juan alejandro ramirez · · OTROtono · · www.otrotono.com

“Nunca supe a donde quise llegar, solo sé que he peleado toda mi vida."

 

2008



 
Periodico del Festival EDOC




O T H E R   T I T L E S   by Juan Alejandro Ramirez

 
















 
"Alguna Tristeza is poetry -- oral as well as visual. This is what filmmaking is all about. How do you package a message without sacrificing images and metaphors?"
-Mukul Khurana. The Weekend Ahead

"Juan Alejandro Ramirez is one of the most poetic documentarians working today."
 -Howard Feinstein. indieWIRE / Variety

"La pensée de Juan Alejandro Ramirez est circulaire. Lorsque sa parole lance una idée, elle effectue un joli tour autour d’elle, la répète, et finit par lui faire gagner sa propre profondeur. Son film lui ressemble, il ne cessa se dessiner des cercles, des détours, des sillons colores jusqu’a celui sur lequel s’achève le film et qui questionne un avenir en même temps qu’il tente de le saisir. Dans ce long poème que seule la contemplation peut dire, le spectateur est convie par l’auteur au voyage d’une question, d’une ritournelle parmi les palpitations s’un pays, sa petite musique intérieure, ses montagnes filmées telles ses hommes et ses hommes tel ses montagnes: “C’est quoi être Péruvien?”
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                                                                                                                                                                                      -Ronan Govys. Cinéma du Réel. Paris



Cinéma du Réel link




A L G U N A   T R I S T E Z A

(Some Kind of Sadness)

© 2006

A group of seemingly unrelated vignettes emerge as both personal and distant, but always intensely emotional in tone .  .  .  ultimately, shaping up as a sketch-book on some features that seem to mark the lives of those who grow up poor in poor countries. This personal narrative offers neither formulas nor solutions: rather, it is a random pursuit for answers that unravels into a series of powerful, lyrical epiphanies. A sharp eye for detail and a stirring poetic narration turn the images of this film into a moving metaphor for all kinds of inequities.


International Documentary Festival Amsterdam  (IDFA)  PREMIERE
November 23-December 3, 2006

Cinéma du Réel  (International Competition)
Pompidou Center. Paris  March 9-18, 2007

It's All True. International Documentary Film Festival
Documenta Madrid 2007 International Film Festival
14th San Diego Latino International Film Festival
23rd Chicago Latino International Film Festival
Indianapolis International Film Festival
19èmes Rencontres Cinémas de Toulouse
Festival de Cinéma des 3 Amériques. Quebec
57th Montecatini International Film Festival
Cinememoria. Encuentros del Otro Cine
Las Americas International Film Festival
15th Vila do Conde International Film Festival
11vo Encuentro de Cine Latinoamericano. Lima
13th Sarajevo International Film Festival
Rencontres du Cinéma Documentaire d’Ajaccio
VII Docupolis 2007. Barcelona
Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival
IV Muestra de Nuevo Cine Iberoamericano. Spain
Aarhus International Film Festival. Denmark
DOCLisboa International Film Festival. Portugal
International Eurasia Film Festival. Antalya, Turkey
Muestra Internacional de Mar del Plata
DOCUSUR Festival Internacional del Sur. Spain
DocuDays: Beirut International Documentary Festival
Cinémas d'Espagne et d'Amérique Latine de Bruxelles
The 6th Festival Film Dokumenter Jogjakarta. Indonesia
Rencontres Internationales du Documentaire de Montréal
DOCPoint Helsinki International Documentary Festival
Punto de Vista. International Documentary Film Festival of Navarra

Upcoming Presentations

9th Havana International Film Festival New York
Festival de la Memoria. Mexico
Interview RADIO FRANCE INTERNATIONAL
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Solo un Cargador
 P O R T E R

© 2003


“. . . transcendental poetry in a work that approaches the sublime.”
- New Directors / New Films. MoMA New York

"A beautiful portrait, meticulously filmed . . . a film with a human face."  - Rotterdam International Film Festival

". . . Ramírez has built a work of art in this poetic journey of his concept of a self-loathing porter."  - IN SHOWS. Performance and Films

“. . . an intensely meditative voice-over . . . The final effect, and the slight sense of hope in the closing shot, results in a work of devastating beauty."  -Indianapolis International Film Festival

GRAND PRIX COURTOUJOURS
Rencontres Cinémas d'Amérique Latine
STERLING AWARD BEST SHORT
Silverdocs / American Film Institute Film Festival
GRAND JURY PRIZE BEST SHORT
Indianapolis International Film Festival
BEST SHORT FEATURE AWARD
Human Rights Nights International Film Festival

BEST NARRATIVE SHORT
San Diego Latino International Film Festival

BEST DIRECTOR AWARD
Jornada Internacional de Cinema da Bahia

BEST SHORT FEATURE AWARD
Las Americas International Film Festival

GRAND PRIX DU NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
Festival International du film de d'Autrans
GRAND PRIX DOCUMENTAIRE
Festival International du Film d'Aubagne
GRAND JURY SPECIAL MENTION
Belo Horizonte International Film Festival
GRAND JURY HONORABLE DISTINCTION
International Film Festival in Drama
PRIX TEUEIKAN MENCION SPECIELE
Terres en Vues Montreal

 

 

AN   O F F I C I A L   S E L E C T I O N   A T

ROTTERDAM . SUNDANCE . NEW DIRECTORS / NEW FILMS . TAMPERE . FRIBOURG . BILBAO . SILVERDOCS . LATIN BEAT at Lincoln Center . HUESCA . CORK . SARAJEVO . RAINDANCE . RIDM MONTREAL . KASSEL . LONDON . FIDOCS . JIHLAVA . CALGARY . KERALA . VILA DO CONDE . SAO PAULO  SHORT . JORNADA DA BAHIA . DRAMA . MOSTRA DE SAO PAULO . TORONTO LATINO . CARTAGENA . BARCELONA INDEPENDENT . SIENA . IMAGES DU NOUVEAU MONDE . LA AMNESTY . SAN DIEGO . MANCHESTER . MONTEVIDEO . ARIZONA . CHICAGO LATINO . BELO HORIZONTE . NASHVILLE . AUBAGNE . LAS AMERICAS . TRENTO . NAFA . GOTTINGEN . LOS ANGELES LATINO . TOULOUSE . ONE WORLD PRAGUE . INDIANAPOLIS . WASHINGTON . CINEMEMORIA . PARNU . ALL ROADS . WELLINGTON . ROME . PROVINCETOWN . DRETS HUMANS BARCELONA . BOLOGNA .  VANCOUVER . TERRES EN VUES . ARMAND HAMMER . BRATISLAVA . BOSTON . CPHDOX Copenhagen . PITTSBURGH . PARIS . SAN ANTONIO . SYDNEY . BELGRADE . KATHMANDU . ETNIA . TAOS . FAJR . CAIRO


 

N e w   D i r e c t o r s  /  N e w   F i l m s
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and The Film Society of Lincoln Center

A darker, more troubling, but no less transcendent philosophical exercise  . . .  Porter, by Juan Alejandro Ramirez, is about one fictionalized cargador, brought to life in an uncannily penetrating first-person voiceover constructed by Ramirez from various accounts by these peasant laborers.

In this intensely subjective, stream-of-consciousness monologue . . . (a porter) shares his often astonishingly acute thoughts about his low place in the world, his hopes and failings, and his invisibility to the gringos who are so dependent on him, however briefly.

This is not a sentimental, self-satisfied story celebrating a group of unfortunates. Ramirez does something very different by having the porter, the Other, seemingly take control of the storytelling and the images, making him a true subject, and not the object of either scorn or pity. The effect of hearing this voice is devastating, pointing out as he does the chasms in understanding between people.

-Elizabeth Helfgott  FILM COMMENT  May-June 2004

O T H E R   P R E S S      Solo un Cargador      (Click on link)
New Directors/New Films
Rotterdam Film Festival
New Directors/New Films
Festivals
Sarajevo IFF
Sundance at MoMA
Sundance Premiere

 

Muy Lejos de Aqui      •      Me Dicen Yovo      •      Todo y Nada

 

 

 

 

 

M U Y   L E J O S   D E   A Q U I

(Faraway from Here) © 1999

 

”This excellent erudite travel diary, of the filmmaker's journeys throughout his homeland and India, (allows) the sights and events the camera eye captures during the trip lead to a convoluted, but always fascinating, contemplation of friendship, alienation and the patronisation of the so called Third World by the so called developed nations.”

- REELSCREEN. London

 

.  MANNHEIM  .  RIO DE JANEIRO .  SARAJEVO  .  LONDON  .  BARCELONA  .  ST. PETERSBURG  .  CORK  .  MOSTRA DE SAO PAULO  .  KRAKOW  .  CHICAGO  .  VILA DO CONDE  .  MONTEVIDEO  .  FILM FRA SOR  .  SAN DIEGO  .   BRITISH FILM FESTIVAL  .  MAR DEL PLATA  .  NEW YORK EXPO

 

 

 

M E   D I C E N   Y O V O

(I'm a Yovo) © 1995

 

“I’m a Yovo unveils a rare picture of the Third World as seen from the Third World.”

- Michael Schmitz. WAS DUSSELDORF

 

.  MONTREAL  .  SAN SEBASTIAN  .  MANNHEIM  .  OBERHAUSEN  .  FRIBOURG  .  CORK  .  CHICAGO  .  FESPACO  .  COPENHAGEN  .  FILM FRA SOR  .  BOMBAY  .  ETHNOFILMFEST  .   VILA DO CONDE  .  NEW YORK AFRICAN DIASPORA  .  SAO PAULO  .  TOULOUSE  .  BAHIA  . 

 

 

 

 

 

T O D O   Y   N A D A

(All and Nothing) © 1993

 

" . . . this film succeeds in permeating the audience with a feeling of longing for the past that all men - whether fortunate or not - radiate when far and away from their origins."
                                                                                                           
- Julia Cabale. LA TRIBUNA DEL FESTIVAL. LA HABANA

 

.  MONTREAL  .  LA HABANA  .  BERLIN  .  BAHIA  .  TOULOUSE  .  NEFF  .  MONTEVIDEO  .  CAMBRIDGE  .  CHICAGO  .

 
Location Still. Iquitos, January 2005

 

 

For further information contact   ramirez@otrotono.com