(PELO MALO)
Friday, Feb. 2, 2018 7:00 P.M. MSU RCAH Theater (Snyder-Phillips Hall)
For directions, please click HERE.
Genre: Drama, LGBTQI, Race, Youth, Family
ABOUT THE FILM
Mariana Rondón/Venezuela/2013/93 min
In Spanish with English subtitles
A nine-year-old boy’s preening obsession with straightening his hair elicits a tidal wave of homophobic panic in his hard-working mother, in this tender but clear-eyed coming-of-age tale. Junior is a beautiful boy, with big brown eyes, a delicate frame, and a head of luxurious dark curls. But Junior aches to straighten those curls, to acquire a whole new look befitting his emerging fantasy image of himself as a long-haired singer. As the opportunity approaches to have his photo taken for the new school year, that ache turns into a fiery longing. Junior’s mother, Marta (Samantha Castillo), is barely hanging on. The father of her children has died, she recently lost her job as a security guard, and she now struggles to put a few arepas on the table for Junior and his baby brother.
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
Director, screenwriter, visual artist. Born in Barquisimeto, Venezuela. After studying Animated Film in Paris, Mariana Rondón graduated at first generation of the Film School EICTV, Cuba. Her short film Street 22 received 22 international awards. Her first feature, At Midnight and a Half, (2000) co-directed by Marité Ugás, received 5 “Opera Prima” awards and participated in more than 40 international film festivals. Her last feature Postcards from Leningrad (2007) received 23 international awards, such as FIPRESCI at Kerala, Grand Prix at Biarritz and Revelation Jury Award at the de Sao Paulo Festival.
In Plastic Arts, Rondón’s robotics installation You Came With the Breeze (Fundación Telefónica Award) has been exhibited in Caracas, México City, Puebla, Gijón, Lima, Santiago and Beijing as part of the Olympics Cultural Project, 2008. She is presently working on the Interactive installation Superbloques.
A 30 minute discussion of the film will follow the screening hosted by Yomaira Figueroa with Danny Méndez (Romance and Classical Studies), Jeff Wray (Film Studies), and Tama Hamilton-Wray (Residential College in the Arts and Humanities),
MSU Latinx Film Festival 