Sin La Habana is a film about destiny, power dynamics, and prophecy through the eyes of its three main characters. Leonardo (Yonah Acosta) and Sara (Evelyn O’Farrill), a young Afro-Cuban couple, are desperate to leave the island.
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The importance of mental health awareness has been a focus for Workman Arts for years. This year is no different, especially with their linup for the 29th edition of the Rendezvous With Madness Festival (RWM). This is one of the largest and longest-running arts festival in the world dedicated to the intersection of mental health and artistic expression.
Since many of us are still feeling the emotional effects of months of isolation, income precarity, and anxiety over what the future holds, the Rendezvous With Madness Festival offers a unique opportunity to come together in reflection and discussion.
I have attended RWF for many years, and highly recommend you join in this year if you are able to. The list here includes my personal recommendations for films and other events that have piqued my interest.
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My gal pal Donna G of The More the Merrier asked me to pick a few ‘Halloween’ / horror / scary movies to share with her, and in turn, with you too.
The list below includes recommendations as well as personal favourite movies that I think are available to stream, rent online or at your local DVD shop across Canada and elsewhere.
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The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) opted for a hybrid model this year offering many in-person screenings with the option of digital screenings as well.
As accredited media and a cinephile, I was happy to return to the theatre to watch variou cinematic films at the TIFF Bell Lightbox, Roy Thomson Hall, and the Princess of Wales Theatre (Visa Screening Room). It almost felt like the ‘before times’. I also liked having the option of staying home to watch films in a more relaxed manner.
My TIFF coverage was somewhat more focused this year to include the following categories, themes and types of films: Documentary; Emerging Filmmakers; Black, Indigenous and people of colour stories on screen; Women in Film; and Horror. Below I give you my Top 5 films and the full list of films I was able to screen at TIFF this year.
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Written & directed by Justin Lerner (Girlfriend), CADEJO BLANCO is the story of Sarita (Karen Martínez), a working-class girl from Guatemala City, who travels to the seaside town of Puerto Barrios to infiltrate a group of young gang members. She risks her life to find out what happened to her missing sister, Bea (Pamela Martínez). In the process, Sarita becomes involved with her sister’s dangerous ex, Andrés (Rudy Rodríguez) and slowly gets closer to the truth about what happened to her.
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The year 2021 marks the 500-year anniversary of the Spanish conquest of Mexico. To commemorate the historical occasion, director Rodrigo Reyes offers a poignant hybrid-cinema experience to explore the brutal legacy of colonialism in contemporary Mexico.
Through the eyes of a ghostly conquistador (played by newcomer Eduardo San Juan Breña), Reyes recreates Hernán Cortez’s epic journey from the coasts of Veracruz to the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan, the site of contemporary Mexico City. As this fictional character is forced to interact with real victims and subjects of Mexico’s failed drug wars, Reyes portrays the country’s current humanitarian crisis as part of a vicious and unfinished colonial project, still in motion, nearly five-hundred years later.
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The Bentonville Film Foundation will be presenting an excellent lineup of narrative, documentary feature, and short film selections debuting in the 2021 Bentonville Film Festival’s (BFF) competition program set for August 2-8 in Bentonville, USA.
BFF’s lineup, I am delighted to see a diverse selection of films directed by women, IBPOC, AAPI, and LGBTQIA+ commnunities.
This year’s BFF will also combine virtual and safe in-person events, including premieres, conversations, awards, and events to produce a hybrid experience for festival attendees.
I may not be attending the festival in-person, but I am certainly happy to share my picks with you all.
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The first feature film by Phil Sheerin, written by David Turpin, The Winter Lake is a decent entry into the psychological thriller genre.
Synopsis: Alienated, 16 year-old Tom (Anson Boon) has relocated from the UK to Ireland, with his Irish-born mother, Elaine (Charlie Murphy). While exploring the farmland, he comes across an odd finding in a seasonal lake, the skeleton of an infant. Not sure what to do, Tom hides the remains among his belongings.
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The new film by Christian Petzold (Transit, Phoenix, Barbara) is a bittersweet romance that reinterprets the curse of the European mythological figure, Undine.
Synopsis: Undine works as a historian lecturing on Berlin’s urban development. But when the man she loves leaves her, the ancient myth catches up with her. Undine has to kill the man who betrays her, and return to the water.
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Starring Samantha Robinson (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, The Love Witch), For Your Consideration satirically distills the filmmaking process into a single conversation. Over lattes, the privileged few riff on society’s inequities to decide who gets to be seen and heard. And as the characters pat themselves on the back, the audience is left to question their own entitlement.
Directed by Poppy Gordon and co-written by Mexican-American screenwriter Aldo Arias, For Your Consideration aims to challenge the existing power structures of popular culture.
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