Por Las Plumas” ( All About the Feathers) has won wide acclaim and recognition for the (Work in Progress film) in the 31st Miami International Film Festival USA, during March this year. It also participated in the Cannes Film Festival, France during May 2013. And it also took part in the Toronto International Films Festival Canada and San Sebastian (Spain) Film Festival in Sept. HBO purchased the film rights for telecast in the US last week and which will be effective from 2014. Telecast in Latin America is handled by Pacific Grey. 
It is going to be open for a release on October 3. If you get a chance please do watch it. Neto Villabolos the Director and his team have done a wonderful job. Be proud you are a Tican. Pura Vida. Regarding my interest in Spanish movies I would say it just happened. I lived in San Jose and was an International student in UIA way back in the nineties. I had some wonderful friends in Costa Rica. In November last year I just read the story in brief and I said “Por Las Plumas” is going to be a big hit of all times. I am also one of the Associate Producers of Por Las Plumas. I belong to a family of Indian film makers who were involved in film making. I grew up watching an Indian movie “Mrigaya” when I was a kid. It was a Mrinal Sen Film who was a legendary Director. It was enacted by Mamata Shanker and Mithun Chakravarthy. It has won 8 international awards including “Swarna Kamal” for the Best Film in 1976. It was produced by my cousin who happened to be a Doctor in the USA. I also went to attend the shooting for a day in Calcutta. From that day I thought of producing movies with a story line depicting social exploitation. Producing art movies also became an important hobby and interest. I also liked watching Brad Pitt of ‘ Seven years in Tibet’ in Costa Rica and Dance with Me which is a drama film on love and dance directed by Randa Haines and starring Vanessa L. Williams and Puerto Rican singer Chayanne. Both these are wonderful movies to watch. Por Las Plumas is an excellent movie from Costa Rica. I am proud to have studied there . I have lived there for a good amount of time. People are wonderful. Remembering a 7 year old child prodigy and teacher Natalia Vargas who is from Alajuela and who taught me Spanish. Their family is from Puriscal where I had been there once. Wonderful people. Great place where the shooting has taken place. Neto is an exceptional director who made a simple movie into a wonderful cinema. Everyone can relate to the story. It is about friendship. It is about emotions. It is about Life. 
Neto Villalobos came up as an excellent Director in this movie. His direction is very thoughtful and inspiring. Chalo (Allan Cascante) is a security guard who wants to get into cockfighting. He lives in an apartment above a fried chicken joint in a sleepy Costa Rican town — or, rather, he did live above that chicken joint before Rocky came into his life. Chalo buys Rocky from a local grocer. He takes him home, caresses him, and whispers sweetly to him in bed. He has their photograph taken at a portrait studio. Chalo takes Rocky with him everywhere he goes. The problem is that Rocky is a rooster, and not everyone — landlords and bosses especially — is so tolerant of feathers, pecking, poop, and cock-a-doodle-doos, so Chalo is constantly searching for someplace he and his new friend can be together in peace. The winsome feature debut of Costa Rican director Neto Villalobos, All about the Feathers is a deadpan comedy, a story about the odd ways that friendships bloom. Think of it as a romance between a man and his rooster. Raj Kosaraju is one of the Associate Producers of this movie “Por las Plumas” along with Kris De Meester, who is another award winning Director for several Bulgarian, Belgium, and Czechlovaskian movies. (www.zoffa.com ). Johnny Walker is from producer Christine K. Walker (Howl, Life During Wartime, American Splendor) and director Kris De Meester (Four Roses). A comedy about walking in circles. “With the success of his debut film FOUR ROSES, Kris De Meester firmly put himself on the map of new and promising European filmmakers. His latest project, JOHNNY WALKER (loosely based on Dostoevsky’s NOTES FROM THE UNDERGROUND, and with references to classic American indie films) promises to be even better.” – JIM STARK – producer Coffee and Cigarettes, Factotum, Mistery Train, … The film “Smothered” was selected the Festival for Different and Experimental Cinemas in Paris (2011) and the London Independent Film Festival, where it received favourable reviews. Fashion156.com wrote, ‘This film is shot so beautifully you could almost watch it on mute. But when teamed with the soundtrack, Mieke Daneels creates a fantastically eerie landscape.’ ‘A different type of feature that plunges in a fantastic world, where the beauty of the image transforms the sensual drama in a superb visual experience,’ is how the Festival for Different and Experimental Cinemas describes it. Neto Villalobos is the Producer and Director of “Por las plumas”. There are other investors too. 
Kosaraju has also produced ‘Through the Never’ as the next movie to be released in early 2014 which is an 80 minutes English war time movie and is also trying to get into Cannes film festival the next year. Tre Manchester is a wonderful Director of this movie who is Indiana based. THROUGH THE NEVER blends traditional narrative with impressionistic montages, all the while fusing elements of Edgar Allan Poe’s classic, “The Raven” with contemporary, yet timeless, aspects of romance, social-dependence, and love, set amongst the backdrop of a war that impacted the lives of millions. It is a war time classic movie. After receiving word that Alan has been wounded in war, Avery must find in herself the strength to hold together the family who has accepted her, while combating the rising trepidation of her love never returning home. He is a one-off: an independent-minded film-maker who has forged a happy working relationship with his peers outside the box. He just goes to show that it’s quality, not quantity, which counts. As well as being technically brilliant and a seeming workaholic, Tre is arguably the most politically astute director in the business, with an unerring eye for the stories that matter. Few directors have ever made themselves look as cool as Tre has. He is also looking to participate in the Sundance Film Festival, Utah, in January next year. In his studies at the Illinois Institute of Art, he had the privilege to learn from Emmy and Academy Award winning professors. T.A Manchester is also the author of A Nation Severed: War of Brothers which is a great book and has hit the stands. It is a very good read. The story has a creative plot that isn’t your typical storyline in this genre of books. Through his schooling and extracurricular experience, he has learned how to effectively tell a captivating story that evokes the purist of emotions, in the most efficient way possible, by executing precise shots with rich cinematography. “People are hungry for stories. It’s part of our very being. Storytelling is a form of history, of immortality too. It goes from one generation to another.” -Studs Terkel- I will also be looking at being part of Costa Rican movies with special mention to Neto’s forthcoming films and would love to be a part of them. Not forgetting my good friend Rebecca Zuniga who is a Vice President – Latin America at INSCATECH, when she replied in her email. She says… it’s funny….. Yesterday I had lunch with an old time friend who is back in CR after living for many years in the USA. I told him about the movie we were going to go see and told him about you and all the good times we used to have and how we became friends in our long talks over lunch (at cuartel, having gallo pinto). How we had that crazy go away party at “EL PUEBLO”. Good times, good people all the time.
Pic: Florian Droid
A support network unexpectedly develops around Chalo and Rocky. Among those who champion their cause is Chalo’s workmate, who likes to practice shooting, tell Bible stories, and discuss trends in cosmetics. There’s the kid Chalo meets on the bus who writes a song for Rocky that he performs on the trumpet. And there’s Candy (Sylvia Sossa), an Avon saleswoman who becomes Rocky’s protector when Chalo runs out of places to hide him. Tracing the idiosyncratic nature of these alliances — most often in scenes consisting of one deftly framed continuous shot — Villalobos cultivates a dry comic style reminiscent of early Jim Jarmusch: cockeyed, minimalist, and affectionately attentive to behavioural quirks — both human and avian. MIFF’s Miami Encuentros winning project “All about the Feathers” (Por las plumas); and Costa Rican director Neto Villalobos has been invited to world premiere in the Discovery Program early next month. The Discovery section represented diverse perspectives which include 28 first and second feature films made by outstanding filmmakers from Hong Kong, France, Israel, Australia, Uruguay, Italy, Singapore, Costa Rica and South Africa. All about the Feathers had its world premiere during the 2013 International Film Festival Toronto (TIFF), an event that is considered the third most important of its kind in the world and which ended Sept. 15. Por Las Plumas is a… Great movie … please don’t miss it..
Best Regards,
Raj Kosaraju
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR Net Villalobos graduated from the University of Costa Rica where he majored in sociology, and later film directing at the Film Studies Center in Catalunya, Barcelona. His short films “Jason” , “100 East” , “The father of Ernesto” Among Others, Have won several awards and Have been screened at festivals in Cannes, Madrid, Berlin, Barcelona, Boston, Buenos Aires, and Vancouver. Also he has participated in several film workshops: such as the Berlin and Buenos Aires Talent Campus , “How to tell a story” with Gabriel García Márquez, a script workshop with Martin Rejtman and Federico León, “Actor Direction for the Cinema” Given by Heidi Steinhardt, Among Others. He currently directs short films and music videos and Teaches cinematographic language at the Universidad Veritas in Costa Rica.
About the Project
“All About the Feathers” is a film acerca appearance upon ordinary people who never have anything out of the ordinary happen to them. Common, simple people like Chalo. Chalo is found searching for a rooster, while unconsciously truly seeking a companion. This is not a film acerca cockfighting, but rather a simple story with a sense of humor Whose purpose is to infect others With The subsequent outlook on life, it is better to laugh than cry. Most of the characters in the movie are Portrayed by “non-actors,” everyday people who are not dedicated to performance, but Whose personalities and characters are perfect for the story. We want to take advantage of the natural dynamic of the filming sites, and work in communal places: such as on buses, at chicken fast food stands, on poorly lit streets, or in precarious neighborhoods, without interfering Significantly With The communities. The trajectory of this film has been long and productive. We first received support from Ibermediaand thereby developed the project in its early stages research and script writing. Subsequently, the project was selected to Participate in the Typa Screenwriting Workshop in Colon, Argentina, and later was invited to the XL Rotterdam Lab in Holland, where the final details were completed. Finally, the project was awarded Cinergia to enable production with which we are funding most of the film.
| Por las Plumas • Piñata http://vimeo.com/netovillalobos/lapi… |
kosarajuraj 