2 brothers, directors from Peru, open at Cannes
By Jenny Barchfield
CANNES, France (AP) --The Vega brothers are living a dream.
Young Peruvian directors Daniel and Diego Vega’s first feature film, “Octubre,” garnered enthusiastic applause at the Cannes Film Festival, where the movie screened before a packed audience.
“It’s like winning the lottery, literally,” said 36-year-old Daniel Vega, who co-wrote and co-directed the movie with his 35-year-old brother, Diego.
“Diego didn’t believe we had any chance of being in Cannes and I only slightly believed it,” Daniel Vega said in an interview with The Associated Press. “We were pretty depressed before we heard from the festival, which has changed our lives. We went from having a movie that will probably open (in Peru) at the end of the year but didn’t have a great outlook to presenting it in the world’s most important festival, which is really gratifying.”
Because their inclusion in the French Riviera cinema showcase came as such a surprise to the pair, the audience’s warm reaction to the film — which played Thursday out of competition — was even more gratifying.
“People’s affection was amazing. They were telling us ‘thanks so much for making movies,'” said Daniel Vega.
“Octubre” is the story of Clemente, a middle-aged loan shark and confirmed bachelor who suddenly finds himself saddled with an infant — apparently his — left on his doorstep by a prostitute he had frequented. The movie, which is set in lower-class neighborhoods of Lima, chronicles the changes the baby’s undesired arrival causes in his solitary existence.
It’s a simple and touching story, rife with bittersweet humor.
Though the main characters are all professional actors — mostly working in the theater — the Vega brothers cast friends and acquaintances in the bit parts. Their mom puts in a cameo appearance, they said.
Made on a shoestring budget of about $250,000 — raised mostly from foundations in Europe and the U.S. and even from loans from friends — “Octubre” was seven years in the making, the Vega brothers said.
The movie is expected to open in Peru at the end of the year, though no date has yet been finalized. In the meanwhile, the brothers are already thinking about their next project — which they say they will again write and direct together.
Neither would want to do it alone.
“We have always had the same friends and when we party, it’s always together, we’ve always gotten along and we love each other a lot,” said Daniel Vega.
Google Opens Its Defense In Antitrust Case Alleging Monopoly Over Online Ad Technology
Google opened its defense against allegations that it holds an illegal monopoly on online advertising technology Friday with witness testimony saying the industry is vastly more complex and competitive than portrayed by the federal government.
"The industry has been exceptionally fluid over the last 18 years," said Scott Sheffer, a vice president for global partnerships at Google, the company's first witness at its antitrust trial in federal court in Alexandria.
The Justice Department and a coalition of states contend that Google built and maintained an illegal monopoly over the technology that facilitates the buying and selling of online ads seen by consumers.
Google counters that the government's case improperly focuses on a narrow type of online ads — essentially the rectangular ones that appear on the top and on the right-hand side of a webpage. In its opening statement, Google's lawyers said the Supreme Court has warned judges against taking action when dealing with rapidly emerging technology like what Sheffer described because of the risk of error or unintended consequences.
Google says defining the market so narrowly ignores the competition it faces from social media companies, Amazon, streaming TV providers and others who offer advertisers the means to reach online consumers.
Justice Department lawyers called witnesses to testify for two weeks before resting their case Friday afternoon, detailing the ways that automated ad exchanges conduct auctions in a matter of milliseconds to determine which ads are placed in front of which consumers and how much they cost.
The department contends the auctions are finessed in subtle ways that benefit Google to the exclusion of would-be competitors and in ways that prevent... Read More