Film Directors of CHACUN SON CINEMA At Cannes FF 

Thursday, March 6---------Reaching a 25th anniversary is a milestone for any organization. For a film festival, it is a major accomplishment and a vantage point from which to appreciate past triumphs and survey new opportunities. As the Miami International Film Festival celebrated its silver anniversary at the glorious Gusman Center for the Performing Arts last evening, the mood was one of reverence for the past and anticipation for the future.

“A Festival is nothing without the involvement of its filmmakers," MIFF Director Patrick de Bokay declared to the packed audience. So, rather than focus on the Festival organization, the evening was a tribute to film directors. A planned compilation video of clips from films that premiered at the Festival over the past quarter century had to be delayed due to technical reasons, but the assembled throngs were treated to a rare cinematic experience.

To celebrate the art of filmmaking, the Festival screened the International Premiere of CHACUN SON CINEMA, an anthology film of 33 shorts directed by some of world cinema’s most outstanding auteurs. The film was created to celebrate last year’s 60th anniversary of the Cannes Film Festival, and was introduced by Dana Keith, director of the Miami Beach Cinematheque. The film was an intoxicating mix of drama, comedy and personal memoir about the enduring influence of the cinematic experience on some of the world’s greatest filmmakers. Participating directors included Theo Angelopoulos, Olivier Assayas, Bille August, Jane Campion, Youssef Chahine, Chen Kaige, Michael Cimino, David Cronenberg, Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, Manoel De Oliveira, Raymond Depardon, Atom Egoyan, Amos Gitai, Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu, Aki Kaurismaki, Abbas Kiarostami, Takeshi Kitano, Andrei Konchalovsky, Claude Lelouch, Ken Loach, David Lynch, Nanni Moretti, Roman Polanski, Raoul Ruiz, Walter Salles, Elia Suleiman, Tsai Ming-Liang, Gus Van Sant, Lars Von Trier, Wim Wenders, Wong Kar Wai and Zhang Yimou. This unmissable evening was truly one of the highlights of this year’s film festival.

Sandy Mandelberger, Miami FF Dailies Editor