ESTÉVEZ / PAÑOS Y COMPAÑÍA wow audiences at Sadler’s Wells
The Flamenco Festival at Sadler’s Wells is lit up again with ‘La Confluencia,’ an adventurous new work created by dancer/ choreographer team Rafael Estévez and Valeriano Paños.
A Big Budget for a Big Man
HANDIA (Giant) swept the boards at the 2018 GOYA AWARDS, with 13 nominations, and carrying away 10 awards. In particular it won Best original Script, Best New Actor, as well as awards for Cinematography, Editing, Special Effects…
MAGDALENA, TE AMO (2024) by Andrea Calao
‘Magdalena, Te Amo’ (2024) is a moving short film about student sex workers in New York. Premiered at the New York Latino Film Festival, it has also been longlisted for the 2024 Yugo BAFTA Student Awards.
‘El Visitante’ (The Visitor- 2022) by director Martín Boulocq.
This film has been awarded 3 wins and 3 nominations for Best Film and Best Screenplay, but surprisingly. none for Enrique Aráoz's excellent debut performance.
Art Therapy
Dairo Vargas started out in a village in Colombia, yet, thanks to the originality of his art, today his paintings and portraits figure in many private collections. Passionate about mental health, he dedicates a great deal of his…
CHACO (2020) by Bolivian director Diego Mondaca.
'CHACO' is being screened in the " Echoes & Horizons of Contemporary Bolivian Cinema' at the Garden Cinema., bringing a story set during the 'War of Thirst'.
Federico García Lorca, Sketches of Spain, with illustrations by Julian Bell.
The Spectrum of Young Lorca.
The Condor and The Eagle
The Condor and the Eagle (2019) is a prize-winning documentary film directed by Sophie and Clément Guerra, about the collective struggle of the Indigenous peoples of North and South America to defend their land and water against…
Llamadas desde Moscú (Calls from Moscow) by Cuban director Luis Alejandro Yero
In the ‘Minds’ strand of the BFI Flare Festival 2024, the documentary ‘CALLS FROM MOSCOW’ is the story of four young Cuban immigrants, who find themselves stuck in Moscow, just one day before the invasion of Ukraine. Lost,…
WAITING FOR THE BARBARIANS (2019) Dir Ciro Guerra
In a sharp critique of the worst aspects of colonialism ‘Waiting for the Barbarians’, the feature film by Ciro Guerra (faithfully adapted from J M Coetzee’s 1980s novel of the same name) examines the wilful ignorance and…
'Memory House' Dir João Paulo Miranda María
Set in modern-day Brazil, with a fantastical narrative using hallucinations and dreams, in his film Memory House 2020, João Paulo Miranda María explores the lonely and tortured life of Cristovam as he suffers the harsh clash of…
LATIN LONDONER #61 - Pepa Duarte, Actor, Writer and Director
"Captivating, marvellous, enjoyable and unique" is how one critic described Pepa Duarte's one woman show 'Eating Myself' which she wrote and performed across the UK, to rave reviews. Her other works…
No Clowning Around
Vladimir Brichta’s striking good looks and palpable on-screen energy had already made him a household name Brazilian television, from mini- series to hugely popular novellas (long serials). But now non-Brazilians can enjoy these…
The São Paulo Dance Company’s UK tour shook the stage at Sadler’s Wells - but is the depth of the artistic intention communicated to the audience?
Embarking on their Dance Consortium tour, the São Paulo dance company’s programme is undeniably ambitious, tackling lofty themes of nationhood and identity and time in an “invitation to dance together” (Inês Bogéa). To the highly…
LATIN LONDONER #8 BIanca Jagger - Style Diva and Human Rights Activist
A ‘one off’, a glamorous Latin American who has poured her passion and pride into doing the right thing; an example of Latin American solidarity personified.
“Happiness is a Myth"
In his book 'You are not Meant to be Happy, so stop Trying' Basque psychiatrist Dr Rafa Euba argues that happiness is merely an ethereal ghost that inhabits our brain, not something to strive for. Released in these…
Surviving Venezuela
‘Surviving Venezuela: Smuggling Dreams’, directed by Anglo-Peruvian Alexander ‘Lali’ Houghton is a TV documentary filmed in 2017 for ‘Witness’, Al Jazeera. It was short listed for a Rory Peck Award (2018), as well for the Foreign…
"Magellan" (2025) Dir. Lav Diaz
"Magellan" traces the drama of the fateful expedition to the Spice islands in the 16th century and features Gaël García Bernal as the Portuguese navigator Fernando Magalhães (Magellan), who has to leave his heavily-…
Tango Fire @ the Peacock
This phenomenal show - now in its 7th year - demonstrates new energy and drama every time it returns - a testament to German Cornejo's drive and love of his art, the reason Tango Fire is still as fresh as ever.
Women by Women: Changing Photography For The Better
Showing at the OXO Gallery to mark International Women’s Day, ActionAid’s new exhibition Women by Women “aims to shatter stereotypes and celebrate inspiring women refugees from around the world” (ActionAid). One of five…
Carlos Acosta’s A Celebration – Thirty Years in Dance
Carlos Acosta has retired from the Royal Ballet where he was principal dancer, but there is little else about him to denote ‘dancer in retirement’.
EL FATHER PLAYS HIMSELF (2020) dramatic documentary directed by Mo Scarpelli
“The root of all shades of machismo is fear, the root of family is love. In ‘EL FATHER PLAYS HIMSELF’ this fear and love collide.”
LATIN LDONDONER #7 Julieta Hernández Adame - Visual Artist
Mexican born Julieta Hernández Adame is a talented artist and printmaker who skilfully uses the urban, the industrial and above all the power of words to make us reflect on the world we leave in. She was voted the Visual Artist…
The Things That Tie Us
During his day job as a Spanish criminal interpreter in a small town in California, filmmaker Rodrigo Reyes met a young man named Sansón, an undocumented Mexican immigrant who was sentenced to life in prison without parole.…
LATIN LONDONER #54 - Constanza Hola-Chamy, Writer, Director
Chilean playwright and director Constanza Hola-Chamy wears many hats, producing her own work and even understudying in some productions. Her works include 'Mad Women' and 'The Colour Violet', both previewed at…
Haikus for a Pandemic
Leo Boix is a bilingual poet, translator and journalist born in Argentina who lives and works in the UK. Boix has published two poetry collections in Spanish, Un lugar propio (2015) and Mar de noche (2017), and has been included…
Lita Stantic: The ‘Producer’ of New Argentine Cinema
The career of Argentine film director, scriptwriter and producer Lita Stantic spans for longer than four decades, a time during which Argentine cinema has established itself as a reference among national cinemas. Despite having…
Above All...
‘Sobretodo’ in Spanish is the word for ‘coat’, but the literal translation means ‘about everything’, a detail not lost on the author, as this delightful selection of poems by Argentine author Sylvia Libedinsky is exactly that:…
Spain's Film Intellectual: interview with Ramon Luque
A lover of Woody Allen and Ingmar Bergman, Spanish director Ramon Luque is a great Film intellectual, known just as much for his nine books than for the three films that he's made. His latest film, the critically acclaimed…
COSMIC CONNECTIONS
Patricia Diaz describes herself as a migrant storyteller, for she has lived longer in London than in her native Colombia. Her debut novel ‘The Golden Bat’ touches on the tragic events of the 1985 Nevado del Ruiz volcano eruption…
Latin Shorts
Since short films were removed from accompanying all features at cinemas, they have struggled to find venues to reach an audience. The The 21st London Short Film Festival aims to change that, in style. We review four Latin…
LATIN LONDONER #53 - Jimena Larraguivel, Actor, Writer
Mexican actor Jimena Larraguivel has worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company twice - first in 2018, in a musically devised piece about the disappearance of 43 students in Mexico, and then again in 2023 in the UK tour of…
THE ROAD TO PATAGONIA Dir. Matty Hannon
This is a document of 16 years of ecologist Matty Hannon’s life, as he follows his dream to travel and be at one with nature, while falling in love and surfing some of the wildest waves on the planet travelling down America'…
Maria (2024) by multi-award-winning Chilean director Pablo Larraín.
“I’m in a mood for adulation” Pablo Larraín explores the last years in the life of coloratura soprano María Callas once the applause had faded, as she lives, almost unknown and forgotten in a sumptuous apartment in Paris, France…
The Isolation Film List
You may have missed them first time around in the cinema, but here’s ten relatively recent Latin-American films available online to watch in isolation – you won’t be disappointed!