2013 Panama IFF: Sights & Sounds

The highlight of the 2013 edition of the IFF Panama has to be the presence of veteran actress Geraldine Chaplin (Doctor Zhivago) — while I had just a smidgen of an idea of what was being discussed in a Spanish-speaking Q&A which followed Charlie Chaplin’s 1921 treasure, The Kid, I saw that the thesp was animated, generous, delivered crowd-pleasing anecdotes about the memories she had growing up in a household with the silent era’s first star.

The fest’s first party took place at the Frank Gehry’s Museum of Biodiversity in Panama City – equipped with booze, beats and industry types such as (see below) Aram Tertzakian and Nate Bolotin from XYZ Films – an indie prod. house that looks for ideal locations for future productions – they have Frankenstein’s Army premiering at Tribeca next week and have The Raid 2 , and Stage Fright (Top 100 Most Anticipated title of ours) in the works.

From Park City to Panama City, Indie Spirit nominated, Gotham Award winning actress (Middle of Nowhere) Emayatzy Corinealdi broke out in Spanish to greet the crowd – some of her family roots are based here.

Una Noche producer Yunior Santiago  (see below) was on hand to introduce Lucy Mulloy’s feature length, Award-winning debut – the pic receives it domestic release via Tribeca Films sometime this summer.

The majority of the film screenings take place at the Cinépolis — Latin American chain of movie theaters. I loathe the place and the same goes for the massively, dull mall it is located in.

Miley Cyrus in Espagnol.