12. No Longer Fun. Ariel Danziger & Whitcher. Rey Pila
The video for “No Longer Fun” has a bright, yet hazy aesthetic to match the upbeat, yet disillusioned song. The macabre narrative follows a motley assortment of characters who, for various unspoken reasons, are no longer enjoying life and decide to end theirs, some in ceremonious and others in unceremonious fashion. This paired with Rey Pila's irreverence throughout the whole video makes for a slightly twisted dynamic. (And if the house in the video looks familiar it’s because it’s the Boogie Nights house. So, that 70s porno vibe you were getting? Not at all unfounded.)
11. Cabros. Alex Anwandter. Odisea
The city of Santiago as defined by Alex Anwandter, "yo estoy solo en mi ciudad." It features very well known actors Jaime Vadell and Edgardo Bruna doing a dance-off! Odisea is all about Chile, its industrial cities, the nightlife and the traffic, all bundled up in some hysteric disco strings as hard to ignore as his Michael Jackson’s influence in the overall album. Alex's euphoric moves are those of a fearless man confronting its surrounding, his temple of robotic dreams and dystopian landscape.
10. Dame Lo. System D-128. Mexicans With Guns.
It has everything you want in a video (violence, sex, betrayal, revenge) and everything you never knew you wanted. There are actual Mexicans with guns! And there are two girls in full skull makeup toting AK-47s while eating raspas. BAMFs. There is also a ninja virgen, who you do not want to cross because she will cut you. Yes, all of this in one video just over four minutes long, which obviously means that this idea has to be taken to the next level and made into a full-length feature.
09. Soy Raka. Yak Films. Los Rakas
It's not just another glossy, shot in digital HD hip hop video, it's the new corner of American culture. The themes in this song and metaphorical confusion (along with the many kids shouting "tengo mi pistola y diente de oro") are controversial. The 'turf' is only the excuse, the dance is the concept, Oakland's corners and rich diversity are the backbone of the new wheels rolling in town. Los Rakas entering that Vaquero shop and shutting off the beats to respect the Mexican song (by Banda San José De Mesillas) playing on the radio is simply overwhelming.
08. Tus Amigos. Luis Cervero. Los Punsetes
632 suggestions for nonstop anal penetration. Without trying leaving much for the imagination, the provocative video never fades to black, an epic of the new art hard-core art. Like John Cameron Mitchell and his hardcore erotica, but funny. For a song that's also, one of the anthems of the year, it does bring up a community-feel into the hyper-motioned experience. Only Los Punsetes can get away with this much aggressive behavior, and only Luis Cervero can polish the images of such peculiar minds.
07. El Juidero. Noelia Quintero. Rita Indiana y Los Misterios
Blaxploitation. The ‘undocumented history’ of politicial and civilian assassinations in the Dominican Republic during the 70’s. “El Juidero” is the scene of a nation impacted by “el Trujillismo y el Balaguerato.” As a matter of fact, the car Rita is driving in the video belonged to the unmerciful Doctor Balaguer. La Montra and her gang have done it once again, the clip's fixation with the Salsa aesthetic is tremendous, and that Johnny Ventura cameo is simply priceless."El Juidero nuestro de todos los dias."
06. Música y Discos. Milton Mahan & Bernardo Quesney. Nueva Orleans
The fear is real and so are the suggestive techniques of a mesmerizing video as human as today's most precious viral clips. Submissive to its genre but without the courtroom exploitation of the William Friedkin movies. The toe-to-toe aesthetics in "Musica y Discos" are so chilling, you'll feel assaulted, but the emotional resonance of the VHS nostalgia will balance out its gruesome imagery.
05. Bombay. Nicolás Méndez. El Guincho
If the intro to this video looks and sounds familiar, it’s because you are a huge nerd and saw the Carl Sagan PBS series Cosmos back in the day. In that series, Sagan contemplates the universe and the place that we occupy in it, just as El Guincho, who would actually make a great educational series narrator, does at the beginning of this video. If we can climb into a cosmos exploration vehicle and, by catapulting a tape into the air, be transported into a world as bizarrely beautiful as the one in this video, then we want to go to there.
04. De la monarquia a la criptocracia. Luis Cervero. Triángulo de Amor Bizarro
This might be the sexiest ritualistic video you'll ever see. A sect of gorgeous ladies blur the lines between the blood of Jesus with that of the common human. Reminiscent to the 80s horror chick-flicks, artistic porn, and Toboeda's Veneno Para Las Hadas. Beyond the symbolism, opaque color palette and cult iconography, Luis Cervero injects life into horror, humanizing every shot through on-the-edge cinematic parliament and mise-en-scene.
03. En Circulos. Ignacio Masllorens. Rosal
Round to round catharsis that defies every aspect of the invisible form, Godard would be proud. This is a sort of subliminal warning as the lyrics whisper “soy tu imaginacion.” A lovely contrast between of the black and white entrance and the overtaking red, it’s the blinking hysteria in an enclosed space, and yes, the circular manner of it all what makes it extraordinary. So intimate and dislocated, the lyrics dictate the actions in the most intimate frame.
02. Lo Que Quieras. Bernardo Quesney & Milton Mahan. Dënver
Dënver’s compositional complexities are taken beyond scenery and into the imaginary with a video as epic as the song's sky-high crescendos. Criminals, vampires, bears, sharks and religious figures are meticulously embedded on a spellbinding narrative of lovers at full sacrifice. Our music heroes Milton and Mariana turn into victims covered in blood waiting to be murdered. Heart-knocking images describing the violence of love itself.
01. Bien o Mal. Agustín Alberdi.
Julieta Venegas.
Judging from the premise “Chicas Extranas, Pueden Casarse, Tener Hijos, Ser Felices?” and the images themselves, it seems like we’re submerged some kind of paradise where women are doing just fine without men. Although there is representation of the male figure, present with a hipster dude who stands behind the beautiful women and dances chaotically, meaning he is no treat. In this sense, the video bounds on male spectatorship. Offering Julieta’s ownership, a sword and a throne to Facebook's ‘Like’ button. But despite the conditions and romanticized world, we don’t really see smiles until the end, outside that paradise and with a bouncing fragmented screen (and a male voice behind that camera). It’s as if she was negotiating love, in its inter-war and confusing butterfly-stomach state, two different universes, equally confusing... “me gusta encontrar que exista en la vida esta posibilidad, de que todo se de vuelta, cuando no esperaba ya novedad.”