A double bill of Jorge Sanjinés

El coraje del pueblo / The Night of San Juan (1971)
Jatun Auka (1974)

I hadn’t come across any of Jorge Sanjinés’ films when exploring Bolivian cinema a decade ago. Now in 2024 when doing a similar search, his name showed up quite a bit. This change in internet searches feels driven by changing political landscape in Bolivia more than just chance or timing. Given the topic of Sanjinés films, it makes sense why it is likely easier to discuss his films openly in the last few years than it was in the early 2000s. As per this article by Carla Suárez, Jorge Sanjinés

“particularly focused on documenting indigenous cultures of the Andes: Aymara and Quechua. Sanjinés, an avid critic of colonialism, initiated his cinematic journey under the guiding principle “el cine junto al pueblo” (“cinema with the people”). He took a revolutionary Marxist approach to documentary filmmaking with the mission of giving a voice to the oppressed people of the Andean nation. In 1966, Sanjinés founded the Ukamau Group alongside screenwriter Oscar Soria, cinematographer Antonio Eguino, producer Beatriz Palacios and filmmaker Alfonso Gumucio. The group was named after the title of their first feature-length film Ukamau (meaning “and so it is” in Aymara).” Carla Suárez, 2021

I would like to speculate that the election of Evo Morales in Bolivia likely ushered a new interest in the cinema of Jorge Sanjinés and the Ukamau Group he co-founded. This is because in 2006 Bolivia finally had a president who came from the country’s indigenous population. Given the topics that Sanjinés explored in his films, it likely was easier to discuss them once the country had someone like Morales at the forefront.

In addition, Sanjinés' films especially such as Jatun Auka showcases the struggle of ordinary people against the wealthy land owners who used the strength of the military to suppress the people. This film also shows the role Americans played in training the Bolivian generals. Such cinema is labeled leftist or Marxist cinema and is rarely talked about in North American film critics sections. Somehow talking about guerrillas, resistance isn’t favoured by mainstream critical publications due to how they are funded. This also could be another reason why the cinema of Sanjinés was missing in the English language discourse I tried to search in the early 2000s.

Ukamau Group and Direct Cinema

Carla Suárez likens the cinema movement of Jorge Sanjinés to that of Neorealist cinema and cinéma direct:

"New Latin American Cinema is a film movement, inspired by Italian Neorealismo and Québec documentary genre cinéma direct, that used cinema as an instrument of social awareness and change." Carla Suárez, 2021

One of the aspects of Direct Cinema is the embedded nature of filmmaking where the filmmaker immerses themselves in the environment:

“For the cinéma direct filmmakers, the point of departure is the filmmaking process in which the filmmaker is deeply implicated as a consciousness, individual or collective. It is this process--this consciousness--which gives form and meaning to an amorphous objective reality. Instead of effacing their presence, the filmmakers affirm it.” David Clandfield’s essay From the Picturesque to the Familiar: Films of the French Unit at the NFB (1958-1964).

In this regard, Jorge Sanjinés’ two films seen as part of this spotlight meet the criteria as he clearly immerses himself in the local/village surroundings to depict events. The slight variation for The Night of San Juan is that the film is a documentary-fictional hybrid where villagers/workers re-enact events of the massacre that happened. Such a reenactment lends a reality to proceedings.

Jatun Auka shows how exploitation of people can lead to revolution which in turn leads to a cyclical nature of violence. The finale in the film shows Bolivian military aided by US troops killing revolutionaries and their bearded leader is also a reminder that it was in Bolivia that Che Guevara was killed.

Latin America has had many examples of filmmakers showcasing the human impact of revolution in their films. Patricio Guzmán is one of the best examples with his The Battle of Chile while from an overarching political exploration, Octavio Getino and Fernando E. Solanas’ The Hour of the Furnances (1968) comes to mind. The cinema of Glauber Rocha also explored such topics. Looking beyond Latin America, Indian director Shyam Benegal’s cinema also has a lineage to Direct Cinema in its depiction of plight of villagers.

References / Reading material:

Carla Suárez, Emergence of Indigenous Cinema in Bolivia: The Ethnographic Gaze of Jorge Sanjinés and the Ukamau Group.

Alonso Aguilar: Foundations of Resistance in Bolivian Cinema.

Direct Cinema covered earlier in this blog.

Shyam Benegal covered in this blog.

Glauber Rocha.

Copa America 2024 Film Spotlight

Two games of Copa America 2024 are already in the books with Argentina kicking off their title defense with a 2-0 win over Canada while Peru and Chile drew 0-0. Prior to start of the next fixtures, I want to unveil the selections for the Copa America 2024 Film Spotlight. Similar to Euro 2024 Film Spotlight, I have taken the approach of selecting previously seen films to give each nation the best chance of doing well. The one change from Euro 2024 selections is that I have tried to select as many recent films as possible. I only went for older films if a nation didn’t have a worthy recent contender.

15/16 films are within last 20 years (2004-24) with 12 out of 16 films within last 10 years and 5 films from 2022. The only exception is that the Jamaican film is from 1972. In addition, half of the films (8/16) are directed by women.

Group A

Argentina: Trenque Lauquen (2022, Laura Citarella)
Peru: The Milk of Sorrow (2009, Claudia Llosa)
Chile: My Imaginary Country (2022, Patricio Guzmán)
Canada: The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open (2019, Kathleen Hepburn, Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers)

Group B

Mexico: New Order (2020, Michel Franco)
Ecuador: Cronicas (2004, Sebastián Cordero)
Venezuela:  The Box (2021, Lorenzo Vigas)
Jamaica: The Harder they come (1972, Perry Henzell)

Group C

USA: Showing Up (2022, Kelly Reichardt)
Uruguay: Window Boy Would also Like to Have a Submarine (2020, Alex Piperno)
Panama: The Fists of a Nation (2007, Pituka Ortega-Heilbron)
Bolivia: Dark Skull (2016, Kiro Russo)

Group D

Brazil:  Rule 34 (2022, Júlia Murat)
Colombia: Embrace of the Serpent (2015, Ciro Guerra)
Paraguay: EAMI (2022, Paz Encina)
Costa Rica: The Awakening of the Ants (2019, Antonella Sudasassi)

Group and Knock-out round results will be posted in next few weeks.

Kiro Russo’s Bolivian Cinema

One of the most lovely cinematic debuts I came across in 2016 was that of Kiro Russo’s Viejo calavera (Dark Skull).

Dark Skull (2016)

The film shed a new light and perspective on the lives of Bolivian miners. While there are a handful of documentaries about Bolivian mines, there is a shortage of fictional films about the hard working people who work themselves into the ground in these dark places. Russo’s Dark Skull goes a long way in addressing that imbalance.

Dark Skull is a work of immense creativity that uses the darkened settings of the mines to play with light/darkness. The story follows Elder (Julio César Ticona) who starts working in the mines after the death of his father. Elder isn’t really interested in working in the mine and would rather hunt for his next alcoholic high. However, his father’s death changes the trajectory of his life leaving him with no choice but to work.

Kiro Russo’s film shows us the routines, rituals of the miners and how they try to make the best of their situation.

Dark Skull plays with the technique and impressively uses a Sergei Eisenstein montage to emphasize the machinery used in the mines. There is also a surprising presence of pulsating music which elevates the film.

After such an impressive debut, I looked forward to Russo’s next film and thankfully, it arrived few months ago at the Venice Film Festival.

El Gran Movimiento (The Great Movement) can be considered the next chapter in the life of Elder (played again by Julio Cezar Ticona) after he leaves the dark mines of Dark Skull for the city life of La Paz. The visual contrast between the two films is impressive. Dark Skull shows us the dimly light underground mines while El Gran Movimiento takes us to the dizzying high altitudes of La Paz. Instead of the rhythms of the mines, Russo now shows us the rituals and rhythms of the local market where Elder finds a job. 

The sights and noises of the market are astutely captured and overload the senses in a remarkable sequence near the end of the film, a montage like segment which now appears to be Russo’s cinematic signature. Another Russo signature looks to be the usage of pulsating music including an eye catching dance number that unexpectedly drops in the film. El Gran Movimiento takes on a very relevant contemporary urgency when Elder starts coughing near the end of the film. His disease is unknown as is the cure. While Elder is at the local clinic, we hear the news recounting case counts in other Bolivian cities. That is when we realize what Elder has. Immediately following that sequence, we see crowded streets and markets. An invisible clock hovers over the frame with the audience knowing that it is only a matter of time before everything will shut down. We don’t to get see the fate of the market but instead we get to see what happens with Elder when a faith healer is brought in to cure him.

Elder in El Gran Movimiento (2021)

It was a 5 year gap between Russo’s two films. I hope the wait for the next movie isn’t that long as he is clearly a creative director with a unique voice.

Fantasia 2011

Montreal’s Fantasia Film Festival is in a class of its own. It is one of the best genre film festivals in the world and as such entertains, thrills, chills and jolts its audience with fascinating films from all corners of the globe. The festival has gone from strength to strength in its 15 years of existence under the magnificent direction of Mitch Davis. Fantasia runs for a staggering 3.5 weeks (24 days) and is a film festival truly for the fans. When it comes to film festivals, one hardly talks about the atmosphere generated by film fans but in the case of Fantasia, for years I had heard about the rocking atmosphere that took place in the Concordia Hall theater when 700 fans brought the cinema down. Attending Fantasia was on my wish list for a long time so this year, in the 15th anniversary of the Festival, I decided to finally take the plunge.

8 in 3 days

I attended 8 films during my first trip to the Vancouver Film Festival in 2006, the same number as I did at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival. The common number was just a coincidence but in both cases this total allowed me to enjoy a decent selection of films, spend time with family/friends, get some rest while taking in some of the best the cities had to offer. So this time around, I decided to go with the number 8 again, but the overall breakdown ended up being different. In Vancouver, I had a 3-4-1 tally with 3 films on a Friday, 4 on a Saturday and a single film on sunday while in Toronto I registered 4-3-0-1 with 4 films on a Thursday and a single one again on the sunday. For Montreal, the number ended being 2-5-1, starting with 2 on a friday. I could have packed in more films at Fantasia but I also wanted to spend some time visiting the city’s numerous brewpubs and third-wave cafes.

So the lucky 8 films in order of viewing:

Blackthorn (2011, Spain/USA/Bolivia/France, Mateo Gil)
Beyond the Black Rainbow (2011, Canada, Panos Cosmatos)
Gantz (2010, Japan, Shinsuke Sato)
Gantz: Perfect Answer (2011, Japan, Shinsuke Sato)
Article 12 (2010, UK/Argentina, Juan Manuel Biaiñ)
Dharma Guns (2010, France/Portugal, F.J. Ossang)
Morituris (2011, Italy, Raffaele Picchio)
Redline (2009, Japan, Takeshi Koike)

I had planned my trip long before the final film schedule was released so it turned out many of the films from my wish list were not playing during my visit but I still had plenty of hope from my picks. On paper, Blackthorn appeared enticing. It marked the English language directional debut of Mateo Gil, a writer I held in high regard because of his excellent writing for Thesis, Open Your Eyes, The Sea Inside and The Method. The cast of Sam Shepard, Eduardo Noriega, Stephen Rea and Magaly Solier (she stole the show in both Claudia Llosa features Madeinusa and The Milk of Sorrow) was equally tantalizing. Plus, the fictional account of Butch Cassidy’s apparent survival and secret life in South America (Bolivia) had all the making of a cult film. Unfortunately, the film is a disappointment. Even though Blackthorn contains many memorable sequences, good acting and some picturesque shoot-outs, the good individual parts never add up to a complete whole. The film does contain some memorable lines especially regarding how three different characters curse Bolivia because they were ultimately defeated there. Interestingly, Che Guevera was also defeated in Bolivia, so there is certainly a cinematic possibility in exploring the political games played out in Bolivia.

Beyond the Black Rainbow had plenty of buzz around it and Todd Brown’s excellent write-up was certainly inviting:

Born of the pre-teen fantasies of writer-director Panos Cosmatos as he browsed the selection of early 1980s Canadian science fiction and horror VHS tapes that he would never be allowed to rent, BEYOND THE BLACK RAINBOW is a psychedelic head trip of the highest order. Cosmatos captures the aesthetics of an era effortlessly while fusing those influences into something bold and visionary and entirely his own. The accomplished music video director — he’s done work for the Handsome Furs, among others — plunges the audience into a sort of sensory overload as he fuses elements of Reagan-era paranoia, social engineering run amok and a drug-fuelled step up the evolutionary ladder to create a hypnotic experience that plays out like a Tarkovsky-style science fiction picture as filtered through the visual style of LOGAN’S RUN. Michael Rogers delivers a mesmerizing performance as Barry Nyle, his cold and clinical exterior concealing a layer of obsession and... something else. But as gripping as Rogers is, it’s the world that Cosmatos creates that is the real star, the visuals providing a truly immersive experience matched by the original score, composed by Black Mountain’s Jeremy Schmidt entirely on vintage analog synthesizers. Just let it all wash over you.

Panos Cosmatos has indeed done an excellent job in recreating the 1980’s feel and I felt I was watching a horror/thriller from that era on a VHS tape. On top of that, the film’s bright neon tinged palette leads viewers on a tipsy hallucinatory psychedelic ride. Unfortunately, when the stylistic layers are peeled off, there is very little depth in the film. There are plenty of references to conspiracy theories/experiments but those references appear to be elements inserted in the film to allow audience to draw their own interpretations and add more meaning to the film than there really is. For majority of the film, the style dominates but once the bright lights are turned out, the film comfortably settles into B-grade mode.

Gantz came in second place for the Audience Awards at the New York Asian Film Festival and was one of the films I was most looking forward to. So were about 699 other people. Only in Fantasia can 700 people be packed in a theater at 11:25 am on Saturday morning and be in amazing spirits. Each frame of the film was cheered on until the opening credits and after that, the film’s key scenes elicited huge roars of approval. Gantz has an incredible opening sequence, perfectly outlined by Rupert Bottenberg in the Fantasia film guide:

Two young men wait among the crowd on a subway platform, a flicker of recognition passing between them. Before they can speak, a man falls, helpless, on the tracks. One youth jumps down to save him. The other reaches down to help, and falls himself. The train is coming, fast, and they don’t have time to climb back up out of its way. The train slams into them — and they find themselves, from one split second to the next, in a clean yet unfurnished apartment overlooking Tokyo. In the room with them are several other men — a gangster, a slacker, a pair of nervous salarymen — who seem just as confused and disoriented as they are. Also in the room is a sphere. A large, smooth, hard black sphere, which quickly reveals itself to have strange and amazing powers. Text scrolls across the sphere, explaining that the old lives of all in the room are now over. Their new lives belong to the sphere. That’s when the weapons come out, and the players’ first target for extermination revealed.

The mysterious black orb is naturally Gantz and it controls all the players lives and wants them to fight aliens that are living among humans on Earth. It scores the players based on their performances in exterminating the aliens. If a player reaches 100 points then they can either use the points to return to their lives or use the points to resurrect another player but be stuck in the game themselves. The first Gantz film spends time developing the characters and lays the foundation for how the players learn to use their new found powers. The second film Gantz: Perfect Answer promises to answer everything but instead it creates more subplots and weaves an even bigger web of mystery around Gantz. The film introduces a palm sized black orb which is instructing a former Gantz player to kill other people to introduce them in the game. On one hand, Gantz is getting people killed and introduced in the game while on the other hand, players are on the verge of returning to their former lives. Eventually, the mystery around the two black orbs are tied and the film offers many answers but still many things are left untied, presumably for a future sequel or even a prequel. Put together the two films are very entertaining but each film contains many disposable sequences that simply draw out the plot longer than needed. The first film is a better overall work than the second film which spends a generous amount of time on players vs alien fight sequences. Still, Gantz is worth watching and will certainly create a huge fan base.

Article 12 explores how modern technology is reducing people’s right to privacy without people’s awareness. The film features prominent speakers, including Noam Chomsky, and echoes George Orwell in exploring the eroding private/public boundaries in modern Western society. However, the 75 minute film basically contains 10-15 minutes of interesting ideas and spends the rest of the time repeating the same messages over and over. As a result, the film easily wears
out its welcome and ends up being quite tiresome.

F.J Ossang’s Dharma Guns is a film with great potential and incredible style. The first image in the film is in color but the rest of the film is in black and white and features a possible end of the world scenario where a mysterious drug is turning people into zombies. The key to save the world lies in an unfinished script that Stan Van Der Decken cannot complete because of his memory loss. On top of that, he cannot get a hold of his mysterious agent and is hounded by an underground group called Dharma Guns. No zombie is ever shown on screen and that gives the film an air of mystery and doubt. Plus, there are many engaging ideas presented in Dharma Guns but unfortunately, the end result is a lackluster film that cannot thread all the elements together.

One of the things I was most looking forward to in Fantasia was seeing a midnight feature in the Hall theater. The opportunity to witness a packed audience elevate the thrills of a horror feature was one I did not want to miss. So I was surprized when the midnight feature Morituris was not even half full. The feature prior to Morituris was jam-packed and had an after-party around midnight so maybe that drew some people away. Or people were more interested in the International Fireworks competition taking place in Montreal that night. Whatever the reasons, it turned out the audience was smart enough in staying away. However, the lack of crowd did not deter director Raffaele Picchio who was in great spirits because this screening marked the international premier of his film. He told the audience that they would witness a "nasty" film and he was right. Although before the nastiness started, Morituris starts off in a flashback mode with found camera footage showing a family’s picnic going horribly wrong when the family is killed by a mysterious evil force from within the forest. The film then cuts to the present when a speeding car packed with five people, three men and two women, is en route to the same forest for a rave party. The conversations flow naturally among the five in the film’s best segment. However, once the five enter the forest, things go wrong as expected. In keeping with the horror film template, the nasty things happen to the women first. The suffering of the men is not far away but when the evil finds the men, it is in the form of men in body paint and gladiator attire, looking more comical than scary. There are some torture segments in the finale but the film ends up being an awful viewing, mostly due to uninspired direction in the final third. As an aside, one would think that in this day and age needless abuse of female characters in horror films would stop but directors keep thinking of new ways to inflict pain to female characters, all for the sake of shock.

Redline, the eight film, was pure fun. Once again, it was incredible to see a packed hall at 11 am on sunday morning, this time cheering on a Japanese anime. The story of the film features incredible car-racing sequences in a futuristic Japan where races take place on various planets between aliens and humans alike. The cars of Speed Racer have nothing on Redline which feature nitro-powered cars flying at unimaginable speeds. The high speeds led to the racers eyes on the verge of popping out and eventually result in complete breakdown of the cars. One incredible sequence in the film features a disintegration of a car but the human drivers fly across the track to still finish the race.

Ratings & Overall comments

A rough ratings of the films out of 10:

Blackthorn: 5.5
Beyond the Black Rainbow: 6.5
Gantz: 8
Gantz: Perfect Answer: 7
Article 12: 5
Dharma Guns: 6
Morituris: 2
Redline: 8

Unfortunately, my picks may not have resulted in too many stellar films but overall, Fantasia was the best film festival experience of my life. As diverse as the films were, they still demonstrated purposeful programming and each film fit perfectly within the festival’s desire to hunt the world for genre films which push the envelope and are not afraid to take risks. Plus, the framework around the festival ensures a great experience. The two main theaters, Hall (capacity 700) and J.A. De Seve Theater (capacity 173), are not only across the road from each other but are connected by an underground tunnel. The tunnel also leads to the Metro, the most efficient metro system in Canada, which ensures one can get to most spots around Montreal in minutes. Also, there is an excellent selection of restaurants, cafes and brewpubs around the two theaters which means a person is always well nourished in between the films.

The timing of the film festival in summer also means that one can enjoy the great weather of Montreal which makes for relaxing walks in-between destinations even late at night (say 2 am after a midnight feature) when downtown is still bursting with life. Given that that film festival lasts 24 days means a minimum of a one week trip is required to properly assess the films and soak in the best that Montreal has to offer.

Note: some of the brewpubs and cafes I sampled during Fantasia are listed in a separate post.

Copa America 2011: Bolivia

Entry #3 for the Copa America 2011 Book & Film Festival.

Book: Aurora by Giancarla de Quiroga

Giancarla De Quiroga’s Aurora uses a cinderella like romance story as a springboard to examine political and social changes that played a part in the Bolivian revolution of 1952. The wealthy landowner Alberto returns from Europe to find no shortage of suitors seeking to marry him. However, he ignores all the flashy girls and is instead smitten by young innocent Aurora at a party. He seeks her out and wants her to run away with him without getting married. At first, the thought of running away without marriage terrifies Aurora who proclaims it a sin. But her feelings for Alberto take over and she leaves her life behind to join Alberto at his hacienda. Their love blossoms and allows them to weather economic hardships to turn the hacienda into a profit making enterprise by using the land to grow and sell vegetables. At the peak of the hacienda’s profitable ways, Alberto starts to get disenchanted with his Bolivian life and yearns to return to France where he thinks his true joy resides. He wants to sell all his land and begins to neglect his surroundings just as Aurora opens her eyes to life around her. She begins to teach the native Indian peasants and workers to read and her act is in direct defiance to Alberto and society. Alberto’s health gets progressively worse but he is preoccupied only with escaping to France. Their love is on the verge of extinction but things take a dramatic turn when the revolution reaches their land forcing them to turn to each other for safety.

The book mirrors the political and economic change in Bolivian rural life from the 1930’s until the early 1950’s with the emergence of peasant uprisings. By placing the character of Aurora as a teacher of the peasants, De Quiroga has created a character that is in tune with the suffering and needs of the workers. On the other hand, the detached Alberto represents a rich land owner oblivious to the needs of his workers. Even when the truth about the worker’s condition is revealed to Alberto, he ignores facts and turns the other way. Eventually, his ignorant ways result in a fiery finale.

Film: Cocalero (2007, Alejandro Landes)

Bolivian films are not frequently seen in international cinematic circles but that does not mean that Bolivia is absent in cinema. In fact, the last few years have seen plenty of documentaries set up shop in Bolivia centered around Cochabamba (regarding water & privatization) or the Potosi mines while many books and articles have mentioned either the changing political face of Bolivia or coca leaves farming. So it seems very appropriate to view a film that manages to cover both political and coca discussions. Alejandro Landes’ Cocalero highlights the rise of Evo Morales and sheds light on the grass-roots movement that supported his election. The debate about coca leaves and farming is certainly forefront in the film as is the clash between the different classes in Bolivian society. As per the film, media bias certainly fueled hatred and fear of Morales. Landes’ camera does not shy away from depicting some of this bias and even shows some of the abuse heaped on Morales in the cities. Such documentation helps show the fine line between a person been treated as a hero by some and a villain by others. Basically, if a political candidate does not have the same governing principles as a group of people, he is demonized and represented as evil by the group.

Note: Interestingly, the film follows Morales to Mar del Plata for a conference attended by both Hugo Chavez and Diego Maradona. This is the same conference that Emir Kusturica filmed for the 2008 documentary Maradona by Kusturica. No doubt there were hundreds of cameras at the conference but it is fascinating that footage of one event shot from two different angles have been used in two separate films. In a sense, Landes' & Kusturica's films form a documentary version of the film Vantage Point.

Copa America 2011 Campaign

Bolivia started the Copa America in incredible fashion by holding hosts and favourites Argentina to a 1-1 draw. The tie gave Bolivia a reasonable chance of making the Quarter-finals especially since their second game was going to be against the U-23 Costa Rican team which only had 5 overage players. Surprizingly, Bolivia were brought crashing down to earth. Not only did they lose 2-0 to Costa Rica but also had two players sent off in a largely one-sided game where Costa Rica ran circles around Bolivia. Costa Rica found plenty of space behind Bolivia’s non-existent defense and could have had more than just their two goals. Bolivia’s elimination was complete even before the 30 minute mark in their final game with Colombia when Bolivia’s defensive weakness were exposed by Colombia as they raced to a 2-0 lead. A neat through ball by Colombia found Falcao behind the entire Bolivian line and he duly finished the chance in the 14th minute. He tucked away a penalty in the 28th minute after another defensive mix-up forced Bolivia to concede a penalty. In fact, Colombia did not have to exert themselves too much in the first half as Bolivia’s only chances to get a goal appeared to be via set-pieces. Overall, Bolivia could not muster a decent response and Colombia calmly progressed to the Quarter-Finals as Group A winners, while Bolivia finished bottom of their group.

Note: Evo Morales is a soccer fan as evidenced by Oliver Stone’s South of the Border so it was not surprizing to see him in the stands for Bolivia’s game against Colombia.

2011 Copa America Film & Book Festival

An updated summary of the books and films selected for the 2011 Copa America Spotlight in lieu of the recently made draw for the South American soccer tournament:

Group A: Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica, Bolivia
Group B: Brazil, Paraguay, Ecuador, Venezuela
Group C: Uruguay, Chile, Mexico, Peru

** Note: Costa Rica have officially replaced Japan at the Copa. However, I will still have a book and film representing Japan.

Books

Argentina: Hopscotch by Julio Cortázar
Brazil: Zero by Ignácio de Loyola Brandão
Bolivia: Aurora by Giancarla de Quiroga
Chile: The Secret Holy War of Santiago De Chile by Marco Antonio de la Parra
Colombia: The Armies by Evelio Rosero
Costa Rica: Cocori by Joaquin Guteierrez
Ecuador: The Ecuador Reader, edited by Carlos De La Torre, ***
Japan: Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
Mexico: The Underdogs by Mariano Azuela
Paraguay: I, The Supreme by Augusto Roa Bastos
Peru: Conversations in the Cathedral by Mario Vargas Llosa
Uruguay: Body Snatcher by Juan Carlos Onetti, ***
Venezuela: Chronicles of a Nomad by A.A. Alvarez

*** Note (May 9, 2011): these two were new replacement entries after English translated copies of the following two original choices were not readily available.
Ecuador: Huasipungo by Jorge Icaza
Uruguay: The Shipyard by Juan Carlos Onetti

Films

Argentina: Crane World (1999, Pablo Trapero)
Bolivia: Cocalero (2007, Alejandro Landes)
Brazil: Black God White Devil (1964, Glauber Rocha)
Chile: Tony Manero (2008, Pablo Larraín)
Colombia: Crab Trap (2009, Oscar Ruiz Navia)
Costa Rica: Cold Water of the Sea (2010, Paz Fabrega)
Ecuador: Cronicas (2004, Sebastián Cordero)
Japan: Tokyo Sonata (2008, Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
Mexico: Duck Season (2004, Fernando Eimbcke)
Paraguay: Noche Adentro (2009, Pablo Lamar, 17 min)
Peru: Milk of Sorrow (2009, Claudia Llosa)
Uruguay: A Useful Life (2010, Federico Veiroj)
Venezuela: El Don (2006, José Ramón Novoa)

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[Update May 9, 2011]

Substitute / Bonus Films

I will be watching an additional number of South American films to compliment some of the above titles. This will mean at most one title from each country.

Argentina: Lion's Den (2008, Pablo Trapero)
Colombia: The Wind Journeys (2009, Ciro Guerra)
Ecuador: Ratas, ratones, rateros (1999, Sebastián Cordero)
Paraguay: I Hear Your Scream (2008, Pablo Lamar, 11 min)
Peru: Madeinusa (2006, Claudia Llosa)
Venezuela: Araya (1959, Margot Benacerraf)

Two films for Ecuador have been added courtesy of Michael C. and Pacze Moj.

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The three countries missing films are Ecuador, Paraguay and Japan. There are no shortage of Japanese titles but it is the Paraguayan entry that will most likely be the last title to be picked. The one readily available Paraguayan film is Paraguayan Hammock but I already used that for the 2010 World Cup Movie Festival so I want to pick a new Paraguayan film but currently nothing appears to be on the horizon. If I am still stuck for a title come June 2011, then I will go with Paraguayan Hammock.

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All entries should be judged prior to the soccer tournament's kick-off on July 1, 2011. So that means all books have to be read and all films have to be seen by June 30, 2011.