Wednesday, November 2, 2022 at 9:30 PM

Shorts from PR | Cortos de PR

Bronx Film Wednesdays – Independent films you will love.

This month, BxFW celebrates Puerto Rican Heritage Month with a selection of little-seen and popular short films:

  • NUEVO RICO. Director: Kristian Mercado. 2021. Puerto Rico. 10 min. – Twin brother and sister stumble upon a celestial secret that changes their lives and launches them into reggaeton stardom, but they discover that fame comes at a price!
  • BIOPSIA. Director: Glorimar Marrero Sánchez. 2016. Puerto Rico. 13 min. – Carmen accompanies a group of women in an eye-opening journey from the island municipality of Vieques to San Juan in order to undergo breast biopsies.
  • EL EXTRAORDINARIO SR. JÚPITER. Director: Federico Torres Fernández. 2015. Puerto Rico. 17 min. – Abandoned as a child, Franco Júpiter grew up with a curiosity about the mysteries of the universe and the capacity to waken extraordinary powers.
  • LA FOTO DE PAPÁ (The Photo of Dad). Director: David Norris. 2015. Puerto Rico. 10 min. – Margarita lives in love with Mateo, who disappeared when they were both 18 years old. 45 years later, he turns up at her house with an old photo and a story.
  • BOLERO. Director: Lynnie Feliciano Vélez. 2017. Puerto Rico. 10 min. – Unbeknownst to each other, Lucy (transgender) and Delia (immigrant) work a stone’s throw away from each other. The harrowing events of this evening will bring them face to face.
  • El GRAN ELEFANTE (The Big Elephant). Director: C.J. Lozada. 9 mi.n – A lover’s crossroad into solving an unexpected surprise.
  • NOS VAMOS PA’ PARÍS (We’re Going to Paris). Director: David Norris. 2019. Puerto Rico. 9 min. – An old married couple plan to rob a bank in order to save their house from foreclosure… and something else.

Program presented in English and Spanish with subtitles.

9:30 PM | Bronx Film Wednesdays Digital on BronxNet TV — Hosted by BronxNet’s Sonyi Lopez.

WAYS TO WATCH:

Pregones/PRTT
—Facebook Live: www.facebook.com/pregonesprtt
—Vimeo: www.vimeo.com/pregonesprtt

—YouTube: www.youtube.com/pregonesprtt

BronxNET TV
—Cable: 67 Optimum
—Cable: 2133 FIOS
—Web: www.bronxnet.org/watch/

Bronx Film Wednesdays (BxFW) screens new, little-seen, and standout indie films that you will love! Travel the world and open your mind to stories as wild and from as far as the imagination can go — romance, comedy, action, sci-fi, horror, fantasy, thriller, drama, music, sports, animation, documentary, and more! Carefully selected to illustrate cultural, aesthetic, and geographic diversity. This year, BxFW goes digital in partnership with BronxNet Community Television, bringing our monthly screenings online and to public access television!

More About The Artists – Click To Open

GLORIMAR MARRERO SÁNCHEZ is a filmmaker and multidisciplinary artist. Her work is related to grief, identity and colonialism, among other topics, and includes audiovisual, still photography, and installation. She is currently working on the advanced development of her first hybrid feature length film project La Pecera (Fish Tank) (Winner of the Unpublished Script Contest of the 2017 Latin American Film Festival in Havana, Cuba, the Tribeca Film Institute Latin America Fund Grant 2018, and winner of the EAVE Award in the MAFIZ, of the Malaga International Film Festival 2018). She recently premiered the documentary El MAC en el Barrio, and Juana (s) Matos, a video projection in the community of Juana Matos in Cataño, Puerto Rico (November 2018). Both projects were commissions of Contemporary Art Museum of Puerto Rico. In 2017 she premiered Revuelo en la Roosevelt (Revolt at the Roosevelt), a video art piece commissioned by the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture and the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2016, she directed the short film Biopsia (Biopsy) (Best Director Award at the European Film Festival in Puerto Rico and Honorable Mention at the 21 Islands International Short Fest in New York). In 2018, Marrero Sánchez was an artist-in-residence at the University of Chicago (May to July) and she was recently selected for an artistic residency at MASS MoCA. In March, Marrero Sánchez joined the team of the Contemporary Art Museum of Puerto Rico as a consultant where she will develop the audiovisual unit of the museum. While at Princeton, Marrero Sánchez will work on her first hybrid feature length project titled La Pecera (Fish Tank).

CHRISTIAN JOEL (C.J.) LOZADA is a Puerto Rican Filmmaker graduated from Universidad de Puerto Rico – Río Piedras with a B.A. in Comparative Literature and completed a master degree in Screenwriting from Universidad del Sagrado Corazón. His influences, on visual style, are based of filmmakers like David Lynch, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, David Fincher, Steven Soderbergh, Lars Von Trier, Gaspar Noe, Walter Salles, Paul Thomas Anderson, Sidney Lumet and Darren Aronofsky. His complex, and unique, narrative style, is due to the influence of the great writers of the twentieth century. Among them are: Samuel Beckett, Franz Kafka, Julio Cortázar, Eugene Ionesco, Miguel de Unamuno, Ernesto Sábato, Albert Camus, José Saramago and Marcel Proust. He is a collaborator to the Hall-Theatre Beckett, Co-Founder of the Film Festival – CineArs and a successful editor, screenwriter and director in the film/television industry.

KRISTIAN MERCADO FIGUEROA is an award winning filmmaker living Spanish Harlem. Mercado’s distinct voice addresses issues of identity, family, and systemic oppression across race and class. His work is celebrated for its portrayal of working class struggles, highlighting love and loss. Mercado has directed content for Billie Eilish, Awkwafina, Bad Bunny, and Adult Swim, among others. He’s also directed comedy specials for Hannibal Buress, SNL’s Sam Jay and London Hughes for Netflix. Kris’s music diven short film Pa’lante won the 2019 SXSW Film Festival Jury Award. His latest work was part of the Official Selection at the 2020 SXSW Film Festival with the Grammy-nominated music video Colors’ by Black Pumas and Hannibal Buress’s comedy special ‘Miami Nights. His short film Mariposa toured the 2020 film festivals with high acclaim. In 2019 Kris’s screenplay for his narrative feature film HawkBells received a screenwriting award from Slamdance. Recently his screenplay MELA was the recipient of a Cinereach grant and is currently in development.

DAVID NORRIS has a Master’s degree in Mass Media Writing from Sagrado Corazón University and has distinguished himself as a screenwriter and movie director. For the past fifteen years, David has worked in various facets of the world of communications and his six short films have had a positive impact on the local film scene. He is currently working on the development of his first feature film.

FEDERICO TORRES FERNÁNDEZ is an award winning Puerto Rican filmmaker and his projects have been recognized at prestigious festivals around the world like Mar del Plata International Film Festival in Argentina, Habana Film Festival in Cuba, Trinidad and Tobago International Film Festival, Busan International Short Film Festival in South Korea, Cinefiesta International Short Film Festival in his native Puerto Rico, among others. Currently a House Director for the production company Latitude 18 Films, he has also worked alongside major publicity agencies in developing film content for corporate clients like T-Mobile, Johnnie Walker, AT&T, and First Bank, among others.

Our Esteemed Funders – Click To Open

Animation frame from Nuevo Rico by Kristian Mercado and trailer for Nos vamos pa’ París by David Norris reproduced by courtesy of the directors.

Special thanks to our media broadcast partners at BronxNet Community Television.

This program is made possible, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council, and the New York State Council on the Arts, with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. For a full list of our distinguished funders, visit www.pregonesprtt.org.

Event Details

  • Location

    ONLINE & CABLE TV:
    Facebook Live
    Vimeo
    YouTube
    BronxNet
    67 Optimum
    2133 FIOS

  • Date & Time

    NOVEMBER 2, 2022
    9:30 PM Eastern

  • Bronx Film Wednesdays

    DIRECTORS:
    Kristian Mercado
    Glorimar Marrero Sánchez
    Federico Torres Fernández
    David Norris
    Lynnie Feliciano Vélez
    C.J. Lozada

    HOST:
    Sonyi Lopez