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Summer 1993 — Catalonia, Spain

So cathartic was Summer 1993 that my personal psyche will be marked by it forever. Why this story, about a six year old girl who quietly and slowly comes to terms with the death of her mother and how the process, invisible to anyone watching, culminates in a sudden crescendo of emotion moved me to tears, is what you must find out on your own.

No one knows the emotions of another person unless communication, self-knowledge and compassion work in favor of knowing. Yes tears and laughter mean a lot but without tears and laughter, there are thousands of feelings not communicated which result in actions whose meaning is unknown. And for children who have no words for their feelings or why they act as they do, adults can only surmise and intuit if they are able.

A child of six has no way of knowing death; children are fearless,...

Festivalissimo, the Ibero-Latin-American Film Festival of Montreal just ended the 16th edition, where its artistic programming was being highly praised by thousands of festival-goers. Originating from 12 different countries, the menu offered 27 feature-length films that were all premieres in their own right; 5 North American premieres, 12 Canadian premieres rounded out with 10 never before seen films in Quebec. As with all festivals, they do hand out awards. Here is the list for all the winners from this year’s edition.

Best Male Actor (ex æquo)

Marcelo Alonso – Post Mortem by Pablo Larraín, Chile

Jean Remy Gentil – Jean Gentil by Israel Cárdenas and Laura Amelia Guzmán, Mexico / Dominican Republic

A special mention goes to:

Alberto San Juan – La isla interior by Dunia Ayaso and Félix Sabroso, Spain

Best Female Actor (ex æquo)

Ofelia Medina – Las buenas hierbas by María Novaro, Mexico

Eva Bianco – Los labios by Iván Fund and Santiago Loza, Argentina

A special...

Today starts the 16th edition of Ibero-Latin-American Film Festival of Montreal, Festivalissimo, with the Canadian premiere of La Vida De Los Peces (The Life of Fish), by Chilean filmmaker Matías Bize, presented tonight, at Cinema Impérial (1430 de Bleury Street, Montreal).

Right after its opening ceremony, the 16th edition of Festivalissimo will be continuing at Nfb Cinema (1564 St-Denis) with the presentation of major movie premieres of films that have participated to the most important film festivals in the world, such as Cannes, Venice, Locarno, Berlin, Guadalajara and San Sebastián.

During the first days of its new edition, Festivalissimo will therefore host the Canadian premieres of La Mirada Invisible (The Invisible Eye) of Argentinean filmmaker Diego Lerman, presented in 2010 at the Directors Fortnight.

There will also be a screening of Post Mortem, by Pablo Larraín, sacred Best Latin American film at the 2011 Guadalajara Film Festival for its daring and terrifying replay Chilean...

Pedro Almodovar wasn't invited to Karlovy Vary this year, but in many ways the Spanish master filmmaker's influence among fellow Spanish filmmakers is evident in Dunia Ayaso & Felix Sabroso's "La isla interior" (The Island Inside). Apart from the subject of sexuality, this film has Almodovar's fingerprints all over it: beginning with the colorful design of the frames, the score which comes awfully close to Alberto Iglesias' work and the female cast which uses former Pedro film thesps in Geraldine Chaplin, who appeared in "Talk to Her" and Candela Peña who had a small part in "All About my Mother" and a third actress, who is the spitting image of a 1980's Carmen Maura. - Pedro Almodovar wasn't invited to Karlovy Vary this year, but in many ways the Spanish master filmmaker's influence among fellow Spanish filmmakers is evident in Dunia Ayaso & Felix Sabroso's "La isla interior" (The Island Inside...

Pedro Almodovar wasn't invited to Karlovy Vary this year, but in many ways the Spanish master filmmaker's influence among fellow Spanish filmmakers is evident in Dunia Ayaso & Felix Sabroso's "La isla interior" (The Island Inside). Apart from the subject of sexuality, this film has Almodovar's fingerprints all over it: beginning with the colorful design of the frames, the score which comes awfully close to Alberto Iglesias' work and the female cast which uses former Pedro film thesps in Geraldine Chaplin, who appeared in "Talk to Her" and Candela Peña who had a small part in "All About my Mother" and a third actress, who is the spitting image of a 1980's Carmen Maura. This tells the story of a family, where the patriarch is ill with schizophrenia, and the children are all afraid they'll inherit the disease. Trying to navigate through life is never easy, and when the...

Yes, I freely confess that I initially took a look at the trailer for this one because according to my very limited understanding of Spanish the title translates roughly to The Naked Years, which means that if my mother is reading this right now then she is very disappointed in me. Sorry, mom. And, yes, that poster makes it look like a very bad Euro knock off of Sex In The City, a franchise that I won’t touch with a ten foot pole despite the lady-friend’s ongoing obsession with it. But there’s a lot more to this one than that.

Directed by the duo of Dunia Ayaso and Félix Sabroso the film charts the changing film industry in Spain during the late 1970’s, specifically tracking the rise of the sexploitation film and the women who starred in them. If you want to be even more specific, it...