Watch the Peruvian ‘Amores Perros’ and Three Other Films This Week in NYC

It’s tough to decide on what the first impression of the late filmmaker Roberto Guerra was most striking: his owl-like, inquisitive eyes open wide with curiosity and magnified in his stylish, designer frames, or his enormous grin, broad, warm and infectious, ready to welcome friend and stranger alike into his unique realm of life and art. And so this aptly describes his documentary style, as a Peruvian-American citizen of the world who from a young age documented the most chic of the chic (warning, name dropping ahead: Coco Chanel!), the founding fathers of film (French Cinematheque founder Henri Langlois), and the choicest dudes and dudettes of design (Massimo and Ada Vignelli).

His later work produced collaboratively with his life, love, intellectual, and artistic partner Kathy Brew provided an incisive look at the creative process, asked all the right questions, captured all the kooky quirks, and attests to a documentarian who was unflinching yet loving toward his subjects. His place behind the camera with a lens on the world, which he left too early after a fierce battle with cancer, is celebrated tonight and seen in the new film, Roberto Guerra: A Life, by filmmaker Lorry Salcedo Mitrani, at the opening of the New York Peruvian Film Showcase (NYPFS).

The fifth edition of the NYPFS runs Sept 16 -19 and kicks off with several screenings including the short documentary Roberto Guerra, a Life, by Lorry Salcedo Mitrani, followed by the feature film El Mudo by Daniel and Diego Vega, which recently picked up an award for Best Actor at the Locarno Film Festival.

This year’s incarnation of the four-day showcase is dedicated to Peruvian archaeological heritage and as such will celebrate Peru’s rich, multicultural history and the fifty years of Peruvian cinema. Narrative features, documentaries, video-art installations, and Andean music concerts will round out the bill, all of which will be free and open to the public. Be sure to stop by and get a window into the cinematic tradition of one of Latin America’s largest and most historically significant countries. After all, it’s free. Here are the movies we think you shouldn’t miss.