4th February, 2012
The Film & Culture section exists to promote greater understanding and appreciation of film history and contemporary cinematic culture from Latin America.
We aim to raise awareness of the richness of our film culture through special events such as retrospectives, lectures, panels and Q&A sessions. These bring together Latin American film critics, renowned film directors, historians and members of the industry to educate and raise debate on key topics of the Latin American film history and contemporary trends.
This 5th edition of the festival will continue with the series of annual events entitled Latin America through the Lens of European Directors. This year we will celebrate the work of Luis Buñuel in Mexico. In anticipation to the director’s season at the NFT in 2007, we have selected three films of the Mexican period Nazarin (1959), Ensayo de un Crimen (Rehearsal of a crime, 1955) and Simón del Desierto (Simon of the Desert, 1965). We regret that we have been unable to include the key film from this period Los Olvidados (1950) in this event as it is held for the general re-release by the BFI next year. We will however, feature as part of this program Emilio Maille’s documentary Un Buñuel Mexicain (A Mexican Buñuel, Mexico, 1997). This will be followed by an interesting panel discussion with film directors Emilio Maillé and Arturo Ripstein, chaired by Minister of Cultural Affairs at the Mexican Embassy Ignacio Durán (former director of IMCINE).
This year’s retrospective is dedicated to renowned Mexican director Arturo Ripstein for a lifetime devoted to an auteur style of cinema. We are including some of his most representative films such as El Castillo de la Pureza (The Castle of Purity, 1972) Profundo Carmes (Deep Crimson, 1996) and La Perdición de los Hombres (The Ruination of Men, 2000). This presents both a great and a rare opportunity to see his work here in the UK. We are delighted to welcome Arturo Ripstein to present his retrospective.
A decade has passed since cinema lost celebrated Cuban director Tomás Gutiérrez Alea (known to his close friends and colleagues as Titón), it is with great honor that we are paying him homage with the event 10 years without Tomás Gutiérrez Alea. This section will include three of his key and worldwide known classic films Memories from Underdevelopment (Memorias del Subdesarrollo, 1968), Fresa y Chocolate (Strawberry and Chocolate, 1994) and Guantanamera (1995) with legendary Cuban actress (and wife of Gutiérrez Alea) Mirta Ibarra invited as a special guest for interviews and Q&A sessions.
Yos Rivas
Film & Culture Director
DLA Film Festival