The Consortium in Latin American and Caribbean Studies at UNC-Chapel Hill and Duke University
Title: SIN DEJAR HUELLA (WITHOUT A TRACE) Description: Sin Dejar Huella uses drama and comedy in equal measure to tell the story of two women–one Spanish and the other Mexican–fleeing from their respective pasts. Ana, a con artist, and Aurelia, … Read more
Title: DENYING BRAZIL Description: A documentary film about the taboos, stereotypes, and struggles of Black actors in Brazilian television “soaps.” Based on his own memories and on a sturdy body of research evidence, the director analyzes race relations in Brazilian … Read more
Description: Zé is a very poor man from the Brazilian countryside. His most prized possession is his donkey. When his donkey falls terminally ill, Zé makes a promise to Saint Bárbara: If his donkey recovers, he will carry a cross … Read more
Description: This feature-length film deals with 24 hours in the life of Santiago de Cuba, one of the main supply cities of the rebels led by Fidel Castro and of underground urban action perpetrated by the rebel and clandestine … Read more
Description: Laura, a professor, conducts research for a PhD dissertation that delves into the Havana underworld in search of Albert Yanini, the most famous Cuban pimp from the turn of the twentieth century. Shot to death by his French … Read more
Description: Over the course of the 1960s, the revolutionary government in Cuba confronted active and violent opposition from armed counter-revolutionary groups operating on the island. This film dramatizes this confrontation through the story of Alberto Delgado, a Cuban agent who … Read more
Description: This new feature-length film by Cuba’s most recognized filmmaker, Fernando Pérez, won the most collateral awards at the 32nd International Festival of New Latin American Cinema. The film focuses on the childhood and adolescence of Cuba’s nineteenth-century hero … Read more
Description: The Brazilian badlands, April 1910. Tonho is ordered by his father to avenge the death of his older brother. The young man knows that if he commits this crime, his life will be divided in two: the 20 years … Read more
Description: Eugenia Ramírez, a young dentist, returns home from a congress, only to find that her apartment has been ransacked. Furious, she tries to recover her childhood photo album at any cost, demanding that justice be done. However, she is … Read more
Description: Based on the novel of Alfredo Varela, El río oscuro, this film has been called the last great social-folkloric film produced in Argentina before filmmakers turned to nuevo cine, and the cine de liberación in the 1960s. Copies: 2 … Read more
Description: In this groundbreaking satirical film about the Cuban Revolution, the craziest situations are seen as normal by most of the inhabitants of Wondertown. Alicia, however, struggles to make sense of what is happening around her from the moment she … Read more
Description: A moving story about growing up in the pampas, based on the famous autobiographical novel of the same title. Through his deep friendship with an old "gaucho," a boy coming of age becomes fascinated with nature and the mysteries … Read more
Description: An allegory about an idealistic ten-year-old peasant who dreams of flying like a condor. He eventually learns to fly when he joins guerrillas fighting in an imaginary Central American country. Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 90 minutes
Description:This film is a bold, intensely emotional, and ambitious story of lives that collide in a Mexico City car crash. Inventively structured as a triptych of overlapping and intersecting narratives, Amores Perros explores the lives of disparate characters who are … Read more
Description: A moving and powerful portrait of the life of a poor Mexican American boy and his migrant farm worker family, as they struggle to adapt to life in American society. Adapted from the novel “…y no se lo trago … Read more
Description: A tragic urban story about the unfortunate life of a 13-year old circus girl in Mexico City. She is expelled from her job when the official of the circus finds out she is pregnant. She meets a troupe of … Read more
Description: A young man is in love with the daughter of a local bar owner in a Chilean village. The young man enlists the help of the famous poet Pablo Neruda to woo his beloved. Copies: 2 (DVD) Length: 76 … Read more
Description: This visceral, energizing look at contemporary Cuba is an impassioned love story set against the political and economic tensions of Havana. Gustavo, an idealistic young Communist with a glorified vision of the Castro regime, falls in love with Yolanda, … Read more
Description: The inhospitable backlands, or sertão, of northeastern Brazil was home to a fearsome group of social bandits – the cangaceiros. Among the most infamous of these outlaws, known by their hats covered with mystic talismans, was the bespectacled Lampião … Read more
Description: An impressionistic journey through the music of Cuba, Spain and Mexico from pre-Columbian times to the present, on the occasion of the Fifth Centenary of the Conquest. Copies: 2 (DVD and VHS) Length: 111 minutes
Description: Episodic look at the life of Cuban poet and novelist, Reynaldo Arenas (1943-1990), from his childhood in Oriente province to his death in New York City. By 1964, he is in Havana where his writing and homosexuality get him … Read more
Description: A period musical, based on the novel The Song of Rachel by Miguel Barnet, the film concerns a young woman who uses everyone to attain her dream of being a singer at the Alhambra, Cuba’s top burlesque theatre in … Read more
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, … Read more
Description: An adaptation for ballet by Antonio Gades, Spain’s leading ballet and flamenco star, of Federico Garcia Lorca’s famous folk tragedy, performed in full costume in a bare Madrid rehearsal hall. Copies: 1 Length: 71 minutes
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 … Read more
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 … Read more
Description: Film adaptation of the Naguib Mahfouz novel. Set in downtown Mexico City, the film portrays three neighbors: Rutilio, whose emerging homosexual orientation destroys his marriage; Susanita, an old maid who falls prey to a thief; and Alma, a virgin … Read more
Description: An educated man tries to keep his family closed off from the outside world while he goes mad from the ideologies contained in books. The film is based on a true story related to the suppression of the student … Read more
Description: This educational video aimed at children is separated into three sections. The first section explains what Cinco de Maya is, why it is celebrated and its importance. The second section talks about the history of Cinco de Mayo. The … Read more
Description: One of Brazils most acclaimed films and winner of a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film. Inside Rio de Janeiros Central Station, two very unlikely souls are about to become inextricably linked. When a young boy witnesses his … Read more
Description: This film centers around a young and eccentric radio show host who has a successful program on the air. His anonymous callers tell their stories of love, entanglements, misunderstandings and passionate affairs. Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 90 minutes
Description: Deco and Naldinho are best friends in a constant struggle to earn an honest living in the gritty world of Salvador de Bahias Lower City. When a beautiful prostitute named Karina asks to hitch a ride, the twosome quickly … Read more
Description: In the midst of the streets of the world’s most notorious slum, Rio de Janeiro’s “City of God,” a frail and scared young boy will grow up to discover that he can view the harsh realities of his surroundings … Read more
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. Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 135 minutes
Description: From the literary world of magic realism, this award-winning film adapted from the book by the same title chronicles life in Mexico near the Texas border in the early twentieth century. Unrequited passions, changing political situations and even madness … Read more
Description: This delicious black comedy, set in the jungles of Brazil, tells the story of a French explorer who in vain tries to be accepted by the tribe of cannibals who has captured him. Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 80 minutes
Description: An emotionally gut-wrenching drama from Colombia set during a violent civil war which occurred after the assassination of liberal leader Jorge Gaitán in 1948. Three people are trapped in Laura’s house during the Bogotazo riots, setting the scene for … Read more
Description: A beautifully photographed and haunting tale of obsession and repressed desire played out against the backdrop of a decaying mansion in Santiago. Glum, middle-aged bachelor Don Andres hires Estela, a 17-year old country girl, to care for his wealthy … Read more
Description: Nena, Rosa and Ludmilla are three Cuban sisters that arrive in Madrid looking for a better life than the one they left behind in Havana. Their aunt, Maria, has lived in Spain for many years and has a business … Read more
Description: Father Amaro is a new priest assigned to the small rural town of Los Reyes, Mexico. He soon discovers that a conspiracy of corruption, sex, and lies has consumed the local parishes. Though he tries to resist falling into … Read more
Description: In this lively road picture, three friends are contracted by a notorious gangster to create a carved statue depicting the Virgin Mary for a religious celebration in Bolivia. Domingo is the one commissioned to carve the life-size figure. After … Read more
Description: A fascinating cinematic mix of documentary and fiction, Gómez (who died just before completing work on the film) looks at the marginal neighborhoods of Havana shortly after the triumph of the 1959 Revolution. With Mario Balmaseda and Yolanda Cuellar. … Read more
Description: Marcello Mastroianni stars in this film by the late Maria Luisa Bemberg, one of Latin America’s greatest directors. Mastroianni plays Ludovico, a sophisticated world traveler who retires to a small town and is drawn to the most intelligent woman … Read more
Description: The Motorcycle Diaries is an adaptation of a journal written by Ernesto Che Guevara when he was 23 years old. He and his friend, Alberto Granado are typical college students who, seeking fun and adventure before graduation, decide to … Read more
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 … Read more
Description: Based on a fragment from his novel Love in the Time of Cholera, this film was conceived and co-written by Nobel Prize winner Gabriel García Márquez. It tells the story of Orestes, a wealthy factory owner who falls madly … Read more
Description: This thriller is based on the true-life events. In 1969, the MR-8 urban guerrillas kidnap the US Ambassador to Brazil (Alan Arkin) to demand the release of prisoners held by the military junta. The dictatorship’s secret police close in … Read more
Description: On her deathbed artist Frida Kahlo (played by Ofelia Medina) 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 … Read more
Description: During the Pinchet Regime, opposition politicians were often sent into internal exile to small rural towns. This film tells the story of such a relegado in a remote southern fishing village (Puerto Saavedra) where he finds mystery, love, and … Read more
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 and he soon … Read more
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 … Read more
Description: Tomás Gutiérrez Alea’s last film before his death, Guantanamera is a romantic, fluid road-trip movie set in contemporary Cuba amid economic crisis and crumbling infrastructure. In a tribute to the resilient spirit of Cubans in trying circumstances, and a … Read more
Description: The generation gap is taken to the extreme by a group of young people. They have decided to exterminate all senior citizens. Isidro Vidal, the protagonist, is a middle-age man thrown in the midst of this absurd and merciless … Read more
Description: Cuba is a land of music and consequently a land of musicians. Habana Blues is full of lots of extraordinary music, but what makes it so special is the way Zambrano details the lives of the protagonists and the … Read more
Type: Documentary, Year: 2008, Director: Jose Araujo, Country: Brazil, Format: DVD, Language: English, Subtitles: None
Type: Documentary, Year: 1990, Director: Felipe Bernaza, Country: Cuba, Format: DVD-R, Language: Spanish, Subtitles: English
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 … Read more
Description: Rafael Belvedere makes his living running a restaurant and the combination of a stressful job and familial tensions are wearing him down to a frazzle. It’s been almost a year since he last paid a visit to his mother, … Read more
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 … Read more
Description: This film includes three stories about football, one of the most important twentieth-century rituals. A third division player from Santiago de Chile is bribed, but does not realize that his behavior betrays more than the loyalty of his team-mates. … Read more
Description: With César Evora, Jorge Trinchet, and Daisy Granados. A young ambitious man begins climbing the social and political ladder in Cuba in the 1930s. After the fall of Machado in 1933, his political career takes off, his ethics and … Read more
Description: Argentine director Eliseo Subiela’s stunning and powerful masterpiece. A man named Rantes suddenly appears in a Buenos Aires psychiatric hospital expertly playing the organ. But who is he –this man with no recorded identity? Beatriz, his only visitor, sees … Read more
Description: Amid the debris of a Colombian cyclone lands an old man with enormous wings, whose seemingly miraculous anatomy attracts the curious and devout from around the world. Silent and disheveled, this fantastical “creature” is housed in a chicken coop … Read more
Description: Based on a short story El Gallo de Oro by Juan Rulfo, this film tells the story of Dionosio Pinzon, a Mexican peasant living with his mother. Born with a deformed hand, and living a very meager life, Dionosio’s … Read more
Description: This feature film tells the story of the life of Jesus in Yucatec Maya language. It is a great resource for those who want to practice and master the language. Copies: 2 (DVD and VHS) Length: 120 Minutes
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 … Read more
Type: Documentary, Director: Dinamu-SNV, Country: Ecuador, Format: DVD-R, Language: Spanish, Subtitles: None
Description: Political prisoner Valentín Arregui and homosexual pederast Luis Molina share a Brazilian prison cell in this fantastical drama from Manuel Puigs book by the same title. Molina helps pass time by recounting memories from one of his favorite films, … Read more
Description: La Ley de Herodes is a hilarious, outrageous satire set in a tiny Mexican town in 1949. Damián Alcázar stars as Juan Vargas, a junkyard operator is recruited as a temporary mayor following the demise of the latest corrupt … Read more
Description: Linda Sara is the first Puerto Rican film to be nominated for an Oscar. This film is about a love that transcends time and a family about to lose the only thing they own: the house they have lived … Read more
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 … Read more
Description: Set in 1973, in Santiago, Chile, Machuca is a poignant coming-of-age film, drawn from the filmmakers childhood. Two boys from different economic backgrounds become great friends, while the conflicts on the streets lead Chile to the bloody and repressive … Read more
Description: Nominated for best film award and recipient of the Special Jury’s Prize in Havana’s 1994 film festival, this movie tells the story of a Havana University Physics Professor’s torturous relationship with her daughter during the special Period in Cuba. … Read more
Description: This classic of Mexican cinema begins when a young woman reporter interviewing a world-famous artist, asks him about a painting of a nude Indian girl he had done years before and which he never revealed. The painter replies that … Read more
Description: When María Cano (Maria Eugenia Dávila) was recruited into the labor movement in Colombia in 1925 she was prepared for the revolution to come. She worked strenuously to organize workers becoming something of a folk hero. What she was … Read more
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 … Read more
Description: The critically-acclaimed film debut from Robert Rodríguez, shot with no second takes using borrowed equipment and a talented cast of unknowns. A case of deadly mistaken identity leads the protagonist, who aspires only to be a mariachi, to trade … Read more
Description: Set in the early 1960s, the film centers on the Europeanized Cuban intellectual, too idealistic (or lazy) to leave Miami, but too decadent to fit into the new Cuban society. This is both a critique of Revolutionary society and … Read more
Description: Based in Mexico, a poor man struggles to make ends meet while facing the adversity of socioeconomic prejudice. Finances become worse once his ten-year-old son becomes seriously ill, and the man must find the means to heal his son. … Read more
Description: Taken from Cuba as a child by his father, Roberto returns to the island 32 years later in search of his mother. He soon finds his American customs in conflict with those of his birthplace. Also, he discovers new … Read more
Description: Gerardo, a gay teenager, roams the streets of Mexico City in search of someone able to reveal the secret, hidden between the lines of a goodbye letter from his ex-lover. In his journey through barren alleys and roadways, he … Read more
Description: Released in 1917, this silent film focuses on the apparitions of the Virgin of Guadalupe in Mexico. Lupita, a young woman in Mexico is concerned about her fiancée’s trip to Europe because of the war. The woman asks for … Read more
Description: John Shea, Sissy Spacek, 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 … Read more
Description: On a Honduran mountainside overlooking vast fields of sugar cane, a six-year-old boy named Marlon dreams of becoming an artist. Twelve-year-old Inri dreams of attending university. Little Yorleni simply dreams of having a family. Meet the children of the … Read more
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. Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 87 minutes
Description: Seventeen-year old Natividad is bored with her life in her village. Meanwhile Benjamin, fifty something, fat, and the fool of the village, is in love with Natividad. Incited by his friends, Benjamin decides to kidnap her. Leandro, Natividad’s boyfriend, … Read more
Description: A young family, determined to escape the pressures of life in Lima, struggles to exist in the exotic, overgrown Peruvian jungle. Godoy’s autobiographical story is perhaps the most honored Peruvian film of all time. Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 112 … Read more
Description: Daughter of a rebel, Angustias is ostracized for her refusal to marry, her independence, and her scorn for men. She falls in love, only to be rejected because of her race and class which cause her to return to … Read more
Description: A polished, vastly entertaining and elaborate caper film, as well as a sharp character study that examines the question of honor among thieves. Juan is a small-time crook who gets caught conning a convenience store clerk, and Marcos is … Read more
Description: Two young Jewish girls, born Mexican, shape their lives under the pressures of the early sixties and their own awareness of conflicting loyalties. The subject of the life of the Jewish community within the ethnic complexity of modern urban … Read more
Description: Themes of greed and redemption weave through this story of a young man’s obsessive search for gold. His quest takes him deep into the jungle and into fateful encounters with other “beings” in Bolivia’s tropical region of Cochabamba. Copies: … Read more
Description: The synthetic cultural identities resulting from the forcible conversion of Mexicos indigenous people by the Spanish are explored through the eyes of Cortezs mistress Tecuíchpo and a fictional half-brother, the illegitimate son of Montezuma II. Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: … Read more
Description: These are two short animated films set in Bolivia, one made in Bolivia and the other in Switzerland. In “Paulina,” a condor saves an Aymara girl from being obliged to become a maid in La Paz. In “En camino,” … Read more
Description: Based on one of the masterpieces of Spanish American literature, the novel by Juan Rulfo was adapted for the screen by Carlos Fuentes. Juan Preciado travels to the town of Comala to find his father, Pedro Páramo (John Gavin); … Read more
Description: This film portrays the true story of Yessica and Miriam, two teens from Mexico city that start a profound friendship in middle school. The friends share notebooks, games, likes, make-up, and perfume until Jorge and El Topi, two violent … Read more
Description: Photographer-filmmaker Susan Meiselas returns to Nicaragua to find out what happened to the people she photographed years earlier at the height of the civil war. Meiselas and her collaborators capture the shattered lives and broken dreams of people on … Read more
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 … Read more
Description: Shot in Cuba and the US over a period of three years, this film features remarkable cinematography by first time director Carlos Marcovich. Winner of the Latin American Cinema Prize. Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 91 minutes
Description: A handsome tale of revolution and conflict, set in the mid-1600s. Disgruntled slaves in northeastern Brazil leave their plantations and form Quilombo de Palmares-their own democratic nation in the jungle. This doesn’t sit well with the Portuguese landowners, who … Read more
Description: A dramatization on John Reeds newspaper account of the Mexican Revolution. This film explores the young journalists adventures with Pancho Villas army in 1913-1914. Through encounters with Generals Villa and Urbina as well as ordinary soldiers, Reed sheds his … Read more
Description: Betty Faria stars as Fausta, a quirky cleaning lady whose sexy swinging hips open the door to a more comfortable life. When an old widower breaks the ice and buys Fausta perfume and a drink, she sees a way … Read more
Description: Sleep Dealer is a futuristic science fiction story set in a world not much different from our own, in which borders are closed, and a global, high speed network ties distant people and places together. The story centers on … Read more
Description: Released in 2001 in Mexico, where it broke box-office records, director Alfonso Cuarón’s sexy comedy follows two teenage boys who go out on the road with an older Spanish woman they both lust after. Sumptuous cinematography, wonderful performances by … Read more
Description: Documenting the most important ritual of the Enauêne-Nawê Indians, the seven months every year that the spirits of the dead are venerated with offerings of food, song, and dance so they will protect the community and bless it with … Read more
Description: Based on the novel by Octavio Paz, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz: Las trampas de la fe, deals with the life of this Mexican nun. Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz remains in many ways an enigma to … Read more
Description: In 1994 the Zapatistas reclaimed land in Chiapas’ Lacandon jungle in southern Mexico to found the Autonomous Municipality of Emiliano Zapata. Since then, they have been building a new society in which there are neither servants nor bosses. Members … Read more