ADJUSTING IN NICARAGUA: THE IMF, WORLD BANK AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT**
Description: A documentary about the effects of IMF and World Bank policies on the economy and society of Nicaragua, and the efforts to counteract the negative results of such policies through cooperative and community development efforts. This film is based primarily on oral interviews with representatives from development agencies.
Language: Spanish
Subtitles: English
Length: 50 minutes

ALPACAS: AN ANDEAN GAMBLE**
Description: A documentary about the efforts to bring alpacas, indigenous animals of the Andes who were sacred in Inca culture, to a community in Northern Peru. Populations of alpacas were devastated during the Spanish conquest. The film depicts this cooperative project, which was initiated in the small Andean community and sponsored by the Interamerican Foundation.
Language: English
Subtitles: None
Length: 28 minutes

AMERICAS**
Description: A nine-part documentary series on the history of the Americas. Each film carries a special region, time period, or theme. Consult our online film guide for detailed descriptions of each film.
Language: English
Subtitles: None
Length: 60 minutes

BENEDITA DA SILVA**
Description: A profile of the first black woman ever to be elected city councilor and member of the Brazilian Parliament from the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. Bene, as she prefers to be called, has lived her entire life in the favelas and worked for twenty-five years as a domestic servant before beginning her public life in 1982, when she won a post as city councilor and was elected a federal MP in 1986. She now devotes her efforts to fighting the racism and discrimination faced by Rio’s slum dwellers, and comments from community leaders and residents show the love and respect she has earned.
Language: Portuguese
Subtitles: English
Length: 29 minutes

BETTY Y PANCHO**
Description: A portrait of the 50 year marriage of Elizabeth Catlett, the renowned African American sculptor, and the Mexican painter, Francisco Mora. Now in their eighties, the couple shares the same studio in Cuernavaca, and exhibits their work in New York, Mexico City, London, and Berlin. The granddaughter of North Carolina slaves, Catlett has been presented the key to the city of New Orleans on the occasion of its bicentennial, and won many other awards. Some of her work is included in the Museum of Art at NC Central.
Language: Spanish
Subtitles: English
Length: 57 Minutes

BOCA DEL LOBO, LA**
Description: La boca del lobo is fiction inspired by the Peruvian army’s November 1983 massacre of 47 men, women and children suspected of terrorism. When the news of the massacre came out, the army blamed Shining Path for the atrocities, but one eyewitness testified to the contrary. The movie portrays the moral and emotional disintegration of the members of a small army detachment sent away from any world they know to root out Shining Path missing in a remote mountain village.
Language: Spanish
Subtitles: English
Length: 122 minutes

BODA, LA**
Description: You are invited to the wedding of Elizabeth and Artemio in Nuevo León, Mexico. The video introduces a young couple whose lives and community have roots in Mexico while they encounter the challenges of migrant life in the United States.
Language: Spanish
Subtitles: English
Length: 53 minutes

BORDERLINE CASES**
Description: Nearly 2000 maquiladoras have been built in Mexico by companies from the US, Asia and Europe. As a result, the border became a 2000 mile long open sewer, and a vast toxic waste dump. Filmed in three border regions, (Matamoros and Brownsville; Tijuana and San Diego; Ciudad Juarez and El Paso), Borderline Cases reveals the complexity and magnitude of the cleanup, and gives a sense of energy and imagination found in the diverse mix of people of both countries, from grass-roots, governments, academia and industry, who are re-thinking traditional notions of borders as they engage in the search for solutions.
Language: English
Subtitles:
Length: 65 minutes

BRAZIL* **
Description: This film is intended as an introduction to Brazil, for people of all ages.
Language: English
Subtitles: None
Length: 55 minutes

BREAK OF DAWN**
Description: Oscar Chavez, a great Mexican singer and actor is the leading actor of this story about the life of Pedro Gonzalez, the host of a radio show in 1930s Los Angeles. His life was filled with romance and music until he challenged a powerful and corrupt political system.
Language: English
Subtitles: None
Length: 100 minutes

BURIED MIRROR, THE**
Description: (five part series) A co-production of Spanish television and the Smithsonian Institute, this Quincentenary series, narrated by the well known Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes, is an excellent historical analysis and creatively filmed story of the encounter of two worlds in 1492 and the aftermath of this encounter. Five hours in total, it can be shown separately or individually. The parts are titled: “The Virgin and the Bull”, “Conflict of the Gods”, “The Age of Gold,” “The Price of Freedom,” “Unfinished Business.”
Language: English
Subtitles: None
Length: 60 minutes each

BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB**
Description: The German filmmaker Wim Wenders directs a documentary about the Cuban musicians in the group Buena Vista Social Club. This group has toured the U.S. and their albums have been best sellers for months. The elder members have many unique stories to tell from a country that has been sealed off to American citizens for decades.
Language: Spanish
Subtitles: English
Length: 101 minutes

CABEZA DE VACA**
Description: Freely adopted from the book Naufragios by Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca (written in 1542). The film portrays the saga of the adventures of a group of Spanish soldiers in Mexico. Their leader, Cabeza de Vaca, is considered to be one of the first Spaniards to come to some appreciation of the native Indians.
Language: Spanish
Subtitles: English
Length: 112 minutes

CARACOLES: NEW PATHS OF RESISTANCE**
Description: This is a celebration of the death of the “Aguascalientes” and the birth of the Caracoles and the Good Government Assemblies. Zapatista leaders discuss how changes will affect internal political and economic processes, gender relations, and their relationship to international civil society. The video is an open call to join the Zapatista communities in their struggle for recognition of their autonomy and in their fight against neo-liberal economic policies and globalization.
Language: Spanish
Subtitles: English
Length: 42 minutes

CARLOS FUENTES**
Description: An interview with the renowned Mexican novelist for World Monitor–a television presentation of the Christian Science Monitor.
Language: English
Subtitles: None
Length: 7 minutes

CARMEN MIRANDA: BANANAS IS MY BUSINESS**
Description: This film relates the intimate saga of the star who captured the world’s heart and imagination. It reveals the lasting image of Latin American women she created and serves as a celebration of her glorious talents. Using active footage, film fragments, interviews and dramatic re-enactments, acclaimed director Helena Solberg goes behind the scenes to convey the true life story of the “Brazilian Bombshell.”
Language: Portuguese
Subtitles: English
Length: 90 minutes

CHAC, THE RAIN GOD**
Description: This film, based on ritual and legends from the Popul Vuh, as well as Tzeltal and Mayan stories, and shot in the Chiapas region of Mexico, focuses on a small Tzeltal village during a terrible draught. Desperate for relief, thirteen men set out on a quest to save their people from starvation.
Language: Yucatec Maya
Subtitles: English
Length: 95 minutes

CHE GUEVARA, ERNESTO**
Description: On October 9, 1967, Che Guevara was executed by the Bolivian army, aided by the CIA. Che’s diary, a detailed, personal account of his futile 11-month attempt to spark a revolution in Bolivia, is the basis of this intimate filmed portrait.
Language: English
Subtitles: None
Length: 94 minutes

CHIAPAS! THE FIGHT FOR LAND AND LIBERTY**
Description: Produced by John Alpert and Maryann DeLio; co-produced by the Disarm Educational Fund and the Ecumenical Program on Central America and the Caribbean. Through interviews with peasants and peasant leaders, the Catholic Church, human rights workers and victims of Army abuses, and government officials, this documentary attempts to portray the life of the indigenous in Chiapas and show why and how the revolution of the Zapatista National Liberation Front in 1994 makes sense in their lives.
Language: English
Subtitles: None
Length: 28 minutes

CHICANA**
Description: Made by Sylvia Morales. Chicana traces the history of Chicana and Mexican women from pre-Columbian times to the present. It covers women’s role in Aztec society, their participation in the 1810 struggle for Mexican independence, their involvement in the US labor strikes in 1872, their contributions to the 1910 Mexican revolution and their leadership in contemporary civil rights causes.
Language: English
Subtitles: English
Length: 23 minutes

CHILE: MEMORIA OBSTINADA, (OBSTINANT MEMORY)**
Description: Film director Patricio Guzmán returns to Chile bringing his 1975 documentary, Battle of Chile, never shown there before.  He talks with many who experienced first hand the 1973 coup against Allende.  They recognize themselves and other comrades in the film. He also talks with Chilean youth who are seeing for the first time a national history to which they were otherwise oblivious.
Language: Spanish
Subtitles: None
Length: 58 minutes

CHRISTMAS IN MEXICO*
Description: This film looks at the Christmas traditions of Mexico, which feature influences from both Spanish and Native American backgrounds. Intended primarily for younger audiences, with highlights of the celebrations. Produced by the Educational Video Network
Language: English
Subtitles: None
Length: 25 minutes

CINCO DE MAYO* **
Description: EVA film briefly introducing this important Mexican-American holiday. On May 5, 1862 a Mexican army defeated French invaders at Puebla. The war with France lasted until 1867, but this important victory became a second independence day. Intended for younger audiences.
Language: English
Subtitles:

CINE MAMBEMBE (CINEMA DISCOVERS BRAZIL) **
Description: A pair of filmmakers journey to the interior of Brazil, screening short films to audiences in town squares. From Bahía to the Amazon, they discover a vast country going to the movies, seeing themselves on the big screen for the first time.
Language: Portuguese
Subtitles: English
Length: 56 minutes

CITIES OF THE ANCIENT MAYAS* **
Description: A documentary by the Educational Video Network. Intended for younger audiences.
Language: English
Subtitles: None
Length: 23 minutes

CIUDAD Y LOS PERROS, LA**
Description: A story about how cadets rebelling against authority in a military academy end up forming a junta with its own hierarchy and rules. Based on the novel by Mario Vargas Llosa.
Language: Spanish
Subtitles: English
Length: 138 minutes

COLUMBUS DIDN’T DISCOVER US* **
Description: This documentary features interviews with indigenous activists from North, South, and Central America who gathered at the First Continental Conference of Indigenous Peoples in July of 1990. Native people speak about the impact on their cultures of the Columbus legacy, contemporary struggles over land and human rights, the importance of reviving spiritual traditions, and the need to alert the world to environmental crises.
Language: English
Subtitles: None
Length: 24 minutes

COMPADRE MENDOZA**
Description: This rare example of classic Mexican cinema examines the corrupted ideals of the Revolution in the story of an opportunistic landowner who faces the choice of remaining loyal to a general in Zapata’s army and being financially ruined or saving his own skin. The character of the general is clearly modeled on Zapata himself.
Language: Spanish
Subtitles: English

CONQUISTADORS**
Description: The conquest of the New World in less than 50 years is one of history’s most profound events–and remains one of its greates adventures. British historian Michael Wood captures the bravery, endurance, greed, cruelty, and suffering involved in these 16th-century explorations. Wood turns his attention to the Americas to follow four amazing tales: Cortes’ dramatic conquest of the Aztecs in Mexico; Pizarro’s daring overthrow of the Incas in Peru; Orellana’s obsessive search for El Dorado and discovery of the Amazon; and Cabeza de Vaca’s pivotal crossing of the North American continent. Great Britain/Latin America.
Language: English
Subtitles:
Length: 240 minutes

CORAZON INDIO**
Description: A video series from Mirandas Anthropological Workshop (Taller Mirandas
Antropologicas) that works towards recognition of the presence of indigenous
towns in Mexico and their participation in the daily life of the nation.
Language: Spanish
Subtitles: None
Length: 25 minutes

COUPLE IN THE CAGE**
Description: This film documents the travelling performance of Guillermo Gómez-Peña and Coco Fusco, in which they exhibit themselves as caged Amerindians from an imaginary island, providing a vivid and provocative interpretation of cultural encounters.
Language: English
Subtitles: None
Length: 30 minutes

CRUCEROS Y CAMINOS**
Description: Like many communities across the Southeast, the town of Clinton, North Carolina, has become home to a vibrant and growing Spanish-speaking community. This diverse community of migrants, who are attracted to the area by jobs in the agriculture and livestock industries, are struggling to honor their cultural and religious identities while making new lives. This short video documentary, made by a graduate student from UNC- Greensboro in collaboration with Clinton’s Immaculate Conception Church and local Latino leaders, consists of still and moving images of community meetings, religious ceremonies, and cultural festivals which are narrated by a mosaic of voices from the community.
Language: Spanish
Subtitles: English
Length: 17 minutes

CUBA, ISLAND OF DREAMS**
Description: Experience a tour through mountains, beaches, and the colorful panorama Cuba has to offer. This video provides pieces of folklore, music, architecture, history, as it shows the major cities of the island. Video Visits.
Language: English
Subtitles: None
Length: 52 minutes

CUBA VA: THE CHALLENGE OF THE NEXT GENERATION**
Description: A fast paced weaving of sound bites and interviews that lets young Cubans speak and argue for themselves. What they have to say or sing or rap suggests that everyone born after the revolution has an opinion. Directors/Producers: Gail Dolgin, Vicente Franco. USA (the filmmakers consulted with many Cubans, and filming is entirely in Cuba, but production was done in San Francisco),
Language: Spanish
Subtitles: English
Length: 60 minutes

DANCE OF HOPE**
Description: To call attention to the absence of their loved ones, “disappeared” during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, Chilean women perform the cueca, Chile’s national dance of passion and courtship, poignantly and without partners.
Language: English
Subtitles: None
Length: 100 minutes

DAY WITHOUT A MEXICAN, A**
Description: “A Day without a Mexican” is a “mocumentary” a real documentary about a false event! California is shocked. One third of its population has disappeared and they are all Hispanics. Reporters take to the streets to capture the immediate effects of the crisis: “The Mexicans disappeared? That’s great!” Have you been to the store…$6 for a head of lettuce, $8 for a pound of tomatoes?” The film mixes facts and fiction with a touch of humor. Fact and fiction quickly begin to look alike, calling into question the idea of “objectivity” and “documentary as the truth.” -Fiction.
Language: English
Subtitles: None
Length: 30 minutes

DEDOS DE LUNA* **
Description: A bilingual unit based on Dedos De Luna by Tony Johnston and Leonel Maciel. Through a poetic combination of words and paintings, Dedos De Luna, tells the story of Toño and his grandfather, Don Gregorio. They enjoy making masks together, until Don Gregorio dies after making his last mask. Toño must come to terms with the death and decide whether to carry on the tradition of mask making. The unit effectively confronts issues of loss, death, and cultural values through a series of well-organized and detailed lessons. The study of Dedos De Luna culminates in a student fiesta of grandparents, memories, and the future.

Language: Spanish
Subtitles: English

DRUG WARS: FRONTLINE DOCUMENTARY**
Description: Despite America’s 30-year war on drugs, the use of heroin, cocaine, and marijuana remains essentially unchanged. This two-part documentary presents a television history of America’s war on drugs from both sides of the battlefield. The first episode examines the impact of crack cocaine on our city streets and our criminal justice system. The report also investigates Mexico’s role in supplying drugs for American demand. The second episode recounts the origins of the drug campaign, from the Nixon administration’s drug control efforts to the rapid rise and fall of the Colombian drug cartels. PBS documentary from Frontline.
Language: English
Subtitles: None
Length: 240 minutes

EISENSTEIN EN MÉXICO: EL CÍRCULO ETERNO (EISENSTEIN IN MEXICO: THE ETERNAL CIRCLE) **
Description: The great Soviet filmmaker, Sergei Eisenstein went to Mexico in 1929 to shoot the film Qué vive México using surrealist and muralist influence. The project was never finished. However this documentary film follows the work of Eisenstein including stills of footage, interviews with collaborators, and photographs and studies of the project.
Language: Spanish
Subtitles: None
Length: 90 minutes

EJERCICIOS RITMOS LATINOS* **
Description: An introduction for younger audiences to some elements of Latin music. EVA series
Language: Spanish
Subtitles:

EVA PERON**
Description: A film biography about Eva Perón, the work seeks to portray the political acumen and skill of a consummate politician–“the power behind the throne”–of the populist Argentine, Juan Perón. The film represents an Argentine perspective grounded in history rather than treatments of Eva such as Andrew Lloyd Weber musical and Madonna versions.
Language: Spanish
Subtitles: English
Length: 114 minutes

FIVE SUNS, THE: A SACRED HISTORY OF MEXICO**
Description: Patricia Amlin, the extraordinary animator who created Popol Vuh has taken authentic images from ancient Maya ceramics and turned them into a riveting retelling of the Maya creation myth. The story tells how Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca create heaven and earth, journey to the underworld to create humans and find sustenance for them, and finally create the sun and the moon.
Language: English
Subtitles: None
Length: 58 minutes

FLIGHT OF PEDRO PAN, THE**
Description: Experience the heartache and uncertainty of the 1960s flight of more than 14,000 unaccompanied Cuban children to the United States. The children of Operation Pedro Pan share their personal stories of the sacrifice, survival, broken hearts and new beginnings through interviews and archival footage.
Language: English and Spanish
Subtitles: English
Length: 90 minutes

FRIDA**
Description: On her deathbed artist Frida Kahlo conjures up images and memories of her life as a painter, revolutionary and woman of the world. Her stormy relationship with muralist Diego Rivera, her tender hospitality for exiled Leon Trotsky, her struggle for acceptance as an artist, and the travail of her illnesses and injuries are all recalled in a style reminiscent of her own work, simultaneously sophisticated and primitive, flamboyant and delicate.
Language: Spanish
Subtitles: English
Length: 108 minutes

FRIDA KAHLO: PORTRAIT OF AN ARTIST**
Description: A documentary about Frida Kahlo’s painful life and creative process. This film is part of the series “Portraits of an Artist.”
Language: English
Subtitles:
Length: 62 minutes

FRIDA (DIRECTED BY MARCELA VIOLANTE) **
Description: Visually depicts the life of Frida Kahlo through her own paintings and the surroundings of her home in Coyoacán, Mexico City.
Language: Spanish
Subtitles: None
Length: 16 minutes

GALLO DE ORO, EL**
Description: Based on a story by Juan Rulfo. A poor man is given a near-dead fighting cock and he nurses him back to life. While this brings him life, he finds that when he forgets his roots, he soon runs out of luck.
Language: Spanish
Subtitles: English
Length: 105 minutes

GERTRUDIS BOCANEGRA**
Description: Gertrudis Bocanegra Lazo de la Vega–played by award winning actress Ofelia Medina–a criollo woman who participated in the Mexican war of independence, is the central character of this film. Gertrudis becomes acutely aware of the social injustice prevalent in Mexico in the late Colonial period and gets involved in the Hidalgo’s movement for independence. Using the technique of flashback, she tells her story from her prison cell in Pátzcuaro, Michoacán.
Language: Spanish
Subtitles: English
Length: 98 minutes

GREENER GRASS: CUBA, BASEBALL, AND THE UNITED STATES**
Description: While unfolding the story of the Cuba vs. the Baltimore Orioles games, this documentary develops a narrative of the history of baseball as an element of Cuban national identity, and the impact the sport has had on both the United States and Cuban relations. Especially interesting is the story of African Americans playing for Cuban teams, and both white and black Cubans playing in the early American Negro Leagues when baseball was segregated in the United States
Language: English
Subtitles: English
Length: 60 minutes

GRINGOTON (Gringo-thon) **
Description: During the invasion of Iraq in 2003, a misplaced gringo in Mexico City helplessly watches the atrocities through Mexican television news. Taking a tip from his local neighbors, he begins to sell chewing gum and wash car windows in the streets…to raise money for a guerrilla army to take out Bush. “Gringo-thon” is a personal expression of protest of an expatriate living abroad and a meditation of the complexities of “gringo” identity.
Language: Spanish
Subtitles: English
Length: 17 minutes

GRINGO IN MAÑANALAND, THE**
Description: This film is a montage of scenes from travelogues, dramatic films, industrial films, newsreels, military footage, geography textbook illustrations and political cartoons. Together they explore the stereotyped image of Latin America in popular US media during the 20th century.
Language: English
Subtitles: None
Length: 61 minutes

HAVANA NAGILA: THE HISTORY OF THE JEWS IN CUBA**
Description: This documentary traces the history and presence of the Jewish community in Cuba. It explores the impact of the 1959 Revolution on the five percent of the original community, the community’s recent resurgence, and the international issues that affect its future. Rich in footage of Cuba, archival material and interviews, this film depicts an important history of Jewish immigration, with a focus on the particular experience of Cuban Jews. Edited by Vicente Franco and narrated by Isabel Alegría.
Language: Spanish
Subtitles: English
Length: 57 minutes

HELLO HEMINGWAY**
Description: Set in pre-revolutionary Cuba (late 1950s), this winner of the 1990 Grand Coral Prize in Havana deals with the inner conflicts of a young girl’s coming of age, her identification with a Hemingway she never meets, and a society she finds confining.
Language: Spanish
Subtitles: English
Length: 90 minutes

HISTORIA OFICIAL, LA**
Description: Set in the 1980s, the film follows the sheltered wife of a wealthy businessman who finds herself face to face with a legacy of terror as she begins to discover that her adopted daughter may have been stolen from a family “disappeared” during the Argentine military dictatorship in the 1970s.
Language: Spanish
Subtitles: English
Length: 112 minutes

I AM CUBA**
Description: A visually stunning film that was made between 1961 and 1964 in Cuba by the acclaimed Soviet director Mikhail Kalatozov (The Cranes Are Flying), with a screenplay by Yevgeny Yevtushenko and Enrique Pineda Barnet. The camera work is amazing in this propaganda epic that portrays four vignettes of Cuba in the period immediately prior to the 1959 Revolution. The film is a beautiful examination of the social and economic conditions in Cuba during the Batista era.
Language: Spanish & Russian
Subtitles: English
Length: 141 minutes

I AM JOAQUIN**
Description: This work by Luis Valdez and El Teatro Campesino marked the emergence of film as a distinct cultural and aesthetic practice within the Chicano Movement. In the film, Luis Valdez gives a dramatic interpretation of Rudilfo “Corky” Gonzalez’s epic poem: I Am Joaquin, which was often distributed through mimeographed booklets to be read at rallies. This powerful film delineates all the contradictions of the Chicano experience over a 500-year genealogy of mestizo resistance.
Language: Spanish
Subtitles: None
Length: 20 minutes

ILHA DAS FLORES**
Description: This is a hilarious but devastating film about values, the food chain, and the human condition. Ultimately, a Brazilian island where pigs eat first, and the people are fed what the pigs leave over provides an example of how arbitrarily we have arrived at the human food chain and system of exchange that we now know.
Language: English
Subtitles: None
Length: 15 minutes

IN SEARCH OF THE MAYAS**
Description: Deep in the rainforest of Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula are the lost Mayan Cities of Chichen Itzá an Palenque. Discover their magic and learn about the Mayan culture while exploring some of the region’s most exquisite examples of pre-Hispanic American architecture.
Language: Spanish
Subtitles: None
Length: 60 minutes

INCAS REMEMBERED* **
Description: Explores the mysteries of an advanced civilization’s disappearance. The miracles of the Incas are presented in this engrossing special by award winning filmmaker Luch Jarvis. Suitable for all ages, but excellent for elementary-school students.
Language: English
Subtitles: None
Length: 60 minutes

JULIO Y SU ANGEL**
Description: An eight-year-old boy tired of living in an orphanage and working in a tortilla factory decides to search for the guardian angel his mother promised to send. The angel appears to him as a grumpy old Mexican man who teaches him the values of life, work, family, and friendship while they embark on an adventure through tropical paradises.
Language: Spanish
Subtitles: English
Length: 98 minutes

JUSTICIA ESTA CON ELLA, LA**
Description: Laws against the violence towards women and their families. Prod: Dinamu-SNV.
Language: Spanish
Subtitles:
Length: 7 minutes

LAST REVOLUTIONARY, THE**
Description: CBS Reports with Dan Rather presents a biography of Fidel Castro.
Language: English
Subtitles: None
Length: 60 minutes

LEJANIA**
Description: A dramatic and sensitive analysis of the lejanía, the distance or separation among members of the same family, created by the Cuban revolution. A Cuban mother, now living in Miami, returns to visit her son whom she abandoned 10 years earlier.
Language: Spanish
Subtitles: English
Length: 90 minutes

THE LIFE AND WORKS OF FRIDA KAHLO*
Description: This Masterpiece Series provides a triple treat – a close-up look at the lives and works of the world’s most famous artists plus three art lessons that focus on the style of each.  These lessons reinforce the techniques and skills that the artist used and students will experience hands-on learning
Language: Spanish
Subtitles: None
Length: 25 minutes

LONG JOURNEY TO GUADALUPE, A**
Description: The mystical story of the Virgin of Guadalupe unfolds as Huan Francisco Urrusti identifies and explores an important cultural aspect of Mexico. Through interviews with historians, priests, anthropologists, and psychologists the role of religious syncretism is analyzed in Mexican culture explaining the relationship between the collective unconscious and the history of the country.
Language: Spanish
Subtitles: English
Length: 96 minutes

LOW’N’SLOW: THE ART OF LOW RIDING**
Description: Filmed in San Jose, CA, this work by Rick Tejada Flores documents the art and culture of the low riders, and includes an animated title sequence by Chicano artist Rupert Garcia and music by Jorge Santana.
Language: English
Subtitles: None
Length: 30 minutes

MACARIO**
Description: The talents of top director Roberto Gavaldon, novelist B. Traven (The Treasure of the Sierra Madre) and cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa combined to produce this gentle, moving fable on human morality. Macario is a young peasant, despondent over his inability to provide for his family. On the Day of the Dead, he meets Death, disguised as another peasant, who trades him the power to cure the dying for a portion of turkey. Macario’s fame spreads around the country, and he soon has a flourishing business until a local doctor decides to call in the Inquisition.
Language: Spanish
Subtitles: English
Length: 91 minutes

MADRES DE LA PLAZA DE MAYO, LAS**
Description: This Academy award-nominated documentary about the Argentinean mothers’ movement to demand to know the fate of 30,000 “disappeared” sons and daughters is extraordinary. As well as giving an understanding of Argentinean history in the 70’s and 80’s, it shows the empowerment of women in a society where they are expected to be silent.
Language: Spanish
Subtitles: English

Length: 64 minutes

MARIA LLENA DE GRACIA**
Description: Maria Alvarez, a bright, spirited 17-year-old Colombian is desperate to leave her job stripping thorns from flowers.  Maria accepts a lucrative offer to transport packets of heroin – which she must swallow – to the United States.  The ruthless world of international drug trafficking proves to be more than Maria bargained for.  This dramatic thriller builds toward a conclusion so powerful and revealing it could only be based on a thousand true stories.
Language: Spanish
Subtitles: English
Length: 25 minutes

MAYAN VOICES: AMERICAN LIVES**
Description: Set in Indiantown, Florida, a small, agricultural town 30 miles west of West Palm Beach, this film illustrates the challenges of a totally alien environment, exploring issues of identity, cultural integration, migration, and social change. It also demonstrated the impact 5,000 new immigrants with a foreign language and culture is having on the still predominantly white community.
Language: Spanish
Subtitles: English
Length: 56 minutes

MEMORIAS DE UN MEXICANO**
Description: The pioneer film maker Salvador Toscano portrayed the key events and figures of the Mexican Revolution from 1904 to 1924. Capturing the flavor and reality of war-torn Mexico, the film presents the political and military upheaval that shaped present day Mexico using exclusive, authentic footage. It also describes the women’s role in Mexico during this period.
Language: Spanish
Subtitles: English
Length: 50 minutes

MEXICAN PREHISPANIC CULTURES* **
Description: This film takes a look at the cultural wealth of prehispanic Mexico: the civilizations of the Toltecs, the Aztecs, the Mayas, and their legacies are explored. Intended for younger audiences. An Educational Video Network film.
Language: English
Subtitles: None
Length: 26 minutes

MEXICO FOR CHILDREN*
Description: Children’s three volume set about the culture, geography and history of Mexico.
Volume 1- The Culture of Mexico
This volume focuses on the rich cultural heritage of Mexico and how it affects the daily lives of its citizens.  Students will find that Mexico’s indigenous people and Spanish rule have influenced the ceremonial dress, folktales, foods and holidays of Mexico.  Explored topics include the music of Tejano bands, the artwork of Diego Rivera and Talavera pottery from Puebla.
Volume 2– The Geography of Mexico
This volume focuses on how Mexico’s geography has shaped its history, society and culture.  Travel through a variety of land formations and regions from the desert in Sonora to the lush rainforests of Chiapas, and see how location and climate have impacted the settlement patterns and lifestyles of Mexicans.  Learn about the major industries like silver mining and tourism, and appreciate the exceptionality and diversity of the Gulf Coast region’s animal and plant life.
Volume 3– The History of Mexico
This volume focuses on the obstacles that Mexico has overcome throughout history to become an independent, self-governing nation.  Explore history topics from the time of the Olmec through the time of independence fights as well as other more contemporary events. Understand the Father Hidalgo and Benito Juarez, and see why freedom has been so important to this proud nation.
Language: English
Subtitles: None
Length: 24 minutes each

MIAMI-HAVANA**
Description: This documentary depicts the story of the two Cuban worlds of Miami and Havana, and the social, cultural, and political processes that have created this divide since 1959. It provides many touching moments that portray the difficulties of this fragmentation, as well as the ideological struggles in both communities. This film provides an excellent point of departure for considering the Cuban Revolution, migration, and communities of exile. Produced by the Institute for Policy Studies, USA
Language: Spanish
Subtitles: English
Length: 52 minutes

MISSING**
Description: John Shea, Sissy Spacek, and Jack Lemmon. A young American journalist mysteriously disappears during the violent 1973 military coup in Chile. When his wife and father attempt to find him, they are confronted with a deeply disturbing political reality relating to their own country and the country they are investigating. A 1982 Cannes Film Festival winner.
Language: English
Subtitles: None
Length: 122 minutes

MUERTE DE UN BUROCRATA**
Description: The story of a young man’s attempt to fight the system is an entertaining, hilarious account of galloping bureaucracy and the tyranny of red tape.
Language: Spanish
Subtitles: English
Length: 87 minutes

MUSIC OF THE MAYA**
Description: Produced by Samuel Franco, director of the Casa K’OJM, a private non-profit educational research center in Antigua, Guatemala dedicated to the preservation of Maya culture through music this video shows us live footage of music during daily life and special ceremonies throughout Guatemala, particularly in the Highlands. Narrated by Samuel Franco.
Language: English
Subtitles: None
Length: 25 minutes

MY FILMMAKING, MY LIFE**
Description: An intriguing documentary on the life of the renowned and vibrant filmmaker. Landeta is seen in her 70’s remembering her productive years. Includes interview with filmmaker Marcela Fernandez Violante.
Language: Spanish
Subtitles: English
Length: 30 minutes

NATIVES: IMMIGRANT BASHING ON THE BORDER**
Description: This film depicts the disturbing increase in racism, violence and intolerance along the US-Mexican border in recent years. Natives examine the concerns of some of the individuals involved in San Diego’s anti-immigrant movement. Relying principally on a cinema vérité style and avoiding explanatory narration, the film seeks to critique the nativist position by contrasting their professed love for their country with their racist and anti-democratic attitudes.
Language: English
Subtitles: None
Length: 25 minutes

NEW AUDIENCES FOR MEXICAN MUSIC**
Description: A three-part documentary. Part I describes the phenomenon of banda dance music sweeping the Unites States and Mexico. Part II provides a history of mariachi music and its fusions with country-western and other styles, while Part III profiles Tejano music.
Language: English
Subtitles: None
Length: 30 minutes

NIÑOS DE ZAPATA**
Description: Children of Zapata looks at the Zapatista National Liberation Army’s struggle to attain justice for the Maya Indians of Chiapas. These last remaining descendants of the proud ancient Mayas have been ruthlessly marginalized by the Mexican government. Their land is the least arable, they live in grinding poverty, and they are jailed and tortured for asserting their rights. The film highlights their struggle during the revolt of January 1994 staged by the Zapatista guerrillas. It also includes footage of the controversial “Red Bishop” of Chiapas, Samuel Ruiz; the elusive subcommandante Marcos, leader of the Zapatista and Armado Avandanio of El Tiempo, the Independent Mexican newspaper.
Language: Spanish
Subtitles: None

Length: 24 minutes

NO NOS TIENTES**
Description: This film, narrated by Edward James Olmos, presents a forceful analysis of the possibilities for radical change through Guatemalan student protest. Shot in urban ghettos, rural villages and jungle encampments, this documentary reveals the immediate and personal struggle of a cross-section of the country’s population during the forty years of civil war. Recommended for undergraduates and high school students.
Language: English
Subtitles: None
Length: 50 minutes

NORTE, EL**
Description: Mayan Indian peasants organize in an effort to improve their lot in life. After the army destroys their village and kills their family, a teenage brother and sister decide they must flee to “El Norte”. After receiving clandestine help from friends and humorous advice from a veteran immigrant on strategies for traveling through Mexico, they arrive in Los Angeles, where they try to make a new life as young, uneducated, and illegal immigrants.
Language: Spanish
Subtitles: English
Length: 139 minutes

OAXACA**
Description: The video collection that takes you on a trip to Oaxaca to see the sites of the immensely beautiful country of Mexico.
Language: Spanish
Subtitles: None
Length: 60 minutes

ODO YA! LIFE WITH AIDS**
Description: A poetic documentary exploration of efforts by members of the Afro-Brazilian communities in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Salvador, Bahia, Brazil to combat the spread of AIDS by drawing from their own cultural and religious traditions.
Language: Portuguese
Subtitles: English
Length: 60 minutes

OFRENDA, LA: THE DAYS OF THE DEAD I, II* **
Description: Made by Lourdes Portillo and Susana Muñoz. The very young, the old, and the deceased are all represented in this personal and affectionate filmmaker’s relationship to the history, and present-day celebrations of the Day of the Dead.
Language: English
Subtitles: None
Length: 50 minutes

LOS OLVIDADOS**
Description: This epic Buñuel film looks at the life of young people growing up in the slums of Mexico. In many big cities, behind the large buildings are areas of complete misery. Children are malnourished, there are no schools, sanitation is not up to par and delinquents abound.
Language: Spanish
Subtitles: English
Length: 90 minutes

ON THE CASE OF ROSALIE EVANS**
Description: A historical discussion among North American and Mexican historians about the diary and life of Rosalie Evans, a disgruntled North American property owner who lost her land during the Mexican Revolution
Language: Spanish
Subtitles: English
Length: 60 minutes

PANAMA DECEPTION**
Description: Banned in Panama and labeled “subversive” in the United States, The Panama Deception gives an account of the events of 1989 when 26,000 U.S. government troops invaded the country searching for one man, Manuel Noriega. Made by a group of independent filmmakers, the film documents the atrocities that the official story omits.
Language: English
Subtitles: None
Length: 91 minutes

PASADO VERDE 1850-1915**
Description: The story of the Henequen plant and its practical uses, including fiber for clothing.  The documentary begins with the incidental discovery of the Henequen and moves forward in time to the development of factories for mass production of fiber.
Language: Spanish
Subtitles: None
Length: 30 minutes

POPOL VUH* **
Description: The Popol Vuh, the religious book of the Maya, is the oldest existing poem in an American Indian language. It stands as an extraordinary monument to the accomplishments of the Maya and their ethical, spiritual, and philosophical beliefs. This animated version begins with the account of the gods’ several creations and destructions of the world, tracing the cosmological beginnings to the awakening of the Maya civilization.
Language: Spanish and English
Subtitles: None
Length: 58 minutes

PROYECTO VIDEOASTAS INDIGENAS DE LA FRONTERA SUR**
Description: Compilation of the film work of various indigenous filmmakers from southern border of Mexico.  It includes 5 short documentaries in the following order:
1. “Te xa wuil a va:” Que tengas el poder de mirarte a ti mismo.  Linda Lothe, Cecilia Monroy Cuevas y roberto Chankin Ortega.

(10 minutes, Spanish)
2. K’in santo ta sotz’oleb. Dia de muertos en la tierra de los murcielagos.  Pedro Daniel Lopez Lopez.

(33 minutes, Tzotzil with Spanish subtitles)
3. Squ’inal Ixim.  Fiesta del Maiz: El Tercer Encuentro del Maiz Maya-Zoque.  Jose Angel Lopez Dominguez and Roberto Alejandro Corzo Leon.

(16 minutes,  Spanish)
4. Mas de mil años despues…..   Pablo Chankin Najbor, Axel kohler and Tim Trench.

(19 minutes, Lacandon Mayan with Spanish subtitles)
5. La tierra es de quien la trabaja.  “Keremetik” busca autnomia. Pedro Daniel Lopez and Jose Miguel Hernandez

(10 minutes. Spanish)

Language: Various indigenous languages and Spanish
Subtitles: Spanish

QUE VIVA MEXICO!* *
Description: Sergei Eisenstein’s lost masterpiece documents the history of Mexico and its people. With sequences devoted to the Edenic land of Tehuantepec, the savage majesty of the bullfight, the struggles of the noble peon and the hypnotic imagery of the Day of the Dead “Qué viva México!” is a vivid tapestry of Mexican life. The film was shot on location in Mexico by Edouard Tisse and financed by American novelist Upton Sinclair. It was later reassembled and restored by Grigory Alexandrov.
Language: Russian
Subtitles: English
Length: 85 minutes

QUINCEAÑERA, LA* **
Description: This two-part video depicts a young Mexican-American woman’s fifteenth birthday celebration. Set in Dallas, Texas and Reynosa, Mexico, the first part consists of a discussion of the preparations, planning, and logistics that have to be considered in planning this important social event. The second part observes the actual ceremony through various stages after the preparations are completed for the mass, the party, and the dance that traditionally follow.
Language: English and Spanish
Subtitles: None
Length: Part 1: 18 minutes, Part 2: 20 minutes

LA REVOLUCIÓN NO SERA TELEVISADA (THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE TELEVISED) **
Description: This daring documentary about political muscle and media manipulation captures the short-lived overthrow of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. Two independent filmmakers were present in April 2002, when the president’s powerful political enemies forcibly removed him from office, and when 48 hours later he remarkably returned to power amid cheering aides.
Language: Spanish
Subtitles: English
Length: 74 minutes

RITES OF THE DAY OF THE DEAD**
Description: Every November the Mexican people clean and decorate the graves of their loved ones, set beautiful tables or altars in which they place offerings so the visiting dead enjoy them. Experience these and other ancestral rituals of the Day of the Dead.
Language: English
Subtitles: None
Length: 20 minutes

RIVERA: PORTRAIT OF AN ARTIST**
Description: “An artist must be the conscience of his age.” In this way Diego Rivera, a leader of the Mexican mural renaissance movement of the 1920’s and 1030’s expressed the philosophy behind his work; in particular the spectacular series of murals he created for public buildings in the US and Mexico. The program explores Rivera’s evolution as an artist, his use of the fresco technique, and his politics, creating a fascinating portrait of one of the geniuses of the 20th century.
Language: English
Subtitles: None
Length: 35 minutes

ROMERO**
Description: Incisive, quietly powerful drama chronicling the last three years of the life of Oscar Romero, Archbishop of San Salvador. The focus is on the way in which he becomes an outspoken defender of human rights and is eventually assassinated.
Language: English
Subtitles: None
Length: 102 minutes

SAASTAL: THE CHILDREN OF THE SACRED GRACE* **
Description: Alicia returns to the pueblo where she spent her
childhood and adolescence after an absence of 15 years.  Despite the many
changes that her pueblo has undergone, she finds that everyday life remains much
the same as it was when she left.
Language: Yucatec Maya
Subtitles: English and Spanish

SACRED GAMES: RITUAL WARFARE**
Description: Every year in San Juan Chamula, Chiapas, in Southern Mexico, thousands of Maya Indians gather to celebrate Carnival, which they call “Festival of Games”. This award winning film, which merges Catholicism and ancient Maya rights, beautifully captures the passion and mystery of the event and shows how Maya’s symbolic world is renewed each year in the celebrations.
Language: English
Subtitles: None
Length: 59 minutes