Private Project

MONGER

LOGLINE

An explosive look at the lives of three men who take part in the world of sexual tourism in Buenos Aires that gives an insight into the motivations and attitudes that fuel the sex trade and the increasing wave of global misogyny that has reached a boiling point.

SHORT SYNOPSIS
“Monger” is an English term that refers to any individual who likes to generate socially forbidden acts. The characters in this film are mongers and define themselves as such. They see their sex tourism as a kind of extreme sport. The protagonist is Ramiro, an American expatriate who works as a sex tour guide in Buenos Aires. He will be our own personal guide through this little-known underworld.

LONG SYNOPSIS
What is the human relationship with tourism? What is it we are looking for when we travel to exotic countries as tourists? Relaxation?New experiences?A collection of memories and photos?

The vacation belongs to another time which allows us to be someone. It is on vacation that we can abandon the restrictions of our daily lives and liberate or repressed desires in idyllic, far-away lands.

For the majority of European and American tourists, Buenos Aires is a destination to visit in order to eat good steak, try new wines, and learn to dance the tango. But Buenos Aires, like all idyllic destinations also conceals a much darker world.

This film casts a glance at this other side of the city and tells the story of its inhabitants and its visitors. To be clear: Monger is a film about the subculture of sexual tourism in Buenos Aires.

To guide us through this world we have Ramiro, an Argentine raised in Texas who, after have been deported back to Argentina, now works as an architectural and cultural tour guide during the day and a sexual tour guide during the night. Ramiro finds his clients through an online forum where sexual tourists from around the world come together to share information on prices, laws, and customs of prostitution in the city.

In this forum, a 45-year old English expatriate named Alan tells the story of how he met a woman in a brothel and about their disastrous time together living in the jungles of Northern Argentina. This woman is NATALIA, a 35-year old Buenos Aires native and mother of 4 who, after separating with Alan, has decided to leave the sex industry where she has worked for the past 20 years.

Also in this forum an American, Joe, contacts Ramiro asking for help in achieving a peculiar objective: to visit Buenos Aires and have sex with 12 prostitutes in one week in order to reach 400 before he turns 35.

All of these men belong to the subculture of Mongering. Monger is a degrading term that a group of sexual tourists have reappropriated and are now using with pride to define their travels around the world in search of sex with prostitutes.

Monger is a film about how the misogynist and individualist discourse of neoliberalism affects its oppressors as much as its oppressed, leaving all alone and without the necessary emotional tools to build lasting human relationships.

  • Jeff Zorrill
    Director
  • Jeff Zorrill
    Writer
  • Ramiro
    Key Cast
  • Alan
    Key Cast
  • Joe
    Key Cast
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 12 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    December 14, 2016
  • Country of Origin:
    Argentina
  • Country of Filming:
    Argentina
  • Language:
    English, Spanish
  • Shooting Format:
    HD, 8mm, 16mm
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Black & White and Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
  • The Philadelphia Latino Film Festival (PHLAFF)
    Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
    United States
    July 12, 2017
    USA
    LOLA AWARD - Honorable Mention
  • Buenos Aires Doclab
    Buenos Aires
    Argentina
  • BaqLab
    Barranquilla
    Colombia
    July 14, 2015
    Best Documentary Project
  • Bolivia Lab
    La Paz
    Bolivia, Plurinational State of
  • Docu Lab
    Guadalajara
    Mexico
    November 30, 2016
  • Mar del Plata International Film Festival
    Mar del Plata
    Argentina
  • Hollywood International Independent Documentary Awards
    Los Angeles
    United States
    August 8, 2017
  • Hong Kong Arthouse Film Festival
    Hong Kong
    Hong Kong
  • Madrid International Film Festival
    Madrid
    Spain
    Nominated Best Director of a Feature Documentary + Best Feature Documentary
  • Stockholm Independent Film Festival

    Swaziland
  • SANFICI Santander Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente

    Colombia
  • Tenemos Que Ver, Festival Internacional de DDHH de Uruguay

    Uruguay
    December 26, 2017
  • FIDBA
    Buenos Aires
    Argentina
    August 17, 2017
  • Festival de Cine Nacional Leonardo Favio
    Buenos Aires
    Argentina
    August 29, 2017
  • Tandil Cine
    Tandil
    Argentina
    October 18, 2017
  • FELCILBBA Festival Latinoamericano de Cine Independiente de Bahía Blanca
    Bahia Blanca, Buenos Aires
    Argentina
    September 10, 2017
  • SANFICI Santander Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente

    Colombia
    September 12, 2017
Distribution Information
  • Fuera de la Común
    Country: Worldwide
    Rights: All Rights
Director Biography - Jeff Zorrill

SHORT BIO
Jeff Zorrilla was born in 1984 in the United States. He studied film at the University of Santa Cruz (California, USA), and the University of Copenhagen (Denmark). He currently lives and works in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He’s directed numerous short films in Super 8. “Monger", this being his first feature documetnary..

BIOGRAPHY

Jeff Zorrilla is an independent filmmaker born in 1984 in the United States. He received his BA in Film and Digital Media at the University of Santa Cruz, California. Then he studied film at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark for a year studying the Dogma 95 movement. Upon completion he moved to New York where he worked in all the different aspects of the film industry. He worked as assistant director for the film New York, I Love You, in distribution at ThinkFilms, and finally worked in the exhibition department at Filmforum as a programming assistant. He soon became disillusioned with the commercial American film industry, so he decided to study psychology at the University of New York while still making independent Super 8 films.
In 2010, Jeff moved to Buenos Aires to pursue his passion for film. Here he met independent filmmakers like Ernesto Baca, Paulo Pecora, and Fernando Dominguez who taught him the particular aspects of filmmaking in Argentina. He continues to live and work in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
He directed many narrative, documentary and experimental short films, all on Super 8.
“Monger” is his first feature-length documentary.

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