UniDIversity Film Festival
DEPARTMENT OF SPANISH AND PORTUGUESE / CENTER FOR AMERICAN AND WORLD CULTURES
Globalization & Contemporary Latin American Cinema
FALL 2013 – SPN 490
Monday, September 9th
PIZZA, BIRRA, FASO
Monday, October 21st
NUEVE REINAS
A group of teenage criminals wander the streets of Buenos
Aires. One of the youths, Cordoba, whose girlfriend Sandra
is pregnant, tries to amass enough money so they can leave
Argentina for Uruguay and start a new life. He and his friends
plan one last robbery, but things don’t go as planned. The film
that is credited with initiating the “new wave” of Argentine
cinema in the late 1990s.
A fast-paced, quick-witted caper film about two grifters, Juan
(Gaston Pauls) and Marcos (Ricardo Darín), who team up
for a day and night of swindles in Buenos Aires. Nine Queens
reveals an implicit, despairing vision of Argentina which, given
the disintegration of the national economy that took place
just a few short months after the film was released, gives it a
powerful allegorical resonance.
(Pizza, Beer and Cigarettes)
1998, Dirs. Adrián Caetano / Bruno Stagnaro
(Nine Queens)
2000, Dir. Fabián Bielinsky
Monday, September 16th
Y TU MAMÁ TAMBIÉN
Monday, October 28th
JUAN DE LOS MUERTOS
2001, Dir. Alfonso Cuarón
(Juan of the Dead)
2011, Dir. Alejandro Brugués
Abandoned by their girlfriends for the summer, teenagers
Tenoch (Diego Luna) and Julio (Gael García Bernal) meet
a beautiful Spanish woman, Luisa (Maribel Verdú), who
joins them on a road trip to a fictional beach called Boca del
Cielo. Heading out of Mexico City the trio gets to know each
other intimately, in a story that explores issues of economic
inequality, social class, machismo and globalization.
Fifty years after the Revolution, the island of Cuba is overrun
by the living dead. Two friends- Juan (Alexis Días de Villegas)
and Lázardo (Jorge Molina)- hatch a plan to launch a zombie
extermination service, in this satirical horror film from
director Alejandro Brugués. Cuban cinema’s first ever zombie
movie, whose title pays homage to the camp zombie classic
Dawn of the Dead and its spoof, Shaun of the Dead.
Monday, September 23rd
BABEL
Monday, November 4th
PARAISO TRAVEL
This multinarrative drama portrays stories taking place in
Morocco, Japan, and the US/Mexico, which, as the result
of a single tragic incident, all converge at the end. This film
completes Mexican director González Iñárritu’s trilogy (which
includes Amores Perros and 21 Grams) and won him Best
Director at Cannes.
Marlon (Aldemar Correa), a young Colombian man, is
convinced by his girlfriend, Reina (Angelica Blandon) to
leave his comfortable life in Medellín. Together they embark
on an unpredictable journey through Guatemala and
Mexico, crossing the borders illegally into the United States,
and ultimately confronting the reality of immigrant life in
New York City.
2006, Dir. Alejandro González Iñárritu
2008, Dir. Simon Brand
Monday, October 1st
BIUTIFUL
Monday, November 11th
SLEEP DEALER
In the underworld of Barcelona, Uxbal (Javier Bardem) survives
by operating as a middleman in business with illegal immigrant
workers in the Chinese community. When he’s diagnosed
with a terminal illness, he tries to put his affairs in order so his
children will be taken care of. The film is a powerful exploration
of the notions of human dignity, loss and redemption, in the
context of the alienating realm of global capitalism.
This futuristic science fiction film depicts a dystopian world
in which technology both oppresses and connects migrants.
A fortified wall has ended illegal US-Mexico immigration,
but migrant workers are replaced by robots, remotely
controlled by the same class of would-be emigrants. Their life
force is inevitably used up, and they are discarded without
medical compensation.
2010, Dir. Alejandro González Iñárritu
2008, Dir. Alex Rivera
Monday, October 7th
Monday, November 18th
Human Rights Week
ROBATIERRA
STELLET LICHT
(Silent Light)
2007, Dir. Carlos Reygadas
Set in a rural Mennonite community in Mexico and performed
by a cast of mostly Mennonite nonprofessionals in the dialect
of Plautdietsch, this film is the story of Johan, a married farmer
who faces a moral dilemma that threatens to destroy the soul of
his wife, Esther. A deeply moving film influenced by European
directors Carl Theodor Dryer, Andrei Tarkovsky and others.
Monday, October 14th
SIN NOMBRE
2009, Dir. Cary Fukunaga
Sin Nombre (“without a name”) weaves two stories: One involves
Sayra (Paulina Gaitan), a young woman from Honduras who
journeys through Guatemala and Mexico in order to join
relatives in New Jersey. The other involves Willy (Edgar Flores)a member of the Mara Salvatrucha, one of the most violent and
dangerous gangs in Latin America- whose job it is to rob those
riding north on freight cars. Sayra’s and Willy’s paths cross.
(Stolen Land)
2009, Dirs. Margarita Martinez / Miguel Salazar
{
This documentary follows Lucho Acosta- the leader of the
indigenous Nasa people of Colombia- as he fights to reclaim
the ancestral land that was stolen from them while also fending
off new threats of violence encroaching on their community.
Facing nearly insurmountable odds, Acosta and his beliefs are
tested to their core. The last time an agreement was reached,
nearly 20 years ago, the result was a massacre.
ALL SCREENINGS ARE FREE
AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
MONDAYS 6– 8 PM – ART 100
}