Browse Items (626 total)
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Chuquiago
La ciudad de La Paz (Chuquiago) es escenario de cuatro historias. Isico es el niño que llega del campo a la gran ciudad, sus deseos de aprender, de conocer la inmensa ciudad quedan atrapados al ser sometido a la explotación, lleva la pesada carga de la sociedad. Johnny el joven de la clase baja, viste a la moda, usa melena y trata de escapar a su humilde origen, a sus raices, su meta es salir hacia el país del norte, le molesta seguir la tradición familiar de bailar año tras año en la fiesta del Gran Poder. Carloncho el funcionario público de clase media, trabaja como empleado público para mantener a su familia y lleva una vida paralela de amigos, parrandas, y prostitutas, es en cierto modo el escape a su mediocridad, a la realidad de no poder aspirar a algo mejor en la vida. Patricia es hija de una familia rica pero con ideales revolucionarios, lo que le enfrenta a su familia. En una ciudad dividida y clasista termina negando sus ideales al casarse con alguien a quien no ama pero que pertenece a su misma clase social. Chuquiago es el film más taquillero de la historia del cine boliviano. (NativeAmericanFilms.org)Tags Aymara -
Leguas
Two Diaguita children are grazing their cows when two men on motorcycles come along and tell them it is their land. At school the two kids learn that measurements were different at the time the property was divided, and the land is actually theirs. [This short film is part of a larger media project, "The Empty Classroom" produced by Gael García Bernal, in which eleven directors portray the impact of school dropouts in Latin America through a complex and diverse feature film. We travel to seven countries and explore the reasons why almost half of secondary school children never graduate.] (NativeAmericanFilms.org) -
El fantasma del Inca
A man (Jose Maria Vais) from the Inka period is transported to a present-day rural school, where he learns alongside the children, unseen. When the local politician wants to close the school, he helps them to keep the school open. (NativeAmericanFilms.org) -
La patota
Paulina es una abogada con una carrera floreciente en Buenos Aires, que elige volver a su ciudad natal para dedicarse a la actividad social. Fernando, su padre, años atrás hizo lo mismo, y ahora es un juez progresista que se destaca en la conservadora sociedad local. Paulina empieza a trabajar en un proyecto del Ministerio de Desarrollo Social, de "formación democrática y difusión de derechos," dando clases en zonas periféricas de Misiones, marcadas por la pobreza y la marginalidad. Luego de la segunda semana de trabajo, es interceptada y violada por una patota. Ante la mirada atónita de quienes la rodean, Paulina decide volver a trabajar en la escuela, en el barrio donde fue atacada. (NativeAmericanFilms.org) -
Cenizas eternas
Cenizas eternas, protagonizada por la actriz y modelo venezolana Patricia Velásquez y ópera prima de la directora Margarita Cadenas, cuenta la historia de Ana, una mujer que durante los años 50 viaja al Amazonas y sufre un trágico accidente en el Río Orinoco. Sola en la selva, Ana es invadida por el miedo a lo desconocido. En la ciudad su familia la da por muerta, pero Elena, su hija, interpretada por Danay García, vive con la esperanza de encontrarla un día. Pasados los años, Elena crece y decide buscar a su madre. Con ayuda de su tía y un sacerdote, se interna en la selva para buscar a una napeyome, extranjera en lengua Wayúu, de la que hablan los niños yanomamis y quien Elena presiente es su madre. El drama y el suspenso se mantienen en todo el largometraje anunciando su inesperado final. (NativeAmericanFilms.org) -
Archipiélago
Un arquitecto asiste a una reunión política clandestina en dictadura. El lugar es en un departamento de una población que él mismo diseñó. Es ahí donde recibe un balazo a quemarropa en la frente. Desde ese momento iniciará un viaje entre la realidad y la ilusión hacia la muerte, en donde imaginará estar situado en Chiloé. En ese archipiélago es donde el arquitecto equiparará el duro contexto actual con un pasado mítico dominado por los chonos [grupo indígena nómada que habita los archipiélagos de Chiloé, Guaitecas y Chonos en el sur de Chile]. (Cineteca Nacional Chile) -
Gonawindúa
Luego de una adivinación, Kankuémaku, un viejo Mama Koggi encomienda a Cenkui, su joven aprendiz a realizar un pagamento (trabajo espiritual) para cancelar las deudas con la naturaleza en la línea negra. Su camino es la manifestación del recorrido del agua desde la pureza de los cerros hasta el mar, recorrido que ha sido manipulado por el hombre blanco que paulatinamente ha ido poblando de manera irresponsable la Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta considerada por lo Koggis el corazón del universo. (Film's Official Website) -
Voces de resistencia
Voces de resistencia es un proyecto audiovisual del Centro de Estudios Afrodiaspóricos (CEAF) de la Universidad Icesi de Cali, financiado por la Fundación Ford, y realizado en alianza con el Centro de Ética y Democracia (CED), que busca visibilizar y fortalecer procesos organizativos de mujeres afrodescendientes. El proyecto busca divulgar, circular y fomentar el alabao como expresión musical de las comunidades afrocolombianas en el departamento del Chocó. En este sentido, la universidad quiere atender la necesidad del grupo de cantadoras y cantadores de Pogue de crear productos audiovisuales y discográficos que den cuenta de sus esfuerzos por preservar los cantos y tradiciones de su comunidad. (Film's Official Website) -
Violeta al fin
Violeta tiene 72 años y está viviendo sola por primera vez en su vida. Divorciada tras 45 años de matrimonio, su vida se llena de posibilidades: aprender a nadar, montar un negocio de alquiler de cuartos en su casa, disfrutar una tarde entera de jardinería. Sus dos hijos, tres nietos y las amigas del té de los martes son testigos y a veces cómplices de su nueva aventura, que se ve amenazada con una noticia inesperada. Sin embargo, Violeta está dispuesta a cruzar cualquier límite para defender su libertad. (Filmoteca UNAM) -
Roble de olor
In the late 1880's Cuba, a German merchant and farmer meets a freed black slave from Haiti who is herself a successful businesswoman. They fall in love despite social and racial taboos, with tragic results. (World Cat) -
Nuestras madres
The country is riveted on the trial of the military officers who started the civil war. The victims’ testimonials keep pouring in. Ernesto, a young anthropologist at the Forensic Foundation, identifies people who have gone missing. One day, through an old lady’s story, Ernesto thinks he has found a lead that will allow him to find his father, a guerillero who disappeared during the war. (Film Affinity US) -
Vida diferida
This documentary film tells the story of Vanessa, a teenager born in Mexico who has lived in the United States with her family since she was six years old. Once an excelling middle-school student with big dreams of becoming a doctor, Vanessa begins to be haunted by her undocumented status as she reaches high school. Reconsidering her aspirations, Vanessa begins to give up on academics. Then, in the summer of 2012, President Obama approves the "Deferred Action" policy that would grant Vanessa immunity from being deported for the next two years, allow her to get a job and apply to college. Vanessa’s story offers a window into the DACA generation, the impact of this policy on a young person’s life and the new challenges ahead. As government policies take new turns with a new admnistration, Vida Diferida highlights the uncertainties haunting undocumented youth and their families in the USA. (Film's Official Website)Tags U.S. Latino / Latinx -
Plan de Vida
The Misak are an indigenous people whose territory is located in Cauca, Colombia. As with many indigenous peoples in Latin America, the Misak lost large parts of their territory during colonial rule. In the 1980s, they started a process of land reclamation and were eventually successful in gaining formal land rights recognition. Since then, the Misak have developed their Life Plan as a tool for self-determined development to ensure their gains would be preserved for future generations. (Film's Official Website) -
La dictadura perfecta
El Presidente de la República comete uno más de sus frecuentes disparates. TV MX, la poderosa Corporación Mexicana de Televisión, tiene que ayudar a su amigo y aliado a salir del problema antes de que se convierta en otra grave crisis de imagen y popularidad. Para desviar la atención, la televisora da a conocer en su noticiero estelar, y de manera muy escandalosa, un video que involucra al Gobernador Carmelo Vargas en horrendos crímenes y graves negocios ilícitos. El Gober Vargas, preocupado por su futuro político, decide negociar un millonario y secreto acuerdo con los dueños de la televisora. Carlos Rojo, un joven y ambicioso productor de noticias; Ricardo Díaz, reportero estrella de la televisora y Javier Pérez Harris, conductor del noticiero estelar, son comisionados para cambiar la imagen que la opinión pública tiene del corrupto y folclórico Gober, y lograr - a cualquier costo convertirlo en una fulgurante estrella política y un posible candidato a la presidencia. La Televisión ya puso un Presidente. ¿Lo volverá a hacer? (El Séptimo Arte) -
Canción sin nombre
Perú, en el apogeo de la crisis política de los años ochenta. Georgina es una joven de los Andes cuya hija recién nacida es robada en una clínica de salud falsa. Su búsqueda desesperada de la niña la lleva a la sede de un importante periódico, donde conoce a Pedro Campos, un periodista solitario que se encarga de la investigación. Basada en una historia real. (FICUNAM)Tags Quechua -
Zama
Diego de Zama, un funcionario americano de la Corona española, espera una carta del Rey que lo aleje del puesto de frontera en el que se encuentra estancado. Su situación es delicada. Debe cuidarse de que nada empañe esa posibilidad. Se ve obligado a aceptar con sumisión cualquier tarea que le ordenen los Gobernadores que se van sucediendo mientras él permanece. Algunos años transcurren y la carta nunca llega. Al advertir que en la espera ha perdido todo, Zama decide sumarse a una partida de soldados y partir a tierras lejanas en busca de un peligroso bandido. Libre de sus esperanzas de traslado y ascenso, sabiéndose en peligro, descubre que lo único que desea es vivir. Quizás pueda conseguirlo. (Cine Nacional Argentino) -
Plaza de la soledad
Documenta la vida de una comunidad de prostitutas en la Ciudad de México, mostrando cómo estas mujeres luchan por una vida mejor y la posibilidad de un amor verdadero. La directora intenta motivar al espectador a enfrentar sus propios prejuicios acerca de la prostitución, el sexo y el envejecimiento, reflexionando sobre la complejidad y las distintas formas que el amor y la soledad pueden tomar. Carmen, Lety, Raquel y Esther, que tienen entre 50 y 80 años de edad, trabajan en las calles de La Merced y su vida se desarrolla alrededor de La Plaza de Soledad. La edad no significa nada para estas mujeres que todavía bailan y seducen con la misma energía de su juventud. Pero con el tiempo viene el deseo de buscar compañía y seguridad, ya sea en sus compañeras y amigas, en hombres mayores o en su fuerza interior, cargada de autosuficiencia. (Filmoteca UNAM) -
Hermanas
En 1984, luego de casi una década de no verse, dos hermanas se reencuentran en Texas donde vive una de ellas con su marido e hijo. La mujer llegada de España, donde se exilió en 1975 escapando de la Argentina tras la desaparición de su novio, comienza a leer la novela que su padre dejó inédita al morir y su hermana guardó consigo. El manuscrito, que narra la historia familiar en los años de la dictadura, contiene la clave que le permitirá comprender la realidad de aquel pasado trágico que involucra a su hermana y el destino de quien fuera su gran amor. (Memoria abierta) -
Elena
Elena, a young Brazilian woman, moves to New York with the same dream as her mother: to become a movie actress. She leaves behind her childhood spent in hiding during the years of the military dictatorship. She also leaves Petra, her seven-year-old sister. Two decades later, Petra also becomes an actress and heads to New York. At first in search of her destiny, but increasingly, in search of Elena, Petra has only a few clues: home movies, newspaper clippings, a diary and some letters. Gradually, the features of the two sisters are confused; we no longer know one from the other. When Petra finally finds Elena in an unexpected place, she has to learn to let her go. ELENA is a film about the persistence of those memories, the irreversibility of that loss, and the impact the absence of her sister had on the seven-year old girl. (Film's Official Website) -
Café com canela
Violeta lives in a tight-knit community in Bahia, Brazil. She is far from the only one struggling with grief and loss: there is also a grandmother entirely dependent on care, a woman desperately searching for love and a young doctor who – after 20 years – is left by his great love, a much older man. Everyone thought they lived together as father and son until the old man dies. The loss is complete and the truth comes out. Then Violeta meets the older Margarida who is grieving alone and in silence in a nearby village. Lovingly Violeta helps her out of her isolation with practical rituals: scrubbing, tidying and making coffee with cinnamon. (International Film Festival Rotterdam) -
Brincando el Charco: Portrait of a Puerto Rican
Refreshingly sophisticated in both form and content, BRINCANDO EL CHARCO contemplates the notion of “identity” through the experiences of a Puerto Rican woman living in the US. In a wonderful mix of fiction, archival footage, processed interviews and soap opera drama, BRINCANDO EL CHARCO tells the story of Claudia Marin, a middle-class, light-skinned Puerto Rican photographer/videographer who is attempting to construct a sense of community in the US. Confronting the simultaneity of both her privilege and her oppression, BRINCANDO EL CHARCO becomes a meditation on class, race and sexuality as shifting differences. (Women Make Movies) -
¡Ora Ponciano!
¡Ora Ponciano! stars Chucho Solorzano as the eponymous hero. Set in 19th-century Mexico, the story deals with a celebrated matador named Ponciano, as skillful with the senoritas as with the toros. Special attention is lavished upon the romance between the bullfighter and the fair Rosario (Consuela Frank). Much of the film is given over to authentic re-creations of various folk festivals and dances, with the extras colorfully (and accurately) costumed for the occasion. The fact that the bullfighting sequences are not excessively brutal is an indication that the producers of ¡Ora Ponciano! hoped to release the film in the U.S. (Letterboxd) -
¡Ay Jalisco, no te rajes!
Los padres de Salvador Pérez Gómez (Jorge Negrete) mueren misteriosamente y el niño crece cuidado por Chaflán, el peón de sus padres, y Radilla, el cantinero español quien es su padrino. Bajo las enseñanzas de este último, jura vengar la muerte de sus padres. Salvador se enamora de Carmela (Gloria Marín) quien está comprometida con Felipe (Victor Manuel Mendoza) aunque no lo quiere y solo se casará para salvar a su padre de la ruina. Chachita, es la sobrina de Carmen y a su corta edad (4 años) hace la labor de Cupido entre su tía y Salvador. Salvador obtiene el apodo de "El Ametralladora" cuando, en una pelea de gallos, mata a cinco personas de cinco disparos consecutivos. Con la ayuda de "El Mala Suerte" (Ángel Garasa) y Chaflán, logra vengar la muerte de sus padres. (Film Affinity) -
Cores e Botas
Joana tem um sonho comum a muitas meninas dos anos 80: ser Paquita. Sua família é bem sucedida e a apoia em seu sonho. Porém, Joana é negra, e nunca se viu uma paquita negra no programa da Xuxa. (Preta Portê Filmes) -
Afroargentinos
“Most Argentines, if you ask, will tell you: ‘In Argentina there are no black people.’” So opens AFROARGENTINES, a film which unearths the hidden history of black people in Argentina and their contributions to Argentine culture and society, from the slaves who fought in the revolutionary wars against Spain, to the contemporary struggles of black Argentines against racism and marginalization. The film uses historical documents from the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, but is mostly based on interviews with black Argentines from a variety of backgrounds: intellectuals and taxi drivers, immigrants from Africa and native Afroargentines. (Third World Newsreel) -
Pisa ligeiro
É um documentário de Bruno Pacheco, produzido nos primeiros anos da década passada, com poplações indígenas de diferentes regiões do país. O filme é um resumo das movimentações políticas- e seus resultados- desde a promulgação da Constituição Federal de 1988, sob o ponto de vista de lideranças indígenas e as expectativas quanto ao futuro. Preservação da cultura, terras, respeito à sua identidade indígena, acesso à educaçāo e saúde sāo alguns dos temas mais importantes para essas proulações e guiam seus movimientos e articulações. (Povos do Brasil)Tags Amazon / Amazonas -
De raza azteca
Víctor Herrera, joven propietario de la hacienda de Lobos, recibe una carta de su novia Catalina, para que acuda a verla a la capital. En México, los novios van de paseo a Xochimilco y suben a la trajinera que les ofrece el indígena Diego, quien porta un anillo antiquísimo que perteneció a nobles personajes de Raza Azteca que fueron sus antepasados. Un accidente de la trajinera los arroja al agua y Diego salva a Catalina y ésta en agradecimiento, lo invita un día a su casa. Una tarde, al término de un paseo que Víctor y Catalina realizan por Chapultepec, Catalina es raptada por unos malechores que la suben a un auto. Víctor y Diego van en su ayuda y después de muchas peripecias finalmente la rescatan. Víctor posee un viejo anillo de sus antepasados que también es de Raza Ateca. Durante el matrimonio de Víctor con Catalina, aparecen los malechores que habían secuestrado a Catalina quienes intentan asesinar al novio. La bala da en Diego, que cae herido. Es llevado a Xochimilco donde lo cura su esposa Luz. Al final Víctor y Catalina efectúan un viaje al lugar para saludar a la feliz pareja de indígenas. (Filmoteca UNAM)Tags Aztec / azteca -
Cuauhtémoc
En esta película silente dirigida por Manuel de la Bandera se cuenta la historia del último emperador azteca, símbolo de la resistencia ante la invasión española. (Videocine.com.mx)Tags Aztec / azteca -
Más allá del fútbol
Más allá del fútbol is a feature length documentary film that introduces the highland Afro-Ecuadorian communities of the Chota-Mira valley and the genre of music and dance known as la bomba. Afrochoteños, as many in the region today self-identify, are the descendants of enslaved Africans brought by Jesuits in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to labor the sugarcane fields situated along the rivers Chota and Mira in the provinces of Carchi and Imbabura. For much of the twentieth century, Afro-Ecuadorians had been marginalized to the extent that their presence within the nation has now been reduced to their athletic contributions. This film goes beyond soccer to document the rich history and culture of the Afro-Ecuadorians through a discussion of la bomba. Featuring interviews with local community members, organization leaders, and renowned bomba musicians along with segments of bomba music and dance, Más allá del fútbol presents an overview of the history and development of la bomba and addresses the genre’s significance for afrochoteños. In the process, the film’s narrative and discourse illuminates the current dynamics of race and racism currently impacting perceptions and representations of la bomba and afrochoteño identity and culture today. (YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtFEHrSGdJk) -
Vazante
Minas Gerais, 1821. Período em que a economia local era baseada na extração de diamantes entrou em colapso. Ao voltar para casa, depois de uma longa viagem, na qual conduzia uma tropa de escravos, Antônio, um patriarca português, descobre que sua mulher morreu em trabalho de parto. Sentindo-se sozinho e isolado em uma fazenda improdutiva, busca um novo casamento com Beatriz, uma menina muito jovem que frustra seu plano de ter filhos. Antônio, então, volta às expedições, negociando negros e gado. Sozinha, Beatriz encontra nos escravos sua companhia. Uma traição implode a família em uma espiral de violência, que é o prenúncio de mudanças. O filme revela algumas de nossas maiores cicatrizes: a escravidão, o casamento forçado de meninas, a mestiçagem fruto do assédio e da exploração sexual das negras, e as hierarquias de poder que pervertem até as relações entre os mais oprimidos. (Cinemateca Brasileira) -
So quando eu danço
Only When I Dance was begun as a hopeful documentary about social projects in Rio’s favelas, the aim being simply to show another side to the Brazilian image of violence and hopelessness, with kids achieving real things in their appallingly blighted neighbourhoods. Director Beadie Finzi and producer Giorgia Lo Savio could never have imagined just what they would end up filming. Having decided that capoeira was overdone as a Brazilian theme, Beadie was drawn to the idea of ballet - she’d been told about a remarkable teacher, Mariza Estrella, who runs Rio’s Centro de Dança, where she gives free lessons to kids she talent-scouts in the favelas. In her top two classes Beadie found two outstanding children: Irlan Santos da Silva, a boy set apart from all others by the intensity of his love of dance, his beautiful physique and his evidently unusual talent, and Isabela Coracy, who faced the biggest barrier possible in her dream of becoming a ballerina: she is black. Even out in the world there are few black classical ballerinas - in Brazil, there are none. (The Arts Desk.com) -
Que horas ela volta?
Que horas ela volta? tells the story of Val, a woman from the Northeastern region of Brazil who works as a live-in maid for a well-to-do São Paulo family. At first, as a very brief scene in the beginning of the film indicates, she worked as a nanny for the family's only child, Fabinho (Michel Joelsas), now a late teen, and for that reason she still has very strong quasi-maternal ties with him. She and her employer, Barbara (Karina Teles), appear to have a warm, friendly, relationship until the arrival of Jéssica (Camila Márdila), Val's daughter, who comes to São Paulo in order to prepare for a university entrance examination ("vestibular") at the School of Architecture. Having been raised unaware of her mother's actual situation, and not having seen her mother for over 10 years, Jéssica finds herself, unexpectedly, living temporarily at the house of Val's employers. She is a self-assured young woman who does not understand her mother's social resignation. With time, her presence at the house creates all kinds of problems: Barbara is driven to distraction and Carlos (Lourenço Mutarelli), Barbara's husband (who is responsible for the family's fortune), becomes so infatuated with Jéssica that he ends up proposing to her. The film has a happy, light-comedy ending: Jessica obtains much better results than Fabinho in the university examination, and Val quits her job and rents a house with her daughter in order to help the latter look after her own son, whose existence is revealed only towards the end of the film. (Source: Sá, Lúcia. “Intimacy at Work: Servant and Employer Relations in Que Horas Ela Volta? (The Second Mother).” Journal of Iberian & Latin American Studies, vol. 24, no. 3, Dec. 2018, pp. 311–327.)Tags Feminism / Feminismo -
Domésticas
Domésticas is not a film about maid-servants but a film by maid-servants. Domésticas wants to give them a voice. Or rather: voices. No less than 3 million women in Brazil work as 'domestics' and they all have stories to tell. Domésticas is however not a film about the life of the maidservant in the city, not a critical look at harsh reality: this film is about the characters as storytellers. Domésticas is the film version of one of the most popular and widely praised modern Brazilian stage plays. As preparation for the play, hundreds of maid-servants were interviewed and the five most important characters were compiled from the conversations. What makes the film special is not just the subject, but also the form. The film starts as a documentary. The five women talk to the camera about themselves, about their desires, frustrations, problems and pleasures. As the film progresses, more and more space is given to pictures to illustrate their stories. They are universal stories about women wrestling with loneliness, ambitions, conflicts with partners and children, loss and pain. But it is not all bad times. New, exciting encounters, music and mutual solidarity provide sparkling interludes in their heavy existence. (International Film Festival Rotterdam) -
Rancheador
El Rancheador era un mercenario al servicio de los esclavistas para capturar a los negros esclavos en fuga y devolverlos a sus amos. Francisco Estévez no se detiene ante nada y reprime incluso a los campesinos blancos, pero su meta es Melchora, incapturable líder de los negros fugados. Esta historia está basada en el "Diario del Rancheador", obra del escritor cubano Cirilo Villaverde. (Film Affinity ES) -
Yvy Maraey, tierra sin mal
Andrés, cineasta de la pequeña burguesía boliviana, enfrenta una crisis de identidad que pretende resolver a través de un viaje físico y espiritual a una zona guaraní en el sur de Bolivia, en busca de la “tierra sin mal” donde supuestamente sobreviven, aislados del mundo, indígenas originarios. En ese trayecto de exploración y búsqueda es acompañado por Yari, un evolucionado guaraní que, con un pie en el mundo de los karai (blancos), ha aprendido a desconfiar de ellos. El contrapunto que ofrece el personaje de Yari a lo largo del viaje, ayuda a mostrar no solamente el pesado fardo de contradicciones que trae consigo Andrés, sino las de aquellos guaraníes que están a medio camino de una modernidad con la que mantienen una relación conflictiva de amor y odio, pues aproximarse al mundo de los karai los beneficia de alguna manera, pero los hace parecerse a ellos, perder parte de su identidad. Source: Gumucio, Alfonso. "Yvy Maraey." Archipielago. Revista cultural de nuestra América, vol. 21, no. 84, 2014, pp. 42-43.Tags Guaraní -
Martírio
Filmed over the course of 40 years, indigenous expert and filmmaker Vincent Carelli seeks out the origins of the Guaraní Kaiowá genocide. A conflict of disproportionate forces: the peaceful and obstinate insurgency of the dispossessed Guaraní Kaiowá against the powerful apparatus of agribusiness. While fighting against the Brazilian Congress in order not to be evicted from their homes, the 50.000 indigenous people demand the demarcation of the space that belongs to them. With rigorous investigative work, this Brazilian director recorded the birthplace of the resistance movement in the 1980s and tells, with his own voice and those of the indigenous people, of the social and political injustices suffered. The stunning archival historical images, new footage, both color and black and white, hearings in Brazilian Congress, and even interviews with those opposed to the Guaraní Kaiowá’s rights, reveal the crudeness with which they coexist every day: among the violation of their civil rights and the fortitude with which they confront the usurpers. This epic documentary has become a sensation in Brazil and the ultimate testimony that unifies these unheard voices by “ethnocide actions,” the cruel synthesis of a conflict without a foreseen solution in the near future. (Pragda) -
Maclovia
El gran amor entre José María y Maclovia es amenazado por la salvaje pasión que siente el sargento de la Garza hacia la hermosa mujer. Decidido poseerla sin importar las consecuencias, el miliar encarcela a José María y ofrece a Maclovia a cambio de su honra la libertad de su amado. (Filmoteca UNAM) -
La perla
Quino is a Mexican diver who discovers a pearl at the bottom of the sea. He and his wife Juana, and their son have just taken possession of a pearl that is worth thousands. Everyday people try to get in on the cash, even Pearl Dealers try to rip them off. When Quino is attacked one day, he kills his attackers in self defence. His brother suggests their only hope is to leave the village. But on their journey to give their son an education they never had, someone may just do anything to prevent it. (IMDB) -
Corumbiara
A personal account of 20 years of video activism in Corumbiara, a municipality in western Brazil. In order to stop the destruction of the habitat of isolated Native Americans, their existence will have to be proven in court. Back in 1986, filmmaker Vincent Carrelli first got involved in a hunt for the remains of an Indian village, which had been wiped off the map by a landowner. Unfortunately, the tools that they found were insufficient to stand up in court. In the years that followed, Carrelli returned to the region on several occasions, convinced that the Native Americans lived there and determined to record this fact with his camera. The film documents the heartwarming contact between the researchers and a family of Canoé Indians, and contains unique footage of one of the last survivors of an unknown tribe. But the activists also must deal with disappointing defeats in the face of landowners, lumber merchants and farmers, and even instances of gruesome violence. Ultimately, the film also asks questions about the legitimacy of the hunt for footage. To what extent is it justified to invade the habitat of people who shun any attempt at contact - even if that invasion occurs with the intent to protect them from greater external aggression? (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)Tags Amazon / Amazonas -
Canoa: Memoria de un hecho vergonzoso
En 1968, año de gran inquietud social, un grupo de jovenes excursionistas empleados de la Universidad de Puebla, es agredido (con saldo de dos muertos y varios heridos) por los enardecidos habitantes de un pueblo cercano a la Malincheque que han sido asuzados por el cura quien los tacha de peligrosos comunistas. (Filmoteca UNAM) -
La última tarde
Se trata de la historia de una pareja que se reencuentra después de 19 años para firmar los papeles de divorcio, un proceso que habían postergado mucho tiempo. Y en una tarde descubrirán lo mucho que han cambiado, discutirán sobre qué fue lo que no funcionó entre ellos y qué tanto se modificaron los ideales por los que antes luchaban. Nos encontramos también con una película sobre dos ex-militantes de izquierda que reflexionan sobre cómo ha cambiado el país y sus luchas con él. (Portal del cine y audiovisual latinoamericano y caribeño) -
La pared de las palabras
Basado en un cuento de Zuzel Monné, desde su infancia, Luis padece una distonía y no puede comunicarse a través del lenguaje corporal ni de las palabras. Entre la institución médica y la familia, su vida interior es un muro infranqueable. Más que una película sobre la discapacidad, La pared de las palabras intenta reflexionar sobre el difícil ejercicio de la comunicación humana, el dolor y los límites del sacrificio. (Kimbara Cine Cubano) -
500 Years
The third film in a trilogy about Guatemala, this installment explores the sweeping historical significance of the war crimes trial of General Ríos Montt and the toppling of corrupt president Otto Pérez Molina. Sundance Film Festival veteran Pamela Yates gracefully engages the indigenous Mayan population who experienced genocide at the hands of a long-standing repressive government. Silenced family members and eyewitnesses come forward to share their individual stories with the desire that their underreported, horrific treatment receive the attention it deserves.
Spoken in Spanish and native Mayan languages, 500 YEARS delicately weaves archival footage with new interviews and emotional courtroom scenes to shine light on a growing movement to fend off the systematic aggression toward an underrepresented people. Focusing on the recent events of a country that has suffered for generations at the hands of a ruling elite, the film hails the nation’s citizens banding together on a quest for justice—and emerging as a beacon of hope. (Sundance) -
El botón de nácar
The ocean contains the history of all humanity. The sea holds all the voices of the earth and those that come from outer space. Water receives impetus from the stars and transmits it to living creatures. Water, the longest border in Chile, also holds the secret of two mysterious buttons which were found on its ocean floor. Chile, with its 2,670 miles of coastline and the largest archipelago in the world, presents a supernatural landscape. In it are volcanoes, mountains and glaciers. In it are the voices of the Patagonian Indigenous people, the first English sailors and also those of its political prisoners. Some say that water has memory. This film shows that it also has a voice. (IMDB) -
Cuando las montañas tiemblan
Los testimonios de Rigoberta Menchú, ganadora del Premio Nobel de la Paz en 1992, amplían el panorama sobre los abusos de las fuerzas de seguridad guatemaltecas contra su pueblo y otras comunidades indígenas en el despojo de sus tierras. El enfrentamiento en la Embajada de España en 1980 que tomó la vida de más de 30 personas, incluido su padre, acentuó la represión hacia la sociedad civil. El documental fue presentado en Estados Unidos en 1983 y ganó el Premio del Jurado en el Festival de Cine de Sundance, pero tuvieron que pasar 20 años para que pudiera estrenarse en Guatemala. (FilmInLatino) -
Ya Koo
Pepiwe (played by Jose Gregorio Payema) is a Yanomami boy living in a Catholic mission. After getting into an argument with his teacher about the name of his river (she says Rio Siapa; he calls it Periquitos), Pepiwe decides to return to the jungle to look for his family. He paddles down the Orinoco with his dog and parrot, and during a stopover on land he meets yet another nun (Flor Núñez), but not one from his mission. She pays the boy to show him the way to San Carlos de Rio Negro (by the Colombian border). He reluctantly agrees, but after a day’s journey the nun tries to sneak away and loses the canoe. (The Movie Database)Tags Yanomami -
Tarjeta roja
La historia de Agustín (Tin) Delgado, una de las máximas figuras de la historia del fútbol ecuatoriano, es el eje de este documental dirigido por el periodista y comunicador social Rodolfo Muñoz, que investiga a partir de su historia la existencia del racismo contra los afroecuatorianos. El punto clave del film, el que saca a la luz esa latente situación, es un escándalo disciplinario durante un partido de fútbol entre Barcelona (de Guayaquil) y Liga Universitaria de Quito, que culminó con la suspensión por un año del entonces ya veterano jugador de la Liga, quien venía de tener un excelente desempeño con la selección ecuatoriana en el Mundial de Alemania 2006. Mediante entrevistas a familiares, dirigentes y periodistas, varias recreaciones y algunas ficcionalizaciones, Muñoz narra la historia futbolística del jugador del Valle del Chota -región con alto porcentaje de población negra- para llegar a la conclusión de que los resultados futbolísticos de esa selección con alto porcentaje de afroecuatorianos en el Mundial sólo sirvió para tapar brevemente esa historia de racismo en el país, y que el posterior incidente en el clásico volvió a poner en primer plano, condenando al jugador de una manera inmerecida y excesiva. A Delgado tampoco lo habría ayudado haberse tornado más crítico con los dirigentes del fútbol del Ecuador y exigir los premios que fueron ofrecidos al equipo por su rendimiento en el Mundial y nunca pagados. Tarjeta roja -cuyo título juega con los dos modelos de expulsión, el social-racial y el estrictamente futbolístico- profundiza un tema que se repite en varios países del continente y del mundo: el complejo proceso de identificación y potencial frustración con los ídolos deportivos. Y, si además esta relación viene teñida de fuertes condimentos raciales, la situación se hace más compleja aún, ya que en ese extraño juego de amor-odio entran elementos que reflejan las debilidades de sociedades que no terminan por asumir -y, por eso mismo, no enfrentan del todo- el racismo en el que están inscriptas. (Retina Latina) -
Raíces de mi corazón
A present day AfroCuban woman [Mercedes] seeks her roots through her family history. Old photos, newspaper clippings jealously guarded by her grandmother, and her mother's stories reveal her great-grandparents' history. The historical truth raises the curtains through a love story. Reality and fantasy get mixed in, but all the elements integrated into the narration point towards the central figure, the woman, and to a moving chapter of turn of the century Cuba, when there occurred a violent repression of the AfroCubans who protested out of the frustration that fell over Cubans after the War of Independence. Thousands of descendants of Africans dedicated their lives to the struggle against Spanish colonialism in Cuba. They also fought against the slave system which kidnapped men, women, and children from the African continent and converted them into anonymous cogs of the sugar and coffee plantations. In the War of Independence (1868-78 and 1895-98), AfroCubans joined the Liberation Army (the Mambises) following the ideas of important leaders such as Jose Marti, but also inspired by the example of the Black generals of the War, such as Antonio Maceo, Quintin Banderas, and many others. Unfortunately, at the turn of the century, AfroCuban veterans felt the contempt of a Republic born distorted and completely alienated from the principles raised up by Jose Marti: "One Republic with everyone and for the good of everyone." Racism was part of official injustice. The process of cultural, economic, and political marginalization of Blacks in Cuba at thedawn of the present century is connected at a deep level with the fate of other African Americans up and down the continent. Peruvian, Uruguayan, Venezuelan, Columbian, North American, Argentinian, Brazilian, and other Blacks saw themselves deprived of their place of honor in the official history of their own countries. The protest organized by AfroCubans in 1912 was beaten back by the National Army itself and ended in a real human massacre which had its main scene in Oriente Province. This is the synopsis of the story our central figure is going to discover through her family. (AfroCubaWeb) -
Quilombo
Palmares is a 17th-century quilombo, a settlement of escaped slaves in northeast Brazil. In 1650, plantation slaves revolt and head for the mountains where they find others led by the aged seer, Acotirene. She anoints one who becomes Ganga Zumba, a legendary king. For years, his warriors hold off Portuguese raiders; then he agrees to leave the mountains in exchange for reservation land and peace. It's a mistake. Zumbi, a warrior whose mother was killed by Portuguese and who spent 15 years with the Whites, stays in the mountains to lead Palmares. In 1694, the Portuguese import a ruthless captain from São Paulo to lead an assault on the free Blacks. Can Zumbi keep Palmares free? (IMDB) -
Plácido
Plácido, narrates the story of the Afro-Cuban poet, Gabriel de la Concepción Valdés – “Plácido” – who was executed following the ferociously suppressed black rebellion of 1843-44 known as “Conspiración de La Escalara” (“conspiracy of the ladder”), and who subsequently became an emotive folkloric symbol of resistance. Source: Kaisary, Philip. "Black Agency and Aesthetic Innovation in Sergio Giral's 'El otro Francisco'." PALARA 23, 2019, p. 23.