Every Thursday through Sunday, May 22 through July 11 @ 7:30 p.m. Zeitgeist will present a weekly series of new films from Latin America co-curated by local film distribution company Las Américas Film Network. This series is made possible through the generous sponsorship of the STONE CENTER FOR LATIN AMERICAN STUDIES at Tulane University and LAS AMERICAS FILM NETWORK.
ZEITGEIST is located at 1618 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd, (504) 827-5858.
SCHEDULE:
| June 12 through 15 @ 7:30 p.m. |
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Please Note: Although several of the film trailers below are entirely in Spanish, all films will be screened with English subtitles.
ERENDIRA, IKIKUNARI by Juan Roberto Mora Catlett
Thursday through Sunday, May 22 through 25 @ 7:30 p.m.
ERENDIRA IKIKUNARI is a beautifully shot action film that recreates the 16th century legend of Eréndira, a young Purépecha woman who became an icon of bravery during the destruction of indigenous Mexico by the Spanish conquistadors. When the Spanish arrive they take advantage of the discord and conflict among the Mexican natives, reaping the benefits of a region divided. Eréndira, a young Purépecha woman on the verge of marriage, refuses to allow her land to be destroyed and stands up to the social conventions prohibiting women to participate in battle. In the face of the invasion, she steals and learns to ride a horse against the Spanish, winning the respect of her tribal leaders. Along her amazing journey, she becomes a symbol of strength and resistance within her culture. This feature length film was shot entirely in the original Purépecha language. (Mexico, 2007, 117 mins.)
POSTCARDS FROM LENINGRAD by Mariana Rondon
Thursday through Sunday, May 29 through June 1 @ 7:30 p.m.
In 1966 a young guerilla woman attempts to give birth without much fanfare. However, when the resulting baby is the first to be born on Mother’s Day, she finds herself in the middle of a PR blitz. And, after that, she and her daughter are on the run. Hidden places, false disguises, and aliases are the daily life of the young girl, the narrator of the story, until she is left with relatives in her mother’s village. Alongside her cousin - irresistibly cute Teo - they re-live the adventures of their guerrilla parents, concocting stories of superheroes and strategies, in which nobody knows where fact or fiction, reality or madness begins. The Invisible Man is their preferred character and vehicle of escape. Every day is punctuated by the waiting… for their parents… or postcards. Will today be the day they come? Both a comic vignette of village life and a graphic portrayal of dangerous revolutionaries in action, POSTCARDS FROM LENINGRAD is a highly stylized and inventive film of life on the run. (Venezuela, 2007, 90 mins.)
XXY by Lucia Puenzo
Thursday through Sunday, June 5 through 8 @ 7:30 p.m.
Winner Critics Week Grand Prize – Cannes Film Festival and nine other major awards including the Goya Award (Spanish Oscars) for Best Spanish Language Foreign Film. For just about everybody, adolescence means having to confront a number of choices and life decisions, but rarely any as monumental as the one facing 15 year-old Alex (Ines Efron,) who was born an inter-sex (hermaphrodite) child. As Alex begins to explore her/his sexuality, her/his mother invites friends from Buenos Aires to come for a visit at their house on the gorgeous Uruguayan shore, along with their 16-year-old son Álvaro (Martin Piroyanski.) Alex is immediately attracted to the young man, which adds yet another level of complexity to her/his personal search for identity, and forces both families to face their worst fears. (Argentina, 2007, 86 mins.)
COCHOCHI by Israel Cardenas & Laura Amelia Guzman
Thursday through Sunday, June 12 through 15 @ 7:30 p.m.
Winner of the Discovery Award at Toronto Film Festival & Grand Jury Prize Miami Film Festival. Evaristo and Luis Antonio – indigenous brothers from the Sierra Tarahumara in northwest Mexico – have just graduated from boarding elementary school. Evaristo desires to continue his education, leading a bicultural life, where the Tarahumara, or Raramuri as they call themselves, have the opportunity to keep learning to speak, read and write in Spanish, the Mexican official language. Meanwhile Luis Antonio “Tony” is very happy to be done with school. Even though he is a smart kid and has won a grant to move on to high school, he prefers to live life in the ranch, where the kids grow up at a very young age. One morning the brothers are sent to deliver some medicine to a far away community. Tony asks their grandfather for permission to take his horse but the answer is no. Nevertheless, he decides to take it, even if Evaristo is not convinced. They take a wrong path that leads them to a narrow and deep canyon. The horse cannot go on so the boys tie it around a tree. When they come back for it the horse is no longer there. Both, angry and worried, walk in the forest looking for it; Tony thinks the horse was stolen while Evaristo is worried about the assignment. Arguing about this, they suddenly lose each other. Now each on their own continue the journey separately; Tony looks for the horse and ends up at an amusing party, while Evaristo is lonely in the canyons looking for the place to deliver the medicine. The trip becomes longer than expected. They can’t go back without the horse. (Mexico, 2007, 87 mins.)
MUXES: Authentic, Interpid Seekers of Danger by Aljendra Islas
Thursday through Sunday, June 19 through 22 @ 7:30 p.m.
Winner, Audience Award, Morelia International Film Festival, 2006 - Among the Zapotec Indians of Oaxaca, Mexico, boy babies who are born in a certain position, or little boys whoprefer to play with girls, are raised as women, and are known as Muxes (pronounced "Mooshays").
In the town of Juchitán, in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Muxes have an important role to play in the life of the community. Because they are raised as women, the Muxes prefer to enter into relations with "straight" men. Since female virginity is important for marriage in Juchitán, unmarried boys have their first experiences with Muxes, but usually move on to a heterosexual marriage.
The Muxes of Juchitán are proud of their identity, enjoy their lives, laugh at themselves as well as at "straight" society, and admit their own foibles freely. They call themselves "Authentic, Intrepid Seekers of Danger," and have banded together to lead the fight against AIDS in Oaxaca. They talk frankly about their experiences of acceptance and rejection, and their successes in finding freedom, love and delight in their special identity. (Mexico, 2005, 105 mins.)
VIEW THE TRAILER
FABRICATING TOM ZÉ by Decio Matos Junior
Thursday & Friday, June 26 & 27 @ 7:30 p.m.
Fabricating Tom Zé is a documentary that portrays the life and work of one of the most controversial and creative Brazilian musicians, having as its backdrop Tom Zé's 2005 European Tour. The documentary mixes different video, film and animation formats in order to show a detailed vision of Tom Zé's personal musical universe, in which a guitar and a vacuum cleaner have the same melodic importance. In intimate interviews, he narrates different parts of his life and tells us about his musical debut in the early 60s, his downfall during the 70s and his 90s comeback. The film carries interviews with Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso, David Byrne and others. (Brazil, 2007, 90 mins.)
WHO KILLED THE WHITE LLAMA? by Rodrigo Bellott.
Saturday & Sunday, June 28 & 29 @ 7:30 p.m.
Highest grossing Bolivian film ever! Jacinto and Domitila are two happily married indigenous Bolivians and the most notorious criminals in the country. When they are paid to transport 50 grams of cocaine to the Brazilian border, they embark on riotous adventure that will take them through the jungles, mountains, deserts, and cities of Bolivia on a riotous adventure that will test their relationship and make them question their future as criminals. With two of the country’s top anti-narcotics officers on their trail, what should have been a simple arrest soon becomes a hilarious game of cat-and-mouse, exposing all the irony and corruption that comes with Bolivian life. (Bolivia, 2006, 112 mins)
WOOD AND STOCK: SEX, OREGANO AND ROCK AND ROLL by Otto Guerra
Thursday & Friday, July 3 & 4 @ 7:30 p.m.
This internationally acclaimed animated feature takes place during a hippie, drug induced New Year's party in 1972. At the party the characters are enjoying a purple haze coming from a Brazilian flower. When the fireworks explode, 30 years have suddenly passed and characters, having grown old and potbellied, have to face a world far more difficult and consumer oriented than in 1972. A hilarious satire of two fat old hippies trying to cope with the pace of modern life, bills to pay, and the demands of having a family. (Brazil,2006, 81 mins)
DeNADIE by Tin Dirdamal.
Saturday, July 5 @ 7:30 p.m.
Winner Audience Award, 2006 Sundance Film Festival and 15 other awards. Prepare for the journey as an unknown, a nothing, no one. Prepare to leave everything from South and Central America behind and travel alone with a vague sense of direction and the echo of your family left in your ears. Prepare to face the same intimidation and corruptive danger in Mexico as you will eventually find 1,300 miles north, when you cross into the United States–if you live through it. As rich nations sharpen their borders and differences, the poorest peoples continue to blur them in the search for liberties too universally held to be claimed by any flag. Through this burning hunger, we are drawn into DeNADIE, and through its intimate lens and enduring crew, we find ourselves confronted with a story of immigration we only thought we understood. First-time filmmaker Tin Dirdamal displays moving photographic grace and sophisticated understanding of his subjects as he follows their search for the sustenance their native countries can't provide. These personal stories force deeper understanding of the United States' border crisis, while exposing hypocrisies in a Mexican culture faced with equally uncomfortable intolerance of its own. All this from a film that doesn't take political stances; it merely brings us the voices of those affected, the results of which are far louder. (Mexico, 2005, 80 mins)
THE OTHER CUP by Damian Cukierkorn
Sunday, July 6 @ 7:30 p.m.
For the first in time, Argentina sends a team to the 2004 Homeless World Cup in Gotenberg, Sweden. From sleeping on the cold stairs of a subway, to playing soccer in the heart of the First World, these few months of training and play will change their lives forever. THE OTHER CUP follows Argentina's first homeless soccer team as they struggle to raise money to travel, deal with legal problems and fight against their own demons to achieve a goal they never could have dreamed possible. Director Damian Cukierkorn eloquently delivers a powerful human story of hope, happiness and heartbreak. This powerful film goes beyond traditional documentary filmmaking and engages the viewer like watching the final minutes of a World Cup match. The preparation, the expectations of the players, and ultimately an intimate trip to live their dream become part of another, more personal goal, The Other Cup. (Argentina, 2006, 88 mins)
THE PRISON AND THE STREET by Liliana Sulzbach
Thursday, July 10 @ 7:30 p.m.
Multi-award winner and recipient of the Sundance Documentary Fund grant. Cláudia is the oldest and most respected inmate at Madre Pelletier Penitentiary - the one who gives the orders and who protects. She protects young Daniela, whose life is at risk because she is accused of having killed her own child. But Cláudia, like another inmate Betânia, is to leave the prison soon.
Daniela will be left alone to defend herself. Cláudia leaves in search of her son. Betânia feels the temptation of leaving the half-way she is assigned to in order to live in freedom with a new love. THE PRISON AND THE STREET wanders between the cells at Madre Pelletier women’s penitentiary in Porto Alegre and the streets of the capital of Rio Grande do Sul state. Bars and freedom, women and crime, recovery and recurrence, are the themes director Liliana Sulzbach talk about in this intensely engaging documentary. Her three characters- Daniela Cabral, aged 19, charged with the killing of her own son; Betânia Fontoura, aged 28, condemned to 15 years for robbery; and Cláudia Rullian, aged 54, the inmate who has served the longest sentence - are the vehicles through which the story is told. The links and disconnections between prison and the outside world play out through the lives of these three characters. (Brazil, 2004, 80 mins)
TO PLAY AND TO FIGHT by Alberto Arvelo
Friday, July 11 @ 7:30 p.m.
TO PLAY AND TO FIGHT presents the captivating story of the Venezuelan Youth Orchestra System - an incredible network of hundreds of orchestras formed within most of Venezuela’s towns and villages. The documentary portrays the inspirational stories of world class musicians trained by the Venezuelan system. With interviews with many of the world’s most celebrated musicians including the great tenor Placido Domingo, Claudio Abbado, Sir Simon Rattle, Guiseppe Sinopoli, and Eduardo Mata, TO PLAY AND TO FIGHT is an inspirational story of courage, determination, ambition, and love showing us that… only those who dream can achieve the impossible. (Venezuela, 2006, 90 mins)
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