7 DIAS 7 NOCHES

A film on the lives of three women who live in contemporary Cuba.

Copies: 1 (DVD+R); Length: 106 minutes

BETTY Y PANCHO

Title: BETTY & 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 share the same studio in Cuernavaca, and exhibit 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.
Subject: Art, Music/Dance, Biography
Type: Documentary
Year: 1998
Director: Juan Mora Catlett
Country: Mexico
Film ID: 359
Comments: Possibly something wrong with the DVD and/or the VHS original.
Created:
Copy: 1   Format: DVD-R   Language: English and Spanish   Subtitles: English and Spanish   Length: 57 Minutes   Copy ID: 658   Comments: Bad copy, a few seconds of tv recorded over the original VHS.   Source: MVP   Price: 10   Acquired: 2/4/2008
Copy: M   Format: VHS   Language: English and Spanish   Subtitles: English and Spanish   Length: 57 Minutes   Copy ID: 335   Comments: Bad copy, a few seconds of tv recorded over the original VHS.   Source:    Price: 40   Acquired: 9/9/9999

WHEN THE DRUM IS BEATING

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 journey through Haiti’s culture and history; from French colonialism and bloody revolutions to natural disasters and foreign debt while Septentrional’s beautiful sounds of Haitian voodoo beats and Cuban big band serve as a backdrop. This film contains graphic images.
Subject: History, Social Life and Customs, Music/Dance, Culture/Festivals/Food
Type: Documentary
Year: 2011
Director: Whitney Dow
Country: United States/Haiti
Film ID: 793
Comments:
Created: 10/23/2013
Copy: 1   Format: DVD   Language: english   Subtitles: English   Length: 84 minutes   Copy ID: 1421   Comments:    Source: N/A   Price: 0   Acquired: 8/21/2013

BARACOA

Description: Baracoa shows the beauty of Baracoa, a municipality of Guantanamo province in Cuba. The film includes footage of the natural environment of Baracoa, the major city, Guantanamo while Cuban music is playing in the background.

Copies: 1 (DVD master) – For classroom use only

LOS 50 VIVIDOS

Description: Los 50 Vividos offers insight into the intellectual and cultural side of Cuba. The Union de Escritores y Artistas de Cuba (UNEAC) or the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba was founded by Nicolas Guillen, the national poet of Cuba. The film features Guillen’s poems, photos of the various congresses of the UNEAC starting in 1961 through 2008, photos of different festivals, awards, and interviews of the founders of the UNEAC and its major collaborators. The film also includes a section showcasing the music of more than twenty Cuban artists

Cpoies: 1 (DVD master) – For classroom use only

CHIGUALEROS

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 has an African history that is evoked through the mix of sounds in the Chigualeros.The documentary presents the lives of the members of the group while also exploring the deforestation of the tropical forests of the region.

Copies:
1 (DVD)
Length: 80 minutes

ACCORDION KINGS, THE

Description: This documentary examines a Colombian musical tradition that has emerged to become an internationally popular music genre. Its rural sentiment, straightforward message, and danceable rhythms now appeal to millions of fans around the world. In Colombia’s northern Magdalena Valley, vallenato or “valley music” is the rage and the accordion is king. The region is a place where small children learn to play the accordion at their father’s knee while hundreds of professional practitioners, sometimes several generations of accordeoneros in the same family, perform dazzling feats of musical prowess at social events and duel for bragging rights at annual festivals. The film features an exclusive interview with pop star Carlos Vives and behind-the-scenes footage of the legendary annual Vallenato Festival.

Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 75 minutes

BRAZIL

Description: This film highlights some of Brazil’s most impressive features. From economics and industry to geography and culture, this documentary serves as an informative introduction to a country unlike any other. It focuses on major cities like Sao Paolo, Rio de Janeiro, Brazilia and Salvador da Bahia, while also placing emphasis on the country’s rural culture and diversity.

Copies: 1 (DVD)

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.

Copies: 1 (DVD)

Length: 101 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.”

Copies: 1(VHS)

Length: 90 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)

CORAZON SANGRANTE / CUERPOS DE PAPEL

Description: Corazon Sangrante is a short film that uses various mythic elements of gender – the sacred heart, saints, la china poblana – all set to the music of an old Mexican ballad. Cuerpos de Papel, also set to music, explores the relationship between two lesbians.

Copies: 1 (VHS) Length: 3 minutes each

CUCARACHA, LA

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 Technicolor. Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 21 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. Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 100 minutes

DANZON

Description: Julia, played by María Rojo, works by day as a telephone operator in Mexico City and at night turns to her real passion, which is dancing. Once a week she goes to a ballroom to dance with Carmelo, a fifty-year-old, well-groomed man and excellent dancer of danzón. One day Carmelo disappears and Julia’s search for him is transformed into a search for her own self-identity. Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 120 minutes

FABRI-K, LA

Description: Two of Cuba’s leading hip-hop groups, Obsesion and Doble Filo, have formed the collective La Fabri_K to showcase their art. This film follows the artists from their homes in Havana through their eye-opening concert tour in the United States, exploring the conflicts they confront along the way. Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 62

HABANA BLUES (HAVANA BLUES)

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 choices they are forced to make regarding their music, their families and their country. Cannes Festival Official Selection, 2005. Copies: 2 (DVD) Length: 115 minutes

HAIL UMBANDA

Type: Documentary, Year: 2008, Director: Jose Araujo, Country: Brazil, Format: DVD, Language: English, Subtitles: None

HASTA LA REINA ISABEL BAILA EL DANZON

Type: Documentary, Year: 1990, Director: Felipe Bernaza, Country: Cuba, Format: DVD-R, Language: Spanish, Subtitles: English

JOVENES REBELDES

Description: This film examines the now vibrant hip-hop community that has emerged in Cuba since the onset of the special period, interviewing numerous artists and getting their perspectives on a number of issues, including racism, issues of censorship, economic conditions, gender and sexuality, and relations with the United States. In many ways the Cuban hip-hop scene evokes memories of the culture when it first emerged in the United States in terms of its grassroots character as a form of expression for marginalized youth. Rappers comment on the significance the genre has as a form of cultural expression and social commentary, as well as the danger of Cuban hip-hop progressing down the same path of commercialization that has become so prominent in the United States. Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 70 minutes

MORO NO BRASIL

Description: This film is a musical road trip deep into the heart of Brazil. Along the trip, the director showcases the diversity and richness of the Brazilian Music. Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 105 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.

Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 25 minutes

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS AND GENRES OF PERU LAMBAYEQUE

Description: The musical panorama of the region of Lambayeque shows the role placed by musical instruments and genres in delineating different cultural spheres, as well as in the conflict between traditional and modern expressions. Two large areas can be distinguished: those of the coast and of the mountains. Each expresses itself in music differently, even when both use the same musical instruments. The coastal town draws on African traditions. Communications and popular urban music have also influenced this area, significantly changing Lambayeque’s musical panorama.

Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 27 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.

Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 30 minutes

OGGUN, AN EXTERNAL PRESENCE

Description: In Oggun, Gloria Rolando relates the mythical story of the Yoruba god Oggun, the tireless warrior who, enamored of his mother, decided as punishment to imprison himself in the mountains: Only Ochun, goddess of love, succeeded in captivating him when she let fall a few drops of honey on the lips of the god of metal, war, progress, and civilization. This documentary includes chants, dances, a “tambor” (Yoruba religious ceremony with the bata drums), and the experiences of Lázaro Ros, a legendary Akpwon, or lead singer in the Yoruba tradition, who not only made his the beauty of the African chants, but had the opportunity to sing them in trips throughout the world.

Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 55 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

THE SOUND OF RIO: BRASILEIRINHO

Description: A musical documentary about choro, the first genuinely urban Brazilian music, which blended European, Afro-Brazilian and indigenous elements and formed the basis for popular musical styles such as Samba and Bossa Nova. Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 90 minutes

SOY ANDINA

Description: The dazzling story of two women raised in different worlds — an immigrant folk dancer from the Andes, and a modern dancer from Queens, NY — who return to Peru to reconnect with their cultural heritage through an astonishing world of traditional dance and celebration. Soy Andina is an exuberant cross-cultural road trip, bursting with traditional music and dance rarely seen outside the country. But the core story is intimate and universal: a yearning for roots and connection in turbulent times. An inspirational story, Soy Andina examines the issue of identity in a globalized era. Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 70 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