PACIFICO

Featuring: Christian Gibson, Chris Gooley, Charlie Wilmoth and Minnie Piccardo.
Directors: Andreas Geipel, Christian Gibson.

Available to rent or own worldwide from October 1 on iTunes, Google Play, Amazon Prime Video, Vimeo on Demand.

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★

An experiential odyssey through the land, culture and humanity of Latin America, Pacifico chronicles the impact upon two young Australian men seeking meaningful connection beyond our desk-bound, web-dependent society. Cloaked under the aesthetics of a surfing doco, kindred spirits Christian Gibson and Chris Gooley front a remarkably poignant, visually gorgeous travelogue that captures true beauty, both natural and emotional.

Welcomed by the voice of 20th century philosopher Alan Watts reciting his new-age anthem, The Secret of Life (“Let's have a dream which isn't under control, where something is gonna happen to me that I don't know what it's gonna be... And finally, you would dream where you are now”), we meet the Melbourne-based Gibson bemoaning the sale of his stalled internet start-up. The upside is that the 26 year-old is now cash healthy and determined to break down barriers to a wider world that he has unwittingly erected around his cloistered western life.

Gibson meets up with Gooley and is soon swept up in their journey of shared enlightenment, carried by their trustee steed - a decked-out van they call ‘Ulysses’. The pair cover thousands of miles across Mexico, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Columbia and Peru, to name a few, seeking not only headland breaks and perfect barrels whipped up by the Roaring Forties, but also jungle treks, mountain trails and trout-rich rivers. While the union of man and nature is examined in earnest on their travels, so too is their own dynamic and their interactions with the villagers of the region.

Andreas Geipel, not present at all for the boy’s six month journey, earns a director credit for the skill with which he corrals hundreds of hours of footage into a singularly enriching narrative. The German filmmaker, employing introspective voiceovers from both Gibson and Gooley to help convey the life changing beauty of the land and its people, has crafted a deeply thoughtful work. 

The dual meaning of the title repping both the pulsating, life-giving ocean and the peaceful, soulful nature of the region’s population, Pacifico is a film about journeys. Gooley ponders his connection with the waves that have travelled thousands of nautical miles to carry him for a few joyous moments at a time; the young men bring a sense of discovery to two generations of local men when they hand over the control of Ulysses on a vast salt lake; and, in sweetly-captured glimpses of new love, Gibson commits to a journey of the heart when he falls hard for Argentinian beauty, Minnie.

Citing as the inspirational life force of the journey the spirit of Andean goddess Pacahmama (‘Mother Earth’), Pacifico resonates with the courage required to take that first step beyond the way of life to which one becomes accustomed. It is a call to arms for adventurers, those seeking profound discovery of both body and soul.

LOTS OF KIDS, A MONKEY AND A CASTLE

Featuring: Julita Salmerón, Gustavo Salmerón, Antonio García Cabanes, Ramón García Salmerón, Paloma García Salmerón, David García Salmerón, Ignacio García Salmerón and Julia García Salmerón.  
Screenplay: Gustavo Salmerón, Raúl de Torres, Beatriz Montañez.
Director: Gustavo Salmerón.

Screening at LALIFF, Los Angeles on June 23 and June 24.

Rating: 4/5

A Spanish matriarch’s recipe for happiness is examined through her son’s melancholy, bittersweet lens in Lots of Kids, a Monkey and a Castle, a charming study of family dynamics, shifting generational values and the challenge of just plain growing old from actor/director Gustavo Salmerón.

On her wedding day, Julita Salmerón wished for three things from her new life – a vast family, a pet monkey and a traditional dwelling that recalls the majesty of her homeland’s history. In Julita’s eyes, these are symbols of affluence but by the mid 00’s (the film utilises decades of footage, from family photos dating back a century to iPhone coverage), they have come to represent very different things.

Gustavo (a well-known actor in his homeland), his five siblings and their own families have gathered to empty their parent’s castle of its riches before the bank takes possession, the clan having lost much of its wealth in the economic crisis; the monkey is long gone, having turned from family pet into an objectionable pest who literally bit the hand that fed it once too often. As the family struggles with cumbersome relics such as chandeliers and knight’s armour, Julita recalls the moments, memories and dreams, both lived and unfulfilled, that have shaped her life.

As this lovely film unfolds, Julita transforms from the eccentric, feisty Spanish ‘abuela’ who hoards a lifetime of trinkets (from plastic pipes and knitting needles to her grandparents’ vertebra) into a deeply humanistic presence increasingly consumed with her own mortality and legacy. Both very funny (she convinces her family to indulge in a rehearsal for her own wake) and very sweet (she adores her husband, despite a long period without physical intimacy and his contrary views on Spain’s political past), she speaks directly to her son’s camera with the frankness of a septuagenarian with no reason to keep opinions or secrets to herself any longer.

Her circumstances are specific to her situation, but Julita’s sentimentality and desire for a life that has long passed her by has a universality that is instantly relatable. The intimacy of the footage, the forthright insight she conveys and the openness with which she embraces her newfound role as ‘documentary subject’ is wonderfully endearing. By the final frames of Lots of Kids, a Monkey and a Castle, one entirely understands why she is adored, held in awe and quietly tolerated in equal measure.