A Conversation with Alejandro Landes with his film Porfirio

Miami Beach Cinematheque. November 19, 2013, 6:00 p.m.

Porfirio is a film about the remarkable real-life Porfirio Ramirez, a small-town Colombian bar owner who dabbled in connections with FARC in the ’90s but now lives as a paraplegic after being shot in the spinal cord during a police raid, and plays himself in Alejandro Landes’s unique fusion of bio-pic and cinéma vérité.

With almost hypnotic silence and stillness, Landes captures the boredom and frustration of Porfirio’s daily life – the effort it takes to scratch his back, or take a bath, deal with normal bodily functions, be able to parent his teenage son and have a physical relationship with his young girlfriend.

Alejandro Landes’ first film is a documentary called Cocalero which premiered at Sundance Film Festival in 2007. He later went on to make his second feature, a hybrid of genres, creating a fictional piece based on true events using non-actors. His third film, currently in script format, is fiction. Alejandro will be discussing the documentary and narrative genres and his experiences with both.

Miami Beach Cinematheque
1130 Washington Avenue
Miami Beach, FL 33139
305.673.4567
www.mbcinema.com

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