Eva y Lola
Sabrina Farji, Argentina 2010; 96m U.S. Premiere

Eva (played by charismatic TV star Celeste Cid) and her best friend Lola (singer/actress Mariela "Emme" Vitale) are performers in a glittering punk cabaret act. Lola doesn't know it, but she is an "appropriated child," born during the dictatorship while her mother was in captivity, and raised by her parents' torturer, "The Bear," a powerful military man. When the truth emerges after relentless searching by Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo, Eva-herself a daughter of disappeared parents-tries to convince Lola to accept a DNA test that would establish her true identity. Avoiding melodrama, director Sabrina Farji tackles a deeply complex psychological social and political issue with honesty, playfulness, and even humor. Featuring impeccable cinematography and sound design, with music by Liliana Felipe. Based on the real cases of Victoria Donda (now a congresswoman, the youngest ever to attain that post in Argentina) and Victoria Grigera (co-writer of the film).
SCREENING WITH La Voz Sabrina Farji, Argentina, 2010; 8m
A short commissioned by Secretaría de Cultura Presidencia de la Nación in Argentina to celebrate the country's bicentennial.

Sat Sep 11 | 6:30
Sun Sep 12 | 1:00

Extraordinary Stories/Historias Extraordinarias
Mariano Llinás, Argentina, 2009; 245m

Co-presented with Film Comment Selects
"Extraordinary is by no means an immodest moniker for this incredibly audacious first dramatic feature by Argentine director Mariano Llinás, which suggests a telenovela co-scripted by Thomas Pynchon and Jorge Louis Borges. The three primary story lines concern men known only as X, Z, and H, respectively, each of them minor bureaucratic functionaries in nondescript Patagonian towns, who find themselves tossed by circumstance into unexpectedly complicated adventures. The first man witnesses a murder (before committing one himself); the second scours the countryside for clues about his predecessor, an international man of mystery with a possible sideline in illegal wildlife trafficking; the third travels up river in search of the large stone 'monoliths' he has been hired to photograph.
Each thread is a mini road-movie of a sort... Stories give way to other stories - some comic, some tragic, some romantic - which are themselves riddled with dreams and flashbacks, until we no longer care if we will ever reach the end, for so pleasurably intoxicating is the air of elaborate narrative gamesmanship. There is nary a dull moment here, or one devoid of visual or storytelling invention. This is a work of consistent astonishment."-Scott Foundas, in LA Weekly
A conversation between director Mariano Llinás and Scott Foundas will follow the screening.

Fri Sep 17 | 6:30

The Rati Horror Show (El Rati Horror Show)
Enrique Piñeyro, Argentina, 2010; 95m U.S.Premiere

"Unpredictable actor-writer-director Enrique Pineyro turns his editing suite into an audio-visual complex to defend convicted murderer Fernando Carrera in the quirkily provocative The Rati Horror Show. One of the few filmmakers who can claim to have effected social change with a movie (namely his brilliant narrative debut, Whisky Romeo Zulu, which reformed Argentine aeronautic law), Pineyro uses cinematically charged evidence to press his argument that Carrera is a victim of gross judicial malfeasance. Whether it all will be enough to set Carrera free (he remains behind bars, though his case is on appeal) is anyone's guess. But if it works, Pineyro's efforts to change the world by making movies will be an amazing two-for-two. The Rati in pic's title is the Argentine Spanish slang equivalent of the derogatory 'pig' for police in English."-Variety

The Spy (El Espía)
Juan Stagnaro, Argentina, 2010; 8m

A short commissioned by Secretaría de Cultura Presidencia de la Nación in Argentina to celebrate the country's bicentennial.

Thu Sep 16 | 8:45
Sat Sep 18 | 7:15

Bicentennial Shorts
Various directors, Argentina, 2010; 80m NY Premiere

A selection of 9 shorts out of 25 commissioned by Secretaría de Cultura Presidencia de la Nación in Argentina to celebrate the country's bicentennial this year, featuring works by some of the most celebrated Argentine filmmakers: Mercedes, Marcos Carnevale; Guillermina P, Ines de Oliveira Cezar; The Voice (La Voz) Sabrina Farji; Lovable People (Gente Querible), Leonardo Favio; Posadas, Sandra Gugliotta; Chasqui, Nestor Montalbano; Las voces y los silencios, Carlos Sorin; The Spy (El Espía), Juan Stagnaro; Fallas de origen, Juan Tarattuto.

Sat Sep 11 | 1:00
Sat Sep 18 | 1:15