Success of Chilean cinema at Sundance

The Chilean film 'Violeta se fue a los cielos', based on the life of composer Violeta Parra, wins the international grand prize at the Sundance Film Festival, while 'Joven y alocada' triumphs in the best script section.

Violeta went to heaven, a film directed by Andrés Wood based on the late Chilean artist Violeta Parra, has conquered the public at the Sundance independent film festival that closed this weekend in Park City (Utah, USA).

The film presents the artist's creative years, her travels through Chile in the early 1950s, her move to Paris and her relationship with the Swiss anthropologist and musician Gilbert Favré.

On the other hand, Marialy Rivas, Camila Gutiérrez, Pedro Peirano and Sebastián Sepúlveda also obtained recognition at Sundance for best screenplay for their work in Young and crazy. Directed by Rivas, the film crudely captures the life of a 17-year-old bisexual girl, from a religious family, who maintains a blog in which she writes about her life and her obsessions.

American cinema

In American cinema, top honors went to a legendary film starring an 8-year-old girl and a documentary about the war on drugs.

Beasts of the Southern Wild won the grand jury prize in the dramatic competition and The House I Live In won the same honor in the documentary section at this independent film festival. This documentary directed by Eugene Jarecki, who already won the same award in 2005 with Why We Fight, examines the social, economic and human cost of the US fight against drug trafficking.

Directed and co-written by 29-year-old newcomer Benh Zeitlin, Beasts of the Southern Wild follows a girl named Hushpuppy who lives with her father in the southern Delta. The film also won the award for best cinematography.

Kirby Dick's documentary about rape in the US military, The Invisible War, received the audience award, as did Ben Lewin's heartfelt drama The Surrogate, starring John Hawkes as a 38-year-old paralyzed man who hires a sex therapist played by Helen Hunt to help him lose his virginity.