DAVID AND THE MIGHTY RIVER
DAVID Y EL GRAN RIO

Direction & Script:  Rubén Plataneo

Production:             Virginia Giacosa, Calanda Producciones, Argentina

Co-production:       Gudula Meinzolt, Mil Colores Media, Germany


Argentina 2009

Creative long feature documentary


Introduction:

When during the night David Bangoura, a 16 year-old passionate rapper from Guinea in West Africa, swims through the harbour of Conakry and stealthily climbs on a cargo ship, he is fleeing from poverty and a lack of perspectives. Even though he does not know where the ship will take him to, he dreams of promises of a better life in Europe. But, two weeks later and half dead, David arrives in Rosario, Argentina on the border of the Paraná river, one of the largest expanding soy exportation ports. In their bellies, the cargo ships bring more and more Africans to Argentina where there were no blacks for 140 years. David now proceeds to change the local Hip-hop culture with his rap sung in three languages mixed with each other: French, Sussu and Spanish as he transports his experiences and hopes into the public with a striking rhythm. David now has got two clear objectives: To record an album with his own songs as well as a music video and send it to his home port of Conakry to be famous there as well. And, to meet his family again and bring them to Argentina.

Why do young Africans put their life on the line? What do they expect to gain from their risky endeavor? How do they perceive the «New World»? What do David’s family and friends in Guinea think about the exodus of the young generation? How do societies change on both sides of the ocean in consequence of the migration? What impact does soy plantation and traffic have on the environment? Searching for answers, David Bangoura guides the viewer through Guinea and Argentina with his music.

„David and the Mighty River“ tells a moving story of escape and migration in the rhythm of Hip-hop, from South to South on the old slave route, against the background of globalization and worldwide soy traffic. It is an unusual and passionate narration from the new millenium, with music, languages and different ways of life coming together.

«David and the Mighty River» reflects the complexity of the mentioned themes in its innovative narrative as well as its visual structure. It is a film that concerns all of us and deals with its topics in a poetic, entertaining and surprising way.

CV Rubén Plataneo
Direction and Script

Rubén Plataneo started his training at the Cinema Club’s school in Santa Fe, Argentina, and supplemented it by organising many film screenings and then taking seminars and courses on film aesthetics, film language, screenwriting, photography and new audiovisual technologies with well-known specialists, such as Fernando Birri, Juan C. Arch, Emilio Toibero, Lalo Constantini, Rodrigo Alonso, Marta Zatonyi, among others.

He made several short films and medium-length films: “Historieta” (7 min.); “El Cuchi Leguizamón” (10 min.); “Post” (14 min.); “Daniela” (50 min.); “Viernes” (14 min.); “La extinción de la especie” (10 min.), jury award at the Latin American Video Festival; “Waterfront” (4 min.), First IFHP Award at Oslo 2005, Badalona’s Filmets selection, and Zagreb’s One Take Film Festival–; “La Sociedad de los artistas” (20 min.); the music video “Quemado” with the band “Angela Tullida”, and several photo exhibitions.

In Rosario, Mr Plataneo was in charge of the Youth Film and Video Workshop for four years, when his students made plenty of films and received several awards.

He worked as a production manager for the documentaries “Una Mancha en el agua”, “El porvenir de una ilusión”, and “Apuntes del natural”.

He was the cameraman and director of photography in the documentary “Trescientoscincuenta”, and in various institutional projects.

He was a member of staff at the film magazine “El Eclipse”, where he worked as a film critic and organiser of screenings of unknown movies.

At present, he is the organiser of the Bafici Independent Film Exhibition in Rosario and other film screenings, organised by the independent production company Calanda Producciones in Rosario, he is a founder member of.

He was selected for the New Talent Clinic of the 2005 Mar del Plata International Festival for his project in development “Un angel”, and for the 2005 Doc Buenos Aires Forum, for his work-in-progress “Tanke Papi”. He is now working on several documentary projects as “Dante en la casa grande” (in postproduction) and “Los Gringos Italianos”, awarded with the development award by Instituto Luce, Italy.

His first documentary feature film, “Muertes Indebidas/Unlawful Deaths” (2005), has been selected at numerous national and international festivals, and has been awarded honourable mentions and prizes , e.g. for Best Human Rights Film and Best Photography at the Latin American Film Contest of Santa Fe. (For further information, please visit www.muertesindebidas.blogspot.com).

His fiction feature film project “Yo me llamo/They Call Me” was awarded the Hubert Bals Fund 2007 Project Development Prize, invited to the TyPA workshop in Argentina and has been presented at the coproduction meetings in Mannheim-Heidelberg and BAL-Buenos Aires (2008).

His documentary film project “David y el gran rio / David and the Mighty River” has been invited to the workshops and pitchings “Programa País/Incaa” and “DocsBsAs” in Argentina, to the “Morelia Lab” and the coproduction meetings at Guadalajara in Mexico


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