''3 Américas'' is a 2007 Argentine–American drama film written and directed by

Cristina Kotz Cornejo Cristina Kotz Cornejo is an Argentine-American director and screenwriter who divides her time between Boston, Mexico City, and Buenos Aires. She is a descendant of the Huarpe people of the Cuyo region of Argentina and was educated in the US and ...

. The film was produced by Cristina Kotz Cornejo and Angela Counts. The story takes place in Boston, Massachusetts and Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Plot

With summer approaching, 16-year-old América has two issues, or so she thinks. She hates school and her aunt Carolina's alcoholic husband, Joey. She passes the days

shoplifting Shoplifting is the theft of goods from an open retail establishment, typically by concealing a store item on one's person, in pockets, under clothes or in a bag, and leaving the store without paying. With clothing, shoplifters may put on items ...

, hanging out with her friends and trying to avoid Joey. After a life-changing event, América, whose Spanish is limited, is sent to

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

to live with her reclusive and

anti-American Anti-Americanism (also called anti-American sentiment) is prejudice, fear, or hatred of the United States, its government, its foreign policy, or Americans in general. Political scientist Brendon O'Connor at the United States Studies Centr ...

grandmother, Lucía América Campos. In Argentina, América struggles to find her place with a grandmother she has never known and to hold onto a

friendship Friendship is a relationship of mutual affection between people. It is a stronger form of interpersonal bond than an "acquaintance" or an "association", such as a classmate, neighbor, coworker, or colleague. In some cultures, the concept o ...

with Sergio, a neighbor twice her age.

Cast

*Kristen Gonzalez as América *Ana Maria Colombo as Lucia *Nicolás Meradi as Sergio *Gy Mirano as Carolina *Gilberto Arribas as Joey

Festivals/Exhibitions

* The film premiered on October 11, 2007, at the

Woodstock Film Festival The Woodstock Film Festival is an American film festival that was launched in 2000 by filmmakers Meira Blaustein and Laurent Rejto with the goal to bring high quality independent film to the Hudson Valley region. The festival takes place each fa ...

. * Ola Latin American Film Festival, Orlando, Florida, February 2008 * 12th Annual Harlem Stage on Screen: Creatively Speaking Film Series, March 2008 * Tiburon International Film Festival, Tiburon, CA, March 2008 * XXVI Festival Cinematográfico Internacional del Uruguay, Montevideo, April 2008 * 11th

Cine Las Americas International Film Festival The Cine Las Americas International Film Festival is an annual film festival based in Austin, Texas, featuring Latin American and Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous films from the Americas and the Iberian Peninsula. In its 14th year in ...

, April 2008 * Reel

Rasquache Rasquachismo is a theory developed by Chicano scholar Tomás Ybarra-Frausto to describe "an underdog perspective, a view from ''los de abajo''" (from below) in working class Chicano communities which uses elements of "hybridization, juxtaposition, ...

Film Festival,

California State University, Los Angeles California State University, Los Angeles (Cal State LA) is a public university in Los Angeles, California. It is part of the 23-campus California State University (CSU) system. Cal State LA offers 142 bachelor's degrees, 122 master's degrees, ...

, June 2008 *

Brooklyn Academy of Music The Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) is a performing arts venue in Brooklyn, New York City, known as a center for progressive and avant-garde performance. It presented its first performance in 1861 and began operations in its present location in ...

Film Screening Series, April 2008 * Museum of Fine Arts (Boston), May 2008 * New York International Latino Film Festival, July 2008 * Hartford International Film Festival, November 2008 * Yale University, January 2009

Home media

''3 Américas'' was released on DVD in the US by '' Vanguard International Cinema'' on January 26, 2010.

References

External links

* *
Wild Wimmin Films Site

''The Independent'' Review of ''3 Américas''

WAMC Public Radio Interview

''3 Américas'' on ''Indiewire''

Argentine drama films 2007 films 2000s Spanish-language films Films scored by Germaine Franco 2000s Argentine films {{2000s-Argentina-film-stub