by the El Reportero’s news services
The award-winning Colombian film El Abrazo de la Serpiente drew the attention in the 9th Latin American Film Festival in Venezuela, which includes 22 films from the region. El Abrazo de la Serpiente, the first Colombian film nominated for the Oscar awards, also has some 30 awards at festivals around the world.
Based on the diaries written by early explorers traveling the Amazonia in the early 20th century, Ciro Guerra’s film shows in black and white the immensity of the jungle.
The river is a kind of common thread of the story that to show the intricacies of Latin American indigenous cultures uses the meeting of shaman Karamakate with German ethnologist Theodor Koch-Grunberg and US biologist Richard Evans Schultes.
El Abrazo de la Serpiente was mostly filmed in regions of Mitu, capital city of the Colombian department of Vaupes, where 27 native ethnic groups live.
The festival, running from Sept. 1st to 22nd, includes films from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Guatemala, México, Panama, Peru and Uruguay.
Juan Gabriel ashes to arrive Saturday to Juarez, Mexico
The ashes of Mexican singer Juan Gabriel were conserved in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico, stated on Sept. 2 Governor César Duarte.
El Divo de Juárez, whose original name was Alberto Aguilera, was born in Parácuaro, state of Michoacan, on Jan. 7, 1950. Juan Gabriel died last Sunday in Santa Monica, California, at 66 years of age due to a heart attack.
With the arrival of his ashes on Saturday in Juárez, the author of Abrazame muy Fuerte, returns to the city where he lived, worked and took his first steps as a creator and artist.
The urn, transported by his family members, arrived at the airport in El Paso, Texas, getting to Mexican territory through Santa Fe Bridge. It was then transported to his 16 de Septiembre Avenue home.
According to the program, it was offered a mass with the participation of the town people and subsequently a cultural evening.
Mexico City will Host International Festival of Short Films
The capital prepares to host the 11th edition of the International Festival of Shorts Mexico, which will screen over 350 short films of 35 countries, from Sept. 1 thru 8. The challenge was to resort to short formats to project an idea in the big screen without trespassing the frontier of 30 minutes, expressed Jorge Magaña, director of the festival.
Alejandro Galindo, of the National Cinematheque, announced the Festival will have 28 venues in cultural centers of the capital.
After a work of selection among two thousand short films received, the jury decided to screen 354 films of which 155 are from abroad.
Meanwhile, Hugo Villa, president of the Commission of Films of the Secretary of Culture of the federal district, said that ‘the short film is not a minor gender, but a film format in which the same effort is put’.
As every year, the event present the competition in different categories.
The jury is made up by 33 personalities of the film industry.
When ending the exhibition in the City of Mexico, the event will make a tour to 14 states and after that it will travel abroad with a special selection of Mexican short films.
