Uruguay

PRODUCTION CO Mojo FilmsPRODUCER Pablo Behrens SCREENPLAY Pato López,  Nestor Piñón, and  Ricagni CINEMATOGRAPHY Horacio Maira EDITOR Fernando Guariniello, Fernanda Rossi, Luis Moreno ART DIRECTION Walter Brunialti MUSIC Mario Grigorov CAST Jorge Esmoris, Pastora Vega, Ruben Rada. 1998, Color, 94 min. Spanish with titles.

Directed by Leonardo Ricagni. Tuleque (Jorge Esmoris), a modern-day Don Quijote who sounds something like Frank Zappa, is back from the slammer just in time to reunite his group "Los Chevrolés" – named after his beloved half-body of an ancient Chevy – for the Battle of the Bands, hoping to use the winnings to save the holy spring of the Virgin of the Barrio Sur. Leonardo Ricagni's first film is a fever    dream of unusual angles; dazzling photography, with colors both lurid and muted; frenetic cutting; near continuous musical score; vintage cars; and a lost love – a truly love-it or hate-it experience.

 

Chile

LITTLE GRINGO

PRODUCTION CO Amor en el Sur Films PRODUCER Sergio Castilla SCREENPLAY J.B. Miller and Castilla CINEMATOGRAPHY Chuy Chavez EDITOR Danielle Fillios MUSIC Jamie Lawrence CAST Sebastián Pérez, Mateo Iribarren, Alejandro Goic, Catalina Guerra. 1998, Color, 90 min. Spanish with titles.

Directed by Sergio Castilla   Talk about culture shock: football-, b-ball-, hockey-, peanut butter-, and opera-loving 8-year-old New Yorker Sebastián Pérez [Paul Simon's CAPEMAN] heads back to a Santiago, Chile, he's never known, with pregnant mom Catalina Guerra and Columbia U prof dad Alejandro Goic (who's got bad memories of the dictatorship), to meet grandparents strange to him, and to speak a language he claims he's forgotten – then gets himself lost!  His ensuing adventures prove both charming and disturbing, in Castilla's own return, after 17 years, to his homeland.

  Costa Rica     

  THE PASSION OF OUR LADY

    Directed/written by Hilda Hidalgo, color,13 min. A seller of spiritual books visits
   a lone woman in the jungle