{"id":9953,"date":"2015-07-17T13:06:33","date_gmt":"2015-07-17T13:06:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.giff.mx\/?p=9953"},"modified":"2015-07-17T13:06:33","modified_gmt":"2015-07-17T13:06:33","slug":"critic-song-my-brothers-taught-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/giff.mx\/en\/critic-song-my-brothers-taught-me\/","title":{"rendered":"Critic: Song My Brothers Taught Me"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dir: Chlo\u00e9 Zhao<\/strong><\/p>\n

Official Selection International Feature Length Film: United States<\/p>\n

\"Brothers<\/a>The Richter Scale says<\/strong>: Typically, when we name a film\u2019s protagonist, we\u2019re talking about its chief character who is a person, but in some cases it might be more accurate that the place where the film is set is acting as its protagonist. We say this when the place is so specific that no one imagines the people in it existing anywhere else or when the place itself (the community, the landscape, the bond that the people have with it) plays a key role in the decisions they make. In her feature directorial debut, Chlo\u00e9 Zhao takes us to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, where many of its inhabitants have alcohol problems and where it\u2019s very likely that your neighbor is somehow your relative, but it\u2019s the place where these people live and it means something to all of them.<\/p>\n

We see this place through the eyes of Johnny Winters (John Reddy), who recently graduated High School and is getting ready to move to L.A. with his college-bound girlfriend, as well as the eyes of his 11-year-old sister Jashuan (Jashuan St. John). To this girl, her older brother is her safety net and now that he\u2019s leaving, she\u2019ll have to find someone else to protect her. When they find out their father (who they barely even knew) just died and they meet every relative this man left behind, Johnny and Jashuan obtain a new point of view of what it means to be in a family.<\/p>\n

\"Songs-My-Brothers-Taught-Me\"<\/a>There is very little plot, which allows the audience to have a clear sense of this place through the gorgeous cinematography that captures the reservation\u2019s valleys (which despite feeling desolate, are strangely homey) and in scenes of these people gathering in dance halls or in each other\u2019s houses to smoke and hang out like people do. Most of the actors are first-timers, which gives the characters a sense of naturalism, but among them is veteran actress Irene Bedard (the voice of Pocahontas in Disney\u2019s film of the same name) as the mother of these two siblings and she adds a more experienced dramatic weight to what\u2019s going on in the film (that weight builds a nice bond with the naturalism of her two on-screen children). The relationship between Johnny and Jashuan is the heart of the picture and it\u2019s through them that we connect to this place that, in spite of its constant conflict, means everything to them.<\/p>\n

This film will screen at the \u00c1ngela Peralta Theater today at 2:00 pm and in Guanajuato City Friday the 24th of July at the Ju\u00e1rez Theater at 2:00 pm.<\/p>\n

Follow us on:<\/p>\n

FACEBOOK: Guanajuato International Film Festival\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

TWITTER: @giffmx<\/a><\/p>\n

INSTAGRAM: giffmx<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dir: Chlo\u00e9 Zhao Official Selection International Feature Length Film: United States The Richter Scale says: Typically, when we name a film\u2019s protagonist, we\u2019re talking about its chief character who is a person, but in some cases it might be more accurate that the place where the film is set is acting as its protagonist. We […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":9950,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sin-categoria-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/giff.mx\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/giff.mx\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/giff.mx\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/giff.mx\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/giff.mx\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/giff.mx\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/giff.mx\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/giff.mx\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/giff.mx\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/giff.mx\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}