VLAFF ANNOUNCES 2009 FESTIVAL LINEUP

The Vancouver Latin American Film Festival is proud to announce its 2009 festival lineup, showcasing fiction and documentaries features, as well as short films.

This year, VLAFF shines the cinematic spotlight on Chile, with screenings of a selection of documentaries, feature-length and short films, including a special program of shorts by some of the country’s most promising young female directors. In all, no fewer than 15 Chilean productions will be presented at Vancouver’s seventh annual Latin American Film Festival – from acclaimed directors such as Ignacio Aguero and Andres Wood, and from talented newcomers like Dominga Sotomayor and Antonia Lobos.

But VLAFF’s repertoire doesn’t end there. VLAFF will screen films from Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, El Salvador, Mexico, Peru and Paraguay. Countries that appear as co-producers include the United Kingdom, United States, Italy, France, Spain, Korea and Bolivia. The festival also offers special screenings of high-profile films that have been presented in some of the most prestigious international film festivals on the planet – Cannes, Toronto, Buenos Aires, Havana and Berlin – and have won awards in the festival circuit and national academy awards.

VLAFF will also present a Mexican Sci-Fi classic from the ´60s titled Santo, El Enmascardo de Plata vs. La Invasión de los Marcianos (Santo Versus the Martian Invasion), a film about a masked wrestler that batles Martians intent on taking over the Earth. The film fits with the lucha libre, or Mexican freestyle wrestling, theme that will appear on promotional materials for this year’s festival.

The Vancouver Latin American Film Festival is committed to presenting a wide range of films in terms of budgets and treatment – from the box-office hit Arrancame la Vida (Tear This Heart Out), which is considered the most expensive film in Mexican history, to Personal Belongings, a considerably lower-budget Cuban film directed by emerging filmmaker Alejandro Brugues.

VLAFF will also have a special collaboration with Mexico City’s Short Shorts Film Festival, presenting a selection of the best short Mexican films screened in the last two years at that festival. This year theVLAFF programming committee viewed 250 submissions, selecting a total of 63 works.

VLAFF is a non-competitive festival that introduced a People’s Choice Award in 2008, enabling members of the audience to vote for their favourite feature film. The Vancouver Latin American Film Festival runs from September 10-20, 2009, in Vancouver, Canada.

And now, for the Official 2009 VLAFF Selection:

OPENING AND CLOSING FILMS

Opening Film: ARRANCAME LA VIDA (TEAR THIS HEART OUT), directed by Roberto Sneider / Mexico

Closing Film: LA BUENA VIDA (THE GOOD LIFE), directed by Andres Wood / Chile

SPECIAL SCREENINGS

LEONERA (LION’S DEN), directed by Pablo Trapero / Argentina

ESTÔMAGO (A GASTRONOMIC STORY), directed by Marcos Jorge / Brazil

EL CUERNO DE LA ABUNDANCIA (HORN OF PLENTY), directed by Juan Carlos Tabio / Cuba

TONY MANERO, directed by Pablo Larrain / Chile

LAKE TAHOE, directed by Fernando Eimbcke / Mexico

PARPADOS AZULES (BLUE EYELIDS), directed by Ernesto Contreras / Mexico

SANTO EL ENMASCARDO DE PLATA VS. LA INVASION DE LOS MARCIANOS (SANTO VS THE MARTIAN INVASION), directed Alfredo B. Crevenna / Mexico

CONTEMPORARY LATIN AMERICAN CINEMA

ARGENTINA 

LOS PARANOICOS (THE PARANOIDS), directed by Gabriel Medina

LA RONDA (LOVE BY ACCIDENT), directed by Ines Braun

INCOMODOS (AWKWARD), directed by Esteban Menis

LA SANGRE BROTA (BLOOD APPEARS), directed by Pablo Fendrik

BRAZIL

POLAROIDES URBANAS, directed by Miguel Falabella

NOEL - POETA DA VILA (NOEL: THE SAMBA POET), directed by Ricardo Van Steen

OPERACION CONDOR, directed by Roberto Mader

CHILE

LA VIDA ME MATA (LIFE KILLS ME), directed by Sebastian Silva

EL CIELO, LA TIERRA Y LA LLUVIA (THE SKY, THE EARTH AND THE RAIN) directed by J. Luis Torres

EL DIARIO DE AGUSTIN (AGUSTIN’S NEWSPAPER), directed by Ignacio Aguero

EL REGALO (THE GIFT), directed by Andrea Ugalde and Cristian Galaz

SECRETOS (SECRETS), directed by Valeria Sarmiento

COLOMBIA

LA MILAGROSA (THE MIRACULOUS), directed by Rafa Lara

SATANAS, directed by Andres Baiz

CUBA

PERSONAL BELONGINGS, directed by Alejandro Brugues

EL SALVADOR

EVER AMADO, directed by Victor Ruano

MEXICO

CHEVOLUTION, directed by Trisha Ziff and Luis Lopez

PARAGUAY

LA TIERRA SIN MAL (THE LAND OF NO EVIL), directed by Anna Recalde

PERU

PASAJEROS (PASSENGERS), directed by Andres Cotler

EL PREMIO (THE AWARD), directed by Alberto Durant

SHORT FILMS SELECTION

REEL JOURNEYS: SHORTS BY CHILEAN WOMEN

LA MONTAÑA (THE MOUNTAIN), directed by Dominga Sotomayor

NO ME PIDAS QUE NO LO LAMENTE (Don’t Ask Me Not To Be Sorry), directed by Constanza Fernández

DEBAJO (UNDERNEATH), directed by Dominga Sotomayor

CAMPOSANTO (CHURCHYARD), directed by Antonia Lobos

NOVIEMBRE (NOVEMBER), directed by Dominga Sotomayor

FROM MEXICO CITY’S SHORTS SHORTS FILM FESTIVAL

EDEN, directed by Sergio Tovar Velarde

LULU LA DEL PEZ (The Fish’s Lulu), directed by Manolo Caro

VOODOO BAYOU, directed by Javier Gutiérrez FLOPPY, directed by Francisco Payó

ESTAS HORAS SON MAS BELLAS QUE MIS DIAS (These Days Are More Beautiful Than My Days), directed by Pierre Saint-Martin Castellanos

PRIMER MOVIMIENTO PARA VEINTE HOMBRES EN UN CUARTO VACIO (First Movement for Twenty Men in an Empty Room), directed by Gabriel Herrera

PLANTA BAJA (Ground Floor), directed by Andrés Borda LA HORA CERO (Dusk), directed by Gary Alazraki

TRABALENGUAS PARA UNA CASA VACIA (Word Puzzle for an Empty House), directed by Gabriel Herrera

DE LA VISTA NACE EL AMOR (Love at First Sight), directed by Miguel Anaya

SHORT FILMS

CINEMA NOSSO Director: Julio C. Siqueira / Brazil

OS SAPATOS DE ARISTEU (The Shoes of Aristeu) Director: René Guerra / Brazil

SAMBA DE QUADRA (Samba from Quadra) Directors: Gustavo Mello, Luis Ferraz / Brazil

THE CRANE MACHINE Director: Leonardo Cubeddu / Canada

LA VIE Director: Daniel Bohrer do Nascimento / Canada

BRIEF GUIDE ABOUT BRIDESMAIDS Directors: Nicolas Alexander, Yaniv Fridman and Amber MacKay / Canada

PAPALOTE (The Kite) Director: Jennifer Patterson / Canada-Cuba

PRESIDIO MODELO Director: Pablo Alvarez / Canada

PLAYBACK Director: Ana Maria Carrizales/ Peru-Canada

LA NOSTALGIA DEL Sr. ALAMBRE (Mr. Wire’s Nostalgia) Director: Jonathan Ostos Yaber / Mexico

MAÑANA (Tomorrow) Director: Pablo Trujillo Novoa / Cuba-Chile

AL FINAL DEL DIA (At the End of the Day) Director: Felipe Azua / Chile

LA SOMBRA DE DON ROBERTO (Don Roberto’s Shade) Directors: Juan Diego Spoerer, Håkan Engström / Chile

DOLORES Director: Tatiana Villacob / Colombia                                                        

EN LEGÍTIMA DEFENSA (In self-defense) Director: Carlos Serna / Colombia

 SIN DECIR NADA (Don’t say a word) Director: Diana Montenegro / Colombia

ES POPULAR (It’s Popular) Director: Carlos Osuna / Colombia

ODA A LA PIÑA (Oda to the Pinneaple) Director: Laimir Fano Villaescusa / Cuba

LA ROPA SUCIA (Dirty Clothes) Director: Yoame Escamilla / Mexico

EN TRANSITO (In Transit) Director: Isabel Muñoz Cota Callejas / Mexico