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OLA Latino Film Festival | The Cow Who Sang a Song Into the Future
Celebrating the 20th Anniversary of OLA Latino Film Festival
September 15, 2023, 6 pm
Join us for the 20th Anniversary of the OLA Latino Film Festival and partnership with the Parrish Art Museum with a screening of The Cow Who Sang a Song Into the Future (2022), followed by a live Zoom interview with Director Francisca Alegría. The program begins with a bilingual tour of the Museum’s exhibitions, James Brooks: A Painting is a Real Thing, and Artists Choose Parrish, followed by the film screening and Director’s Q&A in the Museum’s Lichtenstein Theater.
6 PM, Bilingual Tour and Reception, Galleries and Café
7 PM, Introduction and Film Screening, Theater
8:30 PM, Director’s Zoom Q&A
About the Film
The Cow Who Sang a Song Into the Future, 2022, 93 min., Spanish with English subtitles, Directed by Francisca Alegría.
A choir of creatures introduces a world delicately constructed by fantasy, mystery, and magical realism in Francisca Alegría’s poignant and stunning debut feature. It begins in a river in the south of Chile where fish are dying due to pollution from a nearby factory. Amid their floating bodies, long-deceased Magdalena (Mia Maestro, Frida, The Motorcycle Diaries) bubbles up to the surface gasping for air, bringing with her old wounds and a wave of family secrets. This shocking return sends her widowed husband into turmoil and prompts their daughter Cecilia to return home to the family’s dairy farm with her own children. Magdalena’s presence reverberates among her family, instigating fits of laughter and despair in equal measure with all but Cecilia’s eldest child, who finds much-needed comfort in their grandmother’s love and unconditional understanding during a time of transition. A lyrical rumination on family, nature, renewal, and resurrection, The Cow Who Sang A Song Into The Future is an ambitious proposal for acceptance and healing, suggesting that the dead return when they are most needed.
About the Director
Francisca Alegría is an award-winning filmmaker who obtained her degree in Directing from the Universidad Católica de Chile and her M.F.A. in Screenwriting and Film Directing at Columbia University. Her short film AND THE WHOLE SKY FIT IN THE DEAD COW’S EYE received the award for Best International Fiction Short Film at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, Best Latin American Short Film at Miami Film Festival and was selected at Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, and New York Film Festival. Alegría’s debut feature, The Cow Who Sang a Song Into the Future was selected for the Sundance Screenwriters and Directors Labs and will premiere in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival.
Support for Friday Nights is provided by The Corcoran Group. Support for the OLA Film Festival and reception is provided by Elegant Affairs Caterers.
OLA Latino Film Festival | The Cow Who Sang a Song Into the Future
Celebrating the 20th Anniversary of OLA Latino Film Festival
September 15, 2023, 6 pm
Join us for the 20th Anniversary of the OLA Latino Film Festival and partnership with the Parrish Art Museum with a screening of The Cow Who Sang a Song Into the Future (2022), followed by a live Zoom interview with Director Francisca Alegría. The program begins with a bilingual tour of the Museum’s exhibitions, James Brooks: A Painting is a Real Thing, and Artists Choose Parrish, followed by the film screening and Director’s Q&A in the Museum’s Lichtenstein Theater.
6 PM, Bilingual Tour and Reception, Galleries and Café
7 PM, Introduction and Film Screening, Theater
8:30 PM, Director’s Zoom Q&A
About the Film
The Cow Who Sang a Song Into the Future, 2022, 93 min., Spanish with English subtitles, Directed by Francisca Alegría.
A choir of creatures introduces a world delicately constructed by fantasy, mystery, and magical realism in Francisca Alegría’s poignant and stunning debut feature. It begins in a river in the south of Chile where fish are dying due to pollution from a nearby factory. Amid their floating bodies, long-deceased Magdalena (Mia Maestro, Frida, The Motorcycle Diaries) bubbles up to the surface gasping for air, bringing with her old wounds and a wave of family secrets. This shocking return sends her widowed husband into turmoil and prompts their daughter Cecilia to return home to the family’s dairy farm with her own children. Magdalena’s presence reverberates among her family, instigating fits of laughter and despair in equal measure with all but Cecilia’s eldest child, who finds much-needed comfort in their grandmother’s love and unconditional understanding during a time of transition. A lyrical rumination on family, nature, renewal, and resurrection, The Cow Who Sang A Song Into The Future is an ambitious proposal for acceptance and healing, suggesting that the dead return when they are most needed.
About the Director
Francisca Alegría is an award-winning filmmaker who obtained her degree in Directing from the Universidad Católica de Chile and her M.F.A. in Screenwriting and Film Directing at Columbia University. Her short film AND THE WHOLE SKY FIT IN THE DEAD COW’S EYE received the award for Best International Fiction Short Film at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, Best Latin American Short Film at Miami Film Festival and was selected at Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, and New York Film Festival. Alegría’s debut feature, The Cow Who Sang a Song Into the Future was selected for the Sundance Screenwriters and Directors Labs and will premiere in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival.
Support for Friday Nights is provided by The Corcoran Group. Support for the OLA Film Festival and reception is provided by Elegant Affairs Caterers.
