THE FILMS

JARED LOEWENSTEIN (2011) Former Head of Reference at Alderman Library, UVA. Foundar and Curator of the Jorge Luis Borges Collection. Jarred Loewenstein narrates his personal story, that of a young man from Luray, VA who came to the University of Virginia and stayed. Shortly after graduating Loewenstein met Jorge Luis Borges and his life would never be the same again. In Postproduction

GREAT MASTERS Collection

Contemporary Latin American artists profiled in the intimacy of their studios, at work. The series already includes the names of Ernesto DEIRA, Andrés WAISSMAN, Humberto CALZADA and Perez CELIS. We are currently developing new projects for the Great Masters Series in the US, Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina.

Link to Waissman: The Movie. 

ERNEST DEIRA (2009) Documentary produced on the occasion of the first retrospective of Deira’s work at the National Art Gallery, MNBA (Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes). The film includes 8 mm footage captured by Deira during his visit to Belgium on occasion of a first major exhibition of his work. Deira also features interviews with Olga Galperin and Luis Felipe Noé amongst others.

ANDRES WAISSMAN (2010)  Biographical documentary on the life and works of Argentine artist Andrés Waissman. TV premier November 23, 2010 WPBT Channel 2. The documentary focus on the biographica aspects of Andrés Waissman, from his early days in the late Fifties to the present day in Buenos Aires. 30 min. 16:9 HD. Still Productions.

HUMBERTO CALZADA (2010) A portrait of Cuban-American artist Humberto Calzada. Premiered in Miami on January 7, 2010 at the Tower Theatre, Miami, TV premier January 12, 2010 WPBT Channel 2. Featuring Humberto Calzada, his early life in Havana, Cuba before the Cuban Revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power, the first years in exile in Miami, and details on his current life as a highly regarded visual artist in the Caribbean. Original Music by Gerardo Aguillón (violin) and José Angel Navarro (guitar). 30 min. 16:9 HD

SPECIAL Collection

SAMBA ON YOUR FEET: (2006) The film goes behind the scenes of the samba and carnival in Rio de Janeiro to reveal the cultural clash of the African-Black and European-White cultures. Haroldo Costa, an expert in Carioca folklore, explains how African slaves’ beliefs, gods and music mixed with Spanish Catholic and Indian influences centuries ago to create the remarkable fusion that is Brazilian culture. The historian Haroldo Costa, an expert in carioca folklore, explains how African slaves’ beliefs, gods and music mixed with Spanish Catholic centuries ago to create the remarkable fusion that is Brazilian culture. The film includes interviews with many active performers and writers of samba such as the composer and singer Xango da Mangueira. He recalls the first days of caival in Rio de Janeiro when he and his fellow performers sang and danced in the streets but were treated like vagrants and harassed by the police. Mae Helena D’Oxosse, a priestess in the umbanda tradition, incorporates samba in her religious practices and carries on a tradition among her working-class followers that is five hundred years old. 52 min. Stills

EVITA: (2008) A documentary on Eva Duarte. Evita, illegitimate child without social or economic standing, was determined to make it big in the world of entertainment. Her love affair with a rising political star (Juan Domingo Perón) transformed her into a vital part of Perón’s plans to seduce a nation. The charming Evita became a skilled public speaker that fitted perfectly with politics in Argentina. Just imagine Marilyn Monroe with the charisma of Princess Diana, elevated by Joseph Goebbels´s propaganda machine as the indisputable Spiritual Leader of the Nation. The documentary appears to be fair, perhaps the first biography on the subject that strives to be balanced. “Evita” was screened at the Virginia Film Festival, in Charlottesville, on November 4, 2011.

CHE: RISE AND FALL:  (2007) “Numerous journalists have described with pointed accuracy the vast interwoven tapestry that was Communist revolutionary Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara’s life - from his youth in Alta Gracia, to his tenure as a politician in post-1959 Havana, to his tragic execution in October 1967. With this hour-long documentary, Montes-Bradley provides a concise biographical overview of Che’s life, keeping his eye on both his’s life-journey and the nearly impenetrable mythos that developed around him and quickly became inseparable from the man himself. The work intercuts key archival clips with interviews featuring those who knew and worked with Che, including Dr. Alberto Granados and three surviving members of Guevara’s personal guard.” Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide, The New York Times  Cast:  Alberto GRANADOS Alberto CASTELLANOS Enrique OLTUSKI Argudin MENDOZA Enrique Pombo VILLEGAS  Film Festivals: 20èmes Rencontres Cinémas d’Amérique Latine de Toulouse, France. 

MEXICAN CHRONICLES: (2005) Montes-Bradley (as Rita Clavel) teams-up with Martín Caparrós following on the steps of Hernán Cortés from Veracruz, on golf coast of Mexico, to Tenochtitlan, the ancient capital of the Aztec Empire. Caparrós becomes the omnipresent and omniscient protagonist of this journey through geography and time. His acute sense of irony and wit becomes a permanent fixtures throughout the entire film, provoking the audience into uncharted: the un-official, and politically incorrect history of Latin America.

JEWISH Collection

The Jewish Collection begun as a personal quest by founder Eduardo Montes-Bradley in an attempt to decipher the Jewish heritage and cultural background inherited from his mother’s side. The series of films that make up the Jewish Collection is the result of this personal quest.

WRITERS Collection

The series of documentaries on Latin American writers include indepth biographical studies on Borges, Cortazar, Filloy, Bajarlía, Viñas, Pauls, Caparros, Guebel, and Tizón.

ADRIANA LISBOA: First on a series of Contemporary Brazilian Writers. Shot in and around Boulder, Colorado in January 2012. Status: Completed. 26:46 minutes

JORGE LOVISOLO:  (Frankkurt to Humahuaca, 2005). Second in the trilogy of documentaries directed by Norberto “Negro” Ramírez and produced by Eduardo Montes-Bradley in the Argentine region known as la Puna, mainly Jujuy and Salta provinces. From Frankfurt to Humahuaca focuses on  Jorge Lovisolo, a disciple of The Frankfurt School of philosophy, professor, and author of numerous essays. The film deals with Lovisolo’s obsessions in a sort of self-imposed exile in Salta; his takes on religion within the local communities, the thoughts of Walter Benjamin, Herbert Marcuse, Theodore Adorno and others.

JESUS RAMON VERA: (Kopla Vera, 2006). First of a trilogy by director Norberto N. Ramírez on intellectuals residing in the Northwest region of Argentina known as la Puna, mainly Jujuy and Salta provinces. Kopla Vera focuses on  the trials and tribulations of native poet Jesús Ramón Vera, author of numerous verses inspired in the liturgical carnival of Jujuy.

JUAN J. BOTELLI: (Time and Myself, 2005). Third documentary on Norberto N. Ramírez trilogy on intellectuals. I and Time is a documentary on Argentine poet + composer Juan José Botelli.

JUAN FILLOY: (Ecce Homo, 2005) In Spanish. Directed by Eduardo Montes-Bradley. The biographical sketch on Juan Filloy, a legendary literary figure. The film is based on the las known interview to Juan Filloy by Ana Da Costa.

DIPI DIPAOLA: (Alzheimer’s Memories, 2007) In Spanish. Directed by Sergio Belloti. Jorge “Dipi” Di Paola, a dadaist-exentric, writer-poet, an unconventional character of the Buenos Aires underground during the seventies.  The film was shot shortly before Di Paola’s death in Tandil, some 450 kilometers from the capital of Argentina. In the film, Di Paola, a disciple of Witold Gombrowicz recalls the days when the polish writer and himself shared a small apartment in the city of Buenos Aires and later in Di Paola’s home-town of Tandil.

JUAN JOSE SEBRELI: (Una cierta mirada, 2004). Directed by Eduardo Montes-Bradley. Built as a series of conversations with philosopher Juan José Sebreli. Sebreli recalls his life in front of camera taking the audience for a ride through timeless Buenos Aires. Sebreli’s extraordinary perception of the surroundings, the arts, the architecture and the music of the city he was born in and he loves is a constant throughout the entire film. In a way, this doc can be watch as a 20th century Tour Guide of Buenos Aires, a sketch on Peronism and yet, more.

ALBERTO LAISECA: (Deliciously, Polymorphed, Perversions, 2002). A biographical essay on Alberto Laiseca. Directed by Eduardo Montes-Bradley. The director finds Laiseca riding the underground in Buenos Aires and follows the writer to his studio. Laiseca seems an extraordinary mad-man. Some of the main issues discussed on this film are the relationship of the protagonist with his father, life in rural province of Córdoba in the middle of the Pampas, Edgar A. Poe, William Shakespeare and the imminent arrival of the Antichrist.

MARIO DIAMENT:  (Recóndita Armonía, 2002). Mario Diament is a renowned journalist and professor of journalism at the University of Miami On this film Diament recalls Jacobo Timerman and the years prior to and after the military coup of 1976 in Argentina.

ISMAEL VIÑAS: (The Witness, 2003). A documentary on Ismael Viñas’s life directed by Montes-Bradley under the pen name Diana Hunter. The film, premiered at Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema (BAFICI), is based on the memoirs of legendary political, economist Ismael Viñas. Viñas was a co-founder of National Movement of Liberation (MALENA), and Undersecretary of Cultural Affairs during the Revolución Libertadora. Viñas reappears in front of Montes-Bradley’s camera after 26 years of self-imposed exile in Israel, and in the US. In series of interviews Viñas reflects on his youth, on his brother David, on his father, a well political character during the times of Hipólito Yrigoyen, and a Federal Judge in Patagonia during the uprisings portrayed in Rebellion in Patagonia during the early 1920s. Viñas also recalls his imprisonment during the Peronist period, and with particular emphasis his relationship with ErnestoChe Guevara, and Salvador Allende amongst many other relevant figures of the period. On release, the film caused somewhat of a commotion. It was acclaimed and criticize by extremist elements on the right and particularly on the left where the Ismael Viñas portrayed on the documentary was perceived as a traitor to the Marxist principles he once so strongly embraced.

DALMIRO SANZ: (El equilibrista, 2003).Directed by Eduardo Montes-Bradley. Little is known about this documentary based on the trials and tribulations of Argentine writer Dalmiro Saenz.

HECTOR TIZON:  (Le mot Juste, 2005). Directed by Eduardo Montes-Bradley. The documentary tracks Héctor Tizón to his hometown of Yala, Jujuy, Argentina in Jujuy, Argentina. In a series of interviews the writer refers to his early childhood and the traumatic experience on living on the edge of two extremely different cultures: the Quechua universe of his native homeland and the Spanish culture of the conquistadores.

ANDRES RIVERA:  (Marcos Ribak aka Andrés Rivera, 2003). Direccted by Eduardo Montes-Bradley. With Andrés Rivera and Susana Fiorito. 

SERGIO BIZZIO:  (Planeta Bizzio, 2003). Montes-Bradley, hires fresh-out-of-film school Nadina Fushimi to direct, and interview Sergio Bizzio, an offbeat-poet, playwright and novelist.

MARCELO BIRMAJER:  (Thou Shall Not Kill, 2004). Biographical film on Marcelo Birmajer, a Jewish-Argentine writer, frequently at odds with the overwhelming “progressive”-minded cultural aparatik of Buenos Aires. In the film, Birmajer seems lost somewhere between his native Buenos Aires and the Middle East; holding a tight grip on the umbilical cord that his Jewish-mother preserves intact for generations to-come.

LUIS GUSMAN:(The Other Side of the Tracks, 2003). A biographical sketch of Argentine writer Luis Gusmán.

JUAN SASTURAIN: (Bared-Butt Naked, 2003). A biographical sketch of Argentine writer-journalist Juan Sasturain.

JOSE P. FEINMAN:(The Fugitive Cell, 2002). A biographical sketch of Argentine journalist-philosopher José Pablo Feinmann. 

JUAN J. BAJARLIA: (Unwinding Time, 2002). Dir. Valentina Carrasco, pseudonymous of Rodolfo Durán. A biographical sketch of Argentine writer Juan Jacobo Bajarlía.

ANA M. SHUA:  (In The Name of The Father, 2002) a biographical sketch of Argentine writer Ana María Shua.

DANIEL GUEBEL:  (Espléndida decadencia, 2002). A biographical sketch of Argentine writer Daniel Guebel.

JULIO CORTAZAR:  (A Documentary Draft, 2002). The documentary approaches the argument dividing critics over the nature of Cortazar’s political views and perspectives. Includes previously unseen footage of Cortazar shot by the author himself in front of a mirror and other scenes of Cortázar next to his first wife Aurora Bernárde, and Octavio Paz in India, and with Carole Dunlop in Paris.

OSVALDO BAYER: (Los cuentos del timonel,  2001). The documentary deals with Osvaldo Bayer, a controversial political figure and historian. The film was shot on Bayer’s residence in Linz am Rhein, Germany, were he spends six months of every year.

JORGE LUIS BORGES:  (Harto The Borges, 2000). Documentary on Jorge Luis Borges. Includes rare TV footage with Jorge Luis Borges and María Kodama aired on the occasion of Borge’s 80th birthday. The film also includes interviews with Franco Lucentini, Martín Caparrósand Ariel Dorfman. Harto The Borges was shot in Milan, Rome, Paris, Geneva and Buenos Aires. Harto The Borges had a theatrical release in Buenos Aires on September 2000 and was well received by the local critics.

OSVALDO SORIANO: (Soriano (The documentary, 1998). This is perhaps the only film ever made on Osvaldo Soriano, a Best-Seller author in Argentina in the 1980s. At least three of Soriano’s best known novels made it to the silver screen. Soriano was shot in Paris, Rome and Buenos Aires following on the footsteps of Osvaldo Soriano into exile in the 1970s. The film is not a celebration of Soriano but rather a fair and balanced approach to his life through the voice of friends and detractors. With testimonies by Rodrigo Fresán, Juan Forn, Martín Caparrós, Osvaldo Bayer, Eduardo Galeano and more.