The Consortium in Latin American and Caribbean Studies at UNC-Chapel Hill and Duke University
Title: MAYAS U SU’UT KA’ANSAH Description: Filmed in the states of Quintana Roo and Yucatán, “U Su’us Ka’ansah (The Cycle of Teaching) depicts the living ancestral science within Mayan communities. We are given the opportunity to partake in their cultural … Read more
Title: LA PRISION INSOMNE Description: This documentary gives the viewer the unfortunate important facets of life and the controversial work of the poet Gabriel de la Concepción Valdés, Plácido, during the first half of the turbulent and contradictory colonial nineteenth … Read more
Title: LA CONJURA DE APONTE Description: With the help of two important Cuban historians, La Conjura de Aponte describes the social context at the time of Jose Antonio Aponte’s rebellion against Spanish rule in Cuba. Aponte, a free black, sought … Read more
Title: ENTRE LOS MUERTOS Description: Entre Los Muertos is a documentary by Jorge Dalton which examines the way San Salvador’s citizens cope with the violence of devastating street crime, constant earthquakes and the ripple effects of decades long war. The … 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
Title: CUBA: AN AFRICAN ODYSSEY Description: Cuba : an African Odyssey is a documentary of Cuba’s central, yet little known, role in supporting African national liberation during the Cold War. This two-part DVD firsts deals mainly with Cuba’s involvement in … Read more
Title: MOMIAS, LAS Description: This film documents “The Accidental Mummies of Guanajuato” exhibition which appeared at the Natural Science Center of Greensboro, NC in 2012. The history of the city of Guanajuato, Mexico, through the lens of its “accidental mummies”, … Read more
Title: WHEN THE DRUM IS BEATING Description: This documentary explores the music of the famous Haitian orchestra “Septentrional” along with the violent history of Haiti. Through Septentrional’s powerful musical pieces, accompanied with brutal scenes, viewers are taken on a graphic … Read more
Description: In the 70’s and 80’s , Cuba had overcome the crises of the first decade of the revolution and had settled into realizing a new identity, creating the new man Che had envisioned.Despite the lask of many material comforts, … Read more
Description: Chigualeros is a documentary about one of the most famous orchestras in Ecuador. Chigualeros, founded almost three decades agos , fuses different sounds like son, marimba, guaracha, currulao, bolero, and the chigualo. Like many parts of Latin America, Ecuador … 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: In 1910 a revolution erupted in Mexico, among its rallying cries "the right to vote." Nearly a century later "Sufragio Efectivo" is heard again as thousands take to the streets. Through the legacy that filmmaker Natalia Almada inherited as … 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: Ordinary Nicaraguans narrate the story of 22 turbulent years (1979-2001) in their nation’s history, from the triumph of the Sandinistas, to the day they were voted out of office in 1990, to the tumultuous years since. This film, beautifully … Read more
Description: “The Garden of Forking Paths” This program traces the modern-era development of the nations and national economies of the Americas, with a focus on Argentina that includes the Peron years, the dictatorship of the 1970s and the Malvinas/Falklands War. … Read more
Description: “Capital Sins” Part of a 10-part PBS series on the western hemisphere, this program examines the trajectory of Brazil’s economy from the mid 1960s through the 1980s, spotlighting the methods Brazil’s rulers chose to develop that country and how … Read more
Description: “In Women’s Hands” This program set in Chile, examines the changes women of every social class made when they organized during the Pinochet years to create better living conditions for their families. Copies: 1 (DVD and VHS) Length: 60 … 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: The documentary is about Jacques Monard/Ramón Mercader, the KGB agent who assassinated León Trotsky in Mexico. It is an account from the people who knew him during his childhood, and up to and after the crime. This film reconstructs … 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: 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: 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 … Read more
Description: The actor, Santiago Miranda, abandons the set of a soap opera that he thinks fails to illustrate the real vision and dream of Bolívar. Miranda is determined to finish Bolívars dream of creating the Great Colombia. Wrapped in his … Read more
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 … Read more
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 … Read more
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 … Read more
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 … Read more
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 … 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: An introspective look at young Cuban-Americans, the now-adult children of the first wave of Cuban exiles that came to the U.S. This documentary focuses on the fusion of traditional, old world values of yesteryear and modern, American culture, as … Read more
Description: Produced by Ricardo Gaspar and Selma Santos under the auspices of the University of Bahia and the Brazilian Ministry of Culture, this video depicts the history of the 1897 massacre of thousands of followers of a millenarian movement in … Read more
Description: A discussion of the 1933 text Casa Grande & Senzala(Masters and Slaves) by Brazilian anthropologist and historian, Gilberto Freyre, this documentary consists of four 1-hour segments. The camera follows Prof. Edson Nery, friend and biographer of Freyre, on an … Read more
Description: This film investigates the origins and development of the international legal prosecution of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. It explores how a small group of people in Madrid laid the groundwork for his arrest. After Pinochets arrest by Scotland … 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: Based on Ernesto “Che” Guevara’s memoir Reminiscences of the Cuban Revolutionary War, this film constitutes part 1 of the two part series directed by Steven Soderbergh on the life of this iconic hero of the Cuban revolution. While focusing … Read more
Description: Part two of Stephen Soderbergh’s chronicle of the revolutionary activities of Ernesto “Che” Guevara examines Guevara’s attempts to start a revolutionary guerrilla movement in the jungles of Bolivia. Beginning with his arrival in Bolivia under a false identity, the … Read more
Description: On October 9, 1967, Che Guevara was executed by the Bolivian army, aided by the CIA. Ches diary, a detailed, personal account of his futile 11-month attempt to spark a revolution in Bolivia, is the basis of this intimate … Read more
Description: Documentary on the political situation before the Chilean plebiscite made for Chilean TV. Copies: 1(VHS) Length: 53 minutes
Description: Chile, Obstinate Memory visits with Chileans who experienced Augusto Pinochets coup first-hand. Survivors reminisce as they watch Patricio Guzmáns film The Battle of Chile, recognizing lost comrades and recalling their courage, gaiety, and love of life. Those who were … Read more
Description: Critically acclaimed film about a cinema workshop that works with poor children in the slums, many of whom have never seen a film before, to understand cinema as a mode of expression. Copies: 1 (VHS) Length: 60 minutes
Description: In 1942, Johann, a lonely German, travels through the Northeast of Brazil in his truck selling aspirins in small villages, using advertisement movies to promote the medicine. He meets and befriends a drifter but later must make a life … Read more
Description: German colonizers dominated many coffee estates in Guatemala during the early twentieth century. This documentary takes us through the old coffee baron’s plantations, and examines a new generation of entrepreneurs in key posts within the government behind anonymous company … Read more
Description: This collection of short films is part of the series Corto metraje, más que un instante from IMCINE and CinemaFilms. This original series showcases 51 short films by up and coming Mexican directors, cinematographers and actors. The films touch … 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: The conquest of the New World in less than 50 years is one of history’s most profound events–and remains one of its greatest adventures. British historian Michael Wood captures the bravery, endurance, greed, cruelty, and suffering involved in these … Read more
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 … Read more
Description: This documentary tells the story of how, after centuries of inaccessibility, the Mayan hieroglyphics were finally decoded by archaeologists. Through many discoveries by people of all ages, including Michael Coe and David Stuart, the Mayan Civilization is brought to … Read more
Description: This documentary follows two Cuban exiles, Bay of Pigs invasion veterans, upon their return to their native island. As attendees of a conference discussing the invasion, they interact and attempt to reconcile the past with former battlefield adversaries, including … Read more
Description: An exploration of the experience of Cubans living in the United States, focusing especially on the nature of the community since 1959. The film avoids explicit discussions of politics and instead focuses on the maintenance of community, culture and … Read more
Description: This very first three-color, live action film production is a comic short about a volatile tempered cantina girl trying to regain the love of a fellow dancer. The piece has lots of dancing and music, marking the debut of … Read more
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. Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 100 minutes
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: A portrait of a country under assault from Washington and the World Bank. This documentary shows the impact of structural adjustment, privatization and the global sweatshop economy on the people of El Salvador. It also explores the posible alternatives … Read more
Description: After the coup detat that occurred on September 11, 1973, the Chilean government initiated an atrocious pursuit against former allies of the overthrown Socialist President, Salvador Allende. A series of house raids were conducted and thousands of people were … Read more
Description: A film biography about Evita 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 … Read more
Description: This documentary is a personal profile of Fidel Castro and a view of the developments since the revolution 10 years before. There are a lot of images of Fidel: listening to complaints, arguing, laughing, and philosophizing. There is beautiful … Read more
Description: This film is an intimate portrait of the Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro. Filmmaker Estela Bravo presents rare interviews with Castro and footage of him swimming with bodyguards, visiting his childhood home and school, and trading jokes with his … Read more
Description: A single, iconic image of Ernesto Che Guevara has been remembered, revered and reproduced over the years. In this documentary, photographer Alberto Korda recounts his feelings at the moment he snapped the world famous photo. A fast-paced collage of … 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: 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: Part I-Documents religious paintings in the Merced Iglesia, a colonial church in Antigua. Part II-Documents retablos in the Merced Iglesia. Part III-Documents the rich history of the church of Santo Domingo and the feast of the patron in San … Read more
Description: This television documentary provides a brief history of land distribution efforts in Guatemala and follows a threatened priest leading a landless campesino movement. The program shows the dream of some landless families come true, as they obtain land for … Read more
Description: This film presents a revisionist view of the life Ernesto Che Guevara. Various interviews with former comrades of Guevara present a portrait of the man that is a stark contrast to the official mythology of Ches historical role in … Read more
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 … Read more
Type: Documentary, Year: 2001, Director: Cecilia Ricciarelli and Diego Malquori, Country: Cuba, Format: DVD-R, Language: Spanish, Subtitles: English
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: Documentary including three dramatic stories about the insurrection struggle in Cuba during the 50s. The saga of young people, who lived, loved and fought with the hopes of a better future. Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 81 minutes
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: How can it be that after Pinochet’s repressive regime the former general can still count on the unconditional support of so many Chileans? Constructed from a series of portraits that reveal the breadth and complexity of Pinochetism in Chile, … 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: Based on the novel by Julia Alvarez and inspired by the true story of the Mirabal sisters, who faced brutal repression at the hands of the regime of Rafael Trujillo as a result of their involvement in an underground … 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: Cuban boxing legend Kid Chocolate was the first Cuban to win a world boxing title, and is still considered by many as the best Cuban boxer ever. In this documentary produced by the Cuban film institute ICAIC, Chocolate recounts … 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: A collection of video shorts that examine the history of Mexican cinema. This volume examines recent movies that have addressed issues concerning power, analyzing particularly the movie Morir en el Golfo (1989). Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 60 minutes
Description: A collection of short videos (los orígenes del cinematógrafico, cine mundo, Eisenstein en México, etc.) that examine the history of Mexican cinema–from the Lumière brothers’ first screenings in Mexico City at the turn of the century, to the development … 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: 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 … Read more
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. Copies: 2 (DVD and … 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: 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: The video collection that takes you on a trip to Oaxaca to see the sites of the immensely beautiful country of Mexico. Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 60 Minutes
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 Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 60 minutes
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: 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: 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: 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: Fantastic documentary about black communities in the State of Bahia. The Brazilian concept of Quilombos has come to mean the communities that were constituted out of the struggle of rebel slaves during the centuries of slavery, as territories of … Read more
Description: A depiction of the Aztec myth of the creation of the Fifth Sun. It also explains why the Aztecs were cast out of their "Eden" resulting in their eventual conquest. Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 91 minutes
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 … Read more
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 … Read more
Description: This is a joyous and colorful three-part musical odyssey that follows the powerful flow of Afro-Cuban music from its origin five centuries ago in Africa and Spain to the contemporary sound of such exciting popular artists as Gloria Estefan, … Read more
Description: This documentary narrates the story of Los San Patricios, a Irish battalion in the war against Mexico in 1843 that deserted the United States army and joined the Mexican side. They are celebrated every year in Mexico, Ireland, and … Read more
Description: A visually stunning film that was made in Cuba between 1961 and 1964 by the acclaimed Soviet director Mikhail Kalatozov (The Cranes Are Flying). The camera work is amazing in this propaganda epic that portrays four vignettes of Cuba … Read more
Description: In this first volume of the three part film series about Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina and his thirty year dictatorship in the Dominican Republic, the focus lays in the Trujillo’s rise to power and the early years of his … Read more
Description: In the second episode of this film series detailing Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina and his thirty year dictatorship in the Dominican Republic, the director focuses on the bulk of Trujillos reign, and how it impacted the Dominican people. Copies: … Read more
Description: In the conclusion to this trilogy of documentaries about the thirty year dictatorship of Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina in the Dominican Republic, we see the end of an era, as the final years of Trujillos rule play out and … 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 August 1942, the murder of a young Mexican American man ignited a firestorm in Los Angeles. The press claimed Mexican youth – know as “zoot-suiters” for the clothes they wore – were terrorizing the city with crime. The … Read more