Leading LGBTQ+ distributor TLA Releasing has pounced on U.K. and North American rights to Mexican gay romance drama “Dying Briefly” (“Seré breve al momento de morir”) by Juan Briseño.
“We are so excited to bring this vibrant, exciting film to our audience in the New Year,” said Adam Silver, acquisitions and operating Manager – U.K. at TLA Entertainment Group, who plans a limited theatrical release.
The deal was put together by Rio-based Habanero Film Sales‘ CEO Alfredo Calviño, who presents a robust slate at Ventana Sur.
“Dying Briefly” follows Sebastian, who earns a coveted spot in one of the country’s top dance companies, where he falls for Arsenio, a charismatic dancer. Their romance is tested when Mikael, a demanding new choreographer, turns the company into a battlefield. Sebastian rises as the lead, dethroning Luciano, the former star. Fueled by jealousy and betrayal, Arsenio and Luciano conspire in a ruthless plot to crush him.
Produced by the Basulto Company, Briseño’s debut feature had its market premiere at Cannes’ Marché de Film and vied for the Guadalajara Film Festival’s Maguey Award, the festival’s LGBTQ+ sidebar, this year.
Briseño, Isaac Basulto, Pamela Martínez Rosana Díaz co-wrote the screenplay.
“Dying Briefly” forms part of Habanero Film Sales Ventana Sur lineup, which includes documentaries and dramas from Cuba, Peru, Argentina, Venezuela and Brazil, among others.
Among its Cuban titles are IDFA Best Film awardee “Chronicles of the Absurd,” a documentary by Miguel Coyula, ostensibly made with scarce resources, and “Isla Familia,” the debut documentary feature of Cuban journo Abraham Jiménez and his producer-director wife Claudia Calviño about their journey to flee repression in Cuba and become political exiles in Spain.
Habanero’s narrative pics include Argentine-Brazil coming-of-age thriller “Kissing Bug” (“Vinchuca”) by Luis Zorraquin; Peruvian-Colombian drama “Family Album,” the third in Joel Calero’s political trilogy; Ecuadorian Tania Hermida’s San Francisco Festival Sloan Science on Screen awardee “On the Invention of Species,” shot entirely in the Galapagos Islands, and “Back to Life” (“Vuelve a la vida”) by Luis Carlos and Alfredo Huek, Venezuela’s official entry to the Oscars.
Among Habanero’s standouts is “Tales of a Reggaetón Warrior” (“En la Caliente”), the debut docu feature of Fabien Pisani, which has snagged three awards to date, about artist Kandyman, who led the reggaetón movement in mid-‘90s Cuba.
Another LGBTQ+-themed film is “Luciano,” a debut docu feature by Manuel Besedovsky from Argentina, which follows the titular Luciano as he seeks a sex-change operation.
Argentina’s Agustín Toscano has won two Best Director awards with “I Trust You” (“En vos confío”), a docu-fiction hybrid about two nuns who abandon their calling to live as a couple, adopting a child. In 2006, they were accused of killing a friend who had vanished and were sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Ventana Sur takes place in Montevideo, Uruguay, for the first time, from Dec. 2-6.
