Havana Film Festival 2003 In NYC.

The 2003 Havana Film Festival in New York will once again offer New Yorkers a versatile programming schedule comprised of more than 70 of the most relevant film productions of Latin America. This fourth edition of the eight day long festival will allow the public to enjoy regional and national premieres (The Three Marias, Paradise B, The Photographer, Netto Loses his Soul), award winning feature length films (Dark Times, Urbania, Deep Crimson, Inheritance), documentary winners from Havana, Biarritz and Berlin film festivals (Missing Young Woman, Portrait of Elena Garro, The Isle of Lost Children, Zapata’s Shoes) and award winning experimental short films (Dada, 100% Wool, Chicken Flesh) with innovative themes.

Alongside this programming schedule are special exhibits in animation (Ogu and Mampato, Bus Trip, Masks), music (Music’s inside us, Queen of The Gypsy-Carmen Amaya, Leo Brouwer, The Spirits Dance Mambo), and the works of the Film School Foundation of Buenos Aires (Postal Code, Beach Resorts, My Wedding Celebration). Julio Garcia Espinoza, one of the most influential film directors of Latin American films, and his films (King and Queen, The Adventures of Juan Quin Quin and Son and No Son) will be a special guest of honor. His theory on “The Imperfect Cinema” will be a featured theme for a HFFNY discussion panel. There will also be a special presentation of Classic Cuban films as part of the Documentaries of the Revolution series (Prayer, Aesthetic, Now, For the First Time) curated by Marie Stock, a professor and expert on the
subject.

The Cuban film Nothing More — Opera prize winner at the Habana 01 festival and an official selection for the Producers’ Fortnight at Cannes ’02 — by young filmmaker Juan Carlos Cremata, will open the festival on Wednesday March 26 at 7 p.m. (Clearview Chelsea West, 333 W. 23rd Street and 8th Avenue). The film, with a fresh cinematography and full of poetic and
pictoral references, tells the story of Carla Perez (Thais Valdes) a young woman working at the post office who dreams hopelessly of a visa with which to travel to the United States; a cup of coffee spilt on a letter changes her destiny forever. Carla gains a purpose and a partner (Nacho Lugo) who turn her world around and teach her that love can both the beginning and the end.

Actors, producers and directors from Cuba (Juan Carlos Cremata, Orlando Rojas, Julio Garcia, José Padrón), Colombia (Jorge Alí Triana, Luis Merino), Venezuela (Malena Roncayolo), Brazil (Aluizio Abranches, Daniel Schorr), Chile (Sebastian Alarcon, Alejandro Rojas, Sergio Gandara), Argentina (Manuel Antín, Paula Hernandez), Puerto Rico (Victor Ramos), Ecuador (Ivan Mora), Nicaragua (Florencia Jaugey), Mexico (Mario Mandujano, Anilú Pardo) and the U.S. (Martha Moreno, Calogero Salvo, Trina Bardusco) will be on hand in New York to present their films and to participate in the different discussion panels that endeavor to deepen the relationship between filmmakers and the viewing public.

The Havana Film Festival in New York will take place in important theatres throughout three boroughs. In Manhattan at the Clearview Chelsea West (333 West. 23rd Street and 8th Avenue) at the NYU Cantor Centor (36 E. 8th Street and Mercer) and at the Anthology Film Archives (32 East 2nd Street and 2nd Avenue), In Queens at the Sunnyside Cinema Center (Queens Blvd. and 43rd Street) and, for the first time, at the Museum of the Moving Image (35 Ave. and 36th Street, Astoria), in the Bronx at the Museum of the Arts (165th Street and Grand Concourse) and at the Hostos Community College Arts Center (450 Grand Concourse and 145th Street). This broad range of venues will allow a greater audience to attend films that would otherwise rarely get shown in these communities. Last year’s 50 plus Latin American films were attended by more than 12,000 moviegoers.

This year the festival will emphasize the recent trends in Latin American animation, a genre that has found its own particular aesthetic in each country; Ogu and Mampato in Rapanui by Alejandro Rojas (Chile), chosen by the Academy of
Arts and Sciences as a pre-selection for the Oscar; BusTrip and Jones & Lisa by Daniel Schorr (Brazil), a pioneer in Brazil who also works for the prestigious National Film Board of Canada and the award winning The Time Has Come and Remedies by Paulina Ponce (Colombia). A special exhibit of the continent’s pioneer in animation, The Cuban Cinematography Institute, will include the “Filmminutes” series by Tulio Raggi and Mario Rivas, A Dream in the Park by Rogelio Nogeras and Estela Grain of Sand by Miguel Vidal.

A special exhibit will also showcase two of the most important film schools of the continent: The International Film and Television School of Cuba, with its director of sixteen years, the Cuban Julio Garcia Espinoza, and the Film School Foundation of Argentina curated by his founder and director Manuel Antin. These institutes are credited with producing the various generations of young filmmakers who currently direct the Latin American cinematic panorama.

The HFFNY has the honor of closing the festival on Wednesday April 2nd (Clearview Chelsea West, 23 Street & 8 Ave) with the New York premiere of Bolivar I Am by Colombian director Jorge Ali Triana. Triana is one of the most well respected filmmakers within the international artistic community. Since its debut Bolivar I Am has won prizes in several important film festivals such as Best Picture at Mar de Plata film festival 2002, Audience Prize at the Tolouse 2002 festival and Best Picture at Cartagena film festival 2002.

For more information at http://www.hffny.com