"Papa Gringo
"
cliquee aquí por la versión
castellana
(1983, Super 8,
documentary)
Shooting and editing: Mario Piazza
Running time: 22 min.
In Bogota, capital of
Columbia, Ward Bentley, an American retired travels the city
to attend the street kids, the "gamines", who
affectionately have dubbed him "Papa Gringo".
Awards
* First Prize at the
International Super 8 Film Festival of Caracas (Venezuela,
1983)
* First Prize at the International Super 8 Film Festival of
Sao Paulo (Brazil, 1983)
* Best Documentary at the International Super 8 Film Festival
of Brussels (Belgium,1983)
* First Prize, National Film Contest of UNCIPAR, Buenos
Aires, 1983.
* First Prize at the International 8mm Film Festival of Ann
Arbor (USA, 1984)
* First Prize at the International Super 8 Film Festival of
Lund (Suecia, 1984)
* First Prize Super 8 Section Internacional Film Contest of
Igualada (España, 1984).
* First Prize, Documentary Section, Film Contest "Ciudad
de La Plata", 1985.
* Broadcasted by Antenne 2 from Paris, January 1986.
Comments
Shot in ten days on the
streets of Bogota, Columbia, Piazza's work is a warm,
humanistic portrait of the gamines, street orphans
who survive in their filthy environment through savvy, purse
snatching, violence, and the loving care of an American
medical practitioner they have dubbed "Papa gringo".
Michael Frierson, The Independent Producer,
Cambridge, U.S.A., October 1983
Previously, in the brasilean
film "Pixote" this reality was incorporated, but
while focusing on three kids, totality seemed to vanish.
"Papa Gringo", on the contrary, doesn't let us to
forget for a single moment this reality, and the individual
work of two foreigners only helps to underline what of
pathetic the situation has.
María Cristina, daily Claridad, San Juan, Puerto
Rico , 21/10/83
Exceptional example of what
the authentic true cinema should be, it
magically melts the pitiless reality and the fondest
tenderness of the misfortune kids, narrating with an arduous
sobriety, without a hint of melodrama nor mawkishness, the
luminous relation of the gamines and the singular
American laic missionary who lives for them. La surprising
maturity of the work is revealed by the cleanness with which
it attains that what is shown keep hurting the
spectator.
Fernando Chao, daily La Capital, Rosario, 05/25/84
Excellent.
Claudio Daniel Minghetti, Heraldo del Cine, Buenos
Aires, 02/24/84
The register is forcible,
beautiful and moving. A true jewell of Super 8 film.
Juan Carlos Arch, daily El Litoral, Santa Fe, 11/02/84
The emotion in "Papa
Gringo" isn't just created for an evening's catharsis de
una proyección, it comes from a reality that does not itself
fade. Sorry, "Uncommon Valor".
Bob King, Weekend, Ann Arbor, U.S.A., 02/03/84
He films alone, being in
charge at the same time of sound and image. Through some kind
of mimesis he fuses himself with his characters, and he tries
to see through their eyes and to live their emotions. Maybe
this is not much objective, but it' s very efficacious and
allows us to share a certain view. That of the sensitive man
that Mario Piazza is and that we all possess at different
levels.
Jean Hamel, Plein Cadre, Montreal, Canadá, 1985
An excellent film, both for
its realization and for its proposal.
Marcos Mayer, magazine SuperHumor, Buenos Aires, July 1983
"Papa Gringo" is
the documentary par excellence.
Horacio "Nene" Vargas, magazine Risario,
Rosario, August
1983
With great simplicity and
economy of means, Mario Piazza, with this film, confirms his
evolution (...)
Emilio Bellon, daily Rosario, Rosario, 09/10/83
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