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Tickets, Passes, and Locations

Friday, October 12, Harvard Film Archive

24 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA


7:00 PM Opening Film

"Imitation" / Federico Hidalgo / 87 mins / Narrative Feature / Canada, Mexico / 2006

Teresa (Vanessa Bauche, Amores Perros), an alluring Mexican woman, comes to Montreal in search of her husband who had abandoned her in Mexico, cutting her life in two. In Montreal, she meets Fenton, a young man who falls in love with her. Fenton convinces Teresa to let him help her find her husband. In their pursuit, Teresa and Fenton criss-cross Montreal, persuading a string of comical characters to reveal clues that will finally lead them to the wayward husband. In the end, Teresa must decide whether to reveal the painful secret that haunts her. www.imitation-film.com


"The Job" / Jonathan Browning / 3 mins / Short / US

The immigration debate just got a little funnier!

2007 Seattle International Film Festival, Best Short www.jonathanbrowning.com


"Equipajes" (Baggage Claim) / Toni Bestard / 10 mins / Short / Spain / 2007

Two passengers agree on a sexually charged bet while waiting for their luggage.

2007 Goya Awards / Spanish Academy Awards, Nominee Best Short


9:00 PM Latino Gay Film Series

Co-presented by Somos Latin@s LGBT Coalition www.somoslatinoslgbt.org

"Luchando" / Noelle Stout / 60 mins / Documentary / Cuba / 2006

Luchando offers a first-ever look at Cuba's gay sex trade through the lives of four unforgettable hustlers who set out to resolve their touching, and at-times humorous, predicaments in Havana's gay underground. Nudity, strong language and scenes. www.luchandofilm.com


"On my skin" / Amy Andre / 8 mins / Documentary / US / 2007

What's at the intersection of race, color, gender, and family relationships? This intimate short documentary explores the sexualities of mixed-race people by presenting the story of Logan, a bi-racial transgender man. The film covers his journey to his ancestral homeland of Mexico, and the lessons he carried back. www.altcinema.com/skin.html


"The Two Cubas" / Carolina Valencia / 45 mins / Documentary / Cuba / 2007

The Two Cubas explores the rarely seen world of contemporary gay Cuba through the personal stories of two friends. The film deconstructs many of the assumptions around what it means to be gay in Cuba and about Cuba itself. In doing so, it uncovers a place where strong ties are key to surviving hardships and discrimination within a "Machista" society.



Saturday, October 13, Harvard Film Archive

24 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA


1:30 2:45 PM

Panel Discussion: "Challenge for Latinas in the Media and Cross-cultural Filmmaking"

Co-presented by Women in Film & Video in New England www.wifvne.org

Producing movies and documentaries in Latin America and the US is a hard business. The panel, composed by academics, Latina and non-Latina filmmakers will explore the challenges they face in the US and Latin America when it comes to stereotypes, gender discrimination, and cross-cultural filmmaking. Panel participants include: Angelica Allende Brisk (Editor/producer, Cartoneros); Diane Lake (Emerson professor and scriptwriter, Frida); Lisa Mattei (Interactive media designer and film festival producer, Plymouth Film Festival); Monika Navarro (Emerging filmmaker and ITVS grant recipient, Animas Perdidas); and BLIFF-featured filmmakers. Panel moderated by Mary Ann Dougherty, professor of film at Boston University. Panel discussion will be followed by the documentary Compañeras, about Mexican-American women in a Mariachi band, traditionally a male-dominated field.


3:00 PM

"Compañeras" / Elizabeth Massie / 60 mins / Documentary / Mexico, US / 2006

Compañeras is an intimate profile of America's first all-female mariachi band, Mariachi Reyna de Los Angeles. Taking on a male-dominated culture and musical tradition, this twelve-member group shatters stereotypes about Latina women while expanding the popularity of mariachi music. Combining stunning performances with behind-the-scenes drama, Compañeras reveals the intense, passionate world of female mariachi. www.companeras.net


4:15 PM Selection of Mexican Shorts / 91 mins / 2005 2006

Co-presented by IMCINE (Instituto Mexicano de Cine)

"Pan Comido" / Will Peña / 7 mins

"10:15" / Hugo Felix / 10 mins

"Berlitad" / Pablo Angeles / 10 mins

"El Otro Cuarto" / Acán Coen / 15 mins

"El Caracol" / Alejandro Lugo / 8 mins

"Caso Terminal" / Dir. Mauricio Garcia Castellanos/ 10 mins

"Estamos por Todos Lados" / Sofia Perez Suinaga / 9 mins

"Julieta" / Raul Antonio Caballero Carreto / 11 mins

"Intolerante" / Hafid Rogero / 6 mins

"Vecinos" / Jaime Aparicio / 5 mins


6:00 PM

Pancho Villa: "La Revolución No Ha Terminado" (The Revolution Has Not Ended) / Francesco Taboada Tabone / 95 mins / Documentary / Mexico / 2006

Co-presented by the Independent Film Festival of Boston www.iffboston.org

In the early hours of March 16, 1916, the troops of Pancho Villa invaded the continental territory of the United States attacking the village of Columbus. At the same time, a baby was born in Nazas, Durango and was proudly baptized Ernesto Villa Nava, the son of General Francisco Villa. After Villas assassination in 1923, his mother took the young boy to California and warned him not to share his ancestry with anyone for fear of losing their lives. Eighty-three years later, Ernesto Nava came to his fathers land and discovered that General Villa is one of the most respected heroes in his country and a moral guide to millions of peasants throughout Mexico. This is the story of Pancho Villa told by those who knew him.

2006 International Latino Film Festival of San Francisco, Best Documentary www.franciscovilla.com.mx


"Classificados" / Victor Audifredd / 12 mins / Short / Mexico / 2006

Young man answers an older man's unusual and interesting classified ad.


8:00 PM

"Between" / David Ocanas / 90 mins / Narrative Feature / US / 2005

Co-presented by the Independent Film Festival of Boston www.iffboston.org

Nadine hasn't had a decent night's rest since her sister disappeared. And it doesn't get much better when she travels solo to Tijuana to find her. Nadine's attempts to unravel the truth eventually cause her to question her own sanity. You'll be shocked by the unsettling encounters she faces during her investigation! www.betweenthemovie.com

2005 Sundance Film Festival, Nominee Grand Jury Prize


9:45 PM

"Special Circumstances" / Marianne Teleki / 73 mins / Documentary / US, Chile / 2007

Co-presented by the Latino Public Broadcasting www.lpbp.org

Special Circumstances follows Chilean exile Hector Salgado as he returns to Chile from the US, camera in hand, to seek and confront the men who imprisoned him and who tortured and killed his friends after the Coup of 1973. Through his journey, audiences will come to understand the legal, political and social obstacles standing in the way of a nation's attempt, thirty years later, to overcome its brutal history. www.specialcircumstancesthemovie.com



Sunday, October 14, Harvard Film Archive

24 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA


3:00 PM

NAILED! / Sheldon Schiffer / 50 mins / Short / USA, Brazil / 2006

Explores the changing cultural demographic of urban Atlanta by following the personal experiences of Branca, a Brazilian immigrant, who gets entangled with the exploits of Patrick, a con-artist looking to swindle her out of money for marriage. Branca seeks to find true love and a green card with an "American" man. She discovers that cultural integration costs more than money, and that the "American" man of her dreams is as elusive as the American dream itself. http://schiffer.gsu.edu/nailed


"O Útimo Quarto de Hora" / Rodrigo Assad / 15 mins / Short / Brazil / 2006

Set against the paradoxical backdrop of Rio de Janeiro, two soldiers encounter one another in the disorder of the Brazilian Army. Inspired by biographical incidents, the films narrative reflects the directors observations as a soldier in the Brazilian Army. The thematic delineation of the film emphasizes the reality of class divisions in Brazil, where the dominant distinction between social groups is financial rather than racial.


4:30 PM

¡Salud! / Connie Field / Documentary / USA, Cuba / 2006

Co-presented by Boston Area Spanish Exchange - BASE www.spanishclassesboston.com

A feature documentary directed by Academy Award nominee Connie Field, ¡Salud! spans three continents to portray the philosophy and health professionals that place Cuba on the map in the worldwide movement for health. ¡Salud! is a timely film about the competing values that mark the battle for global health. The film's camera travels to the Gambia, rural South Africa, Venezuela, coastal villages of Honduras and river settlements in the Amazon, where a Cuban is often the first doctor a poor community has ever seen and in some nations they stage entire health systems. ¡Salud! suggests both new approaches to developing the human resources critical to making healthcare a global birthright. The film examines the remarkable case of Cuba, a poor country with what the BBC calls one of the worlds best health systems, and explores Cuba's extensive global health initiatives. ¡Salud! accompanies some of the 28,000 Cuban health professionals now staffing public health systems in over 60 countries. Their stories, and those of young medical students--now numbering 30,000--from the Americas, Africa and Asia studying in Cuba, challenge us to rethink the potential of international health cooperation. www.saludthefilm.net



6:30 PM

"Soy Andina" (I am Andean) / Mitchell Teplitsky / 62 mins / Documentary / Peru / 2007

Two New Yorkers raised in different worlds an immigrant from the Andes, a modern dancer from Queens journey to Peru to reconnect with roots and an astonishing world of traditional dance and culture. Nélida Silva returns to her birthplace in the Andes to fulfill a dream and host the fiesta patronal -- a weeklong celebration honoring the towns patron saint. But Neli's changed, and so has the village. Meanwhile, Cynthia Paniagua, a dancer raised by a Peruvian mom, embarks on her own Peruvian journey after meeting Neli -- determined to "quench a burning desire to know the real Peru, to unearth the mystery of the dances."


"Si no llueve" (If It Doesnt Rain) / Michael Palmer & Charles Mann / 21 mins / Documentary / Mexico / 2007

This film was commissioned by the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University to introduce the topic of poverty in Southern Mexico at their US/Mexican summer study program about poverty in Southern Mexico. The film seeks to capture what it might be like "to walk in the shoes of the poor" in a rural Mexican community. With this broad objective, it is relevant to a wide audience for the insights it provides both into village life and into the issue of migration as seen from the Mexican perspective. The storytellers are newly-weds Lulu and Miguel, the Ignacio farming family, and the citizens of El Carrizal as they grapple with the competition for water between a new trout farm and traditional irrigation. Set in a beautiful region of Oaxaca, the film captures a sense of individual courage and dignity supported by strong and enduring communal traditions. www.devcomworkshop.org/productions_sinollueve.html


8:30 PM

"La última mirada" (The Last Gaze) / Patricia Arriaga-Jordán / 124 mins / Narrative Feature / Mexico / 2006

The parallel lives of two very different people converge to reveal an unlikely bond in the bittersweet drama, The Last Gaze. Writer-director Patricia Arriaga-Jordán's first feature is rich with beautifully shot black and white scenes splashed with lush, vivid red. Famous Mexican artist Homero (Sergi Mateu) is suffering from an inherited degenerative eye disease, which will eventually send him blind. Left only with the sight of the color red, Homero is overcome with grief at the prospect of never being able to paint again. Meanwhile, young and vibrant Mei (Marisol Centeno) has been abandoned by her prostitute mother. With nowhere else to go, Mei is forced to follow in her mothers footsteps and works at the local brothel. Mei's first customer is Homero, who chooses to spend his time with her at the brothel painting her whole body red: his final gaze at a beautiful woman. www.laultimamirada.com

 
 

 

 

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