THE BEST OF WORLD CINEMA AT MIAMI FILM FESTIVAL GEMS 2017
By Rafa Carvajal
The 3rd annual Miami Film Festival GEMS 2017 is set to take place October 12-15 at Miami Dade College’s Tower Theater. This fabulous festival is a fall extension of the annual, internationally-renowned Miami Film Festival that will celebrate its 35th edition March 9-18, 2018. If you haven’t been to GEMS, make sure you purchase tickets to watch some of its films this year. To buy tickets, visit gems2017.miamifilmfestival.com. I have attended since its inception and the films have been outstanding. Among this year’s many highlights will be the Miami premiere of Sean Baker’s The Florida Project and the U.S. premiere of Antonio Méndez Esparza’s Florida film Life and Nothing More.
GEMS 2017’s opening night film (Oct. 12) will be Luca Guadagnino’s Call Me By Your Name – considered one the the most critically acclaimed and Oscar-buzzed titles this year. It will be followed by the A TASTE OF ALTA ITALIA opening night party that will celebrate October’s annual nationwide Italian Heritage Month. Another must see film will be Ruben Östlund’s The Square, winner of the prestigious Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, from a jury presided over by Pedro Almodóvar. The Festival will also present a special seminar conversation titled Don’t Take Yes For An Answer, featuring Miami-Haitian filmmakers Edson Jean and Joshua Jean-Baptiste speaking about their recently completed, eight-episode web series that was 100% filmed in Miami and due for release in 2018 – born out of a winning pitch that they made to the Project Greenlight Digital Studio’s first “Get The Greenlight Digital Series” contest in early 2016. Imagine you have a dream to create your own episodic series. You enter a three-minute pitch video and win the $25,000 top prize! That’s what happened last year to actors and roommates Edson Jean and Joshua Jean-Baptiste. Join them and Festival director Jaie Laplante as they discuss the journey from shooting no-budget test-episodes to working on a new Miami set project in the community that inspired them; and learn why they are committed to telling homegrown tales and how their partnership made it possible.
For the first time in its history, Miami Film Festival will introduce VR Escape, a Virtual Reality sidebar, throughout the Miami GEMS 2017 in partnership with MDC’s Miami Animation & Gaming International Complex (MAGIC). You will be able to experience four 360° videos by Angel Manuel Soto, an L.A. based Puerto Rican artist/filmmaker and Miami Film Festival 2015 alumni with his feature The Farm (La granja).
Another great film at this year’s GEMS will be NO, A Flamenco Tale. Flamenco has a very special place in my heart given my Spanish heritage. I sat down with NO’s director José Luis Tirado to learn more about this GEMS 2017 jewel.
Rafa
Carvajal: What is NO, A Flamenco Tale about?
José
Luis Tirado: NO, A Flamenco Tale is a musical
film. It is an urban and contemporary flamenco opera. It is also a
“docufiction,” as it explores the hybrid and borderline terrain
between the documentary genre and fiction stories. It is an experience of
performative cinema, in which what is represented actually happens.
RC:
Tell our readers about the main actors in the film and the roles they portray.
JLT:
In NO, A Flamenco Tale, the actors are flamenco dancers, flamenco
singers, dancers of contemporary dance, etc., who interpret their own characters,
adapted to the script. The story is driven by a main character, No, who plays
the flamenco dancer Noemí Martínez Chico, who is the guiding thread, the
“MacGuffin” that takes us to the different situations of the script.
The flamenco singer, Rosa de Algeciras, interprets the first antagonistic
character, who challenges our protagonist about her feelings of loneliness.
Rocío Márquez interprets the inner voice of our protagonist. The flamenco
singer, Álvaro Ramírez, dedicates a few tientos and four tango scenes in which
he interacts by dancing with Alicia Márquez, Aitor Matres, Maria Rosa Hidalgo,
Ramon Martinez, Marco Vargas and Chloé Brûle. María Peña and Herminia Borja
lead a revealing coven, in which they sing the truths of life. To the rhythm of
rumba, Alicia Acuña teaches us that when everything seems to sink, life appears
with its compass.
RC:
What did you enjoy the most about directing NO, A Flamenco Tale?
JLT:
For me, the most enriching part is the learning process. Any project has a
large component of learning, experimentation and risk. Imagining and being
risky is what gives life to a project. Doing it collectively with a team that
is your accomplice in the limits you want to surpass is exciting. Then, there
is the perfect communication with Raúl Cantizano, the composer and, in many
cases, interpreter of the music, that has flowed in a precise and fun way.
RC:
What were your biggest challenges directing the film?
JLT:
The biggest challenge is to maintain the pulse and visual rhythm in a process
that lasts three years. In the developmental phase, script, locations, etc;
during the shooting, which lasted seven months; and in the post production and
editing phases, etc., which lasted another eight months. Maintaining the
intensity of the project during this extended time has been the greatest
achievement.
RC:
What would you like viewers to walk away with after watching NO, A Flamenco
Tale?
JLT: I
would like for viewers to discover that it is possible to face difficult
situations in life with joy and determination. That it is possible and
necessary for things to change, but for this to happen, it is necessary that we
first change our attitude. The greatest defeat is the defeatist spirit that
comes to us from power as the only possible attitude. It is necessary for that
reason to say, “No, we will not conform.”
RC:
How did you become a film director?
JLT:
From the need to tell stories to others, and also the need for this story to be
complex enough to mean something in our knowledge of reality.
RC:
Explain the power of flamenco to people who may not fully understand this
timeless Spanish tradition.
JLT:
The power of flamenco basically lies in the fact that it is not necessarily a
tradition, it is a living art that transforms itself, and reinvents itself
every day. Capable of questioning itself, and of dialoguing with other arts in
a contemporary space.
RC:
What does flamenco mean to you?
JLT:
Flamenco is a language that catches you by the guts, at the same time that it
distances you so you can have an overview vision. It is a universal language
which in association with the language of cinema can be very powerful and
universal.
RC:
Describe NO, A Flamenco Tale in 3 words.
JLT:
In three words it is complicated, but I would say: “An iconoclastic
musical.” It can stand as a headline.
RC:
Is there anything else you would like to share with Wire Magazine
readers about NO, A Flamenco Tale or your role as the director?
JLT:
That if they go see our film, they will leave the room with a malicious smile
on their faces; and then they will have no remedy: they will be accomplices of
those of us that wish a better world for all. For more information visit our
website: joseluistirado.es/p-e-l-í-c-u-l-a-s/no-un-cuento-flamenco.
SPOTLIGHT FILMS: 12 OF THE BEST MIAMI FILM FESTIVAL GEMS 2017 FILMS
Photos provided by Miami Film Festival GEMS
CALL
ME BY YOUR NAME
(France, Italy,
2017)
Director:
Luca Guadagnino
In English, French,
German, Italian, with English subtitles
GEMS Synopsis: Italian auteur Luca Guadagnino (I Am Love) makes splashy, sensual films brimming with big emotions, but the foundation of his work is a rare tenderness. In 1983 in the Lombardy countryside, an antiquities academic, Professor Perlman (Michael Stuhlbarg, who could earn an Oscar for this role), invites a young American Jewish scholar named Oliver (Armie Hammer) to stay with his family at their 17th century palazzo, and assist him with a summer research project. To the Professor’s dismay, his restless adolescent son Elio (Timothée Chalamet) soon falls under a spell of fascination with the gregarious, extroverted American. As Elio shows Oliver the natural delights of an Italian summer with nearby Swiss and French influences, exquisite dreams begin to take flight before our eyes – and those of Elio’s watchful father and mother, Annella. Call Me By Your Name, adapted by the legendary James Ivory from a novel by André Aciman, is swooning and alive – a new masterpiece. Sufjan Stevens contributes original new songs that add immeasurably to the film’s heart-fluttering texture, and the film also does for peaches what I Am Love did for prawns! – Jaie Laplante
CAN’T
SAY GOODBYE
(Spain, 2017)
Director:
Lino Escalera
In Catalan, Spanish,
with English subtitles
GEMS Synopsis: Balancing a barrage of unruly feelings with an air of philosophical wisdom, Spanish director Lino Escalera’s feature debut, winner of four awards at this year’s Málaga Film Festival, is an emotionally searing portrait of familial strife. José Luis (Juan Diego) is dying. His daughter Carla (Nathalie Poza), a bored executive who self-medicates with booze, cocaine and male attention, insists her father keep fighting the grim reaper. His daughter Blanca (Lola Dueñas), an aspiring actress, is willing to submit José Luis to palliative care and let him go gently into that good night. These conflicting attitudes lay bare the sisters’ divergent coping mechanisms and teach them a great deal about their own fraught lives. Watch this intense, smart, tender drama – and you might learn something too. – Jaie Laplante
ERIC
CLAPTON: A LIFE IN 12 BARS
(U.S., 2017)
Director:
Lili Fini Zanuck
In English
GEMS Synopsis: For over five decades, Eric Clapton has been creating rock music deeply influenced by the blues. This documentary traces the guitar virtuoso’s career through the Yardbirds, Cream, Blind Faith, Derek & the Dominos and his solo years, telling the stories behind hits like “For Your Love,” “Layla,” and “Tears in Heaven.” Clapton struggled with the demands of the music business, tumultuous love affairs, drug addiction and the tragic loss of his young son. Featuring a candid interview with Clapton and drawing from an extensive archive of performances and home movies, Life in 12 Bars traces how Clapton coped with these challenges. We come away with a deeper sense of what has inspired so much memorable music. – Thom Powers
FACES
PLACES
(France, 2017)
Director:
Agnès Varda, JR
In French, with
English subtitles
GEMS Synopsis: Agnès Varda may now be one of our oldest filmmakers, but her work possesses a youthful vivacity unparalleled among her peers of any age. Her latest documentary, co-directed with the mysterious French street artist known only as JR, is inquisitive and playful. The filmmakers board JR’s photo-truck – painted to resemble a giant camera – and travel from village to village, where they meet locals, talk to them about their lives and create immense portraits of them, which are mounted on buildings throughout their communities. Not unlike Varda’s first film, La Pointe Courte, Faces Places pays homage to the vibrancy, diversity and dignity of life beyond the urban centers that typically dominate the big screen. Vive la différence! – Jaie Laplante
IN
THE FADE
(Germany, 2017)
Director:
Fatih Akin
In German, with
English subtitles
GEMS Synopsis: Turkish-German filmmaker Fatih Akin (The Edge of Heaven) boldly navigates the confluence of cultures that comprises contemporary Europe. This new tale of terror and vengeance is just as brilliant as Akin’s previous films – and much more bracing. Katja (Inglorious Basterds’ Diane Kruger) experiences the unthinkable: her husband, a legal advisor to Germany’s Turkish and Kurdish communities, and her young son are killed in a Neo-Nazi terrorist bombing. As In the Fade draws us ever-deeper into the myriad ways that the legal system fails Katja, our heartbroken heroine takes justice into her own hands. Akin tackles the boggling complexities of modern violence with intelligence and focus. Kruger, meanwhile, is an actress of astonishing emotional dexterity, and In the Fade pushes her – and her character – to new limits. – Jaie Laplante
LIFE
& NOTHING MORE
(Spain, U.S., 2017)
Director:
Antonio Méndez Esparza
In English
GEMS Synopsis: Still in the prime of her life, Regina works long hours at a Tallahassee fast-food stop, barely earning enough to scrape by and feed her two children – Andrew, an emotionally cagey adolescent, and her young daughter. When a charismatic stranger shows interest, Regina isn’t sure she can muster enough trust to let him into her fraught life – and Andrew’s ongoing confrontations with authorities don’t help matters. With smoldering resentment at his incarcerated father and dealing with a mother nearing the end of her fraying tether, Andrew is more at risk than he realizes. Dividing its attention – and compassion – evenly between Andrew and Regina, Life and Nothing More is an invigorating work of modern neorealism set on the fringes of urban Florida. Spanish writer/director Antonio Méndez Esparza displays an astonishing grasp of the conundrum of race, family and justice that suffuse our contemporary America. Life and Nothing More is essential cinema for our present moment. – Jaie Laplante
MY
FRIEND DAHMER
(U.S., 2017)
Director:
Marc Meyers
In English
GEMS Synopsis: There’s something different about Ohio high school student Jeff Dahmer. To get through the days, Jeff plays the class clown, feigning spastic fits to attract attention. After school, he retreats to his makeshift lab, where he dissolves roadkill in jars of acid. No one could foresee what he would become… Based on the graphic novel by John Backderf – one of Dahmer’s former classmates – My Friend Dahmer is a grim origin story. Anchored by former Disney star Ross Lynch’s chilling lead performance, this is a terrifying, surprisingly empathetic look into one troubled teen’s descent into madness. Jeffrey Dahmer would later become one of the most notorious serial killers in American history. But here, he’s simply known as “Dahmer” – a not-so-regular high school student. – Lauren Cohen
NO,
A FLAMENCO TALE
(Spain, 2016)
Director:
José Luis Tirado
In Spanish, with
English subtitles
GEMS Synopsis: A beguiling fusion of thrilling cinema and passionate music, NO, A Flamenco Tale sweeps us off to a land where the joys and hardships of life are expressed in breathtaking spectacle and song. Clapping hands, stamping feet, stirring singing, intricate guitar and arresting dance: flamenco is a tradition of bold, soul-piercing gestures. Spanish director José Luis Tirado matches these gestures with a loose story about No, a dancer who works at a small venue in Seville’s Triana Market. At times No feels alienated by the world she inhabits, yet she finds communion in sundry public spaces where her dance provokes reactions from fellow citizens. Let NO take hold of your senses – and you too will be provoked, inspired and moved. – Jaie Laplante
SUMMER
1993
(Spain, 2017)
Director:
Carla Simón
In Catalan, with
English subtitles
GEMS Synopsis: Winner of the Best First Feature Award in Berlin, Spanish writer/director Carla Simón’s autobiographical coming-of-age tale is delicate, transporting and, in its confident, unassuming way, profoundly moving. Sublimely embodied by little Laia Artigas – whose arresting presence at times recalls the young Ana Torent – six-year-old Frida is sent from Barcelona to her aunt and uncle’s home in the Catalán countryside. Frida has lost both her parents, and though her new family is welcoming, her new surroundings overturn her inchoate understanding of the world. In its steady accumulation of precise, evocative moments – a child’s upturned face lit by fireworks; two girls sharing a bath and learning to hold their breath – Summer 1993 renders a time of tumultuous transition with grace and wonder. – Jaie Laplante
THE
FLORIDA PROJECT
(U.S., 2017)
Director:
Sean Baker
In English
GEMS Synopsis: Following his micro-budget break-out Tangerine, Sean Baker cements his status as one of our freshest and most vital filmmakers with The Florida Project, pure film of the highest order; it reminds us that even in the direst circumstances life will always yield small yet unforgettable joys. Set in Orlando, this freewheeling film, like its predecessor, offers a big-hearted portrait of America’s marginalized. This time around Baker’s subjects are 22-year old Halley and her six-year-old daughter Moonee. The pair resides in a cheap motel tucked near a freeway and a theme park. Halley struggles to pay for cereal and shelter, while Moonee doesn’t let a little thing like destitution prevent her from exploring her surroundings or playing jokes on a motel staff-member (beautifully depicted by Willem Dafoe). Warm, winning and gloriously alive, Sean Baker’s The Florida Project is a deeply moving and unforgettably poignant look at childhood.
THE
LEISURE SEEKER
(U.S., 2017)
Director:
Paolo Virzì
In English
GEMS Synopsis: The Leisure Seeker stars Academy Award-winner Helen Mirren and two-time Golden Globe-winner Donald Sutherland as a runaway couple going on an unforgettable journey in the faithful old RV they call The Leisure Seeker, travelling from Boston to The Ernest Hemingway Home in Key West. They recapture their passion for life and their love for each other on a road trip that provides revelation and surprise right up to the very end. All ticket sales from this screening will be donated to United Way of the Florida Keys to aide in the Hurricane Irma Relief Fund.
THE
WORKSHOP
(France, 2017)
Director:
Laurent Cantet
In French, with
English subtitles
GEMS Synopsis: Laurent Cantet’s Palme d’Or-winning The Class was a profound examination of contemporary education in all its social and pedagogical complexities. Set in a summer creative writing workshop, Cantet’s new film, The Workshop, veers into a very different, very intriguing direction. Presided over by a published crime novelist, the workshop’s objective is to have its working-class, mixed race, adolescent participants collectively compose a novel set in their coastal French town. Reaching consensus proves difficult, and Antoine, the most outspoken, contentious participant begins to dominate – and destabilize – the proceedings. Under Cantet’s steely focus, The Workshop seamlessly shifts from a film in which people discuss a thriller to a film that is itself a fiercely intelligent thriller, grounded in the fraught socio-political landscape these kids are inheriting. – Jaie Laplante
This was originally published in Wire Magazine Issue 38.2017