By Anna Marie de la Fuente
We Are What We Are (2010) – Official Trailer 2 (HD)
Paulina Valencia, former executive producer of Pimienta Films, has begun work on the coming-of-age drama “The Weird” (“Lo Raro”), the debut feature from Nicolasa Ruiz, whose most recent short film, “Extinction of the Species,” which she co-directed with Matt Porterfield, was a Critics Week contender at Cannes last year.
Valencia joins Matías de Bourguignon of Chile’s Cordyceps Content, a co-producer of “Boliviana,” directed by Chile’s Vinko Tomicic and sold by Luxbox, which is competing in the international section of the Santiago Film Festival (Sanfic). Set in La Paz, Bolivia, it stars Alfredo Castro (“El Conde”) as a lonely tailor, Señor Novoa, whose dog is stolen by a 15-year-old shoeshine boy who imagines Sr. Novoa is his father.
Mexicali-set “The Weird” follows Consuelo, a shy teenage nerd with a deep passion for technology who builds Alita, a robotic pet powered by artificial intelligence. Her love of science and robotics is matched only by her growing crush on Ángel, the new girl in school who is also a popular video game streamer.
