Today's Don't Miss: “Alamar”


Pedro
González-Rubio's Alamar (To the Sea), looks like a travelogue about the world's
second-largest coral reef, but the NBFF Latino Spotlight film actually uses a
fictional human tale to expose audiences to Mexico's stunning Banco
Chinchorro.
]

Jorge (Jorge Machado), an indigenous spear fisherman, reveals the
set-up in a mock slide show he narrates at the opening: He fell in love
with
Roberta (Roberta Palombini), an Italian; they had a child, Natan (Natan
Machado
Palombini, the cutest kid in the world at the moment); and the couple grew
unhappy
together and with the idea of living anywhere but their respective
homelands. But
before Roberta takes Nathan with her back to Italy,
the now 5-year-old will get one last
long visit with his father. The crux of Alamar is Jorge using that
precious
time to connect his boy with his Mayan origins. So, through the eyes of a child, we learn about co-existing with a delicate ecosystem. Where Hollywood would
sum this up
in a quick montage set to ear-splitting music, González-Rubio lets the
events
play out slowly, like a home movie or mundane Gas Van Sant scene, accompanied
only by
the sound of nature. As father and son grow closer, the drama comes from their–and the audience's–sad realization that distance will bring
unbearable
pain, and paradise will become a prison cell.

Alamar screens at 7:30 tonight and 1 p.m. Wed. at Edwards Island Cinemas. Go here
for ticket info.

Also
recommended and playing today at NBFF:
BoardHeads; Pelada; The
Philosopher Kings; Red
Bull Project X; Stagecoach
; We Were Feared.

The
long list (today's entries that sound promising):
Bride Fight; Burzynski; The Great Contemporary Art
Bubble;
Greenlit; Machotaildrop; OCC Shorts; Solomon Kane; Somewhere Near Tapachula; World
Peace and Other 4th Grade Achievements
.

Theaters:
Regency Lido Theatre, 3459 Via Lido, Newport Beach;
Regency
South Coast Village Theatre, 1561 W. Sunflower Ave.,
Santa Ana;
The Studio at Sage Hill
School
, 20402 Newport Coast Dr., Newport Beach.

Visit newportbeachfilmfest.com
for times, theaters and ticket information.

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