Founded in August 2023 by Amina Ferley Yael, Marta Calderón Quiñones and Natalia Christofoletti Barrenha, Cinema Mentiré is a pop-up film club that brings a taste of Latin American cinema to London and UK audiences. It aims to provide a platform for under-represented voices and to challenge conventions associated with the region, by celebrating the work of classic and contemporary filmmakers and artists.
In opposition to the celebrated term cinema verité (‘truthful cinema’), Colombian filmmaker Luis Ospina crafted cinema mentiré (from the Spanish, ‘lying cinema’) to playfully disrupt the mores legitimised by Western cinephilia.
At Cinema Mentiré, we believe that cinema's richness lies in its diversity, creativity, and genuine nature. Latin America is a vast region with a wealth of cinematic styles and voices, and we strive to promote dialogue and showcase new and unique stories.
Amina Ferley Yael
Born in Patagonia, Argentina, Amina is a film programmer and producer of cultural events, holding an MA in Film Programming and Curating from Birkbeck, University of London. She has worked at festivals such as BAFICI, Sheffield Doc/Fest, DOXA, Vancouver IFF, Vancouver Latin American FF, and Aegean FF, among others, and as a Festival Administrator at the London Film School. She also participated in the Locarno Academy at the Bogota Audiovisual Market 2024 (Colombia). She is currently pursuing a MA in Film Preservation at EQZE (Spain).
amina[at]cinemamentire.co.uk
Marta Calderón Quiñones
With a decade of experience, Marta is a film curator and event producer. She began her career in Spain, working on fantastic and science fiction festivals, and has since moved to London to successfully produce numerous film festivals. Marta has curated programs for events such as SCI-FI-LONDON, Fringe! Queer Film Festival, and guest curator for London Short Film Festival. Currently, she works as Associate Programmer for Open City Documentary Festival. In addition, she founded Spectra, a queer non-fiction film club at UCL East, in 2024. She curated a successful program of queer non-fiction films during the summer of 2024, showcasing her commitment to diverse and inclusive storytelling.
marta[at]cinemamentire.co.uk
Natalia Christofoletti Barrenha
Cultural worker, film researcher, and programmer, Natalia holds a PhD in Film Studies. She conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Campinas and was a Visiting Fellow at KU Leuven, Comenius University, and the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava. She is the author of several books and articles on Latin American cinema and women's filmmaking. Natalia worked as a programme curator at the Cultural Section of the Embassy of Brazil in London, where she founded the Helena Solberg Cineclub. She is currently a Film Officer & Festival Manager at the Royal Anthropological Institute and also collaborates as a programmer with several film festivals and institutions worldwide, including the Jeden Svet Documentary Film Festival in Slovakia.
natalia[at]cinemamentire.co.uk
Photos by Simon Marsham, April 2024