Program

Chavela

Catherine GUND Daresha KYI 2017 USA Documentary b/w & color 90min Spanish, English DCP

Through its lyrical structure, Chavela will take viewers on an evocative, thought-provoking journey through the iconoclastic life of game-changing artist Chavela Vargas. Centered around never before-seen interview footage of Chavela shot 20 years before her death in 2012, and guided by the stories in Chavela's songs, and the myths and tales others have told about her – as well as those she spread about herself – the film weaves an arresting portrait of a woman who dared to dress, speak, sing, and dream her unique life into being.

Director

Catherine GUND

Catherine Gund, the Founder and Director of Aubin Pictures, is an Emmy-nominated producer, director, writer, and activist. Her media work focuses on strategic and sustainable social transformation, arts and culture, HIV/AIDS and reproductive health, and the environment. Her completed films - which include , Born to Fly, What's On Your Plate, A Touch of Greatness, Motherland Afghanistan, Making Grace, On Hostile Ground, and Hallelujah! - have screened around the world in festivals, theaters, museums, and schools; on PBS, the Discovery Channel, and the Sundance Channel. She co-founded the Third Wave Foundation which supports young women and transgender youth, and DIVA TV, an affinity group of ACT UP/NY. She was the founding director of BENT TV, the video workshop for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender youth. She lives in NYC with her four children.

Daresha KYI

Daresha Kyi is an award-winning filmmaker and television producer with over 25 years in the business. She graduated from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts where she received a degree in Film &TV. She also won a full fellowship from TriStar Pictures to attend the Directors Program at The American Film Institute (AFI) based on her multiple award-winning short film. She wrote, produced, directed and co-starred in Land Where My Fathers Died with Isaiah Washington. She also served as executive producer of the award-winning short, Thugs, The Musical!. Most recently she was a field producer on Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell, story producer on La Voz Kids (Telemundo's The Voice for children), and the writer for the weekend morning talk show Arise & Shine, hosted by Richard Pryor's daughter, Rain. A natural born story teller, Daresha has produced television for WE, AMC, OXYGEN, E!, BRAVO, and FUSE among many others. She also has acted in numerous short films and TV programs and has served as a reporter, correspondent, and host of numerous film, fashion, and music programs. Her love of music goes back to numerous childhood musical theater productions. Daresha has also performed with and recorded an album with Chilum, a popular Hawaii based reggae band, was a member of the LA based Angel City Chorale, and was the lead singer in a rock and R&B cover band called Reciprocity.

Director's Statement ▾

Catherine Gund：For a few magical months, I found myself living and loving just south of Mexico City in the warm winter of 1992. My girlfriends played me Chavela's songs on record players and told me tales of her womanizing, her irresistible allure, her deep voice, her audacity. She moved all who met her. I had to meet her. I carried a video camera in my backpack everywhere I went. I begged my friends to help me create a face-to- face moment with Chavela. I wanted to ask her some questions in my broken Spanish, make her laugh her gorgeous laugh, feel her magnetism, hear her raspy tones, and squirm at the power of her promise. I asked her if I could videotape our conversation. She agreed and she did not disappoint. It is no wonder she is called The Rough Voice of Tenderness. I became obsessed with her ability to draw people in. I was fascinated by her lightness and ease, her masculinity. And with her song. But I came home and put those master tapes away. A decade later, I clamored to be among her fans smiling ,with eyes closed, dreaming when she performed at Carnegie Hall. Then, among friends who treasured her, I mourned when she passed away three years ago at the age of 93. Finally, last spring, I decided to unearth my archival footage to see what I had captured all those years ago and there in her full glory was Chavela – relaxed, confident, and poetic in her raw honesty. It was a veritable gold mine of footage. For me, Chavela's life is not a cautionary tale, but rather, a rich subterranean dimension of our own living. She is not a role model, but a muse.

Daresha Kyi：In 1993 I met Catherine Gund, she felt like family from the very start. Political, passionate, and deeply in love with life and human beings with all our fabulousness and flaws, she knew the power of media to change hearts and minds and was actively wielding it as a catalyst for change. I deeply admired her activist spirit and her belief in possibilities. Flash forward twenty-odd years later, Cat and I have sometimes drifted but never disconnected. And one day, she asked me to make a movie together. I didn't even know I'd wanted to do it until she said it, but once spoken, the words became a mantra. “We definitely should make a movie together!”She told me about the footage she'd just digitized that had been in storage for over 20 years, we sit down and screen it together – and that moment changed the course of our joint history. As soon as I saw Chavela, I was intrigued. She wasn't even singing, just sitting around talking to some friends but I had that visceral, gut reaction where you just know. Even though I still didn't know any of the details of Chavela's powerful story, I recognized her too, as kindred. And I knew hers was a story worthy of my time, energy, fire, desire, and oh, so much love.

Filmography

Catherine GUND

2017 Dispatches from Cleveland
2017 Chavela
2014 Born to Fly: Elizabeth Streb vs. Gravity
2009 What's on Your Plate・
2004 Making Grace
1998 Hallelujah! Ron Athey: A Story of Deliverance

Daresha KYI

2017 Chavela

Credits

Director,Producer : Catherine GUND, Daresha KYI
Cinematography : Natalia Cuevas, Paula Gutiérrez Orío
Editor : Carla Gutierrez
Composer : Gil Talmi
Production : Tanya Selvaratnam

Contact Information

佳映娛樂
info@j-ent.com.tw 02-27206007

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台灣國際女性影展

Women Make Waves International Film Festival

TWFA

WMWFF

Program

Chavela

Director

Catherine GUND

Daresha KYI

Director's Statement ▾

Filmography ▾

Catherine GUND

Daresha KYI

Credits ▾

Contact Information ▾

Catherine GUND

Daresha KYI

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