DLA Film Festival’s Highlights

By Kanika Findley-Chin

The anticipation pulsing through the Odeon foray was palpable when the 9^th DLA Film Festival opening Gala night finally arrived, Thursday 18^th November.
A brand new year and expectations were high, the turnout of DLA volunteers, supporters and film goers to watch Roberto Sneider’s ‘Tear This Heart Out/Arráncame La Vida’ (2008) in Convent Garden was impressive; not to mention the presence of ambassadors and cultural attachés from the Brazilian, Mexican, Argentinean and Salvadorian embassies.

2010's Film Festival supported Salvadorian charity SALCET, and founders Chris and Maggie Jagger both attended the opening night. Mr. Jagger spoke passionately about his organisation, describing how the money raised would be used to build a new drainage system in the town of San Carlos.Mau Davila, DLA President, began the proceedings by telling the audience about exciting developments like the new Discovering Latin America Brazil office in Rio, before enthusiastically thanking all the volunteers for their hard work and wishing everyone a very enjoyable festival.

There were some fantastic examples of Latin American films this year, and amongst the many highlights was the Daniel Burman retrospective. The Argentine director attended a number of Q&A sections, tackling audience questions ranging from how it felt being compared to Woody Allen, to the use of subtle sound effects in his film ‘Brother and Sister/Dos Hermanos' (2010).

The week and a half of cinematic treats officially came to a close with the awards ceremony and special screening of Carlos Sorín's ‘The Window/La Ventana' (2008), on Thursday 2^nd December.

Although an unprecedented cold snap delayed some guests, as always the show had to go on, and via the wonders of modern technology, Leah Herlihy was able to announce the Festival's award winners.

Best Feature Length Film went to 'To the Sea' (2009) by Pedro Gonzalez Rubio. Lucy Walker's 'Waste Land' (2010) won the Audience Award for Best Documentary, and finally, Best Jury Award went to 'Cold Water of the Sea' (2009) by Paz Fábrega.

So there it was, eye-opening, diverse, exciting and accomplished and with Mau Davila hinting that next year being Discovering Latin America’s 10^th birthday, events will be bigger and better than ever before, would it be too presumptuous to say, see you the same time next year!

Here some images of the event!
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