By RaeAnne Marsh
(September 2009)
That cinema can connect people across cultures was no more evident than in the diverse selection of short films screened at the 2009 debut of Tré-Ch(é) International Short Film Festival. Through the art of award-winning filmmakers and novices to the craft, audiences shared human experiences that slipped easily across continents and oceans as well as back and forth over the often politically charged U.S.-Mexican border.
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Salvador, in "Disque Libre"; photo courtesy of Tre-Ch(e) International Film Festival
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"Disque Libre" ("Quasi-Free")
(pictured above - everyman-Salvador; courtesy of Tré-Ch(é) International Short Film Festival)
Directed by: Miguel Nuñez
Starring: Jesus Castaños-Chima, Tony Duran and Dick Martin
"Disque Libre"'s border crossing is quite deliberate. The film opens with a series of scenes that set it in the metropolitan jungle of Los Angeles, establishing the main character's bona fides as a U.S. resident. (In fact, he is supposed to be a college professor - a member of the intelligentsia - but the film, unfortunately, does not clearly establish that.) "Disque Libre" then takes off as an odyssey of an everyman-Latino's quest for his ethnic roots.
First stop: a travel agency, where Salvador attempts to arrange travel into Mexico. Reluctant clerks parrot intimidating travel advisories, which he counters with similarly discouraging reports of U.S. destinations. Alas, the irony is lost on them, and he exits in frustration.
Traveling first by car and then by foot, he and an amigo gradually unburden themselves of the belongings they'd packed, some items offered to travelers attempting the reverse journey and others simply left to decompose in the desert.
The film captures Salvador's anxious determination to leave the mass-produced world of L.A. to connect with his heritage and his ultimate bewilderment at crossing the border only to come face to face with the same mega-marketers (WalMart, McDonalds) he'd left at home.
Hand-held camera word is well-suited to the trek through the desert. Overall, however, the cinematography does not commend itself as well as the storyline. Scenes are overlit and the sequencing jagged. The effect is a disquiet, which may, in fact, be part of director Miguel Nuñez's message.
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"Sintonia" ("Wavelength")
Directed/Written by: José María Goenaga
Starring: Joxean Bengoetxea, Tania de la Cruz
"Sintonia" features accomplished camera work as the story follows two cars - and their occupants - crawling along in the stop-and-go traffic through a highway checkpoint. An original take on the boy-meets-girl concept, the film effectively contains its action in the severely constricted environment of alternating automobile interiors and some strategic breaks to a radio station's on-air studio.
As he inches his car forward, a young man catches sight of a young woman singing along to the radio in the next lane. On a whim, he scrolls through the stations until he finds the one whose selection seems to fit her lip movements. It turns out to be a program that encourages call-ins, so he acts on the opportunity. The DJ repeats his description of the girl to whom he dedicates his request, and she gradually realizes it's intended for her - from a fellow traveler. Dialogue takes a back seat to body language - especially facial expression - in driving the storyline forward.
They must meet, of course, and a gas station serves as the logical rendez-vous point, but writer-director José María Goenaga avoids clichés in providing a satisfying conclusion.
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"Because There Are Things You Never Forget"; photo courtesy of the filmmaker
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"Porque hay cosas que no se olvidan" ("Because there are things you never forget")
Directed by: Lucas Figeroa
Written by: Lucas Figueroa and Natalia Perez P.
Starring: Amadeo Carboni, Fabio Cannavaro, Alessandro Menegas, Nicolo Urbinati, Giulio Baldari, Victor Menegas, Tiziano Scarponi, Emiliana Olmedo and Pascale Exposito
"Porque hay cosas que no se olvidan" is a fully realized feature experience in a short film. On the dirt lanes between rows of small but well-kept homes, a group of young boys enthusiastically play football (soccer) and dream of growing up to the professional teams. On this day, they're playing with a new ball, and its proud owner tells his friends how he was able to finally purchase it. Then a misplaced kick sends it over a fence and into an older woman's carefully tended garden.
Director Lucas Figueroa sets up the tension by following the ball's arc as it barely misses impaling itself on the spikes of the wrought-iron fence, then gives the audience a moment to breathe a collective sigh of relief before delivering the sucker punch of having the woman spitefully puncture the ball with her knitting needle.
Her action calls for a drastic response, and the boy gives it to her. But young boys' sense of fair play seldom takes full consideration of consequences; the boy's pay-back results in her death.
Cut to the boy as a grown man. He's still playing soccer, and he's working with a trainer. Compressing the intervening years into a single instant, the camera pulls back to take in the ball's trajectory and the audience sees the barbed-wire fence surrounding the correctional facility's playing field.
Production values are uniformly excellent: engagingly honest children, cinematography that rolls smoothly from long shots to close studies, and music that suits the scene without blatantly dictating a response.
Photo top: "Because There Are Things You Never Forget"; photo courtesy of the filmmaker