VENUE CHANGE: Birds of Passage

press release: Colombia | 2018 | DCP | 125 min. | Spanish, Wayunikee with English subtitles

Director: Cristina Gallego, Ciro Guerra;Cast: Carmina Martinez, Jhon Narvaez, Jose Acosta.

The filmmaking team behind the Oscar-nominated Embrace of the Serpent returns with a much-anticipated gangster saga set in the 1970s Colombian drug trade.  Linked by marriage, rival Wayuu clans battle for control over the booming marijuana industry, tossing aside long-held customs in their avarice. The bloody collision between ancient and modern cultures plays out in an eye-popping color palette on a massive widescreen canvas.  “An absolutely extraordinary film.  Masterpiece” (Playlist).  “Practically erupts with color… the super-saturated visuals give the entire experience a heightened, hallucinatory quality, as if fellow South American director Alejandro Jodorowsky had applied his trippy sensibility to something of genuine ethnographic significance” (Variety).

Premiere Showcase is the Cinematheque’s effort to bring the boldest and most exciting new cinema back to the big screen. Crafted with the same curat­orial acuity we bring to our repertory series, Premiere Showcase presents exciting new work by contem­porary directors that would otherwise have no theatrical venue in the area. Our selections for this calendar begin with a 3D showing of Blake Williams hypnotic 3D feature Prototype. Plus, The Wild Pear Tree, the latest from Cannes prize-winner Nuri Bilge Ceylan; Birds of Passage and Diamantino, two recent fest-circuit favorites showing as part of our annual LACIS series; and Origin Story, a new road-movie documentary which will be presented in person by director Kulap Vilaysack.