Preceding the North American Premiere of Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You (Un giorno questo dolore ti sarà utile) by Roberto Faenza at the Olympia Center for the Gusman Center for the Performing Arts, the audience was treated to a surprise performance by singer-songwriter, Elisa Toffoli, one of few Italian musicians to write and record mainly in English. She wowed the audience with an emotional rendition of the film’s theme song accompanied by acoustic guitar.
Tower Power: The US Premiere of The Cat Vanishes (El gato desaparece) screened to a packed house with director Carlos Sorín in the house, watching the comedic thriller along with the audience. He joked during the humor-laden Q&A how pleased he was that the audience had all fallen for what he called a game, where his intent was to keep the intrigue and suspense within the mind of the viewer without having to use a bombardment of visual stimulation.
The premiere screening of Madrid, 1987 proved to be an extraordinary hit with yet another packed house at Regal South Beach Cinemas with director David Trueba charming the audience with his wit and wisdom. The two main characters in the film were not only stripped of their clothing but also stripped of all they are accustomed to in daily life, including family, cigarettes, whiskey… leaving only two bare souls trapped together in a tiny bathroom. The pair was forced to express themselves and, as a result, ended up connecting on the deepest of levels. One man in the audience asked who had written the clever script and Trueba replied, “a very warm, attractive and smart man whom I know very well. That would be me.”
“Strive to achieve your dream” was the recurrent mantra is Bess Kargman’s exquisite First Position, which screened to an enthusiastic sold-out house at the Coral Gables Art Cinema. Kargman, who quit her job at the height of the recession, switching gears to become a first-time filmmaker, has first hand experience of dreaming large. Her inaugural dance-doc has already won numerous audience awards and a distribution deal with Sundance Selects. Catch the second screening, this evening, at the Regal Cinema at 6:15 PM.
Earlier at the Gusman Center, over 600 students from a number of Miami-Dade high schools were treated to a special screening (supported in part by Miami Dade College and FIU – Latin American & Caribbean Center) of In Name of the Girl (En el nombre de la hija) by Tania Hermida. MIFF’s senior program consultant for Ibero-American Cinema, Diana Sanchez, was on hand to introduce the director, who was delighted and impressed by the caliber and depth of the students’ questions, which ranged from inspirational, to the nuances of symbolism, Catholicism and even socialism as it was portrayed by the main character in the film.
Director João Canijo and actress Anabela Moreira were finishing up their delightful Q&A for the rather grim film Blood of My Blood (Sangue do Meu Sangue), where audience members shared their own interpretations of the film’s plot as Canijo bluntly confirmed the validity of their statements. Once the session ended, an elderly woman walked up to Anabela and told her “not to worry” about the way she looked in the film, letting her know that in real life she was beautiful.
Miami New Times and the Miami International Film Festival co-presented the 4th annual cultural event, Artopia, last night at Villa 221 which included art, live music, fashion, film, and performance combined to satisfy the culture fixes of Miami’s artistically inclined movers and shakers.