SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL 2022
40Th Anniversary Selection
January 20-30, 2022
OTROtono.com juan alejandro ramirez
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"Cualquier arte, para justificarse como tal debe de presentarse finalmente como símbolo o metáfora.”
(Any art, in order to justify itself as such, must ultimately present itself as a symbol or metaphor.)
". . . the poet of the downtrodden. Ramirez’s inimitable style might be termed aestheticized melancholy." - Sarajevo Film Festival
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De Mal Aguero (Of ill Omen) In Production © Juan Alejandro Ramirez
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August, 2016
- Juan Alejandro Ramírez and Tomasa Chimpu in Chinchero, Peru while shooting "Y Seámoslo Siempre" (provisional title) Film photographed on location in parts of the Chinchero Plateau, in and around the towns of Cruzpata, Pongobamba, Huatata, Huayna Qolqa, Raqchi, Piuray, and others. It has an anticipated release date for the last quarter of 2025. Photo © Christina Bierring CLICK OVER PICTURE ON RIGHT TO ENHANCE
nadie especial • Nobody Special juan alejandro ramírez © 2013
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indieWIRE's Howard Feinstein on Ten Films to Watch . . .
Nobody Special (Nadie Especial)
Peruvian national Juan Alejandro Ramirez, . . . is probably the only filmmaker whose work-in-progress I would include on this list. He is, to put it mildly, special. No sellout, he. His films (Porter, Diary of the End) are never longer than one-half hour and have a commercial potential of zero. His trademark style includes a lyrical mix of fiction and documentary (they look like docs, but the scenes are often re-stagings of real, or at least possible, events and actions), wide-angle and close-in shots, haunting voiceover, and a sincere empathy for the underclasses in Peru. Nobody Special centers on three Peruvian women from three eras, all of whom lead difficult lives, but there is diversity, therefore grace, in their differences.
indieWIRE March 19, 2010
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PARA ACCEDER A ENTREVISTA Y TRAILER EN ESPAÑOL PRESIONAR SOBRE FOTO A LA DERECHA
• U P D A T E S •
17th B A F I C I April 15-25, 2015
17vo Buenos Aires Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente
RETROSPECTIVAS Y FOCOS
Perú: Radiografía Fílmica de un País
"Las (obras) que comprenden Perú: Radiografía Fílmica de un País son películas que no se han ido, sino que se nos acercan cada vez más. Hermoso es comprobar que, con el pasar el tiempo, se han revelado como piezas representativas de su época, cual vestigio de su histórica vigencia, y han ido construyendo una memoria que se solidifica manteniendo incandescente el recuerdo de lo que alguna vez fuimos. E, incisivamente, bosqueja cómo somos ahora."
- John Campos Gómez
Juan Alejandro Ramírez participa en esta selección con:
• Me Dicen Yovo • Solo un Cargador • Nadie Especial •
RETROSPECTIVAS Y FOCOS
Perú: Radiografía Fílmica de un País
"Las (obras) que comprenden Perú: Radiografía Fílmica de un País son películas que no se han ido, sino que se nos acercan cada vez más. Hermoso es comprobar que, con el pasar el tiempo, se han revelado como piezas representativas de su época, cual vestigio de su histórica vigencia, y han ido construyendo una memoria que se solidifica manteniendo incandescente el recuerdo de lo que alguna vez fuimos. E, incisivamente, bosqueja cómo somos ahora."
- John Campos Gómez
Juan Alejandro Ramírez participa en esta selección con:
• Me Dicen Yovo • Solo un Cargador • Nadie Especial •
PARA LEER EL ARTICULO COMPLETO PRESIONAR LA FOTO A LA DERECHA
ENTREVISTA (SPANISH ONLY) © 2013 El Cine según Juan Alejandro Ramírez
REVISTA DE LA CINEMATECA DE LA CASA DE LA CULTURA DEL ECUADOR
"Antropólogo y cineasta peruano radicado en Nueva York. Su forma de hacer cine es bastante peculiar: el mismo produce, filma, edita, narra y musicaliza sus películas. Creador solitario, pone especial énfasis en las imágenes que captura en 16mm sin sonido directo. Sus películas han recorrido los mas importantes festivales de cine documental del mundo, varias de ellas han podido verse durante el Festival EDOC. EI cineasta «hombre orquesta» reflexiona sobre como lIegó a hacer el cine que hace, cuales son sus inspiraciones artísticas y sobre la objetividad en el arte."
• PARA LEER ARTICULO COMPLETO PRESIONAR SOBRE FOTO AL LADO •
"Antropólogo y cineasta peruano radicado en Nueva York. Su forma de hacer cine es bastante peculiar: el mismo produce, filma, edita, narra y musicaliza sus películas. Creador solitario, pone especial énfasis en las imágenes que captura en 16mm sin sonido directo. Sus películas han recorrido los mas importantes festivales de cine documental del mundo, varias de ellas han podido verse durante el Festival EDOC. EI cineasta «hombre orquesta» reflexiona sobre como lIegó a hacer el cine que hace, cuales son sus inspiraciones artísticas y sobre la objetividad en el arte."
• PARA LEER ARTICULO COMPLETO PRESIONAR SOBRE FOTO AL LADO •
HISTORICAL DICTIONARY OF SOUTH AMERICAN CINEMA
By Peter H. Rist
Series: Historical Dictionaries of Literature and the Arts
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
English © 2014
To read a condensed summary of both film work and biographical information about Juan Alejandro Ramírez as it appears in the entry of the HISTORICAL DICTIONARY OF SOUTH AMERICAN CINEMA (Rowman & Littlefield), please click over the picture on the right.
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European Film College (Ebeltoft, DENMARK)
Juan Alejandro Ramirez was recently Guest Lecturer at the European Film College in Ebeltoft, Denmark. He presented a selection of his filmography and discussed his work method with the 2009-2010 Class of the prestigious Pan-European institution. Faraway from Here (Muy Lejos de Aqui), Porter (Solo un Cargador) and
Diary of the End (Diario del Fin) were screened as a means to illustrating challenges and resolutions to different situations filmmakers face in the production of author-driven Non-Fiction work.
• Click on the EFC icon to view some photographs taken during the event
• Click on the EFC icon to view some photographs taken during the event
O T H E R T I T L E S by juan alejandro ramirez
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• IDFA • Cinema du Reel • It's All True • Documenta Madrid 2007 • DOCPoint Helsinki • Punto de Vista • RIDM Montreal • Plus Camerimage • Docupolis • DOCLisboa • San Diego • Chicago • Indianapolis • DOCUSUR • Toulouse • Festival des 3 Ameriques • Montecatini • Cinememoria EDOC • Vila do Conde • Festival de Lima • Sarajevo • Ajaccio • Los Angeles • Aarhus • Eurasia Antalya • MARFICI • DocuDays • Bruxelles • Dokumenter Jogjakarta • Havana-New York • Festival de la Memoria • Muestra Iberoamericana Madrid •
• Las Americas Film Festival •
"Alguna Tristeza is poetry -- oral as well as visual. This is what filmmaking is all about. How do you package a message without sacrificing images and metaphors?"-Mukul Khurana. The Weekend Ahead
"Juan Alejandro Ramirez is one of the most poetic documentarians working today."-Howard Feinstein. indieWIRE / Variety La pensée de Juan Alejandro Ramirez est circulaire. Lorsque sa parole lance una idée, elle effectue un joli tour autour d’elle, la répète, et finit par lui faire gagner sa propre profondeur. Son film lui ressemble, il ne cessa se dessiner des cercles, des détours, des sillons colores jusqu’a celui sur lequel s’achève le film et qui questionne un avenir en même temps qu’il tente de le saisir. Dans ce long poème que seule la contemplation peut dire, le spectateur est convie par l’auteur au voyage d’une question, d’une ritournelle parmi les palpitations s’un pays, sa petite musique intérieure, ses montagnes filmées telles ses hommes et ses hommes tel ses montagnes: “C’est quoi être Péruvien?”
-Ronan Govys. Cinéma du Réel. Paris
"Juan Alejandro Ramirez is one of the most poetic documentarians working today."-Howard Feinstein. indieWIRE / Variety La pensée de Juan Alejandro Ramirez est circulaire. Lorsque sa parole lance una idée, elle effectue un joli tour autour d’elle, la répète, et finit par lui faire gagner sa propre profondeur. Son film lui ressemble, il ne cessa se dessiner des cercles, des détours, des sillons colores jusqu’a celui sur lequel s’achève le film et qui questionne un avenir en même temps qu’il tente de le saisir. Dans ce long poème que seule la contemplation peut dire, le spectateur est convie par l’auteur au voyage d’une question, d’une ritournelle parmi les palpitations s’un pays, sa petite musique intérieure, ses montagnes filmées telles ses hommes et ses hommes tel ses montagnes: “C’est quoi être Péruvien?”
-Ronan Govys. Cinéma du Réel. Paris
Mencion Speciele Prix Du PatrimoineCinema du ReelBest Documentary FilmJornada Internacional de Cinema da BahiaBest Experimental FilmSan Diego Latino International Film FestivalPremio Ctav Sav MincJornada Internacional de Cinema da BahiaBest Film ScreenplayCuenca Internacional Film FestivalBest Documentary Special MentionFestival De La MemoriaOnda Curta Grand Jury AwardVila do Conde International Film FestivalGrand Jury Special MentionCuenca Internacional Film FestivalSpecial Honorary MentionDocuSur International Film Festival
Alguna Tristeza (Some Kind of Sadness)
© 2006
A group of seemingly unrelated vignettes emerge as both personal and distant but always intensely emotional in tone . . . ultimately, shaping up as a sketch-book on some features that seem to mark the lives of those who grow up poor in poor countries. This personal narrative offers neither formulas nor solutions. Rather, it is a random pursuit for answers that unravels into a series of powerful, lyrical epiphanies. A sharp eye for detail and a stirring poetic narration turn the images of this film into a moving metaphor for all kinds of inequities.
New Directors / New Films Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and The Film Society of Lincoln Center
A darker, more troubling, but no less transcendent philosophical exercise came in the form of a short about Peruvian porters who carry tourists’ luggage up and down the Andes. Or rather, Porter, by Juan Alejandro Ramirez, is about one fictionalized cargador, brought to life in an uncannily penetrating first-person voiceover constructed by Ramirez from various accounts by these peasant laborers.
In this intensely subjective, stream-of-consciousness monologue—run over images of the porter at work hauling enormous loads, standing among his trekking charges, with his family, or alone—he shares his often astonishingly acute thoughts about his low place in the world, his hopes and failings, and his invisibility to the gringos who are so dependent on him, however briefly.
This is not a sentimental, self-satisfied story celebrating a group of unfortunates. Ramirez does something very different by having the porter, the Other, seemingly take control of the storytelling and the images, making him a true subject, and not the object of either scorn or pity. The effect of hearing this voice is devastating, pointing out as he does the chasms in understanding between people.
- Elizabeth Helfgott FILM COMMENT June-July Issue 2004
In this intensely subjective, stream-of-consciousness monologue—run over images of the porter at work hauling enormous loads, standing among his trekking charges, with his family, or alone—he shares his often astonishingly acute thoughts about his low place in the world, his hopes and failings, and his invisibility to the gringos who are so dependent on him, however briefly.
This is not a sentimental, self-satisfied story celebrating a group of unfortunates. Ramirez does something very different by having the porter, the Other, seemingly take control of the storytelling and the images, making him a true subject, and not the object of either scorn or pity. The effect of hearing this voice is devastating, pointing out as he does the chasms in understanding between people.
- Elizabeth Helfgott FILM COMMENT June-July Issue 2004
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GRAND PRIX COURTOUJOURSRencontres Cinémas d'Amérique Latine de ToulouseSTERLING AWARD BEST SHORTSilverdocs/American Film Institute Film FestivalGRAND JURY PRIZE BEST SHORTIndianapolis International Film FestivalBEST SHORT FEATURE AWARDHuman Rights Nights International Film FestivalBEST SHORT NARRATIVESan Diego Latino International Film FestivalBEST DIRECTOR AWARDJornada Internacional de Cinema da BahiaBEST SHORT FEATURE AWARDLas Americas International Film FestivalGRAND PRIX DU NATIONAL GEOGRAPHICFestival International du film de d'AutransGRAND JURY HONORABLE DISTINCTIONInternational Film Festival in DramaBEST SHORT DOCUMENTARYCine Las Americas International Film FestivalGRAND PRIX DOCUMENTAIREFestival International du film d'AubagneGRAND JURY SPECIAL MENTIONBelo Horizonte International Film FestivalPRIX TEUEIKAN MENCION SPECIELETerres en Vues MontrealWINNER AUDIENCE CHOICE AWARDAnthology Film Archives New Filmmakers. New York
". . . an intensely meditative voice-over . . . The final effect and the slight sense of hope in the closing shot results in a work of devastating beauty."-Indianapolis International Film Festival
Q&A at Sarajevo Film Festival
Howard Feinstein and Juan Alejandro Ramirez
Sundance at MoMA
MoMa's screening of films played at Sundance 2005
Sundance Premiere
Juan Alejandro Ramirez, Mercedes Moncada
and Diane Weyermann
• Muy Lejos de Aqui (Faraway from Here) • Me Dicen Yovo (I'm a Yovo) • Todo y Nada (All and Nothing) •
M U Y L E J O S D E A Q U I
Faraway from Here © 1998
- “This excellent erudite travel diary, of the filmmaker’s journey’s throughout his homeland and India, (allows) the sights and events the camera eye captures
- during the trip lead to a convoluted, but always fascinating, contemplation of friendship, alienation and the patronisation of the so-called Third World
- by the so called developed nations.”
- - REELSCREEN. London
• MANNHEIM • RIO DE JANEIRO • SARAJEVO • LONDON • BARCELONA • SAINT PETERSBURG • CORK • MOSTRA DE SAO PAULO • KRAKOW • CHICAGO • VILA DO CONDE • MONTEVIDEO • FILM FRA SOR • SAN DIEGO • BRITISH FILM FESTIVAL • MAR DEL PLATA • NEW YORK EXPO •
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M E D I C E N Y O V O
I'm a Yovo © 1995
“I’m a Yoco unveils a rare picture of the Third World as seen from the Third World.”
- Michael Schmitz. WAS DUSSELDORF
• MONTREAL • SAN SEBASTIAN • MANNHEIM • OBERHAUSEN • FRIBOURG • CORK • CHICAGO • FESPACO • COPENHAGEN • FILM FRA SOR • BOMBAY • BAHIA • • BERLIN • ETHNOFILMFEST • VILA DO CONDE • NEW YORK AFRICAN DIASPORA • SAO PAULO • TOULOUSE • GOTTINGEN • BEELD VOR BEELD •
T O D O Y N A D A
All and Nothing © 1993
“This film succeeds in permeating the audience with a feeling of longing for the past that all men -whether fortunate or not- radiate when far and away
from their origins.”
- Julia Cabale. LA TRIBUNA DEL FESTIVAL. LA HABANA.
• MONTREAL • LA HABANA • BERLIN • BAHIA • TOULOUSE • NEFF • MONTEVIDEO • CAMBRIDGE • CHICAGO •
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Location still. Iquitos, PERU. For further information, please contact ramirez@otrotono.com