Documentary, Drama, Sports are tags on Tribeca Festival 2024 page about PASTRANA. Others that this reviewer believes should be listed but aren’t are Cosmic, Surrealistic, Transcendent. PASTRANA may look to potential audiences like a sports highlight film rooted in an ode to a fallen comrade. Believe this reviewer, it is so-ooo-ooo much more.
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Before the 2024 Tribeca Festival, PATRANA premiered at the historic 56th Brasília Festival of Brazilian Cinema, winning competition’s main awards, including Best Short Film. The international premiere was at the 25th BAFICI – Buenos Aires Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente, in April 2024, where it won the award for Best Latin American Short Film by the institution Films to Festivals.
One of the fascinating facets of PASTRANA – there are many – is its obvious potential global appeal to audiences regardless of their sport of choice. PASTRANA has a cinematic ubiquity that transcends the many ways that people on this planet describe themselves and share space. As PASTRANA was being made in Brazil, the heart and soul of the filmmaking being infused in that film was going to be able to connect with audiences around the world.
A fierce spirituality imbued in this film that, as I wrote earlier, is undeniable and would be way off a Richter Scale for evocative films like this if such a scale existed. Can’t get over that PASTRANA is a 17-minute visually resplendent film short with the panache of a regular feature length film that can put audiences on the edge of their seats.
Synopsis
The Cinematography has swooshing scenes of Pastrana and other skaters downhilling like there is no tomorrow. This reviewer has one quibble with this superbly made film. That is, the way the downhiller’s death was depicted in the opening 80 seconds of the film is in sharp relief to news and news photos of the accident scene.
A slice of a news shot of Pastrana’s death
Short | Brazil | 15 minutes | Portuguese | English subtitles
Direction: Melissa Brogni and Gabriel Motta
Screenplay: Gabriel Motta, Júlia Cazarré and Melissa Brogni
Producer: Aletéia Selonk
Executive Producers: Graziella Ferst and Marlise Aúde
Cinematography: Lívia Pasqual
Sound: Roberto Coutinho
Editing: Bruno Carboni
Original Music: Jonts Ferreira
The first 73 minutes
Editor, Publisher Gregg W. Morris
Can be reached at gregghc@comcast.net, profgreggwmorris@gmail.com