Day: May 16, 2018

By Mark Saldana Rating: 3.5 (Out of 4 Stars) I know it sounds cliché to say that youths often take things for granted when they don’t have to struggle to survive.  However, one cannot deny the truth in that statement.  Not only is this a situation that occurs in the United States, but one that… Continue reading Cine Las Americas 2018 Review: ARÁBIA (ARABY)

By Mark Saldana Rating: 3.5 (Out of 4 Stars) Though not my highest rated film of the festival, Cocote is probably the most exciting and artistically bold film of this year’s Cine Las Americas.  Director Nelson Carlo De Santos Arias takes a basic story of vengeance and presents it in some truly exciting and creative… Continue reading Cine Las Americas 2018 Review: COCOTE

By Mark Saldana Rating: 3.5 (Out of 4 Stars) The second documentary I viewed at the festival is a fun and exciting film about the very intimate dance known as the tango and its current world-wide resurgence.  Argentinian director Pablo Hadis offers an entertaining and insightful film that features some of the artists and enthusiasts… Continue reading Cine Las Americas 2018 Review: ABRAZOS IMBORRABLES (UNFORGETTABLE HUGS)

By Mark Saldana Rating: 3 (Out of 4 Stars) From Spain this amusing and somewhat deep comedy features a fantastic performance by it lead actress.  Patricia Jordá stars as Marisa, a vivacious young woman whose life and happiness has been on hold for too long.  Lost and aimless, Marisa dedicates her life and most of… Continue reading Cine Las Americas 2018 Review: MARISA EN LOS BOSQUES (MARISA IN THE WOODS)

By Mark Saldana Rating: 4 (Out of 4 Stars) In this outstanding documentary film, director Rick Tejada-Flores decides to pursue a comprehensive study of his family’s roots and ancestry in Bolivia.  Though raised in America, Tejada-Flores had a father born and raised mostly in Bolivia and an American mother whom his father met and courted… Continue reading Cine Las Americas 2018 Review: MY BOLIVIA, REMEMBERING WHAT I NEVER KNEW

By Mark Saldana Rating: 3 (Out of 4 Stars) This year, it seems like the programmers at CLAIFF 21 had a taste for the bizarre and I just happened to choose a handful of them too.  This film from Mexico is a dark, sometimes disturbing, but also bewildering movie that is highly watchable and gripping… Continue reading Cine Las Americas 2018 Review: EL VIGILANTE (THE NIGHT GUARD)

By Mark Saldana Rating: 3 (Out of 4 Stars) I found this particular surreal drama a little difficult to decipher at first, but I must say that its presentation does have a very striking effect.  Heavy in religious and morbid imagery, Vigilia tells the story of an already dysfunctional family completely falling apart during a… Continue reading Cine Las Americas 2018 Review: VIGILIA (BEING AWAKE)