Burman’s Dos Hermanos Movie Fills Cinemas

by Tracey Chandler, contributing blogger

Daniel Burman’s “Los Dos Hermanos” is the story of a brother and a sister, living in Buenos Aires in the later part of their lives and the difficulties which arise from dealing with family members whom you love unconditionally, but very rarely like. It is a beautiful tale told with care and understanding and not one to be missed. “Dos hermanos” came out strong in its world premiere in Argentina, posting the hottest per-screen gross and second in ticket sales in a market dominated by Hollywood. The $1.8 million-budget “Hermanos” grossed 1.96 million pesos ($506,000) on 77 screens from Thursday through Sunday, according to local B.O. tracker Ultracine.

It trailed 3D pics “Alice in Wonderland” and “How to Train Your Dragon.” Yet “Hermanos,” distributed by Pascual Condito’s Primer Plano, bested them with a per-screen gross of $6,757 compared with “Alice’s” $4,450 and “Dragon’s” $3,600.

Starring the legendary Antonio Gasalla and the equally famed Graciela Borges, “Los Dos Hermanos” is nothing less than a sheer delight from start to finish, playing with those elements of porteño lifestyle and culture that leave themselves open to be both loved and at the same time mocked with style and grace. Humour, talent, subtlety and truth, form the backbone to an incredibly good script and an equally impressive directorial triumph.  keep reading a complete review. . .

Full of little quips, moments and unforgettable one-liners…. “¿Pero qué ropa es eso, Marco? ¿Sos uruguayo ahora?! Quitatelo!”…… or…… “A nadie le importa que tiene que decir usted,”….. as one of the opening lines of the very first scene, introducing the character of Susanna (Borges) with a bang, the script is a work of art. Throughout the film´s duration, the viewer is taken through moments of humour, sadness, affinity and self-reflection. The detail is astounding and undoubtedly appeals to the hearts of anyone living in Buenos Aires, surrounded by the exaggerated customs and quibbles of this crazy yet lovable porteño world.

80 Norwegians Walk into a Shantytown. . .

No, it’s not the start of bad joke but what we filmed last Saturday in the Villa 31 Shantytown in Buenos Aires. Many people come to visit the girls and play soccer with them, which the girls themselves like. “We meet people we otherwise wouldn’t” and “we get to show them that we are good people” were two responses we got from the girls on camera. BUT it quite a site. Out of nowhere appeared 80 blonde, blue-eyed 20 year old girls to play with the 20 girls who play soccer in the Villa. Almost the entire neighborhood showed up to watch, and at one point, a religious ceremony took place, featuring mariachis, dancing Bolivians in traditional dress and two brass bands (I was focusing on the girls, but from what I understand, it was a procession for the Virgin). It began to feel like an Emir Kusturica movie:

(if you don’t know who Kusturica is, stop what you’re doing and go rent Underground, now!)

And in the middle of this entire crazy scene, a woman appeared demanding that we stop filming and that the girls vacate the film. Her reasoning (and I see where she’s coming from) is that the community put a lot of work and effort into building field and that she didn’t want people to be making money off of it through tourism. Coach Monica explained that we were filming a documentary highlighting all the good things that are going on in the Villa and that it was a cultural exchange, not tourism.

Just to show, there is no such thing as an easy shoot day on this documentary!

New Show Reel 2010 for San Telmo PRoductions

See what we´ve been filming, in under 2 minutes, from documentary to commercials to fiction.

Dogwalking Documentary: Pre-production Begins

When you are a filmmaker, you never have time to sit back and relax and watch all those cool films that inspired you to pick up a camera in the first place. Just a few days after finishing up production for Nextfilm´s “The Nazi Hunters” for the History Channel, we´re launching into pre-production for a documentary about dog walkers, to be directed by Australian Peter Wilson. Peter visited Buenos Aires many times, and became intrigued by the thousands of young men and women who walk up to 15 dogs at a time. The dogs are well-behaved, and as you can imagine, each  dog walker has a story to tell. From biting dogs ears as punishment, to retraining mean dogs, to dealing with humans, this doc will have it all.

If you live in Buenos Aires and know of an interesting dog walker or use this service, feel free to contact us: we want to interview you!

Film Production Company in Buenos Aires, Argentina

Located in Buenos Aires, Argentina, San Telmo Productions is a film and video production company owned and operated by Argentinean and U.S. filmmakers, ensuring the right mix between local know-how and an understanding of the needs of international markets and clients.

Co-owned and operated by filmmakers Ginger Gentile, a New Yorker and graduate of Columbia University, and Gabriel Balanovsky, who is a registered producer with INCAA (Instituto Nacional de Cine y Artes Audiovisuales), the Argentine Film board.

We have worked for multinationals such as Pottery Barn and Diagio, as well as local clothing lines like Delaostia. We have filmed all over Argentina. We have provided production services to create traditional commercials as well as have been contracted to create non-traditional ads: web videos, documentaries-as-ads and branded fiction.

San Telmo Productions can help you take advantage of Argentina´s low costs and century long history of quality filmmaking.

San Telmo Productions knows what international and local clients want from video and film productions: on-time delivery, clear budgets, proven technicians and creative problem solving. We work with the best technicians and equipment without passing on the costs to our clients, thanks to our low overhead.

Owners Ginger Gentile and Gabriel Balanovsky have worked in a variety of positions in the film industry, and know the best technicians not just because they have hired them, but also because they have worked side by side with them. They know who works well and who doesn´t.

San Telmo Productions has close relationships with studios, rental houses and other suppliers. This allows us to get lower prices than other production companies.

We understand that a main reason for choosing Argentina is the cost advantage, and we guarantee to never offer “Hollywood” prices to our clients.

Offer packages, can take care of the complete process, from travel arrangements, hotel reservations, transport to pre-production, location scouting, filming in HD or film, and post production, including sound mixing at the award winning Ñandú Sound studio.

San Telmo Productions offers film production services in Argentina, video production, and equipment rental.

“Making of The Hooker & The Transvestite” Episode 2

A great job was done by David Castre Bravo. Actors Lola Berthet, Luis Machín and Luís Aponte, a crew of 25 and DoP Jorge Crespo braved freezing cold temperatures to capture a bit of film magic. The set electricians began at 4pm and finished at 8am! Lights were provided by Ajaf Cinema and sound equipment by Ñandú Sonido, who also co-produced the short film.

“Amanda O” takes soap opera world/online community by storm

So what “telenovela” (soap opera) is all of Argentina talking about? Hint, it´s not on TV. It´s “Amanda O” staring beautiful actress/businesswoman Natalia Oreiro and “galan” (hunk) Luciano Castro. And it is one of the first shows in Argentina to not only be released over the internet and mobile devices, but also work its way into the popular consciousness. No doubt due to its beautiful and talented star, Natalia–she´s one of the few good looking women on TV that you don´t want to hit for being an idiot! And the production values are top rate–beautifully lit, attention to detail.

You can see the complete series at www.novebox.com

The launch is the responsibility of the producer Dori Media Group and will have new elements such as interaction with the viewer. In addition, the series will be available for download on mobile devices.  It is now on its second season.

New Documentary films making knives by hand in Argentina

Gabriel Balanovsky directs the shot.

San Telmo Productions filmed the first part of what will be a feature length documentary about knife making in Argentina. The knife is an indispensable tool for the gaucho (Argentine cowboy), used both to work and to eat the huge cuts of meat the pampas are famous for. Long ago, most gauchos made their own knives by hand, and today a select group of artisans continue this art. Working in hidden workshops, they turn scrap metal into beautiful knives, all by hand. Collectors and chefs from all over the world prize these creations, and it is not uncommon for an Argentine to bring his own knife to an asado, or barbecue.

The first part of the documentary, which is executive produced by Gary Parker, will look at the making of a very special knife is litterally out of this world (details will be revealed in the film!)

Directed and produced by Gabriel Balanovsky, Photography by Jorge Crespo (winner of so many photography awards that I won´t list them here) and edited by Ginger Gentile.  Sound recording and post by Damián Montes Calabro. Filmed in HD.

Jorge Crespo films Guillermo making a knife

Guillermo files down a knife.

Ginger Gentile nominated for “Trippy” award for video on tripfilms.com

Ginger Gentile, co-founder of San Telmo Productions, has been nominated for a “Trippy” award at www.tripfilms.com
so go vote:

http://www.tripfilms.com/polls.sdo?pollID=1

in the category:
JOT THIS DOWN AWARD: Best Travel Planning Video

“Tips and Tricks: Buenos Aires” by Ginger

Ginger Gentile has made 7 travel videos for tripfilms.com as well as over 60 travel videos with production partner Gabriel Balanovsky about Buenos Aires, Patagonia, Mendoza (wine country) and Chile for www.geobeats.com

Filming a travel video in a cafe in Recoleta

“The L. Sisters” in Official Competition of Mar del Plata Film Festival 2008

“Las Hermanas L.” (The L Sisters”) is in the official competition of Mar del Plata Film Festival 2008. The film was edited by the writer of this blog, Ginger Gentile. It stars many famous faces from Argentina´s small screen.

The catalog has this to say about the film:

Every time Argentine cinema has walked through the unstable ground of kitsch, it generally did it involuntarily, and to its own regret. La dama regresa (1996) is perhaps the last record of a cinematographic attempt to consciously fall into that aesthetic category which, in the words of art critic Federico Klemm “no longer has to do with a systematization of bad taste, but with an amplification of the artificial and excessive”. Unlike Jorge Polaco’s unleashed defense of actress Coca Sarli, this second film made by some of the creators of UPA! smear with make up the world of its main characters, in order to make it more colorful and hot (or horny, because there’s plenty of diverse sex here) And they only bring the subtle eye-lasher when depicting Eva, the oldest; Florencia, the youngest; Lucho, the one between them; and Bruno, the minor. In their neurosis, their fights and reconciliations, in their subtle displacements – regarding objects of desire, love and hate- might lie the secret this self characterized “psychosexual comedy” has found to balance artifice with emotion.