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(kə nā′dē ən) Marc Arellano Canada, Documentary, 20088 min, MiniDV, Color/Black & WhiteSpanish, French, English with English subtitles
(kə nā′dē ən) is a short documentary that explores the notion of identity. Memory, history and family are all interwoven into a narrative about one Canadian family. One of the top 10 finalists in CBC/Radio Canada's Migrations Film Competition 2009.
US Premiere Producer: Marc ArellanoProduction Companies: Transparent MediaScreenwriter: Marc ArellanoCinematographer: Marc ArellanoEditor: Marc ArellanoSound Design: Marc ArellanoMusic: Terry ScarboroughCast: Gizele Arellano, Ron Arellano, Ian Arellano, Ramiro Arellano, Marc Arellano, Natalie Perrier and Camille Arellano
Panorama Documentary Shorts Showcase Mexican American Cultural Center (MACC) Tues. April 27 9:00PM FREE In the future, wars will be fought over water, but in Mexico the war has already begun. This documentary contemplates Mexico’s destiny, telling the story of the struggle of its indigenous people to preserve their natural resources and their cultural identity.
On the official web site of the Brazilian Environmental Institute, the Brazilian wood pernambuco appears on the list of plant species threatened with extinction. Found only in the remnants of the devastated Atlantic Rainforest in the coast of Brazil, this tree has been vital in the manufacturing of fine violin bows and other instruments ever since Mozart was composing his masterpieces in Vienna. A Arvore da Música explores a path to saving the imperiled trees, along with the music that depends on them.
In the 1980s, at the height of the Cold War, a bloody civil war between the Soviet-friendly Sandinistas and U.S.-backed Contras ravaged Nicaragua. Despite the danger, thousands of Americans disobeyed White House warnings and descended upon the Central American nation, determined to lend their skills and labor to the social-democratic Sandinista cause. Using an eclectic mixture of rare archival footage, arresting still photography, and contemporary interviews, American/Sandinista tells the story of a small group of controversial U.S. engineers who partnered with local communities and went further than anyone expected, risking their lives in the process.
In 1999, two brothers were deported from the United States to Mexico. Within two weeks, one of them overdosed on heroin in a seedy Tijuana hotel room, his body left unclaimed for two months in a mass grave. These U.S.-raised men, military veterans, were deported from the only country they knew—and had sworn to protect—to forge new lives in Mexico. Against the backdrop of increased attention to the U.S.-Mexico border, filmmaker Monika Navarro draws on her family’s experience to explore national identity and ties, the lives of immigrants, and what happens after deportees are sent to a homeland they don’t consider home.
Artzainak: Shepherds and Sheep Jacob Griswold, Javi Zubizarreta USA, Documentary, 2010 15 min, DVCPro HD, Color Spanish, English, Basque with English subtitles
High up in the hills of Idaho, immigrants earn their wages in solitude as the quiet caretakers of thousands of serene sheep. This short documentary traces the history of Basque immigration to Idaho, while addressing the difficulty of life as a shepherd, as well as the current issue of immigration within the sheep herding industry.
World Premiere
Jacob Griswold, a Dominican-American filmmaker from western New York, developed a passion for creating films that provoke thought and create discussion about difficult topics such as struggle, despair, and faith. Javi Aitor Zubizarreta is a Basque-American filmmaker from Boise, Idaho. Throughout his filmmaking career, Javi has searched for new and innovative ways to bring the story of the Basque people into public attention. Javi and Jacob are completing their Bachelor of Arts in Film Production at the University of Notre Dame.
Producer: Jacob Griswold Cinematographer: Jacob Griswold, Javi Zubizarreta Editor: Jacob Griswold, Javi Zubizarreta Sound Design: Jacob Griswold
Regal Metropolitan - Fri. April 23 8:00PM (preceding Which Way Home) Directors Jacob Griswold and Javi Zubizarreta in attendance.
Regal Metropolitan - Sat. April 24 6:00PM (preceding O Areal) Directors Jacob Griswold and Javi Zubizarreta in attendance. B1 Felipe Braga, Eduardo Hunter Moura Brazil, Sports Documentary, 2009 99 min, HDV, Color French, Portuguese, English with English subtitles
Antonio Tenorio is a B1: the classification used for a totally blind judoka. The documentary follows this professional judo player as he prepares to compete for a fourth Paralympic gold medal in Beijing. Filmed in Brazil, France and China, B1 is an international journey through the perspective of a blind judoka, one of the few in the world to compete both in Paralympic and regular championships. B1 unravels the man behind the high-performance athlete, while simultaneously investigating his sensibility.
North American Premiere
Felipe Braga and Eduardo Hunter Moura are both graduates of the Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro, studying history and advertising, respectively. Subsequently, Braga studied film at New York University, while Moura studied at the London Film School. They have both worked on films by directors such as Jose Henrique Fonseca and Claudio Torres. B1 is their directorial debut.
Producer: Felipe Braga, Rodrigo Teixeira, Gustavo Gama Rodrigues Production Companies: RT Features Screenwriter: Felipe Braga, Eduardo Hunter Moura Cinematographer: Fabricio Lima Editor: Paulo de Barros, Taina Diniz Sound Design: Beto Ferraz Music: Nando Duarte Cast: Antonio Tenorio
Regal Metropolitan - Thurs. April 22 10:00 PMBuy Tickets
A glimpse into the maestro’s life and music, Cachao: Uno más pays tribute to one of the greatest Afro-Cuban musicians of all time, Israel López “Cachao.” This documentary, produced by the DOC Film Institute at San Francisco State, features a live concert in San Francisco and interviews with musical collaborators including Andy García, John Santos, Ray Santos and Orestes Vilató, who help trace Cachao’s musical journey from his early days in Cuba to worldwide fame and recognition.
Cárcel de carne Jail of Flesh Roque Azcuaga Mexico, Documentary, 2009 75 min, BD, Color Spanish with English subtitles
Cárcel de carne is a documentary that delves into the inner workings of a rare neurological disease that is fatal, incurable and stems from unknown causes. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, better known as Lou Gehrig's disease, attacks the motor neurons, gradually eliminating a person's ability to move. The film is a first person narrative in which the terminally ill patients speak out about their condition. Through their life experiences we try to understand the disease and catch a glimpse into part of the human condition as it relates to death, hope and transcendence.
US Premiere Roque Azcuaga, a native of Mexico City, studied at the UNAM and at the Centro Universitario de Estudios Cinematográficos (CUEC) in Mexico. In addition to his work as an editor for commercials, short films and feature films, he has also worked for radio and theatre. In 2007, Azcuaga obtained the support of IMCINE in order to produce the feature documentary Cárcel de carne.
Producer: Elsa Reyes Production Company: CONACULTA-IMCINE, FOPROCINE, Zensky Cine Screenwriter: Roque Azcuaga Cinematographer: Enrique Stone Editor: Roque Azcuaga, Elena Pardo Sound Design: Fabiola Ramos Music: Joseph Saint-Remy
Mexican American Cultural Center (MACC) Wed. April 28 7:00PM FREE Casimiro tells the story of an illegal immigrant living in central Texas. As Casimiro tries to write a comforting letter to his family back home, we experience the truth about his days in America. The story follows him through his difficult routine, and demonstrates how a lonely man copes with hardships.
Children of the Amazon follows Brazilian filmmaker Denise Zmekhol to the heart of the Amazon rainforest, in search of the indigenous children she photographed 15 years before. The film invites the viewer to see through the eyes of these inspiring, remarkably resilient people, whose lives have been transformed by a road that was carved through their forest home by an outside world. Poetic and visually stunning, this film engages the senses and sympathies as global issues take on a profoundly human perspective.
Ever since Brian Marquez was murdered on a San Francisco street corner in 2005, his father, Luis, has been on a quest to find the killers that took his son. During the traditional Mexican holiday of Day of the Dead, Close to Home portrays a father that has yet to deal with the death of his son, and a daughter who longs to reconnect with the father she once had.
Conversations II offers an intimate look at the female universe; a journey in time through evocative images and the testimonies of women from the same family. Through the personal search of a daughter into the lives of her mother and grandmother, the film explores the evolution of the female role in a Latin American society and how the views of marriage and motherhood have changed with each generation, as well as the view that women have of themselves.
Crude tells the epic story of one of the largest and most controversial legal cases on the planet. An inside look at the infamous $27 billion “Amazon Chernobyl” case, Crude is a real-life, high stakes, legal drama set against the backdrop of the environmental movement, global politics, celebrity activism, human rights advocacy, the media, multinational corporate power, and rapidly disappearing indigenous cultures. Presenting a complex situation from multiple viewpoints, the film brings an important story of environmental peril and human suffering into focus.
CuBata Kevin McSorley Ireland/Cuba, Documentary, 2010 10 min, HDV/MiniDV, Color Spanish with English subtitles
In Cuba, women have traditionally been prohibited from playing the Bata drums due to religious and cultural taboos. In this documentary, female drummer Aleida Sucarrat Torres talks about her experience playing the Bata drums while the “Chinitos,” a family of Bata drum players and makers, share their insights on the traditions and history of this sacred musical instrument.
World Premiere Kevin McSorley is a journalist and has been a researcher and producer in the television industry in Northern Ireland for seven years. He received his MA in Documentary Practice at the University of Ulster in 2008 and was awarded a bursary from One World Media to travel to Cuba to make his short film CuBata in 2009.
Producer: Kevin McSorley Cinematographer: Kevin McSorley Editor: Kevin McSorley Sound Design: Kevin McSorley Music: Piri López Chinito Cast: Pedro López Chinito, Elián López Chinito, Piri López Chinito, Aleida Sucarrat Torres, Odelkis Torres
Panorama Documentary Shorts Showcase Mexican American Cultural Center (MACC) Tues. April 27 9:00PM FREEDe ollas y sueños Cooking Up Dreams Ernesto Cabellos Peru, Documentary, 2009 75 min, HDV, Color Spanish with English subtitles
Could it be that an entire nation is represented through its kitchen? Crossing air, land and sea, De ollas y sueños explores Peru’s gastronomic revolution for an answer. From the most humble family kitchens to high-end restaurants, this documentary finds that Peru's cuisine is deliciously integrating with its people who have historically been marked by ethnic and economic differences. Renowned chefs such as Gastón Acurio, Ferrán Adrià, Juan Mari Arzak and Bernardo Roca Rey share their views alongside unsung chefs, who also dream of Peru's cuisine as a motor of development. Audience Award winner at Festival Filmar en América Latina (Geneva, Switzerland).
Texas Premiere
Ernesto Cabellos is an award winning Peruvian documentary filmmaker. His first feature documentary, Choropampa, el precio de oro, earned him three awards including the 2002 OCIC Cinematographic Post-Production Award at the Mar del Plata Film Festival. De ollas y sueños is his second documentary feature.
Producer: Ernesto Cabellos, Susana Araujo Production Companies: Guarango - Tal Screenwriter: Ernesto Cabellos Cinematographer: Ernesto Cabellos Editor: Lessandro Sócrates, Antolín Prieto Sound Design: Takuo Shima, Jose Balado Music: Martin Choy-Yin, Jose Balado Cast: Gastón Acurio, Teresa Izquierdo, Bernado Roca Rey
Mexican American Cultural Center (MACC) Sun. April 25 5:00PM FREE Using home movies and other media, Diário de Sintra documents director Paula Gaitán’s return to the Portuguese city of Sintra, to search for memories of her late husband, Brazilian cinema novo pioneer Glauber Rocha. Gaitán and Rocha lived exiled in Portugal in 1981 with their two children, Eryk and Ava, before his untimely death. The filmmaker’s layered experimental work creates an impression of the past through its rich accumulation of images, meditations, and reminiscences.
A woman facing a bleak future recounts her life in sketchy, seemingly random, episodes. One by one the scars and despair left by a life ridden with responsibilities and sacrifice, but little joy, inevitably emerge. Diario del fin is a visceral and moving account filled with brutally honest, yet liberating, confessions.
Dzi Croquettes Tatiana Issa, Raphael Alvarez Brazil, Documentary, 2009 98 min, MiniDV, Color/Black & White Portuguese, French and English with English subtitles
Dzi Croquettes was a theater group that, through talent, irony and humor, confronted the Brazilian government and its violent dictatorship during the 1970s and 1980s. They were banned and censored by the military regime and yet revolutionized theater and dance language. Their history embraces Brazilian pop culture of the time, the sexual revolution, the beginning of the AIDS era and, above all, the enormous legacy they inspired in every single person that had the opportunity to see their work. They were admired by luminaries such as Liza Minnelli, who became a personal friend and played a major role in bringing them to Paris and subsequently to fame. This documentary received the Jury Award for Best Documentary at Rio International Film Festival and the Audience Award at São Paulo International Film Festival.
Regional Premiere
Tatiana Issa was born in São Paulo, Brazil but spent most of her childhood years in Europe. To date, Issa's credits include 18 successful theatrical productions and numerous leading roles in major motion pictures. Raphael Alvarez grew up in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. As a teen, Alvarez moved to New York to further pursue his love of acting. He enrolled in the American Academy of Dramatic Arts where he studied acting, theater and on-camera production. Dzi Croquettes is their first feature film.
Producer: Tatiana Issa, Raphael Alvarez, Bob Cline Production Companies: TRIA Productions, CANAL BRASIL Screenwriter: Tatiana Issa Cinematographer: Jorge Galo Editor: Raphael Alvarez Sound Design: Aurelio Dias Music: Claudio Lins Cast: Liza Minnelli, Ron Lewis, Gilberto Gil, Nelson Motta, Marília Pêra, Ney Matogrosso, Betty Faria, José Possi Neto, Miéle, Jorge Fernando, César Camargo Mariano, Cláudia Raia, Miguel Falabella, Pedro Cardoso, Norma Bengell. Regal Metropolitan - Sat. April 24 10:00 PMBuy Tickets
Ebony Goddess: Queen of Ilê Aiyê Carolina Moraes-Liu USA/Brazil, Documentary, 2009 20 min, MiniDV, Color Portuguese with English subtitles
Ebony Goddess is the story of three young women competing in the annual event in which Ilê Aiyê chooses its Carnival queen. The film shows the importance of the contest in reshaping the idea of what is beautiful in a society where African descendents constitute the majority of the population, but Eurocentric concepts of female beauty are pervasive. The figure of the Ebony Goddess, a key visual element of a spectacle that creates an alternative view of black woman as beautiful, desirable, and talented, promotes social change at its most basic level: the individual sense of self. Accolades include Best Short Documentary, 2010 San Diego Latino Film Festival, and Best Diaspora Film, 2010 San Diego Black Film Festival.
Austin Premiere
Carolina Moraes-Liu has been producing documentary films for the past twelve years. She sees documentary filmmaking as a means to educate and empower people, and she believes documentaries can be used as an instrument for social change. Carolina was born in Bahia, Brazil, and holds a Master's degree in Radio and Television from San Francisco State University.
Producer: Carolina Moraes-Liu Production Companies: Documentario.com Screenwriter: Carolina Moraes-Liu Cinematographer: Carolina Moraes-Liu Editor: Carolina Moraes-Liu Sound Design: Carolina Moraes-Liu Music: Ilê Aiê Cast: Featuring Antônio Carlos Vovô and Arany Santana
Regal Metropolitan - Sat. Apr. 24 2:00PM (preceding La tierra sin mal)
Documentary Shorts Competition Showcase Regal Metropolitan - Sat. Apr. 24 4:00PM El bombillo Juan David Soto Taborda Cuba/Colombia, Documentary, 2009 12 min, MiniDV, Color Spanish with English subtitles
El bombillo is the story of two brothers and their journey home from school. They construct a world of adventures surrounding a light bulb they purchased to brighten up the little house they built with their father.
World Premiere Juan David Soto Taborda wrote the short film Oury Jalloh, based on the real life of a Sierra Leone refugee who was burnt in his prison cell by German police. El bombillo is his first documentary short in which he acted as a director and cinematographer.
Producer: Carlos Rodríguez Production Companies: Escuela Internacional de Cine y TV Screenwriter: Juan D. Soto Taborda Cinematographer: Juan D. Soto Taborda Editor: Juan D. Soto Taborda Sound Design: Orisel Castro
Documentary Shorts Competition Showcase Regal Metropolitan - Sat. April 24 4:00PM
Mexican American Cultural Center (MACC) Wed. April 28 9:00PM FREE Past and present collide as filmmaker Natalia Almada brings to life audio recordings she inherited from her grandmother—reminiscences about Natalia’s great-grandfather General Plutarco Elías Calles, a revolutionary general who became president of Mexico in 1924. In his time, Calles was called “El Bolshevique” and “El Jefe Máximo” (the foremost chief). Today, he is remembered as “el Quema-Curas” (the Burner of Priests) and as a dictator who ruled through puppet presidents until he was exiled in 1936. Through his daughter’s recordings, El General moves between the memories of a daughter grappling with her memory of her family life versus history’s portrait of her father, and the weight of his legacy in the country today.
El informe Toledo The Toledo Report Albino Álvarez G Mexico, Documentary, 2008 85 min, S16mm/HD/HDV, Color/Black & White Spanish, English, Zapoteca with English subtitles
Francisco Toledo made a series of fifteen prints relating to Franz Kafka’s A Report for An Academy. These self-portraits make up the narrative line of this documentary film that searches for the face of the Juchiteco artist. Toledo’s journey takes us from 1960’s Paris to the 2006 teacher's conflict in Oaxaca, Mexico, and interweaves a plot where the passion and mastery of this Mexican artist is inseparable from the chisel in which a man takes part in historical and social matters and struggles against corruption.
US Premiere
Albino Álvarez Gomez is originally from Zacatecas, Mexico. He studied at the University Center of Film Studies and has taught film and television studies at numerous institutions, including at the Casa del Lago in the Mexican Institute of Educational Communication. He was founder and general coordinator of the Workshop on Audiovisual Experimentation at TV UNAM. In 2005 he founded his own production company, Lo Otro Producciones, which has completed fourteen documentaries thus far.
Producer: Martin Burillo Production Companies: Pegaso Films, Lo Otro Producciones Screenwriter: Albino Álvarez G. Cinematographer: Martin Boege Editor: Omar Guzmán Sound Design: Samuel Larson Music: Steven Brown Cast: Francisco Toledo, Carlos Monsiváis, Elisa Ramírez, Elena Poniatowska Regal Metropolitan - Thurs. April 22 8:00 PM Buy TicketsRegal Metropolitan - Fri. April 23 4:00 PMBuy Tickets
El peleador Pablo José Lozano Hernández Cuba/Dominican Republic, Documentary, 2009 22 min, Video, Color Spanish with English subtitles
Leonardo is a young boy who likes to train fighting fish. He lives in San Isidro, a hot, picturesque area of the Old Havana district where the Caribbean colors and allure are an everyday occurrence. One day, he sets out to buy some fighting fish in a shop around the corner just to make them fight the ones he keeps back home. Leonardo’s fighting fish parallel his experiences, in the abstract and in the concrete, as a 10-year-old boy amongst his friends and at the gym where he trains to be a boxer.
Regional Premiere Producer: Christian Quiroga Saldaña Production Companies: Escuela Internacional de Cine y TV Cinematographer: Oliver Mota Editor: Ariel Escalante Meza Sound Design: Raynier Hinojosa O’Farrill
Regal Metropolitan - Fri. April 23 6:00PM (preceding La asamblea)
Mexican American Cultural Center (MACC) Wed. April 28 9:00PM El poder de la palabra The Power of Speech Francisco Hervé Chile, Documentary, 2009 75 min, Mini DV, Color Spanish with English subtitles
Hardy, along with many other Chileans, makes a living selling knickknacks on the buses of Santiago. But in 2005 the government announces that Chile “will soon become a world class country and we will have a modern and elegant public transportation system,” meaning they will no longer tolerate commerce on buses. As a result, Hardy brings together two thousand colleagues in a struggle to survive modernity. Without attempting to impose a master narrative, the film presents glimpses into the mobilization of proponents of informal economy in the face of government attempts to sell its “modern” policy. El poder de la palabra won a Special Jury Prize at the Festival Internacional de Documentales de Santiago in 2009.
US Premiere
Francisco Hervé is a writer, director and producer with Panchito Films. He studied journalism and film direction at the EICTV in San Antonio de los Baños, Cuba. He has worked on various documentaries, television series and short fiction films. He is currently doing pre-production for his first feature film, Vaterland.
Producer: Francisco Hervé Production Companies: Panchito Films Screenwriter: Francisco Hervé, Pablo Leighton, Sebastian Brahm Cinematographer: David Bravo Editor: Sebastian Brahm, Francisco Hervé Sound Design: Roberto Espinoza Music: Fernando Milagros Regal Metropolitan - Sun. April 25 6:00 PMBuy Tickets
El viaje del cometa The Journey of the Comet Ivonne Fuentes Mendoza Mexico, Documentary, 2008 86 min, HD, Color Spanish with English Subtitles
A couple of retired teachers transform an out-of-use school bus into a mobile home. With the help of a few telescopes, their retiree salary and a dream, they begin their cross-country journey to the most isolated places of Mexico in order to teach astronomy to public schools students.
US Premiere
Ivonne Fuentes Mendoza was born in Mexico City and studied at Centro Universitario de Estudios Cinematográficos where she produced the documentary short La Virgen Lupita, which won the Mikeldi prize at the Cinema Festival of Bilbao. She has been nominated for the Ariel prize for best decorator and art director for several films. With the support of the Fondo para la Producción Cinematográfica de Calidad and a grant from FONCA, she shot her first feature film documentary, El viaje del cometa.
Producer: Iván Avila Dueñas Production Companies: Fondo para la Producción Cinematográfica de Calidad, 13 Lunas, Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes, Panasonic de México, MCO Studios Screenwriter: Ivonne Fuentes Mendoza Cinematographer: Alejandro Cantú Editor: Elena Pardo Sound Design: Pedro Jiménez Music: Sánchez y Ledezma Cast: Enoc Fuentes López, María Luisa Aguilar Aranda, Víctor Enoch García Fuentes
Mexican American Cultural Center (MACC) Sun. April 25 9:00PM FREEEntrevista con la tierra Interview with the Earth Nicolás Pereda Mexico, Documentary, 2009 18 min, HD, Color Spanish with English subtitles
In Entrevista con la tierra, documentary and fiction seamlessly merge to create a hybrid poetic film. Through a series of interviews and enactments we learn the story of Nico and Amalio, two children who lost a friend while climbing a mountain.
Regional Premiere
Nicolás Pereda was born in Mexico City in 1982. His short films Cycle and This Film is not a Thriller have screened in many festivals in Europe, North America and South America. He has made films and videos for several hybrid plays and operas, which have been presented in Mexico and Europe. In 2007 he earned a Masters in Fine Arts from York University in Toronto, Canada. His award-winning first feature film ¿Dónde están sus historias? has screened at festivals around the world, and his subsequent films have all garnered critical acclaim.
Producer: Nicolás Pereda, Sebastián Hiriart Screenwriter: Nicolás Pereda Cinematographer: Sebastián Hiriart Editor: Nicolás Pereda Sound Design: Nicolás Pereda Music: Marcela Rodríguez Cast: Amalio Miranda, Nico Miranda
Regal Metropolitan - Thur. April 22 8:00PM (preceding El informe Toledo)
Regal Metropolitan - Tues. April 27 10:00PM (preceding Todo, en fin, el silencio lo ocupaba)
Exiled In America is a film that explores immigration issues in the United States related to detention and deportation from the point of view of those most affected: children. Over 1.5 million immigrants have been deported since 1996—a policy that has torn families apart and led to human rights violations. Exiled In America tells the story of five siblings who struggle to live in America after their mother was deported to Mexico.
Extranjero is a short film about belonging. The smell of things, the noises and the flavors of the country left behind, haunt you and make you realize that life, maybe, wasn't that terrible back in your country. Finding D-QU: The Lonely Struggle of California's Only Tribal College Christopher Newman USA, Documentary, 2009 27 min, MiniDV, Color English
In 2005, D-Q University, California’s only tribal college, was shut down after a 35-year struggle. Since then, the school’s board of trustees, past students, and community members have tried to reopen the school against all odds. Finding D-QU looks at the often-conflictive relationship between the board and the property’s illegal occupants. This current struggle frames the history of the school, beginning with its establishment in the midst of 1960s civil rights activism and outlines its original vision as a space for self-determined higher education. The film provides a lens in which we can critically examine the wider American Indian movement toward self-determination and sovereignty in its historical context and as it exists today.
Texas Premiere Christopher Newman is a recent graduate of the Social Documentation M.A. program at UC-Santa Cruz where he produced his first film, Finding D-QU. Before graduate school he worked for the Emmy-nominated outdoor television show, FLW Outdoors. He has also produced action sports videos for the web and cable television. He currently resides in San Francisco, California.
Producer: Christopher Newman Production Companies: Pacific Line Productions Cinematographer: Christopher Newman Editor: Christopher Newman, Patricia Alvarez Astacio Sound Design: Christopher Newman, Patricia Alvarez Astacio Music: The Dirty Three, Floyd “Redcrow” Westerman
Documentary Shorts Competition Showcase Regal Metropolitan - Sat. April 24 4:00PM
Regal Metropolitan - Sun. April 25 6:00PM (preceding El poder de la palabra)
Fotógrafos reveals the stories of the photographers who work at the foot of the stairs of the Capitol in Havana, Cuba. Their beautiful antique cameras may be relics of the past as supplies become harder and harder to acquire, yet they remain upbeat as they preserve the images of visitors in sepia-toned photographs.
A story about an immigrant's beloved, whose sadness and loneliness are not eased by the remittances sent back to them. Ikwé Caroline Monnet Canada, Experimental Documentary, 2009 5 min, HDV, Color French/Cree with English subtitles
Ikwé is an experimental film that weaves the narrative of one woman’s intimate thoughts with the teachings of her grandmother, creating a surreal narrative experience that communicates the power of thoughts and personal reflection. Ikwé has screened at some of the most prestigious national and international film festivals and was chosen for best emerging talent at the First Peoples' Festival in Montréal.
US Premiere Producer: Caroline Monnet Production Companies: Winnipeg Film Group Screenwriter: Caroline Monnet Cinematographer: Caroline Monnet Editor: Kevin Lee Burton Sound Design: Norman Dugas Music: Simon Guibord Cast: Caroline Monnet, Emilie Monnet
Documentary Shorts Competition Showcase Regal Metropolitan - Sat. April 24 4:00PM
Regal Metropolitan - Wed. April 28 8:00PM (preceding Barking Water) The lodging house owned by Rosa Carbajal at the corner of Shakespeare and Victor Hugo streets in Mexico City, is a shelter that hides an intimate and passionate story. Twenty years ago Rosa met Jorge Riosse, a young tenant who became her closest friend and for eight years made indelible marks on everyone he knew. But after his sudden death, some dark characteristics emerged. The film is a profound sketch of two lonely characters whose lives become strongly and strangely entwined.
La asamblea The Assembly Galel Maidana Argentina, Documentary, 2008 70 min, HD, Black & White Spanish with English subtitles
This film proposes a voyage of observation through the heart of the Frente de Artistas del Borda. Every conflict and implicit event in the creative process takes place here, only that, in this case, most of the individuals involved live behind the walls of J.T. Borda’s Neuropsychiatric Hospital. They are deprived of their basic human rights and live under the archaic conceptions of mental health. La asamblea won the 2009 Best Documentary award at the Toulouse Film Festival.
North American Premiere
Galel Maidana was born in 1978 in Tegucigalpa, Honduras and currently resides in Buenos Aires, Argentina. La asamblea is his fourth film.
Producer: Matías Tamborenea Production Companies: Ryu Cine Screenwriter: Galel Maidana Cinematographer: Galel Maidana Editor: María Galarza Sound Design: Martín Grignaschi Music: Frente de Artistas del Borda Regal Metropolitan - Fri. April 23 6:00 PMBuy Tickets
The movie documents a cross-cultural conquest dance, La Danza de la Pluma, which evolved from Zapotec dance rituals in Oaxaca under the influence of the Spanish colonizers. It incorporates the struggle between Moctezuma and Cortez, Christianity and paganism, with several variations as to the ultimate victor. It has deep cultural significance and importance, with dancers committing themselves for a three-year period, and involves much ritual preparation and community involvement. The movie focuses on the dancers' motivations, their three-year commitment, the sacrifices involved, and how this ancient tradition has survived.
Does Venezuela represent the dream of a new socialist society or is it just another distortion of populism and dictatorship? A trip with President Chávez over the largest oil reserve in the world, situated beneath the Orinoco River, becomes the occasion in which to enter into the lives of Venezuelans, nine years after the beginning of the Bolivarian Revolution. The government missions to fight illiteracy and hunger, the creation of a public health care system, and the development of an economy based on cooperative work are some of the achievements which characterize the Chavez era. But on the other hand there are the country’s 60 violent deaths a week and its collapsing hospitals, the closure of the most popular television channel, the old European immigrants in flight, the opposition black list, and the ubiquitous government propaganda. Venezuela en route to socialism: is this still possible in our post-ideological times.
The life of actress Camila Quiroga (1891-1948) seems to have been forgotten. In 1943 an autobiography in a magazine detailed her trips around Latin America and Europe, and discussed her pro-proletarian film Juan sin ropa (1919). Juan sin ropa’s scheduled release unfortunately coincided with Argentina’s Semana Trágica (“Tragic Week”), when a series of labor revolts in Buenos Aires were violently suppressed. But 60 years after her death, interviewees throughout this documentary bring to light more intricate details and stories about the acclaimed actress that would have been otherwise left forgotten.
La tarea Milagro Farfán Cuba/Peru, Documentary, 2009 28 min, MiniDV, Color Spanish with English subtitles
Sayné is an eight-year-old girl who must write a short story about her family for a school assignment. As she writes, she makes discoveries about her family members including her mom, dad, as well as her mom’s girlfriend. Although her mother’s partner has been around for a long time, Sayné begins to understand how her family is different than others and wants to ensure that she isn’t treated differently because of that.
World Premiere Producer: Marcela Esquivel Jiménez Production Companies: Escuela Internacional de Cine y TV Screenwriter: Daniel Tavares de Oliveira, Milagro Farfán Morales Cinematographer: York Neudel Editor: Domingo Lemus Sound Design: Albán Henriquez Music: Sexto Sentido
Panorama Documentary Shorts Showcase Mexican American Cultural Center (MACC) Tues. April 27 9:00PM FREE EICTV Shorts Showcase Mexican American Cultural Center (MACC) Wed. April 28 9:00PM FREE La tierra sin mal The Land of No Evil Anna Recalde Miranda Paraguay, Documentary, 2008 80 min, MiniDV, Color Spanish, Guaraní with English subtitles
After 35 years under the Stroessner dictatorship, the corrupt Colorado Party (the only political party allowed after the democratic transition) ruled Paraguay for 17 years. In 2008, Fernando Lugo, a former bishop running for president, represents the country’s hope to finally build a better future. La tierra sin mal chronicles the quixotic struggle of Martín Almada, an internationally recognized human rights activist who discovered the Archives of Terror, as he fights to expose the links between the old dictatorial system and the corrupted democracy that future president Lugo will inherit. La tierra sin mal was awarded Best Documentary at the Hai Visto Mai Festival in Siena, Italy.
North American Premiere www.kinemultimedia.com/es/documentales/la-tierra-sin-mal
Anna Recalde Miranda, an Italian-Paraguayan filmmaker, has worked as a producer in Italy and France, where she collaborated with director Hubert Sauper. She also worked with director Lech Kowalski as camerawoman and editor on his last film Winners and Losers, which was selected at the 2007 Locarno Festival in Switzerland. She has directed several documentaries and currently works and resides in Paris, France.
Producer: Cristina Rajola, Anna Recalde Miranda Production Companies: Troubled Production, Kinemultimedia Screenwriter: Anna Recalde Miranda Cinematographer: Anna Recalde Miranda Editor: Andrea Gandolfo Sound Design: Germán Acedo Regal Metropolitan - Sat. April 24 2:00 PMBuy Tickets La vida loca Christian Poveda France/Spain/Mexico, Documentary, 2009 90 min, HDV/35mm, Color Spanish with English Subtitles
In Central America they are referred to as the : modelling themselves on Los Angeles youth gangs, these groups are now further afield. A childhood at once terrifying and hateful but strangely captivating which typifies the disintegration of family life within Salvadorian society and the despair in which they have grown up. La vida loca is what life is really about in these gangs: youths who suffer; who defy us; who look down on us; who resent and dislike us. So, like cornered dogs, this lost generation responds with pessimism, revolt and death. La vida loca is a documentary about absolute human solitude.
Regional Premiere www.lafemme-endormie.com/vidaloca
Photographer and Documentary Filmmaker, Christian Poveda’s political involvement during the Vietnam War in the 1970’s allowed him to experience the power of images, and the influence they can have over certain events, which inspired his career path. His entire filmography is dedicated to extraordinary political and social situations; it includes over 15 documentaries that have been presented at some of the most prestigious festivals and TV markets worldwide. Poveda was murdered on September 2, 2009 in the suburbs of San Salvador.
Producer: Carole Solive, Luis Bellaba, Emilio Maillé, Gustavo Angel Production Companies: La Femme Endormie, Aquelarre, El Caiman Screenwriter: Christian Poveda Cinematographer: Christian Poveda Editor: Merecedes Alted Sound Design: David Enrique Mendez, Sylvianne Bouget Music: Rocca
Regal Metropolitan - Sun. April 25 8:00 PMBuy Tickets For over 50 years, the Kahnawake Mohawks of Quebec, Canada occupied a 10 square-block hub in the North Gowanus section of Brooklyn, which became known as Little Caughnawaga. The men, skilled ironworkers, came to New York in search of work and brought their wives, children and, often, extended family with them. Little Caughnawaga tells the personal story of Mohawk filmmaker Reaghan Tarbell from Kahnawake, Quebec, as she explores her roots and traces the connections of her family to the once legendary Mohawk community through the stories of the women who lived there.
In 1930, the American Smelting & Refining Company hired William "Bill" Parker to work at the Angangueo mines in Michoacán. Bill arrived with his girlfriend, Joyce Hartzell, a photographer. Bill and Joyce fell in love with the town and its simple ways and decided to make it their permanent home. Bill was an amateur filmmaker and used his 16mm camera to shoot several documentaries portraying day-to-day life in Angangueo and Joyce’s trips around Spain and South America. But Joyce died in 1975, victim to pulmonary cancer, and 36 days later, Bill shot himself in the head. Bill’s diary describes those last few days: from Joyce’s passing to his own suicide. The movies and photographs made by the Parkers over the years become the material that relives their memories and tells the story of these two lovers that even death couldn’t tear apart.
Los herederos is a portrait of the young children in the Mexican countryside who begin to work at an early age. The film focuses on their daily struggle for survival and their activities in farming, sculpting and painting “alebrijes,” shepherding, making bricks, weaving, looking after their siblings, collecting water, harvesting tomato, chili, maize, and laboring in a myriad of other activities. They have inherited tools and techniques from their ancestors, but they have also inherited their day-to-day hardship because, as generations pass, child workers seem to remain captive in a cycle of inherited poverty.
Luca is the story of Luca Prodan, a young Italian man educated in Great Britain caught in the frenzy of London’s punk rock scene in the late 1970s, who takes a leap of faith by traveling to Argentina during the military dictatorship just before the war in the Falkland Islands. Here he formed SUMO, a rock band that left its mark on three generations and that, still to this day, remains a legend and an inescapable reference for Latin American musicians.
March Point Annie Silverstein, Tracy Rector USA, Documentary, 2008 57 min, HD, Color English
In the late 1950’s, two refineries were built on March Point, an area that was once part of the Swinomish reservation by treaty. March Point tells the story of three Swinomish teens’ awakening to the destruction these refineries have brought to their communities. Ambivalent environmental ambassadors at the onset, the boys grapple with their assignment with humor, sarcasm and a candid self-knowledge. But as their filmmaking evolves, they experience the need to understand and tell their stories, and the power of this process changes their lives. March Point was an official selection of PBS's Independent Lens and won an Audience Award at the Indigenous Green Environmental Film Festival.
Austin Premiere
Annie Silverstein and Tracy Rector launched the Native Lens program in partnership with the Swinomish Indian Tribe which was the beginning of their non-profit media organization Longhouse Media. In 2007, Silverstein moved to Rio de Janeiro for one year to work on a case study on the social impact of teaching media making to Rio's underprivileged youth. Tracy Rector (Seminole) earned her Masters in Education from Antioch University with an emphasis on indigenous approaches to learning. She specializes in Native American Studies, traditional plant medicine and documentary film.
Producer: Annie Silverstein, Tracy Rector Production Companies: Longhouse Media Screenwriter: Annie Silverstein, Tracy Rector, Nick Clark, Cody Cayou, Travis Tom Cinematographer: Annie Silverstein, Tracy Rector, Nick Clark, Cody Cayou, Travis Tom Editor: Eric Frith, Amanda Larson Sound Design: Bad Animals Music: Force Theory Cast: Nick Clark, Cody Cayou, Travis Tom
Mexican American Cultural Center (MACC) Thur. April 22 7:00PM Accompanied by special presentation of youth films produced through Longhouse Media/Native Lens. FREE
Mexican American Cultural Center (MACC) Tues. April 27 7:00PM Accompanied by special presentation of youth films produced through Longhouse Media/Native Lens. FREE Producers/Directors Annie Silverstein and Tracy Rector in attendance.Rosa is a Mexican woman who, in 1999, at the age of 17, migrated illegally to Austin, Texas. In January of 2003, she was arrested for suspicion of murder and then sent to trial in August 2005. Rosa’s imprisonment in a foreign country, the judicial process, the verdict, the separation from her family, and her powerlessness make Mi vida dentro a true and revealing look into the life of Mexican immigrants in the United States.
Mundo Alas León Gieco, Sebastián Schindel, Fernando Molnar Argentina, Documentary, 2009 90 min, 35mm, Color Spanish with English subtitles
Mundo Alas is a road movie, a journey of initiation for a group of new young artists showcasing their work. Accompanied by the voice, talent and experience of León Gieco (Argentina’s most important folk-rock singer and songwriter) musicians, singers, dancers and painters (all important artists in their own right, each with his or her own disability) embark on a tour through several Argentinean provinces. During this time, love stories and human relationships develop, proving that integration is possible. Mundo Alas is a truly wonderful musical experience about love and overcoming difficulties.
Regional Premiere
León Geico was born in Cañada Rosquín, Argentina on November 20, 1951, and has received many prestigious musical awards in Argentina as well as the Grammy 2006 Latin Recording Academy Lifetime Achievement Award. Fernando Molinar was born in Buenos Aires in 1977, and has dedicated himself to producing documentaries, working in advertising media, and teaching theory and practice in the filmmaking field. Sebastián Schindel was born in Buenos Aires in 1975, and after specializing in Greek philosophy and tragedy during college, he studied cinematography and went on to produce and direct documentaries.
Producer: Nicolas Battle Production Companies: Magoya Films Cinematographer: Manuel Bullrich Editor: Ernesto Felder Sound Design: Javier Farina Music: León Gieco, Luis Gurevich Cast: León Gieco Regal Metropolitan - Thur. April 22 4:00 PMBuy TicketsRegal Metropolitan - Sat. April 24 8:00 PMBuy Tickets
On October 13, 1972, a young rugby team from Montevideo, Uruguay, boarded a plane for a match in Chile—and then vanished into thin air. Two days before Christmas, 16 of the 45 passengers miraculously resurfaced. Thirty-five years later, the survivors returned to the crash site—known as the Valley of Tears—to recount their harrowing story of defiant endurance and indestructible friendship. Previously documented in the 1973 worldwide bestseller Alive (and the 1993 Ethan Hawke movie of the same name), this shocking true story finally gets the cinematic treatment it deserves. Visually breathtaking and crafted with riveting detail by documentary filmmaker Gonzalo Arijón with a masterful combination of on-location interviews, archival footage, and reenactments, Stranded is by turns hauntingly powerful and spiritually moving.
O Areal The Sandpit Sebastian Sepulveda Chile/Spain, Documentary, 2008 54 min, DV CAM, Color Portuguese with English subtitles
Descendants of slaves who found their freedom in the Brazilian Amazonia formed the Guajará community more than 200 years ago. Ever since then, the inhabitants have been relatively isolated from all urban contact and its progress, thus maintaining a way of life linked to their ancestors and fed with a series of myths about spirits and incarnations of evil. The sandpit near the community is a place where spirits talk and coexist with the inhabitants of Guajará. Yet, the construction of a bridge, which shall join the community with the city, will compromise the sandpit and will also bring a change in their vision, existence and nature. This documentary was the winner of the Special Jury Award at FIDOCS 2008.
US Premiere
Sebastian Sepulveda was born in 1972 in Concepción, Chile. He has done post-production work for several films. O Areal is the first documentary film in which he has taken on the role of writer and director.
Producer: Sebastian Sepulveda Production Companies: Ojos de Agua Films Screenwriter: Sebastian Sepulveda Cinematographer: Sebastian Sepulveda Editor: Sebastian Sepulveda Sound Design: Roberto Espinoza
Regal Metropolitan - Sat. April 24 6:00PMBuy Tickets Director Sebastian Sepuveda in attendance. When people think about Brazilian music, they think about samba and bossa nova. But in between these two is a forgotten decade when baião, a rhythm from the northeast moved south, took the country by storm, and then spread around the world. The Man Who Bottled Clouds tells the story of baião through the rise and fall of its main proponent, the lyricist and composer known as “The Doctor of Baião,” and features appearances by other renowned Brazilian musicians like Chico Buarque, Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, and Lenine.
Olhos de Ressaca Undertow Eyes Petra Costa Brazil, Documentary, 2009 20 min, High 8/Digital, Color/Black & White Portuguese with English subtitles
Vera and Gabriel have been married for 60 years. As they reminisce about their life story their archival family images become intermingled with images of present day, establishing a dreamy and loving universe.
International Premiere Petra Costa is a young actress and anthropologist. Olhos de Ressaca is her first short film. She is currently working on her first feature film.
Producer: Petra Costa Production Companies: Aruac Produções Screenwriter: Petra Costa Cinematographer: Eryk Rocha Editor: Ava Rocha Sound Design: Edson Secco Music: Edson Secco Cast: Vera Andrade, Gabriel Andrade
Alamo South Lamar - Thur. April 22 7:00PM (preceding Tom Zé: Astronauta libertado)
Documentary Shorts Competition Showcase Regal Metropolitan - Sat. April 24 4:00PM Nashville, Tennessee, the “buckle of the Bible Belt” and the country music capital of the world, has become one of the most popular destinations for Latino immigrants. Despite the recent growth of this community, until December of 2007 Hispanic Catholics in Nashville did not have a place of worship they could call their own. This film follows the story of Nashville’s first 100% Hispanic Catholic church from the idea of its creation through its inauguration six months later. The film depicts a community that is proud and grateful, having finally found its own place for its members to let go of their minds, let go of their spirits, and truly be free. Pachamama tells the story of the director's journey through the Brazilian rainforest on his way to Perú and Bolivia, where he encounters the reality of people historically cut-off from the political process of their own country and that, for the first time, are attempting to have a say in the outcome of their own fate. The title of the film, Pachamama, is a word that means “Mother Earth” to certain groups of Native Americans, and refers to the bucolic goddess of the rural workers. A meditative film that also reveals social movements and moments often obscured from outsiders.
Charles, Zuleide, Gilberto, Cleide, Rogério, Claudio, and Lobão are the seven dwarves, all sons of the mythical Pindoba, the smallest and funniest clown in the world. Together they form the Pindorama Circus and travel from town town in northern Brazil, bringing with them their simplicity and humanity, fun and bravery. In their world, everyone wants to be a dwarf and all this makes the Pindorama world something new, and completely different from everything that surrounds it.
Point of Entry Zeus Quijano, Jr. USA, Documentary, 2009 27 min, MiniDV, Color Spanish, English with English subtitles
Carlos is an illegal immigrant living in the United States with his wife and two children. His decision to leave Mexico, his parents and siblings weighed heavily on him, but he knew that for them to get ahead he would have to leave to America. He was 15 years old at the time. Today, Carlos is 30 and continues sending money home to his family. Accolades for Point of Entry include numerous Official Selection entries in festivals as well as awards for Best Short Documentary at the Downtown Film Festival Los Angeles, and Best Non-Scripted Drama at NexTv Entertainment Web Series and Short Film Competition.
Texas Premiere
Zeus Quijano, Jr. is a graduate Film Production student at the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts. Zeus grew up in the suburbs of New York City. He was introduced to the craft of visual media while interning and eventually working as a production assistant on the sitcom, Spin City. He attended the University of Hawai'i and developed his craft of visual arts. USC has enabled him to integrate his love of still photographic storytelling and translate that to a fluid cinematic art.
Producer: Zeus Quijano, Jr. Cinematographer: Zeus Quijano, Jr. Editor: Zeus Quijano, Jr. Sound Design: Zeus Quijano, Jr. Music: Jake Monaco
Documentary Shorts Competition Showcase Regal Metropolitan - Sat. April 24 4:00PM
Mexican American Cultural Center (MACC) Wed. April 28 5:00PM (preceding Stages) Poto Mitan: Haitian Women, Pillars of the Global Economy Renée Bergan, Mark Schuller Haiti/USA, Docmentary, 2009 50 min, DVCAM/MiniDV/HDV, Color/Black & White Creole, English with English subtitles
Told through the compelling lives of five courageous Haitian women, Poto Mitan gives the global economy a human face. Each woman’s personal story explains neo-liberal globalization, how it is gendered, and how it impacts Haiti. The film offers an in-depth understanding of Haiti; and focuses on women’s subjugation, worker exploitation, poverty, and resistance. Initiated by the subjects themselves, Poto Mitan aims to inspire solidarity activism to end injustice in the global economy. Our struggles have a common thread: fighting for justice for women, workers, or Haiti can’t help but bring about our own liberation as well. Poto Mitan won the Indie Spec Best Documentary Award at Boston International Film Festival in 2009.
Regional Premiere
Renée Bergan founded Renegade Pictures, Inc., in 2003 with the sole goal of educating, inspiring and advocating change through her films. Ms. Bergan studied cinema in Paris, France, and received her degree in film from UCSB in 1993. She has received various awards for her work in different socially conscious documentaries. Mark Schuller is Assistant Professor of African American Studies and Anthropology at York College, the City University of New York. In addition to understanding contemporary Haiti, Schuller’s research contributes to theories of globalization, NGOs, civil society, and development.
Producer: Renée Bergan, Mark Schuller Production Companies: Tèt Ansanm Productions, Renegade Pictures, Inc., UCSB Black Studies Research Ctr. Screenwriter: Edwidge Danticat Cinematographer: Renée Bergan Editor: Renée Bergan Sound Design: Fabrice Charmant Music: Awozam, Boukman Eksperyans, Brothers Posse, Manze Dayila and the Nago Nation, Emeline Michel Cast: Marie-Jeanne, Solange, Frisline, Thérèse, Hélène, Edwidge Danticat (narrator)
Mexican American Cultural Center (MACC) Mon. April 26 9:00PM FREETito Juan Vera used to work as film projectionist, unveiling the magic of the movies to people in the Paraguayan interior. In Profesión cinero, Tito tells of his experiences and commemorates the golden days of cinema, through the thousands of film reels, posters, and equipment conserved from his job.
Rehje Anaís Huerta, Raúl Cuesta Mexico, Documentary, 2009 70 min, HD CAM, Color Spanish with English subtitles
After living in Mexico City for 40 years, Antonia longs to go back to her hometown, a Mazahua village in the state of Mexico. When she finally decides to do so, she encounters a lot of things that she didn't expect, like the scarcity of water threatening life in her community. This documentary was nominated for Best Feature Documentary at Mexico's Academy Awards.
Texas Premiere Anaís Huerta was born in Toronto, Canada. She studied political science in Canada and France, as well dramatic arts in several theater companies. Raúl Cuesta was born in Mexico City where he studied international business and photography. In 2002 he founded Lunave, a digital media agency, where he has created several communication projects. Together they created Amaina, a documentary production company, where they produced their first short film, Máximo. Rehje is their first feature documentary.
Producer: Anaís Huerta, Raúl Cuesta Production Companies: CONACULTA-IMCINE, FOPROCINE Screenwriter: Anaís Huerta Cinematographer: Carlos Hidalgo, Raúl Cuesta Editor: Anaís Huerta, Samuel Larson, Raúl Cuesta Sound Design: Pablo Fernández Music: Pascual Reyes Cast: Antonia Mondragón
Mexican American Cultural Center (MACC) Tues. April 27 5:00PM FREESix months after Bob Mader passed away in 2005, his son, Austin filmmaker Berndt Mader, discovers his father’s camera loaded with a last roll of film. In an attempt to deal with his grief, Berndt decides to finish this final roll in the small Mexican village of Tlacotepec—a town his father had visited and photographed 40 years before. On his journey to this obscure Mexican village, Berndt is diverted to the country of Belize where his sister has run into legal trouble in her adoption of a Belizian baby. After this detour and other misadventures, Berndt finally makes it to the town in Mexico. There he discovers there are possible connections to the past and answers to the questions of his own memory.
Ser y no ser To Be and Not to Be Oscar Serrano Mexico, Documentary, 2009 75 min, Video, Color/Black & White Spanish with English subtitles
Co-sponsored by the Austin Gay & Lesbian International Film Festival In the city of Mérida, during the 1970’s, Raúl García Santinelli was born with a female body. A journey, a story, a debate between the church and science, between mind and body, this documentary invites one to think about social standards, love between humans, tolerance, respect and courage.
US Premiere Producer: Cristina Barbachano Production Companies: Goliat Films Screenwriter: Cristina Barbachano Cinematographer: Aram Diaz Editor: Eun Hee Ihm Ahm Sound Design: Oscar Serrano Music: Ellenor Music
Regal Metropolitan - Thur. April 22 6:00PMBuy Tickets Shades of the Border Patrick William Smith Dominican Republic/Haiti/USA, Documentary, 2009 12 min, HDCAM, Color Spanish, Creole, English with English subtitles
Co-sponsored by Austin Film Society Located on the same small island but divided by class, wealth, and skin color, Haiti and the Dominican Republic face heated immigration issues. Through the eyes of a Dominican newspaper's editor-in-chief and through the lives of several Haitians crossing the Dominican border, this film explores the disconnections between the Dominican media and the reality of violence and racism against Haitians within the Dominican Republic.
Producer: Patrick William Smith Cinematographer: Patrick William Smith Editor: Patrick William Smith Sound Design: Patrick William Smith Music: Patrick William Smith
Hecho en Tejas Shorts Showcase Regal Metropolitan - Sat. April 24 12:00PM Director Patrick William Smith and cinematographer Roshan Murthy in attendance. Solidarity in Saya: An Afro-Bolivian Music Movement Maya Jensen USA, Documentary, 2009 30 min, MiniDV, Color Spanish, English with English subtitles
This documentary explores the modern resurgence of traditional Afro-Bolivian Saya music. The Afro-Bolivian community has been historically underrepresented and has remained marginalized in poverty since the abolition of slavery. In recent decades, the Saya music movement has empowered Afro-Bolivians to build solidarity in the face of discrimination. The musicians use Saya as a platform for political activism and have been gaining visibility in society by telling their story and defining their own identity through performance.
Texas Premiere
Producer: Maya Jensen Cinematographer: Maya Jensen Editor: Maya Jensen, Ilko Davidov Music: MOCUSABOL-La Paz, Mauchi-Cochabamba, and musicians from the villages of Tocaña and Chicaloma Cast: Mirian Iriondo Barra, Vicki Perez, Edgar Vasquez, Estela Barra, Manuel Barra, Angelica Pinedo, Johnny Perez, Jose Travalo Pinedo, Lorena Barra, Daniel Barra, Paula Yañes, Cristian Mendez, Lorna Vasquez, Enzo Pinedo, Jorge Medina
Panorama Documentary Shorts Showcase Mexican American Cultural Center (MACC) Tues. April 27 9:00PM FREESon & Moon (Diario de un astronauta) Son & Moon (The Astronaut Diary) Manuel Huerga Spain, Documentary, 2009 90 min, HD/DVCAM/DigiBeta/Web Cam, Color English, French, Spanish, and Russian with English subtitles
A human story, narrated in the first person by its protagonist, Commander Michael López-Alegría, about the difficulties a father faces in maintaining family ties with his seven year-old son during Expedition 14, a period of seven months and at a distance of 400 kilometers from the Earth. Son and Moon’ approaches the space world from an unusual point of view, combining spectacular images with others, private conversations between father and son via a simple webcam. The figures of space heroes bring them closer to us terrestrial beings by having them share the same difficulties. While we are celebrating 40 years since a man first walked on the moon, this film raises an original idea that struggles between compromise and the survival of the species.
Regional Premiere
Manuel Huerga has, since 1975, alternated studies in history at the University of Barcelona with the conduct of experimental work in Super 8, 16mm and video (a pioneer in the use of magnetic laptops) that presents and participates in numerous exhibitions and demonstrations of cutting-edge art: Caracas (1979), São Paulo Biennal (1981) and Montbéliard (1981) among others. In 2006 his second feature film Salvador, about the life, trial and execution of the Catalan anarchist Salvador Puig Antich, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival section “Un Certain Regard” in 2006.
Producer: Loris Omedes, Jaume Roures Production Companies: Bausan Films, Mediapro, Pentragrama Films Screenwriter: Quique Barberá, Manuel Huerga, Jordi Gasull Cinematographer: Jordi Abusada, Xavier Gil, Michael López-Alegría, Loris Omedes Editor: Manuel Huerga Sound Design: Dani Zacarías Music: Micka Luna Cast: Nico and Michael López-Alegría
Regal Metropolitan - Sun. April 25 2:00PM
Sowing the Seeds of Justice Abby Ginzberg USA, Documentary, 2010 60 min, HDV/DVCAM, Color English Cruz Reynoso was a man who felt the sting of injustice as a child and who, as a lawyer, judge, and American citizen, worked tirelessly to eradicate discrimination and inequality. Reynoso was born into a Spanish-speaking farming family of eleven children. He struggled to become educated, often finding himself in the cross hairs of controversy, yet guided by a strong moral compass, he was determined to enforce the guarantees of the Constitution. His ascent to the California Supreme Court was a singular achievement, for he became the first Latino justice on that bench. Throughout his career, Cruz Reynoso never forgot where he came from or on whose behalf he was fighting. Sowing the Seeds of Justice was supported by the Latino Public Broadcasting and the California Council for the Humanities.
Regional Premiere
Abby Ginzberg has been producing and directing award-winning documentary films since 1983. Her films focus on race, at risk youth and unsung heroes of the legal profession. She has recently completed a series of short films about innovative municipal responses to the HIV crisis in Oakland, Miami and the Bronx. Her films have played at film festivals across the country and internationally, and have been broadcast on public televsion.
Producer: Abby Ginzberg Production Companies: Ginzberg Video Productions Screenwriter: Steve Most Cinematographer: Vicente Franco Editor: Ken Schneider Sound Design: Jim LeBrecht, Patti Tauscher, Berkeley Sound Artists Music: B. Quincy Griffin Cast: Luis Valdez (narrator)
Mexican American Cultural Center (MACC) Sun. April 25 3:00PM FREE Stages Meerkat Media Collective USA, Documentary, 2009 82 min, Mini DV, Color Spanish, English with English subtitles
In New York City's changing Lower East Side, a group of older Puerto Rican women and inner-city youth come together to create an original play out of the stories of their lives. Over twenty weeks, the participants confront stereotypes and examine their own histories, exploring themes of immigration, relationships, aging and coming of age. Woven together, their stories take on new meaning, first as they are spoken across generations, and later when they are performed for a sold-out show. In response to a political climate that assigns little value to community arts initiatives, Stages offers an intimate portrait of an unlikely ensemble, transformed by the liberating power of their own stories. Stages was awarded the Best Documentary Award at HBO's New York International Latino Film Festival.
Austin Premiere
Collaboratively directed by twelve people, Stages is the Meerkat Media Collective’s first feature-length film. Meerkat Media has also produced over twenty short films, which have been featured in film festivals and screenings nationally and internationally. Through skill sharing and collective authorship, Meerkat Media strives to create works with a non-hierarchical and inclusive creative process.
Producer: Meerkat Media Collective Production Companies: Meerkat Media LLC Screenwriter: Meerkat Media Collective Cinematographer: Eric Phillips-Horst, Jay Arthur Sterrenberg Editor: Jay Arthur Sterrenberg Sound Design: Meerkat Media Collective Music: Meerkat Media (Josh Davis, Elliot Liu, Josh Hoisington) Cast: Lucy Calderon, Juanita Ferrier, Monsserate Vasquez, Maria Roman, Kelli Holsopple, Shontina Vernon, David Williams, Min Naing, Robin Munro
Mexican American Cultural Center (MACC) Sun. April 25 7:00PM FREE Filmmakers Sally Bergom, Brian John and Jay Arthur Sterrenberg in attendance. Mexican American Cultural Center (MACC) Wed. April 28 5:00PM FREEFilmmakers Sally Bergom, Brian John and Jay Arthur Sterrenberg in attendance. Sueños y sacrificios Dreams and Sacrifices Lotte Haase The Netherlands/Peru, Documentary, 2009 41 min, MiniDV, Color Spanish with English subtitles
In Peru, each year in the month of June thousands of people come together at the pilgrimage site of the Lord of Qoyllur Riti. At 4700 meters up in the mountains they gather to dance for this Lord, the mountains and the Sun. They do this in order to beseech forgiveness for their sins, but also to ask for material things. The film follows one of the dancers, Laura, who makes the pilgrimage for the first time. She is part of a religious dance group (“comparsa”) that has its particular Andean-Catholic practices in which discipline plays a large role. The film shows what it means for individuals to make this sometimes dangerous and physically demanding pilgrimage and the sacrifices one has to make to fulfill one’s dreams.
International Premiere
Lotte recently graduated from Leiden University in the Netherlands with an MA Cultural Anthropology and specialization in Cultural Anthropology. Sueños y sacrificios is her first film and is part of her graduation project that also includes a film about folkloric dance practices in the city of Cusco, Peru.
Producer: Lotte Haase Screenwriter: Lotte Haase Cinematographer: Lotte Haase Editor: Lotte Haase Sound Design: Lotte Haase Cast: Laura Huaman
Mexican American Cultural Center (MACC) Thur. April 22 9:00PM FREE
Mexican American Cultural Center (MACC) Sun. April 25 3:00PM (preceding Sowing the Seeds of Justice) FREE On May 20th, 1997, the team leader of a four-man US Marine unit conducting a counter-narcotics mission near border-town of Redford, Texas shot and killed 18-year-old Esequiel Hernández, Jr. within sight of the Hernández home. It was the first time an American citizen had been killed on US soil by the military or National Guard since 1970. None of the marines was ever charged with a crime. Compelled by the current political climate on the US-Mexico Border, the marines agreed to be interviewed for the first time for The Ballad of Esequiel Hernández. The film contrasts their frustration and guilt at having killed one of the citizens they were pledged to protect, with the anger and grief of a family whose son died at the hands of their own military. Narrated by Texas’ own Tommy Lee Jones.
As part of its new policy to end the “catch and release” of undocumented immigrants, the U.S. government opened the T. Don Hutto Residential Center in May 2006 as a prototype family detention facility. The facility is a former medium-security prison in central Texas operated by the Corrections Corporation of America, the largest private prison operator in the country. The facility houses immigrant children and their parents from all over the world who are awaiting asylum hearings or deportation proceedings. As information about troubling conditions at the facility leaks out, three activist attorneys seek to investigate and address the issues.
This is the story of the Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas, a Native American tribe indigenous to the state. Though they have been present in Texas and the surrounding areas for hundreds of years, their story is hardly taught and their existence is not recognized. In October 2008, members of the Lipan Apache Tribe opened the first museum for the continuation and preservation of their culture. This documentary aims to bring awareness to one Native American group that has become endangered through centuries of oppression and assimilation. As Lipan Tom Castillo expressed, “Hopefully now we can tell our story. Without fear.”
The Other Side of Immigration examines the causes and effects of international migration from the perspective of rural Mexican communities where large numbers of people leave to work in the United States. The film explores how NAFTA, Mexican agricultural policies, and Mexican politics have stimulated emigration over the past two decades; the extent to which households in rural Mexico directly and indirectly depend on money that undocumented immigrants send home; and the effects of emigration on families and children left behind in rural Mexico.
Tom Zé: Astronauta libertado Tom Zé: Liberated Astronaut Ígor Iglesias González Spain, Music Documentary, 2009 90 min, HDV, Color/Black & White Spanish, Portuguese with English subtitles
Tom Zé has not always occupied a position of comfort in the Brazilian music scene. This film gives us the opportunity to get closer to the artist's long labor of unceasing experimentation, in which he has had the courage to break established molds and refuse to accept what is considered correct and commercial. For all the unpleasant ups and downs encountered along the way, he has always been unflinching in his beliefs. Tying together Zé’s reflections, an ample catalogue of archive images, as well as the opinions of important figures of Brazilian music, this film paints a rich portrait of his life and music and the surprising and endearing man that he is. Audience Award winner for Best Foreign Documentary at the São Paulo International Film Festival and Best Documentary Winner at the Festival de Cine Asturiano 2010.
Regional Premiere Ígor Iglesias González was born in Asturias, Spain. In 1995 he moved to Madrid, where he began his career as a technician in the world of cinema. For twelve years, he was involved in some twenty fiction feature films. He has worked with, among others, Pedro Almodóvar, Alex de la Iglesia, Frederick Forrestier, Gonzalo Suárez, Agustín Díaz Yanes, Vicente Aranda, Ray Loriga. Tom Zé: Liberated Astronaut is the fruit of three years work. It is Igor’s first film as director and producer, a very personal project, done through his own production company, Xique-Xique Films.
Producer: Ígor Iglesias González Production Companies: Xique-Xique Films Screenwriter: Ígor Iglesias González Cinematographer: Cristina Rodriguez Paz Editor: Ígor Iglesias González Sound Design: Antonio Rodríguez "Mármol" Music: Tom Zé Cast: Tom Zé
Alamo South Lamar - Thur. April 22 7:00PMBuy Tickets
Regal Metropolitan - Sat. April 24 12:00PM Buy Tickets
In the midst of the tough social context of Pinochet’s dictatorship, Raúl Peralta, a man in his fifties, is obsessed with the idea of impersonating “Tony Manero,” John Travolta’s character in Saturday Night Fever. He leads a small group of dancers regularly performing at a bar located in the outskirts of the city every Saturday. Beneath Raúl’s exterior of seeming indifference to anything except meticulous recreation of Tony Manero’s dance moves and the chance to compete in a nationally televised Tony Manero impersonating contest, lies a darker side of his personality driven to commit a bizarre series of violent crimes. Meanwhile, his dancing partners, who are involved in underground activities against the regime, are persecuted by the government’s secret police. Tony Manero is a story about the loss of identity and obsession in recent Chilean history.
Un fragmento de intimidad tells the story of two Mexican immigrant cross dressers in Montreal who are part of a show in which they portray famous Latin American women artists. In telling the story of Pedro Manrique Figueroa, the pioneer of collage in Colombia, Ospina proposes nothing less than the re-telling and re-imagining of a crucial period of Colombian history, from the civil war that began in 1948 to the guerrilla fighting and new drug culture of the 1970s. Un tigre de papel is a collage itself, where art and politics, truth and lies, documentary and fiction intermingle.
Unidad 25 is the only jail-church in Latin America. There, in an environment that functions according to its unique set of rules, two hundred and fifty prisoners and thirty guards share their passion for Evangelism. This documentary film follows a prisoner from his arrival to the jail, his initial fear and distrust of the people around him, through his eventual indoctrination and transformation into an Evangelical prisoner.
In the remote Spanish village of Riofrío, most of the women have left. Unable to bear the disastrous situation any longer, the village men organize a busload of single women to come from Madrid to relieve their solitude. Their ideal aim is to fall in love but having never learned how to relate to women, besides their mothers and prostitutes, the event turns into a bizarre adventure. Waiting for Women is a heart-warming documentary about love, solitude, gender, migration and hope. Whales of Gold Lucia Duncan USA, Documentary, 2009 39 min, Mini DV, Color Spanish, English with English subtitles
Every winter tourists, scientists, and conservationists descend upon the San Ignacio Lagoon in Baja California, Mexico following the migration of grey whales. Their presence--and the establishment of Latin America's largest biosphere reserve--brings profound change to the lagoon’s small fishing community. Whales of Gold voices local people's concerns about these changes and what the future will bring. It also raises questions about how to conserve the habitat and the species in a way that sustains the livelihoods of local people, as well as including them in decisions regarding the use of natural resources. Best Documentary, Next Frame Student Film Festival & U. Frame Student Film Festival.
Austin Premiere
Lucia has directed films about labor, tourism, culture, and the environment. Her film Making History: SEIU and the Labor Movement won a CINE Golden Eagle Award. As a Fulbright Fellow in Brazil, she made Olinda: World Cultural Heritage Site and Lord of Olinda, and worked for Video in the Villages, teaching documentary production to indigenous youth. She has a BA in Development Studies and Portuguese/Brazilian Studies from Brown University and an MFA in Film and Video from the University of Texas.
Producer: Lucia Duncan Cinematographer: Lucia Duncan Editor: Lucia Duncan Sound Design: Greg Armstrong Music: Jim Hershman
Hecho en Tejas Shorts Showcase Regal Metropolitan - Sat. April 24 12:00PM
Mexican American Cultural Center (MACC) Tues. April 27 5:00PM (preceding Rehje) Director Lucia Duncan in attendance. Which Way Home Rebecca Cammisa USA, Documentary, 2009 83 min, HD Cam, Color Spanish with English subtitles
As the United States continues to build a wall between itself and Mexico, Which Way Home shows the personal side of immigration through the eyes of young Central American and Mexican children who face harrowing dangers with enormous courage and resourcefulness as they endeavor to make it to the United States on freight trains. The film is a gripping documentary about a situation that adults should never have to endure, let alone children. Which Way Home was an Academy Award nominee for Best Feature Documentary.
Texas Premiere
A native of Sleepy Hollow, New York, Rebecca Cammisa became a filmmaker in 1998 when she teamed up with Rob Fruchtman to co-direct, co-produce and shoot the feature documentary film, Sister Helen, which aired on HBO's Cinemax Channel and won the 2002 Documentary Directing Award at Sundance as well as the Gold Hugo for Best Documentary at the Chicago International Film Festival. Which Way Home is her second feature documentary as a director and cinematographer.
Producer: Rebecca Cammisa Production Companies: Mr Mudd, Documentress Films Cinematographer: Lorenzo Hagerman, Eric Goethals Editor: Pax Wasserman, Madeleine Gavin Sound Design: Luis Mercio, Gabriel Coll Barberis, Jesus Sanchez Padilla, Eduardo Trejo Music: James Lavino, Alberto Iglesias Regal Metropolitan - Fri. April 23 8:00PMBuy Tickets
Regal Metropolitan - Sun. April 25 12:00PM |
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