Repertorio Espanol, NYC

As you know New York City offers many opportunities to experience Latino culture.



One kept secret is Repertorio Espanol, the leading Spanish theatre in the city which presents plays by Jorge Amado (Dona Flor and sus dos maridos), Mario Vargas Llosa (Pantaleon y las Visitadoras), classics like the works of Federico Garcia Lorca or Cervantes or plays by emerging Latino playwrights.

During January the theater is offering a$ 10 discount to some plays. The plays are performed in Spanish with English translation.

The Off Broadway Theatre is located at 138 East, 27 Street near Lexington Avenue in Manhattan.

For more information go to: www.repertorio.org or call: 212-225-9920.

The Aura/ El Aura, Argentina

Hello,

Let's talk about the film:

The Aura/El Aura
Argentina, 2006

As I already wrote about Nine Queens, I want to share with you another film by Argentinian director Fabian Bielinsky.

Ricardo Darin, the same actor who appeared in Nine Queens, is Espinoza, a taxidermist who suffers random bouts of epilepsy.
Before the attacks he gets an aura. He also has a photographic memory and he dreams about using it in a major robbery.
He will have the opportunity during a trip to the south, to Patagonia.

A fast thriller, Argentinian style.

Unfortunately the last movie made by Bielinsky who died in his forties.

Gabriel Orozco at MOMA

THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART ORGANIZES THE FIRST MAJOR MUSEUM RETROSPECTIVE OF CONTEMPORARY ARTIST GABRIEL OROZCO


Hello,

Although I write mostly about Latin American films in this blog, I decided to incorporate worthwhile exhibitions and shows by Latin American artists as well.

Don't miss Gabriel Orozco's exhibition at MOMA!

Let's face it...not everyday a Latin American artist -in this case a Mexican- gets a major retrospective of his wok in one of the best American museums.

I am following his career since I first encountered his work: "My hands are my Heart", 1991: two photos of himself holding a piece of clay shaped as a heart with the imprints of his fingers. I bought the postcard and still is on a shelf in my bedroom.

You can visit this exhibition with your children. I think kids will enjoy the grey whale turned sculpture hanging up in the second floor. Pay attention to the graphite drawings. They are astounding. "Mobile Matrix" is on view for the first time outside Mexico.

The exhibition runs from December 13, 2009 until March 1, 2010 in the second floor and the sixth floor.

According to the Museum of Modern Art:
It is the first major museum retrospective of the artist Gabriel Orozco (Mexican, b. 1962), who since the early 1990s has forged a career marked by continuing innovation and has become one of the leading artists of his generation. This midcareer retrospective examines two decades of Orozco’s career in an exhibition of some 80 works, revealing how the artist roams freely and fluently among drawing, photography, sculpture, installation, and painting to create a heterogeneous body of objects that resists categorization. Works in the exhibition come from international public and private collections, including the collection of The Museum of Modern Art. Gabriel Orozco is organized by Ann Temkin, The Marie-Josée and Henry Kravis Chief Curator of Painting and Sculpture, The Museum of Modern Art, with Paulina Pobocha, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Painting and Sculpture, The Museum of Modern Art. It will be on view in The International Council of The Museum of Modern Art Gallery, sixth floor.

For more information go to: www.moma.org

From Argentina- La Cienaga/The Swamp

Hello,


La Cienaga/The Swamp won the first place as the Best Latin American movie of the decade on a survey organized by Cinema Tropical. Please check my previous post "Survey" for more details about the poll.

Director Lucrecia Martel portraits the lives of two women and their families during a hot summer in the North of Argentina. Martel was born in Salta and I like the fact that she sets her movies in this province, instead of Buenos Aires.

As I have family in Tucuman, the province next to Salta I have visited the region several times and I suggest that if you ever have a chance to travel to Argentina you do too. In Spanish Salta is called "Salta la linda" because it's a very pretty place.

The landscape is very different from urban Buenos Aires, the food is amazing...how to forget the empanadas saltenas and the humitas...
People have a different accent (if you know Spanish pay attention!) Even the sense of time is not alike... Because of the summer heat, stores close around noon and reopen many hours after. City dwellers go home to take a "siesta", a nap.

In this movie Graciela Borges -a very well known Argentinian actress- plays Mecha, an alcoholic and mother of four teenagers who is afraid to finish her days lying in bed for years as her mother once did, but doesn't do too much to avoid that fate. Her husband doesn't help her too much to improve the situation. The movie follows her family and her cousin's (the great Mercedes Moran) during a hot summer that seem endless and that revolves around a pool...

La Cienaga/The Swamp
Argentina, 2001
1 hour.40 min

Welcome 2010! From Argentina: Nine Queens

Hello friends,


I can't believe we are in 2010 already!

I hope 2010 brings salud, dinero, amor y tiempo para disfrutarlos!

Health, money, love and time to enjoy it all.

On December 31st 2009 I watched with my husband and children an Argentinian movie that I want to recommend: "Nine Queens" and I 'm happy to report that my tween daughter liked it!!!


Nine Queens/Nueve Reinas, 2000

Fabian Bielinsky

Arghentina, 115 min.


I have to say that the movie has some bad language, but that's how it's in Argentina's streets these days...


In any case perhaps some of you remember the movie because it was shown in New York cinemas, an amazing acomplishment for an Argentinian movie. I remember going to watch the movie near Lincoln Center and feeling so good about it...


Unfortunately , Fabian Bielinsky, the film's director died of a heart attack in 2006 at only 47 years old.

The movie is a puzzle and a thriller and has an interesting ending...Oh! I can't say anymore...Sorry. You have to watch it!

And remember apart from Netflix if you live in New York City (sorry Gerardo!) you can get it at the NYPL (you can book it online and send it to the library closer to your address.)

Regards,

Graciela