Aruba to open with international premiere of Meet Monica Velour

The second annual Aruba International Film Festival has announced further details of its programme, including the opening night international premiere of Keith Bearden’s Meet Monica Velour starring Kim Cattrall as an aging porn star [pictured]. Cattrall will attend.

Other international premieres include Mario Van Peebles’ Things Fall Apart, starring 50 Cent; Sergio Sanchez Suarez’s Tequila; and Massimiliano Bruno’s Nobody Can Judge Me (Nessuno mi puo giudicare).

The lineup was announced by AIFF Artistic Director Claudio Masenza along with Festival founders Giuseppe Cioccarrelli and Jonathan Vieira.

Films in the selection are:

• Before the Rain, dir. Milcho Machevski (Republic of Macedonia)
• Beginners, dir. Mike Mills (US)
• Bibliotheque Pascal, dir. Szabolcs Hajdu (Hungary)
• Ciao!, dir. Yen Tan (US)
• Hermano, dir. Marcel Rasquin (Venezuela)
• Kites, dir. Anurag BAsu (India)
• Made In Hungary, dir. Gergely Fonyo (Hungary)
• Meet Monica Velour (US), dir. Keith Bearden
• Mothers, dir. Milcho Manchevski (Republic of Macedonia)
• Nobody Can Judge Me (Nessuno Mi Puo’ Giudicare), dir. Massimiliano Bruno (Italy)
• Tatanka, dir. Guiseppe Gagliardi (Italy)
• The Son Of No One, dir. Dito Montiel (US)
• Tequila, dir. Sergio Sánchez Suárez (Mexico)
• The Agronomist, dir. Jonathan Demme (US)
• The Big Bang, dir. Tony Krantz (US)
• The Guard, dir. John Michael McDonagh (Ireland)
• The Life of Fish, dir. Matias Bize (Chile)
• The Mill And The Cross, dir. Lech Majewski (Poland)
• Things Fall Apart, dir. Mario Van Peebles (US)

Also, the Caribbean Spotlight Series will grow to include 7 films. The five in competition are Juan Agustin Marquez’s 100,000, Kareem Mortimer’s Children of God, Sarah Vos and Sander Snoep’s Curacao, Sarita Siegel’s Fire Burn Babylon, and Jim Carleton’s Voices of Mariel. Special screenings are Edmundo H Rodriguez’s La Fuga and Luciano Blotta’s Rise Up.

Guests lined up for public conversations during AIFF include Jonathan Demme (who will also present The Agronomist), Cattrall, Milcho Manchevski (who will screen Mothers and Before The Rain), and costume designer Michael Kaplan,

Other international guests will include 50 Cent, Italian actress Paola Cortellesi, Polish director Lech Majewski, director Sergio Sanchez Suarez, actress Daniela Schmidt, actress Barbara Mori, and Italian actor/writer Alessandro Calza.

AIFF runs June 10-16.

The CSS jury consists of journalists Noel DeSouza and Rosalie Klein and producer Emmanuel Itier, and the section will also have an audience award. This section was programmed by CSS director Aaron Hose and his committee.