What if you could program your very own Latin American film festival from the comfort of your own home? That, in a nutshell, is what Festival Scope offers its audience, and with its picks from the FICUNAM lineup of movies, you can now catch up with a number of terrific films from a promising number of Latin American filmmakers that are currently playing the Mexican fest. Think of it as an indie Latino Netflix for specialty titles. But hurry up! In true festival form, the films are only made available for a limited time.
There’s plenty to enjoy but at the top of your queue you should definitely put Nicolás Pereda and Andrea Bussmann’s Tales of Two Who Dreamt. The film just premiered at Berlinale Forum and its title tells you all you need to know about it. In the same vein as Miguel Gomes’ recent Arabian Nights opus which blended fantasy and social commentary, Pereda and Bussmann’s film is set in a tower block in Toronto where people would wait for their asylum applications to be processed and where fantastic tales of boys who wake up with beaks, and dogs who die in empty flats take over the narrative in this black and white Kafkaesque world. Pereda’s previous short, the Marienbad-like Minotaur, is also available to watch.
If what you’re craving is color and nature, you should check out Icaros. Directed by Pedro González-Rubio, the film is set in the lush Costa Rican forests and takes you on a journey alongside a Spaniard who has relocated from Spain to that remote expanse where he relishes showing travelers the beauty of his surroundings and indulges in ayahuasca rituals that set the tone for this vibrant short film. Did we mention its slightly NSFW?
The rest of the selection is just as eclectic and promising, with films about hip hop in Mexico (Spoken Tongues), a sobering portrait of corruption (The Letters), and two meditations on memory and nature (Motherboard and Lenin Park). FICUNAM is film festival worth binge-watching for sure. Keep an eye out for Festival Scope’s picks from the Cartagena Film Festival that will be streaming in March.
The FICUNAM films are available to stream worldwide (except in Mexico) on Festival Scope for free through March 2, 2016 via this link.