Global Voices Online

An interesting, yet important storm of audiovisual productions is shaking Costa Rica’s attentive eager audience this year. Costa Rican bloggers provide their thoughts to the new cinematic offerings.

Miguel Gomez and his film El Cielo Rojo (The Red Sky) debuted at the beginning of August getting favorable reviews from experts and general viewers. Cristian Cambronero of Fusil de Chispas [es] delivers a short, yet detailed review of the premiere of El Cielo Rojo on his blog:

Miguel escribió varios diálogos brillantes, absolutamente creíbles para nosotros, su público meta, los espectadores costarricenses. Yo, y estoy seguro que le pasará a muchísimos de quienes la vean, me reconocí a los 17 años en muchas secuencias, y mi mamá, y a mi abuela, y a las vecinas.

Miguel wrote a brilliant script, absolutely believable for us, his target audience, the Costa Rican viewers. I (for the many others that will see the film) recognized myself at 17 years old in some scenes, and I also recognized my mother, my grandmother and some of my neighbors.

Trailer of El Cielo Rojo

Another director, Isthar Yashin recently contributed to the national cinema with El Camino (The Road) which received important awards and recognition in foreign Film Festivals. Inspired by El Camino’s intended message searching, Sergio Pacheco from La foto salió movida [es] writes:

Siempre me he reconocido migrante en mi propio país. Nací fuera de la capital y desde hace diez años estoy en la urbe (si a San José se le puede catalogar de tal forma). Muchos nos movemos dentro de nuestro país, entre países, entre mundos, entre el mundo, y el común denominador de ese movimiento es la búsqueda. El resultado es para todos diferente y para mí nunca estarán en el paralelo ganar- perder, si no en el de sobrevivir, que es un fluir.

I’ve always felt like a migrant in my own land. I was born in the countryside and ever since ten years ago, I live in this large city (if we can call San Jose as one). Many of us move around inside our country, between countries, between worlds, among the world and the common denominator of this movement is the search. The result is different for all, and for me it will never be about winning-losing, but about surviving, which is always in movement.

Trailer of El Camino

Both Gomez and Yashin, intend to portray cultural and precise characteristics that may be considered as part of the distinct innermost nature not only of Costa Ricans, but all habitants of Central America.

The party is not over. Last week Bisonte Producciones offered a warm invitation in the form of a Two-Day Film Festival that exhibits different short films produced in its majority by students and amateurs whose lives, imagination, and reality have been seduced entirely by the audiovisual production. Latin America has always fostered the development of artistic expressions that expose one of the richest cultures regarding way of thinking, feeling and doing. Without a doubt, this is just the beginning.

Posted by Jenny Cascante