Carmen y Lola

CARMEN Y LOLA: sexual awakening and a glimpse into the urban Romani

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CARMEN Y LOLA

Carmen y Lola is a sexual coming of age story set among urban Romani people in contemporary Spain. 16-year-old Lola (Zaira Romero) is a smart, talented and feisty kid; she knows that she likes girls and wants a career; how she can do either within her traditional Romani culture is a dilemma. Buoyant 17-year-old Carmen (Rosy Rodriguez) embraces her future – being married off to a handsome young Roma man – but meeting Lola awakens her to other choices – and to her own sexual preference.

I’ve seen movies about the Romani people (widely known as Gypsies) before – usually historical period pieces and always with itinerant Romani. There are no wagons or RVs in Carmen y Lola; these characters live in the hardscrabble suburbs of Madrid. (Almost 2% of Spain’s population is Romani.)

We also get to see the ugly face of anti-Romani prejudice (which I’ve just learned is called antiziganism). Carmen y Lola is unsparing in its point of view that the Romani are held down by both external racism and some of their own patriarchal and anti-education Roma traditions.

There’s also a welcome element of cultural tourism here. We get to watch a Romani betrothal ritual, a Romani evangelical church service and an all-female flamenco party.

Carmen y Lola is the directorial debut of Arantxa Echevarria. It’s one of the successful first features showcased in this year’s Frameline film festival.

FRAMELINE: New Directors

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Marius Olteanu’s MONSTERS.

Frameline, the San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival, is underway and showcasing a spate of promising new filmmakers.

Romanian writer-director Marius Olteanu‘s innovative drama Monsters., may be Frameline’s most cinematically ambitious film. A dynamic aspect ratio and a figure-it-out-yourself story structure make it clear that Oltenau is an aspirational filmmaker.

Leon Le‘s groundbreaking romance Song Lang takes us into the vivid world of cải lương, the Vietnamese folk opera, for an operatic love story. More than just “the Vietnamese Brokeback Mountain“.

Leon Le’s SONG LANG

The first feature for Spanish director Arantxa Echevarria, Carmen y Lola, is a sexual coming of age story set among urban Romani people in contemporary Spain.

Making Montgomery Clift, the first feature-length documentary for Robert Anderson Clift and Hilary Demmon, is an unexpectedly insightful and nuanced probe into the life of Clift’s uncle, the movie star Montgomery Clift. Demmon also masterfully edited the film.

Frameline’s closing night film, the emotionally powerful documentary, Gay Chorus Deep South, is the first film for director David Charles Rodrigues. It tracks the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus concert tour through the Deep South in the aftermath of the Trump election.

Through the Windows, the first feature for directors Petey Barma and Bret “Brook” Parker, tells the story of the famed bar Twin Peaks – the first San Francisco gay bar set up to let patrons and passers-by obdsrve each other directly. And, playing before Through the Windows, the documentary short Dressing Up Like Mrs. Doubtfire, about movie depictions of cross-dressing and the impact of the Robin Williams performance, is one of several shorts by director Will Zang, and could be developed into a future feature.

MAKING MONTGOMERY CLIFT, directed by Robert Anderson Clift and Hilary Demmon