Kiss Me | Argentina Alejandro Areal Vélez | 8.50 minutes | MiniDV | 2003 views of sexuality and gender from argentina, brazil, chile and méxico 1 A man and a woman are inside a red room. She kisses him with her red lips, again and again, until she makes him disappear. | Una mujer y un hombre en un cuarto rojo. Ella lo besa con sus labios rojos hasta hacerlo desaparecer. | Y Chicago Premiere Friday, September 23 | 8:00pm | total running time: 117 min. El culto del cuerpo | Cult of the Body | Chile Guest Speaker | Santiago Mitre, Director Cristian Leighton | 58 minutes | DVCam | 2001 A Christmas Song | México opening night! Ricardo Nicolayevsky | 3 minutes | MiniDV | 2002 A tableau inspired by The Christmas Song, by Tony Bennett. A gift, full of tenderness, humor, magic, and some perversity as well. | Un tableau a partir de The Christmas Song, de Tony Bennett. Un regalo lleno de ternura, humor, magia y algo de perversidad. | Y Chicago Premiere El amor (primera parte) | Love (Part One) | Argentina Alejandro Fadel, Martín Mauregui, Santiago Mitre & Juan Schnitman | 114 min. | DVCam | 2004 Filmed by four directors, each of whom shot one section of the film without seeing the others’ finished sections, Love (Part One) tells the story of a young couple from the beginning of their relationship to its end. Using an innovative and humorous approach the film investigates several questions, namely: How and why do two people fall in love? What mechanisms set in motion the desire to live together? How do we know when the beginning of the end arrives? When does a relationship end, or when should it end? This work by unknown filmmakers was a surprise hit in Argentina and sold out theatres in Buenos Aires for six consecutive months. | Filmada por cuatro directores quienes realizaron una sección de la película cada uno, ignorando la porción filmada por los otros. El amor (primera parte) cuenta la historia de una joven pareja, desde los inicios de su relación y hasta su final. Usando un enfoque novedoso y lleno de ingenio la película se propone investigar varias interrogantes: Cómo y por qué personas se enamoran? Cuáles son los mecanismos que echan a andar el deseo de vivir juntos? Cómo sabemos cuando el principio del fin ha llegado? Cuándo acaba una relación, o cuándo debería terminar? Una película de ficción de gran éxito en Buenos Aires con completos totales por seis meses. | Y Chicago Premiere ] Award-winning Feature 2 Saturday, September 24 | 5:00pm | total running time: 95 min. La milpa | The Cornfield | México Patricia Riggen | 27 minutes | 35mm | 2002 Angela reminisces about her youth during the Mexican Revolution, a time when myths, sensuality, war and pain were everyday occurrences. | Ángela recuerda las historias de su juventud durante la Revolución Méxicana, una época en que los mitos, el erotismo, la guerra y el dolor eran cosa de todos los días. In the year 2000, Cristián Leighton began to work on a video trilogy named The Body of Chile with the aim of offering an uncensored view of contemporary Chile. By examining four characters that work directly with their bodies—a long-distance runner, a female bodybuilder, a transvestite and a photographer—The Cult to the Body begins an exploratory journey into the complex relationship between body, self-image and personal satisfaction in Chilean society. | En el año 2000, Cristián Leighton comenzó la realización de una trilogía named El cuerpo de Chile, destinada a ofrecer una mirada sin censura del Chile contemporáneo. A partir de cuatro personajes que trabajan directamente con el cuerpo —un corredor, una físico-culturista, un travesti y una fotógrafa—El culto al cuerpo marca el inicio de un viaje en que se explora la compleja relación entre cuerpo, apariencia y satisfacción personal. | Y US Premiere 3 Tuesday, September 27 | 8:00pm | total running time: 90 min. Juego de niños | Child’s Play | México Carlos Cuarón | 4.5 minutes | 35mm | 2002 Tere, punished by her father, must endure the tedious confinement of her room. In an unusual act of rebellion and anger, she discovers that love is not child’s play. | Tere es castigada por su papá. Está condenada al tedioso encierro de su habitación. En un insólito acto de rebeldía y coraje descubre que el amor no es un juego de niños. | Y Chicago Premiere Nina | Brazil Heitor Dhalia | 85 minutes | 35mm | 2004 Nina, a profoundly sensitive young girl with a fragile mind, rents a room in the apartment of Eulália, a miserly and exploitative old woman. Exasperated by existential theories and chronic anxieties, she defends her right to live on her own terms. In the process she commits a heinous crime, as if she were in someone else’s body. | Nina, uma caricaturista de sensibilidade agudísima emente fragilizada, aluga um quarto no apartamento de Eulália, uma velha mesquinha e exploradora. Com o coração exasperado por teorias existenciais e ansiedades crônicas, Nina defende o direito de viver segundo a vontade própria e nesse processo comete um crime hediondo, como se não houvesse caminhado com as próprias pernas. | Y Chicago Premiere ] Award-winning Feature 4 Friday, September 30 | 8:00pm | total running time: 94 min. ¿Qué me va a hacer? | Her Favorite Treat | México Alejandro Cordero León | 5 minutes | 35mm | 2002 A lonely woman goes to the bakery to buy her favorite treat but ends up finding something far more exciting than sweet rolls. | Una solitaria mujer acude a la panadería a comprar su placer favorito, pero encuentra algo más inquietante y tentador que el pan dulce. | Y Chicago Premiere Interview No.4: Liliana | Argentina Karin Idelson | 3 minutes | MiniDV | 2004 A portrait of a middle-class woman from Buenos Aires, happily married, and with a very secret hobby. | Retrato de una mujer de la clase media bonaerense, felizmente casada y con un hobbie muy secreto. | Y US Premiere El cuerpo del deseo | The Body of Desire | Chile Cristian Leighton | 75 minutes | DVCam | 2001 In the year 2000, Cristián Leighton began to work on a video trilogy named The Body of Chile with the aim of offering an uncensored view of contemporary Chile. The second installment, The Body of Desire, is a non-judgmental look at the daily lives of a young prostitute, a male stripper and a cabaret dancer. While the protagonists live off of the fantasies and desires they provoke in others, they have many fantasies of their own. Their attempts at reaching happiness reveal the world of contradictions they inhabit and show how some of the characters fare better than others in moving towards their goals. | En el año 2000, Cristián Leighton comenzó la realización de una trilogía, El cuerpo de Chile, destinada a ofrecer una mirada sin censura del Chile contemporáneo. El segundo episodio de esta trilogía, El cuerpo del deseo, es una mirada sin prejuicios a la vida cotidiana de una joven prostituta, un stripper y una vedette. Los protagonistas viven de las fantasías y deseos que provocan en otros, pero a la vez tienen las suyas propias. Sus decisiones y lo que éstas generan nos revelan un universo de contradicciones y de intentos, algunos más eficaces que otros, por alcanzar la felicidad. | Y US Premiere 5 Tuesday, October 4 | 8:00pm | total running time: 94 min. Natural | Argentina Marcelo Mangone | 85 minutes | DVCam | 2004 Sol and Nico are a young couple from the suburbs of Buenos Aires who, like all teenagers, think they know it all. With great candor and affection for its characters, Natural builds a sincere portrait of adolescent love. Excitement followed by boredom, trust gained then lost, and fear of growing up are some of the many emotions experienced by this couple that faces a harsh reality. | Sol y Nico son una joven pareja de la periferia de Buenos Aires que como muchos chicos de su edad creen saberlo todo. Con gran sencillez y cariño por los personajes, Natural construye un retrato honesto del amor adolescente. Emoción seguida de aburrimiento; confianza ganada, luego perdida, y miedo a crecer son algunas de las muchas emociones que esta pareja experimentará en su camino a una dura realidad. | Y US Premiere 6 Friday, October 7 | 8:00pm | total running time: 117 min. Guest Speaker | Alejandra Islas, Director Lo sublime banal | The Sublime Banal | Argentina Graciela Taquini | 12 minutes | MiniDV | 2004 Argentine writer Julio Cortázar's world comes into the kitchen. Soft and enveloping movements beat the cream with a circularity paralleled by the camera and the encounter. | El mundo Cortazariano se instala en la cocina. Suaves movimientos envolventes baten la crema como la circularidad del plano secuencia y del encuentro. | Y US Premiere Las auténicas intrépidas buscadoras del peligro | Authentic and Intrepid Seekers of Danger | México | Alejandra Islas | 105 minutes | DVCam | 2005 A portrait of the Authentic and Intrepid Seekers of Danger, a group of indigenous and mestizo gay men from the town of Juchitán, in Southern Mexico. For thirty years this group has fought for self-assertion in order to be recognized socially in the region. The group faces acceptance and rejection, camaraderie and loneliness, love and its reversal, all with a transgressive attitude, intensely celebrating life. | Retrato de Las auténticas intrépidas buscadoras del peligro, un grupo de indígenas y mestizos gay del pueblo de Juchitán, en el sur de México. Por treinta años este grupo ha luchado por ser reconocido socialmente en la región. Ellos enfrentan aceptación y rechazo, camaradería y soledad, todo esto con una actitud transgresora que celebra intensamente la vida. | Y US Premiere Para vestir santos | Old Maid | México Armando Casas | 10 minutes | 35mm | 2004 Doña Consuelo constantly listens to nasty comments about her daughter Cristina's unmarried state. Little does she know that Cristina has a pleasant little secret. | Doña Consuelo escucha constantemente los insidiosos comentarios sobre la soltería de su hija Cristina. Lo que no adivina es que Cristina tiene un placentero secreto. | Y Chicago Premiere P R E S E N the T E D B nineteenth step Y 7 9 Saturday, October 8 | 5:00pm | total running time: 94 min. El Ché de los gays | Che of the Gay | Chile Friday, October 14 | 8:00pm | total running time: 97 min. Guest Speaker | Ana Luiza Beraba, Curator Arturo Álvarez Roa | 30 minutes | MiniDV | 2004 Myself with Me ‘n my Way | Argentina Víctor Hugo is a gay activist who uses an unusual method of protest in his fight for the recognition and emancipation of this group in Santiago, Chile. | Víctor Hugo es un activista gay que utiliza un modo muy particular de protesta en su lucha por la emancipación y reconocimeinto de este grupo en Santiago de Chile. | Y US Premiere ] Award-winning Short Marcelo Galindo | 3 minutes | MiniDV | 2004 Sobreviviente | Survivor | México On Mexico’s northern border an adolescent, Sandra, tries to cross into the United States in search of the “American dream”. | En la frontera norte de México, Sandra, una adolescente, trata de pasar a Estados Unidos en busca del “sueño americano”. | Y Chicago Premiere ] Award-winning Short Jesús Magaña | 64 minutes | DVCam | 2003 Life is a mystery that Tonatiuh tries to understand through his video camera. On a lonely trip he meets Adela and his love for her becomes his reason for living. A chronological disordering of events takes us through the couple’s emotional ups and downs. With his video camera Tonatiuh incessantly captures these moments, as if this gesture alone could help him escape the loneliness and despair that he anticipates. | La vida es un misterio que Tonatiuh trata de comprender a través de su cámara de video. En un viaje solitario conoce a Adela y su amor por ella se transforma en la razón de su vida. A través de un desorden cronológico de eventos conocemos los altibajos emocionales de esta pareja. Tonatiuh incesantemente captura estos momentos con su cámara de video, como si a través de este gesto pudiera escapar a la soledad y desconsuelo que él siente venir. | Y Chicago Premiere ] Award-winning Feature Guest Speaker | Ana Luiza Beraba, Curator Filme de amor | Film of Love | Brazil Júlio Bressane | 90 minutes | 35mm | 2004 Three friends, Hilda, Matilda and Gaspar, meet in a run-down old house in the heart of Rio de Janeiro. During a single weekend, they drink, fool around, seek out pleasurable experiences and live to the fullest, trying to escape the harsh reality of their routines. | Hilda, Matilda e Gaspar são três amigos que vivem no subúrbio e que decidem se encontrar em um pequeno apartamento no Centro do Rio com o objetivo de beber, conversar, sentir prazer e, principalmente, estarem juntos. Lá eles entram num estado de sonho, devido a embriaguez, que os leva a esquecer o que ocorre fora do apartamento. | Y Chicago Premiere ] Award-winning Feature El otro sueño americano | The Other American Dream | México Enrique Arroyo | 10 minutes | BetaSP | 2004 Contra todos | Up Against Them All | Brazil Roberto Moreira | 95 minutes | 35mm | 2004 Up Against Them All is an urban drama of betrayal and revenge set in the poor suburbs of São Paulo. Its main characters are members of a lower middle-class family trapped in tragic relationships and realities. As the family tries to escape its destiny of violence and death, a confusing event reveals their secrets and leads to the story's shocking and surprising conclusion. | Contra Todos é um drama urbano sobre traição e vingança que se passa na periferia de São Paulo. Seus personagens principais são membros de uma família de classe média baixa presa em uma série de realidades e relações trágicas. No que a família tenta fugir de um destino violento e mortal, um evento confuso revela os segredos familiares e leva a história a uma conclusão supreendente e chocante. | ] Award-winning Feature tickets Tickets to films (programs) are $9, $5 for Film Center members, $7 for students, $4 for student, faculty, and staff of the School of the Art Institute and of the Art Institute. Tickets are available at the Gene Siskel Film Center Box Office which opens at 5pm weekdays and 2pm weekends. All films contain English subtitles. s 8 Thursday, October 13 | 6:00pm | total running time: 90 min. Performance art at its boldest. A short video that delivers a knock out experience. | Atrevidísmo performance que en un corto lapso de tiempo entrega una experiencia total. | Y US Premiere! Be aware, most films contain graphic content and language. views of sexuality and gender from argentina, brazil, chile and méxico September 23–October 14, 2005 | Gene Siskel Film Center | 164 N. State Street | Chicago | www.siskelfilmcenter.org | www.19thStep.org