VEFFNY Spotlight: Gone with the River

The third edition of the Venezuelan Film Festival in New York begins today, September 23rd, and runs through September 27th at the Village East Cinema. The film's tagline is: Many Venezuelas. Many stories. One film festival.



Gone with the River
Directed by Mario Crespo
Screening September 24 at 8:30pm

Venezuela’s official submission for Best Foreign Film at the Oscars this year is an intriguing look at a woman who sought to fight cultural conventions and live her own life despite expectations from all sides of what it is that she should be doing. Dauna is a strong-willed, determined native whose indigenous people frown upon women’s equality, education, and any sort of deference from the traditional path. Dauna is a formidable lead character, soft-spoken but firmly committed to her ideals and ready to face the hardships that come along with standing by them. This film boasts no special cinematic qualities, but it does offer an involving and informative portrait of one person struggling to achieve change in a society that might be specific to the Orinoco Delta of Venezuela but might as well be representative of similar stories elsewhere too.