austin audiences, who are going to get to see [it] before audiences in Mexico."
"He has the confidence and authority of a seasoned filmmaker and is truly gifted in narrating a story," Quevedo's compatriot Guillermo del Toro says. "His visuals are elegant and sparse, but they are not limited by any lack of experience. His style seems fully formed and directed not to impress an audience but to communicate the emotion and the progress of the story unfolding on the screen."
At first glance, viewers might assume that the Zapatista movement in Chiapas is the backdrop for El Violín, instead of the campesino revolts of the 1970s. After a disturbing moment of brutality early in the film, El Violín turns its attention to three generations of men struggling to make a living as farmers and street musicians. They are also insurgents, forced into hiding after a military raid of their village, determined to wage a counterattack. The wily family patriarch, Don Plutarco (Don Ángel Tavira), decides to take matters into his own hands, launching a dangerous contest of wills with the army captain (Dagoberto Gama) who invaded his family's village. The titular violin belongs to Don Plutarco, but it becomes the metaphor for all that is precious and vulnerable, both for Plutarco and the captain.
El Violín is one of seven films in the New Releases program. Other programs include the Emergencia Youth Film Festival, competitive programs for narrative features, documentary features, and shorts, among others. Films from South America, Canada, Spain, and the U.S. appear in all parts of the festival, with a strong presence of Afro-Latino and indigenous films and filmmakers. New to this year's festival is a New Visions/Works in Progress program, featuring the work of filmmakers seeking production or completion funds.
The 10th Cine las Americas Festival is April 19 to 26. Related events include a pre-festival fundraiser on April 18 and special screenings featuring the work of Austin filmmaker Marcy Garriott (Inside the Circle) and special guest of honor Brazilian filmmaker Lúcia Murat with two of her critically acclaimed films, Quase Dois Irmãos (Almost Brothers) and Olhar Estrangeiro (The Foreign Eye). Unless otherwise indicated, all films have English subtitles.
Festival passes, the full festival schedule, venue locations, and other information are available at www.cinelasamericas.org. Check next week's Chronicle for a more extensive preview of Cine las Americas' offerings.
*Oops! The following correction ran in our April 19, 2007 issue: In the April 13 issue, the article "A Decade of Cine" was incorrectly attributed to Claudia Alarcón due to an editing error. Belinda Acosta wrote the piece. We apologize for the error.
