#HFFNY2020 HAS BEEN RESCHEDULED.
A topic as relevant as ever is what #HFFNY recommends for this week on its Classics to Keep You Company digital series. Retrato de Teresa (1979), a pivotal movie in Cuban cinema and directed by one of the island’s most beloved filmmakers, Pastor Vega, “hit home” for a lot of Cubans, as it was the first film to deal with the role of women in the domestic sphere since the passage of the Family Code in 1974. Starring silver screen legend Daisy Granados as the titular Teresa, this story of a woman eschewing sexist double standards while holding a full-time job, leading a community dance troupe and getting the kids to school on time serves as a worthwhile companion for a rainy Thursday afternoon.
STREAMING HERE WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES.
Things get (sur)real in El ángel exterminador / The Exterminating Angel, #HFFNY’s next recommended Classic to Keep You Company. From the satirical mind of one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, Luis Buñuel, comes a quarantine story gone wild. When a group of sophisticated party guests discover there’s an invisible force preventing them from leaving the room, things take a bizarre turn in this savagely funny social critique.
STREAMING HERE WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES.
While the world takes the necessary steps for us to go outside and meet again, #HFFNY recommends a work of cinematic poetry from one of the most compelling filmmakers of all time, Chilean Miguel Littin. Nominated for an Oscar in 1983, the Nicaraguan film Alsino y el cóndor reimagines military occupation from the dreamy perspective of a 12-year-old boy. And like the titular Alsino, whose flights of fancy are actual flights, the idea of spreading wings and taking off sounds great right now… even if just for 90 minutes.
STREAMING HERE WITH OPTIONAL ENGLISH SUBTITLES.
“The first obligation of all human beings is to be happy. The second obligation is to make others happy” (Cantinflas) While laughter may not cure a virus, it’s what we’ve been craving these last couple of weeks. The next film #HFFNY recommends in its digital series of Classics to Keep you Company stars the legendary Mexican comedian known worldwide as Cantinflas. Considered one of his best films, Ahí está el detalle (You’re Missing the Point) is a hilarious tale of mistaken identities that cracks us up every time.
STREAMING HERE WITH OPTIONAL ENGLISH SUBTITLES.
This March we lost a legendary figure of Cuban animation, Juan Padrón. As an homage, #HFFNY is recommending his darkly funny (and delectably raunchy) Vampiros en La Habana (Vampires in Havana) as the next film in our digital series of classics to keep you company. So pour yourself a glass of something nice (be it vampisol or some vintage O+), and join us for an outlandish vampiric turf war set to the steamy sounds of Latin Jazz. Streaming here in Spanish with English subtitles
STREAMING HERE WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES.
LA MUERTE DE UN BURÓCRATA
DEATH OF A BUREAUCRAT
Tomás Gutiérrez Alea | Cuba | Fiction | 1966 | 84min
In need of a feature-length laugh? Then join HFFNY for the fifth film in its digital series of classics to keep you company.Cinematic genius Tomás Gutiérrez Alea was a master at finding comedy in even the most infuriating circumstances, and La muerte de un burócrata (Death of a Bureaucrat), his absurdist farce about a young man trying to fight the system, proves the perfect mix of surrealist satire and slapstick humor for a side-splitting critique of bureaucracy run amok and the tyranny of red tape.
STREAMING HERE WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES.
BLACK GOD, WHITE DEVIL (1964)
Glauber Rocha | Brazil | Fiction | 118min
Curl up at home and escape to Brazil with HFFN’s fourth film in our digital series of classics to keep you company. Moviemaking mastermind Glauber Rocha directed Black God, White Devil (1964) at the age of 25, and today it’s a must-watch for any film buff.
So if you find yourself in need of a break from the world for 2 hours, join us in the Brazilian badlands of the 1940s as we follow outlaws Manuel and Rosa on their quest to find some sort of home, only to discover that the land belongs to neither god nor the devil, but to the people themselves (in Portuguese w/ English subtitles): https://youtu.be/
LOS OLVIDADOS (1950)
Luis Buñuel | Mexico | Fiction | 78min
HFFNY invites you on a feature-length trip to Mexico with its third film in our digital series of classics to keep you company. Iconic Spanish director Luis Buñuel’s pivotal work, Los olvidados / The Young and the Damned (1950), blends the stark reality of marginalized Mexican youths with surrealist dreamscapes to create an award-winning film that became a bedrock of future Latin American cinema.
Buñuel’s masterpiece, newly-restored and subtitled in English, is streaming for free on Amazon Prime (also available to rent for $2.99): https://amzn.to/3b5N84A
ESTA TIERRA NUESTRA / THIS LAND OF OURS (1959)
Tomás Gutiérrez Alea | Cuba | Doc | 19min
Next up in HFFNY’s series of time-honored classics to keep you company while you practice social distancing is a bite-sized doc by Cuba’s most ingenious filmmaker, Tomás Gutiérrez Alea (aka Titón). A striking portrayal of land inequality for the campesinos of Cuba’s countryside, this short deftly marries the realities of the present with dreams for tomorrow.
EL MÉGANO (1955)
Julio García Espinosa | Cuba | Doc | 25min
Grab the popcorn and get cozy! To kick-off HFFNY’s series of classic films to keep you company while you practice social distancing, we present EL MÉGANO (1955) the impactful short doc by beloved Cuban director Julio García Espinosa that paved the way to Cuba’s revolutionary cinema.