WHICH WAY HOME

Title: WHICH WAY HOME
Description: A heart-wrenching exploration of a lesser-known dimension of Central American migration to the United States. Every year tens of thousands of unaccompanied children, attempt to migrate through Mexico to the United States. Some as young as nine years old, these children ride atop the roofs of Mexican freight trains in hopes of getting to the United States. This film centers on the experiences of two teenagers from Honduras, Kevin and Fito, following them as they make their way north. The film explores their experiences undertaking a journey that is harrowing even for the most resourceful of adults. Interviews with migrant children,immigration officials, and parents back home reveal the myriad dangers these children face and their determination to brave these dangers in hopes of obtaining a better life.
Subject: Migration/Immigration, Latinos/Chicanos, Social Issues
Type: Documentary
Year: 2009
Director: Rebecca Cammisa
Country: Central America/Mexico/United States
Film ID: 700
Comments:
Created: 5/13/2010
Copy: 1   Format: DVD-R   Language: English and Spanish   Subtitles: English   Length: 90 minutes   Copy ID: 1362   Comments:    Source:    Price: 0   Acquired: 4/7/2011

HARVEST OF LONELINESS

Title: HARVEST OF LONELINESS
Description: In today’s weak economy, current immigration laws in different states of the country show hostility towards undocumented immigrants. This was not the case during and after World War II where the United States was in need of laborers who would work the fields of California and other states. This documentary explores the Bracero Program, and immigration reform that sought Mexican workers for temporal guest workers. These workers could not join unions, strike, or seek redress of their grievances, making them vulnearable for exploitation. The program was supposed to boost the economies of both countries, but Mexican wives and children were left behind as husbands traveled north in search of the American Dream. The documentary shows how the main reason for the program was to provide cheap labor without regard for the Mexican families. 58 minutes
Subject: Latinos/Chicanos, Social Issues, Migration/Immigration
Type: Documentary
Year: 2010
Director: Gilbert Gonzalez
Country: US/Mexico
Film ID: 750
Comments: Master Copy: Classroom use only
Created: 10/17/2011
Copy: M   Format: DVD   Language: English   Subtitles: Spanish   Length: 56 Minutes   Copy ID: 1385   Comments: For classroom use only   Source:    Price: 0   Acquired: 9/9/9999

GRINGO NEXT DOOR

Title: GRINGO NEXT DOOR
Description: When Jack sees that his chickens are missing, he turns on the only people he thinks to blame – his Hispanic neighbors. The solution? Hire immigrant labor to build a wall between the two homes. A hilarious web of miscommunication ensues in this humorous satire. This short film was shot by UNC-CH students in Pittsboro, NC.
Type:
Year: 2009
Director: Habib Yazdi
Country:
Film ID: 784
Comments:
Created: 5/4/2012
Copy: 1   Format: DVD   Language: English and Spanish   Subtitles: English   Length: 15 minutes   Copy ID: 1412   Comments: donated by Habib Yadzi , contact Seana Monley for extra copies .   Source:    Price: 0   Acquired: 9/9/9999

ENTRE LOS MUERTOS

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 film yields strong emotions as it explores the ways in which people perceive and deal with death. The film displays communities who live in cemeteries where tombstones are playgrounds, ‘funerary brokers’ who scout dead bodies for commission, families who bury kin in their backyard, and funerals and festivities on the Day of the Dead. It is an investigation of the economy of death, the value of life and how San Salvadorians walk a fine line between normalizing and desensitizing death, due to their historical roots in violence.
Subject: History, Latinos/Chicanos, Politics/Human Rights
Type: Documentary
Year: 2006
Director: Jorge Dalton
Country: El Salvador
Film ID: 782
Comments:
Created: 4/10/2012
Copy: 1   Format: DVD   Language: spanish   Subtitles: English   Length: 60 minutes   Copy ID: 1409   Comments: master copy for classroom use only   Source:    Price: 0   Acquired: 9/9/9999

AL OTRO LADO

Title: AL OTRO LADO
Description: An aspiring corrido composer from the drug capital of Mexico faces two choices to better his life: to traffic drugs or to cross the border illegally into the United States. From Sinaloa, Mexico, to the streets of South Central and East L.A., Al Otro Lado explores the world of drug smuggling, illegal immigration, and the corrido music that chronicles it all. Description from producer.
Subject: Migration/Immigration, Border, Economics/Development, Latinos/Chicanos
Type: Documentary
Year: 2005
Director: Natalia Almada
Country: Mexico
Film ID: 743
Comments:
Created: 4/4/2011
Copy: 1   Format: DVD   Language: Spanish   Subtitles: English   Length:    Copy ID: 1384   Comments:    Source:    Price: 0   Acquired: 9/9/9999
Copy: M   Format: DVD-R   Language: Spanish   Subtitles: English   Length:    Copy ID: 1386   Comments:    Source:    Price: 0   Acquired: 9/9/9999

THE VIRGIN APPEARS IN LA MALDITA VECINDAD

Description: The Virgin Appears in La Maldita Vecinidad is a documentary about the Virgen of Guadalupe and the celebrations that occur on December 11th and 12th in her honor. These celebrations occur outside an apartment complex knows as “la Maldita Vecindad” in Durham, North Carolina which is composed of immigrants mainly from Mexico and Central America. This documentary also explores Latin American immigrants in the United States.

Copies: 1 (DVD master)

FOR GOODNESS SAKE: WHY AMERICA NEEDS IMMIGRATION REFORM

In February 2011, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill hosted His Eminence Cardinal Roger Mahony. Cardinal Mahony heads the nation’s largest Roman Catholic archdiocese, the 5-million member Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, which is 70% Latino. In his presentation Mahony drew on scriptural and Catholic social justice doctrine in his call for immigration reform legislation. Also included with this film is selection of interviews with children of undocumented immigrants provided by Cardinal Mahony, as well as a public Q & A following the lecture.

Copies: 1 (DVD)
Length: 61 minutes

LOS QUE SE QUEDAN

Description: An award-winning and discerning depiction of the impact of migration on Mexican families and villages left behind by loved ones who have traveled north for work.

Copies: 1 (DVD)

Length: 96 Minutes

AIDS IN THE BARRIO: ESO NO ME PASA A MI (THIS ISN’T HAPPENING TO ME)

Description: This film by Francis Negrón and Peter Biella examines the impact of AIDS within Hispanic-American communities, focusing on the specific economic, social and cultural factors which influence perception of the AIDS crisis.

Copies: 1 (DVD)

Length: 29 minutes

AMERICAS: PART 10

Description: “The Americans” The Americans return to the United States to profile California’s Mexican-American population and the Latin American and Caribbean communities of Miami and New York City. This final episode poses questions about assimilation, national identity and how these communities are changing what it means to be an American.

Copies: 1 (VHS)

Length: 60 minutes

AND THE EARTH DID NOT SWALLOW HIM

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 la tierra” by Thomas Rivera. Through its many human stories of growing up as a Mexican American the story exposes the rich cultural traditions which have given shape to life in the American Southwest

Copies: 2 (DVD and VHS)

Length: 100 minutes

BODA, LA (THE WEDDING)

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.

Copies: 1 (DVD)

Length: 53 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.

Copies: 1 (DVD)

Length: 100 minutes

CAFÉ CON LECHE: VOICES OF EXILE’S CHILDREN

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 the young Cuban-Americans comment on their experiences growing up bi-culturally.

Copies: 1 (DVD)

Length: 85 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. A classic film by a leading Latina filmmaker.

Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 23 minutes

CHULAS FRONTERAS and DEL MERO CORAZÓN

Description: Documentary films of the borderland between Texas and Mexico. Norteña music filled with the poetry of daily life-love songs, passion, death, humor, and loss is explored from dancehalls, small towns, and family gatherings.

Copies: 2 (DVD and VHS) Length: 90 minutes total (58 minutes first film, 28 minutes second film)

CIUDAD, LA (THE CITY)

Description: Four fictional stories set in New York City, but common to many other places United States or the world. Filmed in black and white, the program depicts Latin American immigrants living in New York: day laborers paid to gather brick from an abandoned lot struggle to save one crushed when a wall collapses; a young man from Mexico meets a girl from his home village at a quinceañera, then loses her in the maze of a housing project; a homeless puppeteer dreams of a better life for his daughter, but cannot enroll her in school; a sweatshop seamstress needs money for her daughter’s medical treatment, but her employer has not paid her in more than a month. Most of the actors are nonprofessionals and are themselves struggling immigrants, bringing understanding and realism to the film Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 84 minutes

COUPLE IN THE CAGE

Description: This film documents the traveling 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.

Copies: 1 (DVD) 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 newcomers, 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. Copies: 2 (VHS) Length: 17 minutes

CUBA: THE BROKEN IMAGE

Description: This program gathers together the most representative of exiled Cuban filmmakers, who recount their personal experiences of having to abandon their work and start a new life away from their country, culture and natural environment. The program features clips of their film and photographs as it takes viewers on a journey from Cuba in the late 1950s to the lives of the filmmakers today. Although Castro encouraged the development of a state sponsored cinema in Cuba, opening doors for many talented filmmakers, his policies towards intellectuals led many of these same filmmakers to abandon the island, leaving behind a broken image, an interrupted flow of creativity which some were able to find again abroad but others were not. Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 46 minutes

CUBAN ROOTS / BRONX STORIES

Description: This documentary traces the tangled paths and multifaceted identity of a black Cuban family in the Bronx. Both working-class and professional, black and Latino, foreign and native, Spanish-speaking and English-speaking, the family is shown in the constant process of negotiating its identity. On their arrival in Miami, the family immediately encountered racial segregation, and they were forced to choose their identity: “Are you black or Spanish?” The film explores the various experiences that each family member had in dealing with the realities of life as black Cuban-Americans in the Bronx. Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 56 minutes

CUBAN-AMERICANS, THE

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 identity among Cubans now living in the United Staes. Through interviews with numerous celebrities, the film explores the experience of leaving Cuba and subsequent exile in the United States, that challenges of building lives as newly arrived immigrants in the United States, and the cultural forms that served as vehicles for the preservation of Cuban identity. Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 90 minutes

DANZA DEL ESPEJO, LA (MIRROR DANCE)

Description: Identical Twins, Margarita and Ramona de Saá, grew up to become acclaimed ballerinas with the National Ballet of Cuba. Once inseparable, their relationship deteriorated as one sister left for America and the other embraced the Cuban Revolution. Mirror Dance is the story of two women forever linked by birth and dance but struggling to overcome a deep rift between sisters and nations alike. Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 54 minutes

 

DAY OF THE DEAD: SAN FRANCISCO (DIA DE LOS MUERTOS)

Description: This film captures the beauty and richness of San Francisco’s annual Day of the Dead celebration. Enjoy scenes from this cross-cultural Mexican tradition that honors ancestors and families. People of all ages celebrate with a festival of marvelous costumes, reflective altars, live music and a neighborhood procession, all while exploring the relationship between the living and the dead. View all these aspects of the Dia de los Muertos holiday along with interviews with artists and participants. Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 14 minutes

DAY WITHOUT A MEXICAN, A (2004)

Description: The California Dream suddenly becomes a hilarious nightmare when the entire Latin American population of the Golden State vanishes. For most “the disappearance” forces the cracks in their private lives wide open, including news reporter Lila Rodriguez, the state’s last remaining Hispanic, and senator Steven Abercrombie III, who becomes governor pro tem despite his anti-immigrant stance. Confusion, misunderstandings and humorous situations abound, making this film a comedic satire and a modern fable with a very current message. This is the full-length feature film based on the 1997 short film of the same name. Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 98 minutes

DE FLORIDA A COAHUILA (FROM FLORIDA TO COAHUILA)

Description: This documentary tells the remarkable story of a rebel people – the Mascogos, known in the United States as the Black Seminoles. This exceptional community is descended from escaped slaves who made common cause with the Seminole Indians of Florida. The exceptional Mascogo/Black Seminole culture combines African-American spirituals, Indian fry-bread, and Tex-Mex cowboy culture. Filmed on both sides of the border, this video documents the complex history of people of African descent caught between national boundaries, and the efforts of their descendants to maintain their culture. Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 50 minutes

 

EDGE WALKER: A CONVERSATION WITH LINDA SCHELE

Description: Documentary tribute to the late Linda Schele, among the leading scholars of Maya civilization, who in January 1998 gave a long, filmed interview in which she talks freely and frankly in her own inimitable style about her life, work, and philosophy. Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 50 minutes

ESCUELA, LA

Description: There are over 800,000 students enrolled in migrant education programs in the United States and, of those, only 45-50% ever finish high school. “Escuela”, the sequel to Hannah Weyer’s critically acclaimed documentary “La Boda”, personalizes these glaring statistics through the honest portrait of a teenage Mexican-American farm worker, Liliana Luis. Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 52 minutes

FIESTA 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. Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 38 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. Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 90 minutes

FLORES DE OTRO MUNDO

Description:

GREAT MOJADO INVASION, THE

Description: The director narrates this pseudo-documentary, fantasizing an invasion of mojados (wetbacks) who reconquer lost Mexican territory to create the “U.S. of Aztlán.” This new regime propagandizes by portraying Anglos with the same stereotypes employed against Latinos. Directed by Gustavo Vásquez and Guillermo Gómez-Peña. Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 30 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 Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 60 minutes

GRINGO IN MAÑANALAND

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. Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 61 minutes

HOTEL CUBA

Description: A documentary about the Cuban-Jewish community in South Florida, with interviews from both Cuban-Jewish and Non-Jewish members of the community. Robert Levine began the documentary after realizing the effects of the generation gap between Cuban-Jewish teenagers and their parents and grandparents, who were originally from Cuba. Robert Levine, joined with Mark D. Szuchman, a colleague at Florida International University, began to record their interviews with the community members to reflect the views of the community members. Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 27 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. Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 20 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. Copies: 3 (DVD and VHS) Length: 45 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. Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 56 minutes

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. An excellent point of departure for considering the Cuban Revolution, migration and communities of exile. Produced by the Institute for Policy Studies, USA Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 52 minutes

MUJERES CUBANAS: MARCADAS POR EL PARAISO

Description: They were the women a man would silence. Robbed of their dignity and hope, they became his anonymous victims. Political prisoners, wives, mothers, writers, artists, children, lost at sea…Forgotten over and over. Once deprived of their voices, they now speak.

Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 80 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.

Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 139 minutes

NUEBA YOL

Description: In this comedy, a Dominican widower, Balbuena (Luisito Martí), decides to leave the economic strictures of island life behind for the streets-are-paved-with-gold promise of the Big Apple.

Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 104 minutes

NUEBA YOL 3

Description: In this comically-numbered sequel, Balbuena (Luisito Martí) returns to New York, where he must marry an American citizen to remain in the country legally.

Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 117 minutes

NUESTRA COMUNIDAD

Description: This film documents the personal experiences and work environments of migrant workers living in North Carolina and examines the impact of their arrival on their newly adopted communities. The debate about whether illegal immigrants should be living and working in the United States is central to this film. Through many interviews with policy-makers, immigrants, religious officials, human rights workers and North Carolina residents, a complete picture of the opinions that fuel the debate is provided here. The film also examines the contours of cultural encounter and prospects for the future for these new southerners.

Copies: 3 (DVD and 2 VHS) Length: 60 minutes

OFRENDA, LA: THE DAYS OF THE DEAD

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.

Copies: 2 (DVD and VHS) Length: 50 minutes

OTRO LADO, EL

Description: Americans simply pass through the turnstiles for cheap thrills in Tijuana. Mexicans on the other side, however, face endless barriers of barbed wire, attack dogs, and armed border patrols. Alex Webb captures the odd panorama of the border. Copies: 1 Length: 10 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. Includes follow-up interviews with the film’s creators, and several bonus features concerning Panama, Latin America, and Iraq. Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 91 minutes

PAPERS: STORIES OF UNDOCUMENTED YOUTH

Description: There are approximately 2 million undocumented children who were born outside the U.S. and raised in this country. This documentary explores the situation of young people who were educated in American schools, hold American values, know only the U.S. as home and yet risk deportation to countries they may not even remember. Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 88 minutes

REVELACIONES / REVELATIONS: HISPANIC ART OF EVANESCENCE

Description: Dircted by Edin Velez, Produced and written by Chon Noriega. A documentary about the work, cultural expressions, and recent exhibits of 8 latino artists, this film also provides a means to think U.S. latino identity and history. Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 28 minutes

ROOTS OF MIGRATION

Description: A journey by US citizens to Oaxaca, Mexico reveals the global forces that have pushed millions of people to migrate to the United States. Learn first-hand why people make the journey north, why they wish they didn’t have to, and what effect their migration has on their communities back home. Shot entirely on location in Oaxaca, Mexico during a fact-finding trip organized by Witness for Peace co-founder, Gail Phares. Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 20 minutes

ROOTS OF RHYTHM

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, Ruben Blades, and jazz musician Dizzy Gillespie. Program one traces the African and Spanish roots, Program 2 traces the cultural blending in the Caribbean, and Program 3 traces its popularity in the United States and eventually through the world. Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 58 minutes each part

SANDRA HAHN: REPLIES OF THE NIGHT; SLIPPING BETWEEN

Description: In Replies of the Night, Sandra Hahn uses computer animation to activate a photograph of her grandfather who died a violent death during the Days of the Dead in 1946. In Slipping Between, she creates a “visual poem” by using another member of her family that died from cancer. The video projects a palette of images transmitting an array of feeling and emotion. Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 12 minutes

SAVING ELIAN

Description: The political, social, and international implications of the custody battle over five-year-old Elián González pitted the U.S. Department of Justice, the Miami Cuban exile community and the Cuban government in a new acrimonious struggle. Documentary footage from Miami, and some from Cuba, along with interviews and observations from participants, legal observers, and US- Cuban experts. The film explores how Elián became a metaphor over the future on both sides of the Florida strait. A PBS Frontline Documentary. Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 60 minutes

SEAMS

Description: Directed by Karim Ainouz, a young Brazilian American filmmaker, who traveled back to his home in Brazil to interview on film his five delightfully eccentric unmarried or widowed aunts on their views of love, family and marriage. These women all in their eighties or nineties seem more liberated and more at ease with certain issues than many people of today.

Copies: 2 (DVD and VHS)

SELENA

Description: The story of the legendary Tejana singer, Selena, who was tragically murdered by the president of her fan club. Jennifer López and Edward James Olmos star in this movie about he talents, triumphs, and tragedies of the Quintanilla family. Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 127 minutes

SHRINE, THE

Description: Explores the traditions and mysteries that surround El Santuario de Chimayo, a small adobe folk church in northern New Mexico. Thousands of people make pilgrimages to see the church and its “holy dirt,” which has origins dating back to the ancient Pueblo Indians of the region. Oral interviews and narration trace the history of the church and its connection to New Mexico’s Hispanic and Indian cultural heritage. Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 46 minutes

SLEEP DEALER

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 3 characters who inhabit very different spaces in this world: a migrant, a soldier, and a writer. Sleep Dealer won the Alfred P. Sloan Prize at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for both the Gotham and Independent Spirit awards. Geoffrey Gilmore, the festival director, describes the movie as “a combination of The Matrix, Blade Runner, and The Border”. Already a Latino Sci-Fi classic, this film has been praised by critics and audiences alike. Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 90 minutes

STREET ART

Description: The first and last documentary by 18-year old Ben Gutierrez is a highly informative look at graffiti that breaks the art form down into four distinct categories: “peacing,” gang style, tagging, and mural art. Gutierrez was shot and killed in the winter of 1990. Copies: 1 (DVD and VHS) Length: 5 minutes

SUEÑOS DE ANGÉLICA, LOS (ANGELICA’S DREAMS)

Description: Filmed on location in Durham, North Carolina, Los Sueños de Angélica follows the life of a Latino couple striving to enter the mainstream of American society. Angélica and Roberto work multiple jobs and take English classes as a means of realizing their desire to move ahead financially in the United States. At the same time they are torn between their new lives and a desire to return home to the land of their birth and recreate a new life there. Unexpected changes bring these tensions to the fore and push the couple to decide between these two desires. This film provides a window into the everyday lives and consciousness of Latino immigrants while exploring the process of buying a home in the United States. Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 82 minutes

SUEÑOS DE ROBERTO, LOS (ROBERTO’S DREAMS)

Description: The sequel to Los Sueños de Angelica picks up 10 years later with the lives of a latino couple living in Durham. The recession has left Roberto without a job for some time, and he and his wife Angelica decide to start a cleaning business. After initial failures he finds himself on his way to starting a business that weds traditional knowledge with notions of sustainability and green practices.In order to get the venture going, Roberto and Angelica take classes on how to start a business at the Latino Cooperative Credit Union. In addition to relating an entertaining story with endearing characters, this film provides instructional information the steps necessary to start a new business and traces the shifting nature of the lives of latinos in the United States after they have established roots and become long-standing members of their local communities. Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 102 minutes

SUPER, EL

Description: A humorous and touching view of Cuban exiles living in a basement apartment during a snowy winter in New York, El Super is the story of Roberto, a superintendent who dreams of his warm and friendly homeland and stubbornly refuses to assimilate into the new culture. Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 80 minutes

VANESSA, THE ORANGE THROWER (VANESSA, ARROJA NARANJAS)

Description: A view into the family values and Catholic guilt in a Latino community. This film examines the tragic-comic problems that a Puerto Rican teen creates for herself when she decides to take attention by saying that she is pregnant.

Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 29 minutes

VIDA NO ES FACIL, LA

Description: This documentary examines the issue of the ineligibility of undocumented immigrants for in-state tuition at North Carolina’s public universities and how this situation affects the lives of college-aged Latino students. Director Maurice M. Martinez examines this controversial topic through the stories of three such students who were born to poor farm workers in Mexico. They have spent much of their lives in the U.S. and are struggling to find the financial resources to attend college. Other topics covered include misconceptions of the Latino community, the conditions of agricultural labor and the impact of Latinos on the economy.

Copies: 1 (DVD)

VOCES LATINAS

Description: Produced by the Latinos in West Michigan Project, this video includes three segments of interviews with Latino citizens from Grand Rapids, Holland, and Muskegon. Featured narrators are: Mercedes Toohey, Marilia Blakely, Jurisa Negrón from Grand Rapids; Nereida García and Tino Reyes from Holland; and Connie Navarro, Tomassa Ybarra, and Joe Garza, Jr. from Muskegon.

Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 30 minutes

YO SOY (I AM)

Description: Features interviews with three artists instrumental in the Chicano art movement: Juana Alicia, Jose Montoya, and Malaquias Montoya. The three describe their early influences and inspirations, and discuss their philosophies on art and life.

Copies: 2 (DVD) Length: 75 minutes

ZOOT SUIT

Description: Adapted from the 1978 stage play by the preeminent Chicano playwright Luis Valdéz, Zoot Suit is a musical drama of racism and intolerance in the culture of Los Angeles. It begins in 1942 with the death of a young Chicano (Mexican-American) which directly leads to the infamous “zoot suit riots.”

Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 103 minutes

ZOOT SUIT RIOTS

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 police arrested 600 Mexican Americans while seventeen were found guilty for murder despite a lack of evidence. With stunning film noir re-creations, evocative original photography and moving interviews, this documentary tells the story of the trial and the resulting violent events of the summer of 1943.

Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 60 minutes