VEFFNY 2014
TRIBECA CINEMAS
54 Varick St, New York
Subway 1,A,C, E to Canal St
From September 19th Until September 25th
For a full schedule visit http://www.venezuelanfilmfest.com/#!program/cy2g
After last year’s successful, inaugural Venezuelan Film Festival in New York (Festival del Nuevo Cine Venezolano), we look forward to sitting down with you once more and celebrating the richness and diversity of Venezuelan culture through film. This 2014 Venezuelan Film Festival (@VenFilmFest, #venfilmfest) promises to show you a Venezuela that you’ve never seen – filled with compelling stories that capture a growing artistic fearlessness from Venezuela’s new generation of filmmakers.
While selecting the very best and most representative of Venezuelan films for 2014, we defined a common theme among a few of the films that is the overarching theme of this year’s Festival: sex, gender and redefining identities – issues that every society grapples with in their own way. As many filmmakers have done globally, a few Venezuelan filmmakers have chosen to explore women and LGBT issues in fictional stories and documentaries in ways that will surprise and entertain you.
We are proud to present this year’s Festival feature film, I, Undocumented – a documentary that takes a bold, unflinching look at transgender women in Venezuela and their daily struggles in a still very homo-transphobic society. In light of the Festival’s focus on sexuality and identity, and to open a dialogue on the issues presented in I, Undocumented, we are hosting a special panel: Sex and Gender in Venezuela. The diverse group of panelists will include the incomparable Dr. Tamara Adrian (a lawyer, academic, and prominent international LGBT rights activist from Venezuela who underwent gender reassignment in 2002). We look forward to engaging audiences, the film community and the LGBT community in this live panel conversation.
This year’s Festival lineup also includes films on a wide variety of topics and genres that, together, tell a nuanced story of today’s complex and colorful Venezuela. The Longest Distance, which takes us from the suffocating Caracas to the plenitude found on top of one of the oldest geological formations on our planet, reminds us of the freedom of choice, family ties, and how it’s never too late to take control of your life. My Straight Son, winner of this year’s Goya Prize for Best Latin American Film, takes an unapologetic and heartwarming look at an unusual father/son relationship that questions how we define reality through the eyes of others. And the crowd-pleasing, music biopic, La Casa del Ritmo: A Film About Los Amigos Invisibles, covers the rise of the Grammy-winning Venezuelan funksters Los Amigos Invisibles to international stardom.
Not to be forgotten, we’ve also included the ever-popular horror and a sports romantic comedy genres. In the horror film The House at the End of Time, an elderly woman returns to her childhood home to decipher a long-standing mystery that has plagued her for decades. While the mainstream, baseball romantic comedy Papita Maní Tostón (arguably the most popular and successful modern movie in Venezuelan), offers us a beautiful, funny story about love and baseball.
We are very excited about this year’s films and about bringing people together to celebrate Venezuelan cinema and Venezuelan culture, and to engage in open dialogue about today’s pressing social issues. This is the birth of a new era in Venezuelan cinema. We warmly welcome you to the 2014 Venezuelan Film Festival and thank you for being part of our dream!
Presented by CITGO
Contact Inf: Irene Yibirin, Director VEFFNY 2014 | Website: VEFFNY 2014