Pittsburgh Film Festival
September 9-17, 2005Monday, September 12
8:00 pm Melwood Screening Room
COMPADRE
8:00 pm Melwood Screening Room
PORTER (SOLO UN CARGADOR)
Director: Mikael Wistrom
Documentary. 2004. Sweden. 86 min. Spanish and Swedish, subtitled.
Pittsburgh Premiere
Compadre is a documentary about the destiny of a Latin American family over a period of thirty years.
Its focus is on the strong character of the disabled father, Daniel. Together with Nati, the love of his life, and their newly-born daughter Sandra, he begins family life working on a garbage heap in Lima, Peru, in the seventies. That is where they meet the director of the film and make him the godfather of their child.
Since then, the lives of the director and of the family have been deeply related in friendship and conflicts over those thirty years. Compadre addresses the conditions of love and friendship in a world torn by poverty and inequality.
The film is an independent continuation of the feature length documentary The Other Shore (1992).
Filmmakers/Distributors Contact Information:
Mikael Wistrom
mikael.wistrom@swipnet.se
Preceded by Porter (Solo un Cargador)
Monday, September 12th, 8:00 pm, Melwood Screening Room
Director: Juan Alejandro Ramirez
Documentary. 2003. Peru. 20 min. Spanish, subtitled.
Pittsburgh Premiere
What does a simple porter dream about? Solo un Cargador is not a documentary but a spoken meditation. In voice-over narration, an anonymous Peruvian porter expresses his thoughts on his condition and his impossible dreams. While hauling foreign travellers' gear through the mountains, the porter's thoughts wander towards the desire for a better life, beyond material ambition.
Deprived of hatred, his voice bears the silent disillusion of the destitute, living in a world that will never be fair. Far from giving in to the pressures of his harsh living conditions, he maintains a sense of irony throughout his troubling, intimate revelations.
His terse narration evokes an ageless longing for justice and redemption. A film with a human face and a remarkable illustration of the life of the cargadores in Peru.
Filmmakers/Distributors Contact Information:
Juan Alejandro Ramirez
ramirez@otrotono.com
The film precedes Compadre
Monday, September 12, 8:00 pm, Melwood Screening Room