New Directors/New Films

 Las Acacias

Neighboring Sounds

Porfirio

I saw only three films at this year's edition of New Directors/New Films, all from Latin America. Pablo Giorgelli's Las Acacias, from Argentina, Kleber Mendonça Filho's Neighboring Sounds, from Brazil, and Alejandro Landes's Porfirio, from Colombia, each reveal a high degree of formal and narrative assurance for beginning filmmakers. Las Acacias and Porfirio are moving examples of what J. Hoberman calls "situation documentary," blending a loosely-structured narrative with elements of documentary, somewhat in the manner of Lisandro Alonso (particularly evident in the opening woodcutting sequence of Las Acacias).

Neighboring Sounds is notable for its superb sound mix, its dark sense of humor and the escalating tension of its interconnected dramas about sex, petty crime, violence and class relations in the city of Recife. It marks the arrival of a major new director.