Mexico             
THE COMET

PRODUCER Fernando Cámara, Salvador de la Fuente, IMCINE, Fondo de Fomento a la Calidad Cinematográfica, Fondo Sud, Resonancia Productora, Producciones Tragaluz, Multivideo S.L., Alhena Films, Gobierno del Estado de Tlaxcala SCREENPLAY Sistach and José Buil, with Consuelo Garrido CINEMATOGRAPHY Gabriel Beristáin EDITOR Guillermo Maldonado PRODUCTION DESIGN Guadelupe Sanchez MUSIC Eduardo Gamboa CAST Diego Luna, Ana Claudia Talancon, Gabriel Retes, Carmen Maura. 1998, Color, 95 min. Spanish with titles.

Director Marisa Sistach It’s 1910, and with her father caught by dictator Diaz's police, Ana Claudia Talancon flees with money for rebel leader Madero – only trouble is, he's in San Antonio. But Gabriel Retes' traveling tent show, with Almodovar regular Carmen Maura in the troupe, is heading north, and Retes' son Diego Luna has discovered a new crowd pleaser, the cinematograph. Sistach and Buil's film is a road movie, a chase, a coming-of-age love story, and a loving evocation of the birth of the cinema, with vintage newsreel shots of Zapata and Villa.

A COUP AT DAYBREAK    

 PRODUCTION CO Centro Nacional Autónomo de Cinematografia, Audiovisuales Nebli, Carlos Orengo TVE, Caralcine C.A., Ibsen Suárez, Televisión de Actualidad, Alfredo D'ambrosio, Voice Art, Rafael Rodríguez and Henrique Vera SCREENPLAY José Ignacio Cabrujas CINEMATOGRAPHY Adriano Moreno EDITOR Sergio Curiel ART DIRECTION Raúl de la Nuez MUSIC Luis Paniagua CAST Héctor Myerston, Elba Escobar, Daniel Lugo, Rudy Rodríguez . 1998, Color, 90 min. Spanish with titles.   

Director Carlos Azpúrua February 4, 1992, just another night in Caracas: Héctor Myerston is driving a friend home, Elba Escobar has to get Asdrúbal Meléndez to a doctor, and Daniel Lugo finds himself in the middle of a two-woman jam – but what are the soldiers doing on the street? Well of course it's the night of the coup attempt, and it’s time for residents of the district near the President's house to hit the deck and for newscaster Rudy Rodríguez to swing into action. With actual news footage, this is an exciting, multi-awarded docudrama, with both pro and con arguments and bullets flying.

Peru, Spain

COURAGE             

Director Albert Chicho Durant. Back from winning a Spanish humanitarian award, Olenka Cepeda, founder and leader of the Women's Federation of Villa El Salvador, a low-rent desert district outside of Lima, finds that, after the welcoming festivities, it's business as usual as she battles the bureaucracy for those extra bags of rice – except now the brutal Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) revolutionaries have decided she's not radical enough. Based on the actual case of activist María Elena Moyano, this is a powerful docudrama that builds inevitably to its tragic conclusion, keyed by Cepeda's fiery performance, with LAND AND FREEDOM'S Rosana Pastor as her Spanish friend.

THE DAY SILENCE DIED              

PRODUCTION CO Pegaso Producciones S.R.L., Sandkorn Filmproduktion and Red Atb and CONACINE PRODUCER Martin Proctor SCREENPLAY Guillermo Aguirre and Agazzi CINEMATOGRAPHY Livio Delgado, Guillermo Medrano EDITOR Nelson Rodríguez and Agazzi PRODUCTION DESIGN Marta Mendez Iturriaga COSTUME DESIGN Reny Galleguillos MUSIC Sergio Prudencio CAST Darío Grandinetti, Gustavo Angarita, Elías Serrano. 1998, Color, 118 min. Spanish with titles.

Director Paolo Agazzi. It sure is sleepy in electricity-less Villaserena, until suddenly the "quadrophonic sound of Radio Nobleza" arrives – well, heroically mustached Darío Grandinetti [Best Actor, Cartagena Film Festival], his four loudspeakers and an electric generator. And it's not just music. For a nominal fee, he'll broadcast your personal message, too: "Now I can say what I couldn't say before" – big mistake! With Gustavo [A TIME TO DIE. STRATEGY OF THE SNAIL] Angarita doing fantasy-ridden play-by-play from the sidelines, and a pop/classical/baroque/"modern" score that in underscoring personalities and establishing the passage of time becomes practically a character in itself.

Director Hector Babenco. Walter Quiroz finds growing up tough: problems at home, problems at school, and – after he and his friends decide to use photography to prove the soul exists – a love affair with crazy, mixed-up Maria Luisa Mendonça that leads to a suicide pact. Then, back home after 20 years to visit his aging parent, the grown up Miguel Angel Solá finds he wasn't the only survivor! KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN Babenco's return to his birthplace – and to filmmaking after eight years [a bone-marrow transplant intervened] – is his first semi-autobiographical work. ["Not my biographical memory, but my emotional one."--Babenco]  With score by Krzysztof Kieslowski regular, Zbigniew Preisner.

THE GATE OF DREAMS          

PRODUCTION CO Paraguayan Cinematheque Foundation with Ara Films Produccions & Associates PRODUCER Nuny Meza, Agustín Nuñez, and Gamarra E. SCREENPLAY Gloria Muñoz, Nuñez, and Gamarra E. CINEMATOGRAPHY Gamarra E. EDITOR Mario Fuentes, Alfredo Fernández ART DIRECTION Nuñez COSTUME DESIGN Marilín Maciel MUSIC Jorge Lobito Martínez. 1998, Color, 87 min. Spanish with titles.

Director Hugo Gamarra E. The great writer Augusto Roa Bastos [SON OF MAN, I THE SUPREME] narrates as he returns after 40 years – most spent in exile – to his native village of Iturbe (he nods off on the train), en route meeting some of his own characters. Amid a flood of reminiscences, he tours the factory and the sugar cane plantation where people still work as his father did – until, finding the key symbol for his novel COUNTERLIFE, he ends as he began, at the gate of his old home, in this both visually and verbally poetic documentary.

A GLASS OF RAGE          

PRODUCTION CO Ravina Filmes PRODUCER Flávio R. Tambelini SCREENPLAY Abranches and Tambelini, from the novel by Raduan Nassar CINEMATOGRAPHY Pedro Farkas EDITOR Idê Lacreta ART DIRECTION Emília Duncan CAST Alexandre Borges, Julia Lemmertz, Linneu Dias. 1999, Color, 72 min. Portuguese with titles.

Director Aluízio Abranches. "Reason is never cold and passionless." Feminist political journalist Julia Lemmertz opts for passion with 40ish Paulo [Alexandre Borges of LOVE & CO], who's created his own world apart from society in a secluded country house outside Sâo Paulo – so special a world that when he discovers, the morning after, that ants have chomped through the hedge that protects it, his rage spills over into the relationship. And as the recriminations and name-calling fly, one realizes hate is the flip side of love. Intense and erotic emotional drama from the celebrated novel by Raduan Nassar.

Dominican Republic

IN SEARCH OF A DREAM    

PRODUCTION CO Nova Creative Releasing PRODUCER Jesus Roman Nova SCREENPLAY Freddy Vargas and Medina CINEMATOGRAPHY David Castillo EDITOR Brunilda Torres ART DIRECTION Frankiko Jimenez, Orlando Menicucci COSTUME DESIGN Waddys Jaquez MUSIC David Bravo, Bob Held, Isidro Infante CAST Kamar De Los Reyes, Elvis Novasco, Benny Nieves, Lauren Velez. 1997, Color, 100 min. Spanish with titles.

Directors Joseph Medina, Jaime Piña, David Castillo. As boys in the Dominican Republic, Kamar De Los Reyes dreamed of being a big league ballplayer and Elvis Novasco dreamed of playing in a band; years later in Nueva York, Novasco is stacking cartons in a store, while De Los Reyes drives a big car, wears hot clothes, has money to burn, and beautiful Lauren Velez as his wife – but how did he get them? Harsh morality tale of country mouse in the city, with Benny Nieves slickly sinister as the string-puller behind the scenes.

Director Ernesto McCausland. Talk about living your part: Jorge Cao, longtime "Dracula" of the Barranquilla Carnival, warms up by replacing the bedroom crucifix with a bat; but long-suffering wife Jennifer Steffens draws the line when he starts sleeping in a coffin; and Ana Milena Londoño's guitar-playing boyfriend doesn't like it when Cao adopts her as his new muse. Of course, at the spectacular actual Battle of Flowers parade everybody gets crazy (even "Death" lives his role), but there's a limit when real blood flows. Based on the actual 1988 Benjamín García case, with a tour de force performance by Cuban actor Cao.

LIFE IS TO WHISTLE             

PRODUCTION CO ICAIC/Wanda Distribución S.A. PRODUCER Rafael Rey, Camilo Vives SCREENPLAY Humberto Jiménez, Eduardo del Llano, and Pérez CINEMATOGRAPHY Raúl Pérez Ureta EDITOR Julia Yip ART DIRECTION Raúl Oliva COSTUME DESIGN Miriam Dueñas MUSIC Edesio Alejandro CAST Luis Alberto García, Coralia Veloz, Claudia Rojas, Bebé Pérez. 1998, Color, 110 min. Spanish with titles.

Director Fernando Pérez. In Havana on the day of Santa Bárbara, the day of African ruler of destiny Changó, three paths cross: ballerina Claudia Rojas wants the part of Giselle so bad she promises God she'll give up...; animal-loving Coralia Veloz starts getting these fainting bouts – Do they happen every time she hears the word "s.."?; musician Luis Alberto García alternates between chasing women and yearning for the mother who abandoned him. All presided over by bubbly 18-year-old Bebé, à la WINGS OF DESIRE. "My closest inspiration has been Magritte"--Pérez.  Special Jury Award, Sundance Film Festival.

PRODUCTION CO Mojo Films PRODUCER 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.

Director 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.

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.

Director 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.

PRODUCTION CO Cinemateam C.A., Ciro Durán, IMCINE & CNAC PRODUCER Mauricio Walerstein SCREENPLAY Julio Sosa Pietri CINEMATOGRAPHY Raoul Held ART DIRECTION Andrés Zawisza MUSIC Carlos Moréan CAST Jean Carlos Simancas, Luly Bossa, Arcelia Ramírez, Claudio Obregón. 1998, Color, 114 min. Spanish with titles.

Director Julio Sosa Pietri. Famed playwright and director Alejandro del Rey (Jean Carlos Simancas) can't stop smiling as, on closing night of his play "Junkyards," staged in a demolition-slated building, fire torches the set then keeps on going – you can't get more avant-garde than that. But when a ministerial bigwig hits the ceiling after del Rey casts a buffoonishly made up look-alike opposite a drag queen, and lover Luly Bossa finds out about his new inspiration, actress Arcelia Ramírez, it's time to just plain disappear – for 20 years! With friends and colleagues providing direct-to-camera reminiscences, and Sosa Pietri introducing the film from behind the camera, this is a striking and unusual debut work.

PRODUCTION CO Quimera  Filmes, RioFilme and Rosa Filmes PRODUCER Simone Magalhães Matos SCREENPLAY Carlos Alberto Ratton, from "Alves & Cia" by Eça de Queiroz CINEMATOGRAPHY José Tadeu Ribeiro EDITOR Diana Vasconcelos PRODUCTION DESIGN Vera Hamburger ART DIRECTION Clóvis Bueno COSTUME DESIGN Rita Murtinho MUSIC Tavinho Moura CAST Marco Nanini, Patrícia Pillar, Alexandre Borges. 1998, Color, scope, 100 min. Portuguese with titles.

Director Helvécio Ratton. When Marco Nanini finds beloved wife Patrícia Pillar in the arms of best friend/business partner Alexandre Borges – well, it's obvious what's got to happen. Except – Pillar's father wants a hefty allowance to take her in; and that mandatory duel is sure hard to set up (swords are out of the question after Nanini's rib injuries incurred trying to break down his bedroom door). Ratton's adaptation of the great Eça de Queiroz's 1883 novel preserves the original's ironic humor, amid lavish period recreations, while adding a final twist of its own, in this often hilarious send-up of "honor."

PRODUCTION CO Carrasco & Domingo Films, S.A PRODUCER Alvaro Domingo SCREENPLAY Salvador Carrasco CINEMATOGRAPHY Arturo de la Rosa EDITOR Salvador Carrasco PRODUCTION DESIGN Andrea Sanderson ART DIRECTION Bridgite Broch COSTUME DESIGN Rocío Ramírez, Claire Lewin MUSIC Samuel Zyman, Jorge Reyes  CAST Damián Delgado, José Carlos Rodríguez, Elpidia Carrillo, Iñaki Aierra.  1998, Color, 105 min. Spanish with titles.

Director Salvador Carrasco. May 1520, and Aztec scribe Damián Delgado, an illegitimate son of Moctezuma, unearths himself from under a pile of bodies at the Great Temple of Mexico to find his mother dead and the empire fallen. Then, when Delgado is captured by the Spaniards, Cortés [Iñaki Aierra] gives Friar José Carlos Rodríguez his new assignment – convert the captive. A fictional pre-history of one of the pivotal religious/cultural events of the Americas, the advent of the Virgin of Guadalupe – but who's converting whom?  "A dazzling, stupendous historical recreation"--Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times.

PRODUCTION CO Morningside Movies, Inc. and Buenos Días S.A. SCREENPLAY Justo Chang and Argueta CINEMATOGRAPHY Ramón Suárez EDITOR David Tedeschi PRODUCTION DESIGN Justo Chang ART DIRECTION Ana Solares COSTUME DESIGN Gloria Wurmser MUSIC José Gallegos and Maurice Gallegos CAST Oscar Javier Almengor, Herbert Meneses, Julio Díaz, Eva Tamargo Lemus. 1994, Color, 106 min. Spanish with titles.

Director Luis Argueta. Antigua, Guatemala, 1954: As the radio blares news of baseball, the "The Three Villalobos" adventure series and supposed Communist plots, 11-year-old Neto [Oscar Javier Almengor] enjoys his first crush, plans to climb that volcano, and battles both asthma and fussy dad Julio Díaz, even as his beloved uncle Herbert Meneses magically drops by his own funeral to give final tips on how to launch a hot air balloon. Guatemala's first, highly polished major production is both a look from the other side at the notorious U.S.-backed military takeover and a classic coming-of-age story.

PRODUCTION CO Tequila Gang PRODUCER Bertha Navarro, Guillermo del Toro SCREENPLAY Martín Salinas, and Carrera from the novel "Don Eliseo" by Marcel Sisniega CINEMATOGRAPHY Rodrigo Prieto EDITOR Sigfrido Barjau PRODUCTION DESIGN José Luis Aguilar COSTUME DESIGN María Estela Fernández MUSIC José María Vitier CAST Blanca Guerra, Mario Zaragoza, Daniel Acuña. 1998, Color, 130 min. Spanish with titles.

Director Carlos Carrera. In 1928, in the Yucatán port town of Progreso, Daniel Acuña's short-fused dad stands up for the farmers and workers on the docks – but he's not so nice on the domestic front, with his daughter running off with a circus acrobat and Acuña finding refuge in the arms of his teacher Blanca Guerra, who's already suspected of casting spells. But nine years after the ensuing scandal they meet again. A sweeping examination of the contradictions of an institutionalized revolution and a striking debut by Mario Zaragoza as the grown-up boy. Best Photography, San Sebastian FF.

SHORT FILMS

Chile

Costa Rica

Directed/written by Percy Angress. 1998, color, 15 min. Even here, love happens. Based on the story by Carlos Salazar Herrera.

Directed/written by Tana Schembori. 1999, b&w, 8 min.On the same floor of the same building, two people decide independently to change their lives--yet they've never met. Until today.