World Cinema Amsterdam presents the special focus of this year's edition: Cine Caribe! A programme that brings to Amsterdam the best and most beautiful films from Cuba, Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago, the Dominican Republic, Curaçao and Haiti.
Film still: ART CONNECT | Miquel Galofré | Trinidad & Tobago | 2014
One after the other, new film talents are popping up all over the Caribbean. For World Cinema Amsterdam, reason enough to zoom in on the region and put together an extensive programme of some twenty films, documentaries and shorts. Also, the festival will throw two awesome, exotic parties on Saturday 15 and Saturday 22 August!
Cuba, the biggest island in the Caribbean, has the broadest film output in the region. It is not surprising then that Cuba is represented in the programme with four features and four short films. It is remarkable that the makers of the selected titles confront in their work subjects that were not so long ago considered taboo. Filmmaker Carlos M. Quintela, for example, in his HIVOS Tiger Award winner LA OBRA DEL SIGLO presents a psycologicalaly upsetting portreit of three men against the background of a failed construction project, while Marilyn Solaya addresses the theme of transexuality in her film VESTIDO DE NOVIA. Ernesto Daranas Serrano's CONDUCTA, which will screen in the Open Air programme, shows how poverty and drug addiction undermine the lives of a boy and his teacher. Also from Cuba in World Cinema Amsterdam, talented young filmmaker Marylis Alfonso Yero will present three shorts: LUI-ELLE, LAS VENTANAS and RESINA.
Maryulis Alfonso Yero and Carlos M. Quintela have been invited to attend the 6th WCA and will be present during the festival to introduce their films and respond to the audience's questions after the screenings.
More Caribbean
In GOD LOVES THE FIGHTER by Damian Marcano, it becomes clear that, for many people struggling in Trinidad & Tobago, it is virtually impossible to earn a living in an honest way. While in his impressive documentary ART CONNECT, director Miquel Galofré offers a way out of such a situation by showing how art can have a positive impact on disadvantaged youth from the deprived area of Laventille. The Dominican Republic is represented by DOLARES ARENA, directed by Laura Amelia Guzmán and Israel Cárdenas; a story in which a rich Western tourist starts a love affair with a local resident for whom the relationship represents a way of putting bread on the table. Furthermore, the festival will also programme the Dutch premieres of two films from Curaçao: SOMBRA DI KOLÓ by director Angela Roe (present at World Cinema 2015), a film in which thirty people from Willemstad (Curaçao) share their feelings about race and skin color; and SENSEI REDENSHON, the debut film of director German Gruber Jr., a thrilling story about making choices and reconciliation jam-packed with excellently choreographed fight scenes. The DoP and Executive Producer of the film, Ewoud Bon, will be attending the festival and will answer the audience's questions after the screening of the film.
Come dance at Rialto!
Don't miss the chance to visit this year's swinging parties. On Saturday, August 15th, the festival kicks off with the lively Fiesta Latinoamericana Cuban Style organized by Muchachas Borrachas. The festivities burst loose from 11 pm, with the DJs Fernando and Armenio. World Cinema Amsterdam winds up on Saturday 22 August with a Yard Vibes event, a cheerful Caribbean party organized by Caribbean Creativity and accompanied by DJ radical Hifi, DJs Sotu The Traveller, Rowstone and Madbwoy. Rialto will be the place to be this evening!