Gabina Funegra, 2009, 2010, 2011, local, Australia, 20min, Quechua, Spanish, English with English subtitles
Congratulations to Gabina Funegra and her production team for winning the 5th Sydney Latin American Film Festival Local Filmmaker Award, and the accompanying $3000 prize, with QUECHUA - THE FADING INCA LANGUAGE, a moving investigation of the role of Quechua in the lives of people living in Huallanca, a small mining town in the majestic Peruvian Andes.
We would to thank our generous sponsors Metroscreen and Panavision Australia for making this award possible.
A beautifully shot film about an artist trying to deal with the demands of society.
Daniel Ró, 2008, 2010, Feature, Peru, 88min, Spanish with English subtitles
Quitting his job as a clerk and moving out of the family home, ‘T’ attempts to fulfil a lifelong dream to become a watercolour artist. An old apartment block in the city centre provides the perfect backdrop to bring to life his vision.
Find out about where proceeds from the festival go!
What if this happened in your backyard?
Carlos Carrera, 2009, 2010, Feature, Mexico, 122min, Spanish,Tzotzil, English with English subtitles
Since the mid 1990’s hundreds of young women have gone missing or have been murdered around the border town of Juarez, Mexico. Most of the victims are low-paid laborers who have been drawn to the town by the possibility of work at American-owned factories. Backyard is the gripping story of Mexican police captain Blanca Bravo who is sent to Juarez to investigate the murders. As the investigation unfolds, Bravo is exposed to the lives of the victims and discovers a police force and local power structure that has ceased to care. Can the new police captain, Blanca Bravo, stop the savagery? Directed by cult arthouse filmmaker, Carlos Carrera and starring the legendary Jimmy Smits this film is one of the Festival highlights.
Mario Handler, 2007, 2010, Documentary, Uruguay, 75min, Spanish with English subtitles
After a long exile in Venezuela, Uruguayan filmmaker Mario Handler returns to his native country. He senses that despite the passing of so many years, the dictatorship is still present in the media, in public opinion and above all in people’s memory. Mario openly records the testimonies of the dictatorship’s victims, politicians, policemen and a member of the military. With poetry, black humour and a sharp consciousness, Handler manages to evoke the precise and dense atmosphere of those dark times for Uruguay.
Rodrigo Vazquez, 2008, 2010, Documentary, Bolivia, UK, 44min, Spanish/English with English subtitles
Since the beginning of the Iraq War the Llallagua mine has seen a boom of mineral demand from the US arms manufactures. As a result, many poor peasants without any experience such as Alex Choque and Jorge Campos (aged 9 and 13 respectively) have started working in the mines. Their parents are ill or dead after contracting what the people of Llallagua call the “mine disease”, the same disease that they are prone to everyday. Alex and Jorge have dreams of a better life. They want to study, but they can’t, their families depend on them to survive.
Rodrigo Diaz McVeigh
12 Sep 2010 - 8:00pm, 12 Sep 2010 - 10:00pm, 2009, 2010, Documentary, Cuba, Spain, USA, 55min, Spanish with English subtitles
The story of six young Cuban surfers and legendary Australian surfer, Bob Samin, who has made his home in Baracoa, Cuba.
Miguel Coyula, 2010, 2010, Experimental, Cuba, USA, 113min, Spanish with English subtitles
Sergio Garcet, an aging Cuban novelist, lives in New York, alone and alienated. Once active in the Cuban Revolution, he is now a minor college professor repulsed by the rampant capitalism he once defected to and frustrated by his publisher’s lack of interest in his new novel.
