Locarno Open: Last News

Jamie Lang Selected for this year’s Locarno Open Doors Producers Lab, “99 Secrets” is the debut feature of leading Bolivian producer Alvaro Manzano Zambrana, whose previous credits include production manager on Werner Herzog’s “Salt and Fire” and producer on Vinko Tomicic’s Tribeca Film Festival World Narrative Competition player “The Dog Thief,” currently enjoying a strong festival run. Framing an across-the-tracks teen romance, “99 Secrets” unfolds inside a dance hall during a lavish quinceañera party, where a 14-year-old amateur pickpocket sneaks in to have a dance with young Ana. The party quickly turns from a festive atmosphere to one of fear and seclusion as revolution floods the streets outside, keeping partygoers confined to the hall for three days.

Will Thorne Staff WriterThere is a lot that Thai director Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke cannot say about his new project “A Useful Ghost.” But then again, when audiences in Thailand see the film, they will know exactly what it means.Set primarily in a family home, “A Useful Ghost” tells the story of a couple, March and Nat, and their young son Dot. March runs a vacuum cleaner factory, but ironically, one day Nat dies from a respiratory disease caused by air pollution in the area.