1 50 1 https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/24865/archive/files/497d4c55e7a89430176e9cf2bbd0ae54.jpg?Expires=1779926400&Signature=AJslZQBEKcf3nfOCZFjQb6rguhb0GUud%7EC9jiOIMNex%7EcwqWxgAyCvzHwh7p%7Eg9oBDG0LlgrSkNOzWIEjCEq8-z6BIYFuneH9B1r0YoKlAEpYPpk5vdHKwVTyMYg02rnOIRGr67Oh2Qa29pKZmGUbT%7ErNKg-qxSWHYfXlOWe-9eXLRfaB6BBxZFQ936psNq4k3fDKjKhzHGKrk8H7FhMzcU4YFba4nIdDNZChk4fX1dJw7FvRuC6WXmqDYCyw40q3PSq8r-VNZCVczBVcxtLTc3UNvQyoC-JHkw4SHCmXtu4SmfN94o3kzMLbmqYkzbNei2KibjPwYj%7EbPi9UUra3Q__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 90d767658ca468dceb859955c7078ade https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/24865/archive/files/4b460da205d7aff93629cc7cff2d4793.pdf?Expires=1779926400&Signature=Q5Kb329h4CyzQu-DYHjWOyR7e9Y7b847hKgwFErKlA%7Eki0Cs6vsaO7iEE5dZRIrE71SZ0tMVSQsxw29g%7EtICnIyzExkN-j2PV%7EAdCBPq0zTMMA14GfFLHSO4Up6g94W36vM9cldBxz4PQ3OYOwxlmWEmh%7EAG6xnNZ011cPA8AhDQe%7EtoFlegTZWHZxXzxavhhiibEFvDT3GLBQQeGNhGZu9joBnhlLP1x15TBW5XTrOebkvw1Yb8KfyBSplQ6LgwtMyHyF%7EJ%7EeoCIa%7Ep%7EJOODGh3teez2Xfbye%7EBSod2%7E5KoOaSX0LGGaMESTvri380LtdecWpcD7fFYimos7FL6SA__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 8fb68a26738289490f0fe3b508d744f7 PDF Text Text A Grasshopper Film Release COCOTE A film by Nelson Carlo De Los Santos Arias 106 minutes / 1.85 / 5.1 / DCP / Dominican Republic / In Spanish with English Subtitles / Not Rated �Cocote _ Synopsis A rapturous crime fable set in the Dominican Republic, Nelson Carlo De Los Santos Arias’ Cocote follows Alberto, a kind-hearted gardener returning home to attend his father’s funeral. When he discovers that a powerful local figure is responsible for his father’s death, Alberto realizes that he’s been summoned by his family to avenge the murder. It’s an unthinkable act — especially for him, an Evangelical Christian. But as pressure mounts, he sees few ways out. Questions of faith, tradition and honor course through this electrifying film, which, seemingly at the speed of thought itself, jumps between film formats, colors, and aspect ratios, radically envisioning a community torn asunder by senseless violence. �Cocote _ About the Director Biography Nelson Carlo De Los Santos Arias was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic in 1985. He studied cinematography in Buenos Aires and at the Edinburgh College of Art, where he started making experimental work. He has received his MFA in Film/Video at CalArts. During this period, he made an observational documentary which has been shown in festivals in the U.S., Europe, and Latin America, including Tropical Uncanny at the Guggenheim, New York. His thesis, a feature-length essay titled Santa Teresa and Other Stories, had its World Premiere at FID Marseille in 2015, where it won Georges de Beauregard’s Prize, after which it was selected for TIFF, the New York Film Festival, Viennale, the Mar del Plata International Film Festival (where it won Best Latin American Film), and the First Film Award at Cinema Tropical Awards 2016. Filmography 2015 2014 2013 2011 SANTA TERESA AND OTHER STORIES LULLABIES PARECES UNA CARRETA DE ESAS QUE NO LA PARA NI LO’ BUEYE LE DERNIER DES BONBONS �Cocote _ Director’s Statement From Memory to Morality Once, when I was a child, my parents left me at my great aunt’s house. My aunt had a huge garden where I used to play the entire day. By the end of that summer, the garden was a mess, until a man arrived. I had never seen him before, and my aunt expressed to him a desperate “Hello.” She greeted him with, “Oh, God, how did everything end?,” that she thought he would never show again. He said, calmly, that everything is fine now. When my aunt asked the second question: how did he resolve everything? He said: “No, nothing, I did to him what he did to my dad — I cut his neck.” As I understood, that man kept working at my aunt’s house, but I never talked to him because I was too afraid of him. Based on this memory, it’s important not to fall into the trite conversation where third-world countries place violence as the center of their significance. I have always been interested in where the violence of my country arises. A strange violence, because it’s almost silent, always lurking. In these recent decades, for other tangibles reasons that we are not interested to mention here, violence has increased in our society, and that’s why I went back to that memory. To talk about violence, to talk about a crime, it is impossible not to mention morality. In my country, I start to ask: from what point do we constitute morality then? Where is it? What is it that we are confronting every day? Religions & Rituals My work finds its interest in how we produce knowledge. To face a country where its majority has struggled to think of themselves through social sciences such as anthropology, sociology, among others, I find it necessary to open a conversation analyzing our religions. A fundamental institution in the production of values. With Cocote, I propose to talk about two religions, “Los Misterios” (1), which is as ancient as Catholicism and synchronizes West African and Christian beliefs that merged due to the colonization of the Caribbean. Despite the fact that this belief has been practiced widely on the island, it has always been treated as marginal by the powerful class. On the other hand, presently, one of the most powerful religious institutions in the country is the Protestant church. All its manifestations and ideologies have been introduced in the late ‘50s through U.S. imperialism, instilling its moral and social-political vision of the world in the Dominican Republic. These two paradigms that, in turn, produce values are confronted in Cocote, which the film highlights by using real practitioners of these religions. Cocote becomes a platform where these voices will talk and defend themselves. The “Chameleon” Image and “Lambdaizaciones” Language I search for an image that will bring new discourses and, most importantly, will produce new points of view. In this constant rupture — for example: in the road, in the ritual, or even in the garden — we can reach the romantic principle: the immensity of nature and our insignificance as humans. In the film, Alberto is always affected by this rupture of point-of-view and operates as a rupture in his own right, �Cocote _ and it’s in this fracture where I start also to understand myself as a new artist in a new society. Today, it is not necessary to talk about double morals; we all know this. Today, when a new danger image emerges, I decided to call it the“Chameleon”. Someone told me once that to talk about Glauber Rocha (2) was an obsolete discourse. Under that assumption, I wonder how the French New Wave isn’t. Regardless of our contemporary cinema, I believe that, in our region, there is no one like Rocha, who has investigated deeply to understand the abstract identity of the Latin American people; his aesthetics stands out from the constant act of “translation.” Here, in Cocote, and in the rest of my work, I salute Rocha eternally. The Dominican society, historically speaking, has lived processes that have resulted in poor fabrications of historical, sociological, anthropological, and artistic investigations. This academia is also responsible for creating the paradigms of our production of knowledge. Therefore, we have to identify the vehicles for our cultural imaginary. The first one, I believe, is Orality. From that, I explore my Spanish, one that is full of hypercorrection, neologisms, Xénismes (3), and “Lambdaizaciones”(4), which is the phonological phenomenon that involves the articulation of a consonant different than what it is. If we analyze a Dominican conversation, we will see how sentences are not finished. The proliferation of topics in one single conversation is very high, and these ideas will not necessarily be concluded, along with the constant use of onomatopoeias in our daily speech. This is how we produce semantics, and also it’s where I found my inspiration when I think about montage. The montage of my film mimics that dynamism; it creates its rhythm similar to the Beat generation or, closer to me, to Roberto Bolaño (5). The southwest of the island, the lesspopulated region, is a land with a violent sea that still hasn’t been seized by the widespread tourism. A place that gives the feeling of finding an unaffected land, knowing that there’s no such thing. The south carries loneliness, especially in the state of Pedernales — full of fisherman communities — where the Haitians and Dominicans live as the one island that we are. Those lands full of motorcycles, boats, and buses. The people divide their lives between the sea and the mainland. The camera should become one of them. A machine that doesn’t stop moving through the alleys, the sea, the road, like the tongue of a Dominican that doesn’t stop talking. This is how I build my stories: heavy, as my Spanish is, incoherent and incorrect for the rules of the Spanish language. The nature of the Caribbean sun always creates opacity, because shades and shadows are deep solid blacks, making it impossible to see the details of anything in it. Similarly, when the world is lit here, the only thing we can see is a big white mass. The use of the natural light is where I create an image that sometimes is overexposed or underexposed. It’s the language of cinema that is affected here. Like Alberto’s life, we need to embrace this anomaly that finds expression in opacity. I, Them, Us I want to end this conversation with my fundamental concern in my art practice, something that I fight every day as a Latin American artist. To embrace the formal world, you need to confront a left that is too didactic and a right that is not very important for me to consider. Real experimentation in Latin American cinema is needed to go beyond the “long shots” proposed by our auteur cinema. We need to �Cocote _ create new and demanding visual discourses, and not be afraid to break boundaries, just as the first-world artist isn’t. My work will always fight Latin American dogmatism — that’s why I don’t hesitate to work with different formats and textures, constantly playing with diegetic and extradiegetic sound, alluding to what is out-of-frame that sometimes, like in a Dominican conversation, could crystallize into the narrative or not. Through abstraction, I find meanings that help create this conversation. This decision to find meaning through abstraction is what guarantees it will reach strange territories, perhaps new ones. In that sense, what is conceptual in this film also mirrors Alberto’s journey, which is unexplainable for him. This is how I build Cocote’s aesthetics. An “I” who represents, and a “Them” who are represented, and always with the latent hope that, from time to time, the roles are going to be switched so we can talk about an “Us.” (1) Los Misterios The syncretic modality in which certain parts of the Dominican Republic practice Catholicism. “Los Misterios” will be the structure in which they are going to divide their saints: The Black Divisions (Africans) the Indigenous Division (Los tainos), and the White Division (Saints from Catholicism), in total 21 divisions that represent the 21 wounds that Jesus had before he died. (2) Glauber Rocha Filmmaker, Brazil, 1939 – 1981 Selected filmography: Black God, White Devil (1964), Entranced Earth (1967), Antonio Das Mortes (1969) (3) Xénismes Words and expression takes from another language than the original. In the case of the Dominican Republic, that other language is predominantly English from the United States. (4) Lambdaizaciones Is a phonological change consisting of the articulation of a distinct consonant. In the case of the Spanish Caribbean, the L instead of the R. Exp: Puerta = Puelta. (5) Roberto Bolaño Writer, Chile, 1953 – 2003 Selected novels: 2666 (2004), Distant Star (1996), The Savage Detectives (1998), Nazi Literature in the Americas (1996 �Cocote _ Cast Alberto Karina Patria Martine Chave Policeman Vicente Santos Judith Rodríguez Yuberbi De La Rosa Pepe Sierra Isabel Spencer José Miguel Fernandez Crew Directed by Written by Edited by Produced by Cinematography Sound Design Nelson Carlo De Los Santos Arias Nelson Carlo De Los Santos Arias Nelson Carlo De Los Santos Arias Fernando Santos Díaz Lukas V. Rinner Christoph Friedel Roman Kasseroller Nelson Carlo De Los Santos Arias Nahuel Palenque A GUASABARA CINE, NABIS FILMGROUP, AND PANDORA FILM PRODUCTION A GRASSHOPPER FILM RELEASE � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Film Database Filmography Title / Título (Original) A name given to the resources. El nombre original del recurso. Cocote Director The director of the film. El/La director/a de la película. Nelson Carlo de Los Santos Arias Release Date / Fecha de estreno The date of the film’s release (year only). La fecha de estreno (año solamente). 2017 Language / Idioma The language(s) that are spoken in the film or the language of the text. El idioma(s) de la película o del texto. Spanish / español Country / País The spatial characteristics of the intellectual content of the resource, not necessarily the place of publication. Refers to the location(s) (the country) where the film takes place. El país donde la película toms lugar. Dominican Republic / República Dominicana Production Company / Compañía de Producción The entity or entities that appear as producers for the film. La entidad o entidades que aparecen como productores de la película. Guasábara Cine (Dominican Republic) Nabis Filmgroup (Argentina) Pandora Film (Germany) Description / Descripción An account of the resource. Description may include but is not limited to: an abstract, synopsis of film, a table of contents, or a free-text account of the resource. Una sinopsis del recurso. La descripción puede incluir: un resumen o sinopsis de la película, un índice, o una narrativa abierta del recurso. <span>Alberto is returning home from Santo Domingo for the funeral of his father, killed by a local loan shark who is untouchable thanks to his police-force position. The son arrives to find that his old man has already been put in the ground. He is expected to stay on, however, for the nine nights of novena, or rezos de los nueve dias, a prospect that disturbs him, though it’s not immediately clear why. In time we gather that there is a gulf between Alberto’s faith and his family’s – while both evoke the name of Jesus, the similarities don’t go much further. With his pressed white shirts, humble comportment and Bible tucked at his side, Alberto is the very picture of the clean-living evangelical, dismissing talk of a curse on his father as so much “nonsense”. But back home they practise their own indigenous strain of Christianity, one heavily streaked with Catholic pomp and influences from West Africa, known as Los Misterios. At the centre of Cocote is this push-pull between Alberto’s Christianity, of the pacific and turn-the-other-cheek variety, and the more fervid, half-pagan beliefs of his extended family, particularly his adoptive sister Karina (Judith Rodríguez), in whose minds the crime that has been committed demands repayment in blood. Source: Pinkerton, Nick. "Cocote." <em>Sight and Sound</em>, vol. 28, no. 8, 2018, p. 54-55.</span> <em>Alberto regresa a su casa de Santo Domingo para el funeral de su padre, quien fue asesinado por un prestamista que también es un policía e inmune al juicio. Cuando el hijo llega, se entera que su padre ya está enterrado. Se queda en casa para los rezos de nueve dias, lo cual lo pertuba por una razón que no está claro de inmediato. El espectador aprende que existen unas diferencias entre la fe de Alberto y la fe de su familia; ambos siguen a Jesús pero lo interpretan de manera diferente. Alberto es un evangélico humilde quien lee la biblia y no cree en la supuesta maldición de su padre. Pero su familia cree en Los Misterios, un cristianismo indígena con elementos del catolicismo e influencias de África occidental. El tema central de Cocote es este conflicto entre el cristianismo pacifista de Alberto y el cristianismo medio pagano fervoroso de su familia, especialmente en el caso de su hermana adoptiva Karina (Judith Rodríguez), quien cree que el asesinato de su padre exige una venganza de sangre. (Translated by Andrew Magel)</em> Category / Categoría A broad category or mode of cinematographic production. Fiction Films / Cine de ficción Genre / Género A category of artistic composition, characterized by similarities in form, style, or subject matter. Una categoría de composición artística, caracterizada por semejanzas de forma, estilo, o tema. Drama Subject Coverage / Tema The topic of the resource. Typically, the subject will be represented using keywords, key phrases. El tema del recurso. Típicamente el tema se representará con palabras o frases claves. Afro-Latin American / afro latinoamericano Relationships / Relaciones Religion & Spirituality / Religión & Espiritualidad Social inequality / Desigualdad social Violence / Violencia Cinematic Period / Periodo cinematográfico The broad cinematic period to which a film belongs. El periodo cinematográfico general de la película. Contemporary / Contemporáneo Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Cocote Description An account of the resource <span>Alberto is returning home from Santo Domingo for the funeral of his father, killed by a local loan shark who is untouchable thanks to his police-force position. The son arrives to find that his old man has already been put in the ground. He is expected to stay on, however, for the nine nights of novena, or rezos de los nueve dias, a prospect that disturbs him, though it’s not immediately clear why. In time we gather that there is a gulf between Alberto’s faith and his family’s – while both evoke the name of Jesus, the similarities don’t go much further. With his pressed white shirts, humble comportment and Bible tucked at his side, Alberto is the very picture of the clean-living evangelical, dismissing talk of a curse on his father as so much “nonsense”. But back home they practise their own indigenous strain of Christianity, one heavily streaked with Catholic pomp and influences from West Africa, known as Los Misterios. At the centre of Cocote is this push-pull between Alberto’s Christianity, of the pacific and turn-the-other-cheek variety, and the more fervid, half-pagan beliefs of his extended family, particularly his adoptive sister Karina (Judith Rodríguez), in whose minds the crime that has been committed demands repayment in blood. Source: Pinkerton, Nick. "Cocote." <em>Sight and Sound</em>, vol. 28, no. 8, 2018, p. 54-55. </span> Afro-Caribbean / afro-caribeño Afro-Dominican / afro-dominicano