BELOW THE EQUATORIAL BELT

Buenos Aires Oculto and Canal X extend DL’s reach to the southern hemisphere

Directors Lounge’s central 2013 event, [DL9],* racked up a significant global representation – when the smoke had cleared, it emerged that films from 54 countries were among those that made the cut. Included in the number were entries from six sub-equatorial countries, a decent showing, to be sure, but not one that couldn’t stand fleshing out.

Gonxalo Martin Collado is a gentle multi-art guerilla, a tireless champion of contemporary (in particular, film) culture who has headed up operations that have given Argentina and an ever-growing part of South America the enigmatic, activism-tinged Canal X. This is Internet TV built on an eye-catching, subtextual backbeat. In addition, Collado helms Buenos Aires Oculto (freely translatable as “The Dark Side of Buenos Aires”), which takes the hidden (moments and points of view) and throws them onto the screen in an annual festival-rush of very short visions (around one minute each: “un minuto, una historia”), as well as presenting photographic and other works. We see shades of our own DL working out of a European base and are joining forces from both sides to further our respective firmaments.

You will need to brush up your Spanish to make your way around the attention-grabbers on offer here (which you’ve been meaning to do anyway, ¿verdad?), but it will be worth it – the cheapest, fastest, safest trip you can take to the real and true Deep South. Our intent: to bring more of these Latin American visions and visionaries to you, whether in Berlin or elsewhere on our travels. Seguimos creciendo!!!

* The 9^th Berlin International Directors Lounge

Pictured: Collado expels mystic golden smoke on a stopover in Berlin,
photo: kt/DL