"Al otro lado del río" (English: On the other side of the river) is an Oscar winning song, written and performed by Uruguayan singer Jorge Drexler for the film The Motorcycle Diaries (2004).^[1][2] Beside the film's soundtrack, it can also be found in Drexler's seventh album Eco; in the soundtrack the bassist Jeff Eckels also performed.

77th Academy Award[link]

"Al otro lado del río" received the Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 77th Academy Awards,^[1][3][4] becoming the first song in Spanish, the second in a foreign language to receive such an honor, and the first by a Uruguayan artist.

The Oscars ceremony producers would not let the then relatively unknown Drexler perform the song during the show for fear of losing ratings.^{[citation needed]} Instead, the song was performed by the more well known Carlos Santana and Antonio Banderas. When later in the evening he indeed won, Drexler's acceptance speech for the award consisted of him singing a few lines of his song a cappella, and closed by simply saying "Chau" (English: Goodbye).^[3]

Awards and nominations[link]

• Won: Academy Award for Best Original Song^[1][3][4]
• Nominated: Latin Grammy Award for Song of the Year

References[link]

External links[link]

• Al otro lado del río on YouTube
• Lyrics (in original Spanish) and English translation

Al Otro Lado ("The Other Side") is a 2004 Mexican film directed by Gustavo Loza. The film follows the story of three children, one from Mexico, Cuba, and Morocco, as they attempt to deal with realities of immigration in their societies. The film won three awards at the Lleida Latin-American Film Festival in 2006, including Best Film and the Audience Award; Vanessa Bauche won best actress at the festival for her performance. Al Otro Lado was also the Mexican candidate for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 78th Academy Awards, but was not selected as one of the final five nominees.

Plot[link]

Mexico[link]

Pricilianno, the first boy introduced in the story, has a very strong bond with his father. At the beginning of the film, his father tells him a story about a princess who was raped by a conquistador and commits suicide in the lake he and his friend have been playing in. He is trying to teach his son the importance of respecting the dead, a very prevalent theme in Mexican culture. However, Priciliano is struck with grief when his father leaves his family to go find work "al otro lado" (on the other side). He is particularly upset because he is about to celebrate his ninth birthday, which his father will be missing. Frustrated, he attempts to cross the river to the other side with his friend and nearly drowns but is rescued by the ghost of the princess his father told him about. An older man in the community tells Priciliano that it is important to stay with his family because they need him, and the boy accepts his role as "the man of the house" in his father's place and begins to learn how to live everyday life without him.

Cuba[link]

The second boy introduced in the story, Ángel, is ashamed of his mother, who is a prostitute. He was told before the story began that his father is a famous person and lives "al otro lado." Desperate for a sense of pride, he and his friend attempt to cross the ocean to find his father. Sadly, his friend drowns in the ocean and Ángel miraculously escapes. He doesn't have the courage to tell his friend's mother of what happened and feels extremely guilty. His grandfather notices something is wrong and urges his mother to talk to him. He tells his mother a little of what happened in the ocean and why they were there, and his mother figures out the rest and tells him that his father knows nothing of Ángel's existence. But tells him that he is all that she and his grandfather have and vice versa. Ángel learns to be content in his situation and the cinematography suggests that his friend's death is no longer a burden to him, but a memory to carry with him.

Morocco[link]

Fátima is a girl who runs away from home to find her father, bringing only a picture of him with her. She is intercepted, though, by slave traders. Miraculously, one of the customers takes her away and helps her find her father who is with another woman (who does not speak Moroccan). Once confronted with his daughter, he leaves the other woman to return Fátima home. The movie ends with a shot of the two of them in front of their home village.

External links[link]

• Al otro lado at the Internet Movie Database

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Jorge Drexler
Jorge Drexler performing in Santiago, Chile on September 25, 2010.
Background information
Birth name	Jorge Abner Drexler Prada
Born	(1964-09-21) September 21, 1964 (age 47)
Origin	Uruguay
Website	Official Site

Jorge Drexler (born Jorge Abner Drexler Prada; September 21, 1964) is an Uruguayan musician, actor, and doctor specialized on otolaryngology.

In 2004 Drexler won wide acclaim after becoming the first Uruguayan ever to win an Academy Award. He won for composing the song "Al Otro Lado del Río" from The Motorcycle Diaries.

Early life[link]

Drexler was born in Montevideo.^[1] His father, a German Jew, fled to Uruguay with his family at the age of four to escape the Holocaust.^[2] His mother is a Christian of mixed Spanish, French and Portuguese descent.^[2] Drexler was raised Jewish, but embraces Christian tradition as well.^[2]

Like much of his family, he studied medicine and became an otolaryngologist ear, nose and throat specialist.^[3] Drexler began playing piano at age five, before attending guitar and composition classes.^[4] Although he had an interest in music, he became a doctor like both of his parents.^[5] He attended medical school in Montevideo.^[2] During his time in medical school, Drexler took a break to hitchhike through Brazil.^[2]

He also studied music and recorded two albums, which were only released in Uruguay.

Career[link]

In 1995 he was invited to Madrid by well-known Spanish songwriter Joaquín Sabina, who introduced him to other important Spanish singers. Drexler went to Spain to record the album Vaivén in 1996 with Spanish musicians. Vaivén included some old songs from his previous releases mixed with new compositions. He moved to Spain and recorded another four albums: Llueve (1997), Frontera (1999), Sea (2001) and Eco (2004).

Although he lives most of the year in Spain, his latest three albums were partially recorded in Uruguay with Uruguayan musicians. Juan Campodónico and Carlos Casacuberta, former members of rock band El Peyote Asesino, have produced Drexler's albums since Frontera.

His music is a combination of Uruguayan traditional music (candombe, murga, milonga, tango), bossa nova, pop, jazz and electronic music, which results in very personal compositions with original arrangements. The words also play an important role in his songs. Apart from love, reflections about identity, race and religions are a constant in his work.

Oscar[link]

Drexler's song "Al otro lado del río" appeared in the internationally acclaimed film "The Motorcycle Diaries" (Spanish title: "Diarios de motocicleta"). Though Drexler himself sang the song on the movie soundtrack, it was performed together by Antonio Banderas and Carlos Santana at the Academy Awards ceremony. Upon his winning the Oscar for Best Original Song, Drexler's "speech" consisted mostly of him singing a portion of the song a cappella.^[6]

Personal life[link]

He was married to singer-songwriter Ana Laan until 2005. His girlfriend is Spanish actress/singer Leonor Watling. She gave birth to their son Luca in January 2009. Watling sings in the band Marlango.

Discography[link]

• La luz que sabe robar (Ayui, 1992)
• Radar (Ayui, 1994)
• Vaivén (Virgin, 1996)
• Llueve (Virgin, 1997)
• Frontera (Virgin, 1999)
• Sea (Virgin, 2001)
• Eco (Dro, 2004)
• Eco² (includes 3 bonus tracks + DVD) (Dro, 2005)
• 12 Segundos de Oscuridad (2006)
• La Edad del Cielo (iTunes release) (2007)
• Cara B(2008)(It received a nomination for Best Latin Pop Album at the Grammy Awards of 2009)^[7]
• Amar la Trama (2010)

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Jorge Drexler

• Jorge Drexler's official site
• Jorge Drexler's Official Label Site - Free music online

Walter Salles
Salles in Paris
Born	Walter Moreira Salles, Jr. (1956-04-12) April 12, 1956 (age 56) Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Other names	Waltinho
Occupation	film director, producer and editor
Net worth	US$ 2.6 billion (2011)[1]
Spouse	Maria Klabin

Walter Moreira Salles, Jr. (born April 12, 1956) is a Brazilian filmmaker and film producer of international prominence.

Life, family and education[link]

Salles was born in Rio de Janeiro. He is the son of Elizinha Goncalves and Walter Moreira Salles, a Brazilian banker and ambassador, and the brother of João Moreira Salles, also a filmmaker. Both, along with two other brothers, banker, Pedro Moreira Salles and eldest brother and publisher, Fernando Moreira Salles, were heirs to the bank Unibanco, one of the largest and richest in South America, which merged with Banco Itaú in 2009-10.

Salles attended the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts.^[2]

Film career[link]

Salles's first notable film was Terra Estrangeira (Foreign Land), released in Brazil in 1995. Locally, it was widely acclaimed by film critics and a minor box-office hit, and it was selected by over 40 film festivals worldwide. In 1998 he released Central do Brasil (Central Station) to widespread international acclaim and two Academy Awards nominations, for Best Actress in a Leading Role and Best Foreign Language Film. In 2001, Abril Despedaçado (Behind the Sun), starring Rodrigo Santoro, was nominated for the Best Foreign Film Golden Globes. Both films were produced by veteran Arthur Cohn and had worldwide distribution.

In 2003, Salles was voted one of the 40 Best Directors in the World by The Guardian. His biggest international success has been Diarios de Motocicleta (The Motorcycle Diaries), a 2004 film about the life of young Ernesto Guevara, who later became known as Che Guevara. It was Salles's first foray as director of a film in a language other than his native Portuguese (Spanish, in this case) and quickly became a box-office hit in Latin America and Europe.

In 2005, Salles released his first English-language feature film, which is also his first Hollywood film, Dark Water, an adaptation of the 2002 Japanese film of the same name. He also helped to produce the Argentine picture Hermanas which was a major success.

In 2006, Salles wrote and directed a segment in the French film Paris, je t'aime (French for "Paris, I love you") with Daniela Thomas. The film is a collection of 18 shorter segments made by different 21 directors and set in different arrondissements of Paris. Salles' segment called "Loin du 16e" (literally: "far from the 16th") and took place in the 16th arrondissement of Paris.

In 2007, Salles took part in a similar project called To Each His Own Cinema (French: Chacun son cinéma) in the 60th anniversary of the Cannes Film Festival. He made a 3 minute segment called "A 8 944 km de Cannes" (English: 5,557 Miles From Cannes).

In 2008, Salles wrote and directed the film Linha de Passe also with Daniela Thomas.^[3] It is a story about four brothers from a poor family who need to fight to follow their dreams. He was nominated for the Golden Palm and Sandra Corveloni won the best actress award for her role in this film in Cannes Film Festival in 2008.

Salles is presently directing José Rivera's screenplay adaptation of Jack Kerouac's On the Road, with Francis Ford Coppola producing. The film will be released in 2012. The film competed for the Palme d'Or at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival.^[4][5]

Awards[link]

[edit] Terra Estrangeira

Won 8 international awards, including

• Rencontres Internationales de Cinéma de Paris, Audience Grand Prize
• Film Festival of Bergamo
• Film Festival of Belfort.

[edit] Central do Brasil

55 international awards, including:

• Academy Awards nomination:
  • Academy Award for Best Foreign Film
  • Academy Award for Best Actress (Fernanda Montenegro)
• Berlin Film Festival
  • Golden Bear^[6]
• Golden Globe Awards
  • Best Foreign Film
• National Board of Review
  • Best Foreign Film
• British Academy Film Award
  • Best Foreign Film.

[edit] Abril Despedaçado

• Hollywood Foreign Press Association
  • Best Foreign Film (nominated)
• National Board of Review
  • Best Foreign Film (nominated)
• British Academy of Film and Television Arts
  • Best Foreign Film (nominated)
• Venice International Film Festival
  • Audience Award (Leoncino d'Oro)

[edit] The Motorcycle Diaries

• Hollywood Film Festival
  • Hollywood World Award
• Cannes Film Festival
  • Prize of the Ecumenical Jury^[7]
  • European Film Award (nominated)
• Academy Awards
  • Best Original Song (Al Otro Lado del Río), composed by Uruguayan Jorge Drexler.
  • Best Adapted Screenplay (nominated)

[edit] Linha de Passe

• 2008 Cannes Film Festivall
  • Golden Palm (nominated)
  • Best Actress (Sandra Corveloni)

Main filmography[link]

• A Grande Arte (Exposure, 1991)
• Socorro Nobre (Life Somewhere Else, 1995)
• Terra Estrangeira (Foreign Land, 1995)
• Central do Brasil (Central Station, 1998)
• O Primeiro Dia (Midnight, 1999)
• Abril Despedaçado (Behind the Sun, 2001)
• Diários de Motocicleta (The Motorcycle Diaries, 2004)
• Dark Water (2005)
• Paris, je t'aime (segment "Loin du 16e", 2006)
• To Each His Own Cinema (segment A 8 944 km de Cannes (5,557 Miles From Cannes), 2007)
• Linha de Passe (2008)
• On the Road (2012)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Walter Salles at the Internet Movie Database
• Video interview with Walter Salles opening Cambridge Film Festival 2008 with "Linha de Passe" ITV Anglia
• Interview with Walter Salles at Cannes 2008 on "Linha de Passe" at IFC.com
• Walter Salles interviewed by Michael Ordoña for the San Francisco Chronicle