The Female Gaze
Magic Words (to Break a Spell) Palabras mágicas (para romper un encantamiento) Mercedes Moncada Rodríguez
Filmmaker Mercedes Moncada Rodríguez returns to Nicaragua to explore her own memories and the country’s history. Her memories go back to 1979 when the Sandinistas came to power, ousting the Somoza family, which had been ruling the country in 1934 with the support of the United States. Managua Lake is used as the garbage dump for the capital city, and it’s where Somoza dumped the ashes of murdered general Sandino back in 1934. Ever since, the lake has been a metaphor for the corrupt, degenerate and polluted state. The lake is never cleaned up, so the amount of garbage is only increasing. The year the Sandinistas won was year zero – the victory of the people and the beginnings of hope. But that hope quickly evaporated. Today, poor adolescents talk about crack and street gangs. Young kids listen to their tough stories and join in the laughter. Back in the day, teenagers were part of the Sandinista army. By alternating present-day reminiscences with archive footage, the film becomes a contemporary frame story about the past.
Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, 2012 video, color / black-and-white, 82 min Director: Mercedes Moncada Rodríguez Cinematography: Carlos F. Rossini, Cuco Villarías Editing: Mercedes Cantero Sound: Lena Esquenazi Music: Leoncio Lara Bon Narration: Mercedes Moncada Rodríguez Narrator: Mercedes Moncada Rodríguez Production: Mercedes Moncada Rodríguez & Jorge Sanchez Sosa for Producciones AmArAntA World Sales: Taskovski Films Distribution for the Benelux: IDFA Bertha Fund Screening Copy: IMCINE
Mercedes Moncada Rodríguez:
The Passion of María Elena (2003) The Immortal (2005) The Mermaid and the Diver (2009)
Awards: Best Editing and Sound Design San José International Film Festival
Misconception Jessica Yu
INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE By the year 2050, at least nine billion people are expected to share our planet. What does this figure bode for the world’s future? Instead of echoing prophesies of doom, Misconception offers a surprising, often amusing look at the well-known forecasts for population growth and the realities behind these. Following a cleverly edited prelude, the story starts in Russia and India, where the government is giving out cars to couples who produce children or have themselves sterilized, respectively. Global health professor, statistician and self-proclaimed “possibilist” Hans Rosling puts the population growth figures into perspective in this film that is part essay, part observational documentary, directed by Oscar®-winning director Jessica Yu. Rosling’s challenging ideas then form a background to three colorful portraits of people whose everyday lives are determined by family planning policies. In China, a 29-year-old Beijing bachelor raised in the era of a strict one-child policy searches for true love against the odds in a country where single men vastly outnumber women. In Manhattan, a passionate activist lobbies the U.N. to change the discussion from women’s reproductive rights to her deeply personal concerns about abortion and contraception. And in Uganda, a no-nonsense reporter becomes a detective and heroic caretaker of the future as she goes on a quest to investigate the country’s lost children.
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USA, 2014 DCP, color, 93 min Director: Jessica Yu Cinematography: Lixin Fan, Aiguo Liu, Shana Hagan, Nathan Golon Editing: Miranda Yousef, Jessica Yu Narrator: Kyra Sedgwick Production: Elise Pearlstein for Participant Media, Jessica Yu, Elise Pearlstein Executive Production: Jeff Skoll & Diane Weyermann for Participant Media World Sales/Screening Copy: Participant Media
Jessica Yu:
Home Base (1990) Men of Reenaction (1995) Breathing Lessons: The Life and Work of Mark O’Brien (1996) Better Late (fiction, 1997) The Living Museum (1998) In the Realms of the Unreal (2002) Protagonist (2006) Ping Pong Playa (fiction, 2007) The Kinda Sutra (2008) Last Call at the Oasis (2011) a.o.