RACA

Raca tackles racial inequality in Brazil, via the lives of three black Brazilians: Paulo Paim, the only black senator of the republic; Netinho Paula, singer and TV presenter, and Tiny dos Santos, Maroon activist and granddaughter of slaves. The filmmakers followed these 3 people for a number of years – people they consider are on the frontlines of the country’s race debate/divide – in an effort to bring something unique to the public.

Copy: 1   Format: DVD   Language: Portuguese   Subtitles: English   Length: 104 minutes   Copy ID: 1438   Comments:    Source:

 

PRESUMED GUILTY/PRESUNTO CULPABLE

Title: Presumed Guilty
Description: In December, 2005, Tono Zuniga was picked up off the street of Mexico City, Mexico, and sentenced to 20 years for a murder he knew nothing about. A friend of Tono’s contacted two young lawyers, Robert Hernandez and Layda Negrete, who gained prominence in Mexico when they helped bring about the release of another innocent man from prison. Shot over three years with unprecedented access to the Mexican courts and prisons, this dramatic story is a searing indictment of a justice system that presumes guilt.
Type: Documentary
Year: 2009
Director: Roberto Hernandez & Geoffrey Smith
Country: Mexico
Film ID: 753
Comments:
Created: 11/28/2011
Copy: M   Format: DVD   Language: Spanish   Subtitles: English   Length: 88 min.   Copy ID: 1388   Comments: only checking out for classrooms   Source:    Price: 0   Acquired: 11/1/2011

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

CITY IN RED (CIUDAD EN ROJO)

 

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 26th of July Movement. Taking place in 1959, the movie narrates how escalating violence bursts out in the tranquil life of people and different social groups in the city. First-time director Rebeca Chávez participated in the clandestine struggle in her teenage years and has characterized the film as “a reflection on violence.”

Copies: 1 (DVD)

Length: 90 minutes

JOSÉ MARTÍ: EYE OF THE CANARY (JOSÉ MARTÍ: EL OJO DEL CANARIO)

 

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 José Martí, covering the years he lived in Cuba before being sent into exile for political sedition at the age of seventeen. The film has already obtained two awards at the Ibero-American Festival in Huelva, Spain. It has received top awards on the island and was named the best movie of 2010.

Copies: 1 (DVD); 1 (DVD+R)

Length: 115 minutes

ALGO QUEDA (SOMETHING REMAINS)

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 shot among the wreckage of Nicaragua’s disastrous war, the abandoned properties of its old landholders, and the urban slums of Managua, presents the story of Nicaragua from a variety of perspectives.

Copies: 1

Length: 51 minutes

AMERICAS: PART 9

Description: “Fire in the Mind” This program looks at revolutionaries in the region today, with a special emphasis on the former guerrilla fighters in El Salvador and the current movement in Peru, and links these movements to the revolutions in Cuba and Nicaragua.

Copies: 1 (DVD)

Length: 60 minutes

ASALTAR LOS CIELOS (STORM THE SKIES)

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 his motivations and his destiny. Starring Elena Poniatowska, Carlos Moniváis, and Guillermo Cabrera Infante.

Copies: 1 (DVD)

Length: 99 minutes

CANANEA

Description: Story of the revolt at the American-owned Cananea mine in the years preceding the Mexican revolution. This revolt led to the eventual nationalization of Mexican mines. The film is told from both the miners’ viewpoint and the American viewpoint, as personified by Colonel Green, the mine owner.

Copies: 2 (DVD and VHS)

Length: 124 minutes

CARACOLES: NEW PATHS OF RESISTANCE

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

Copies: 1(VHS)

Length: 42 minutes

CHE: THE BOLIVIAN DIARY

Description: On October 9, 1967, Che Guevara was executed by the Bolivian army, aided by the CIA. Che’s diary, a detailed, personal account of his futile 11-month attempt to spark a revolution in Bolivia, is the basis of this intimate filmed portrait.

Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 94 minutes

CHIAPAS! THE FIGHT FOR LAND AND LIBERTY

Description: Produced by John Alpert and Maryann DeLio; co-produced by the Disarm Educational Fund and the Ecumenical Program on Central America and the Caribbean. Through interviews with peasants and peasant leaders, the Catholic Church, human rights workers and victims of Army abuses, and government officials, this documentary attempts to portray the life of the indigenous in Chiapas and show why and how the revolution of the Zapatista National Liberation Front in 1994 makes sense in their lives.

Copies: 1(VHS) Length: 28 minutes

CHIAPAS: EL SURESTE EN DOS VIENTOS

Description: This video describes Chiapas through the eye of Subcomandante I. Marcos from the Selva la Candona, August 1992. It is a journey into the region where 3.5 million Chapanescos live, describing their living conditions, and their movement for peace and justice. Text by Subcomandante I. Marcos.

Copies: 1 (VHS) Length: 35 minutes

CHILE: MEMORIA OBSTINADA (CHILE: OBSTINATE MEMORY)

Description: Chile, Obstinate Memory visits with Chileans who experienced Augusto Pinochet’s coup first-hand. Survivors reminisce as they watch Patricio Guzmán’s film The Battle of Chile, recognizing lost comrades and recalling their courage, gaiety, and love of life. Those who were not killed during the coup itself were crowded into the National Stadium in Santiago, where many were tortured, disappeared, and never seen again. Survivors talk about the terror that characterized the Pinochet regime until the dictator was finally obliged to relinquish power.

Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 58 minutes

CIEN NIÑOS ESPERANDO UN TREN

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

CIUDAD Y LOS PERROS, LA

Description: A story about how cadets rebelling against authority in a military academy end up forming a junta with its own hierarchy and rules. Based on the novel by Mario Vargas Llosa. Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 135 minutes

EL COMPADRE MENDOZA

Description: This rare example of classic Mexican cinema examines the corrupted ideals of the Revolution in the story of an opportunistic landowner who faces the choice of remaining loyal to a general in Zapata’s army and being financially ruined or saving his own skin. The character of the general is clearly modeled on Zapata himself. Copies: 3 (DVD and VHS) Length: 81 minutes

FRONTERA, LA (THE EXILE)

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 a new way to see the world. La Frontera is the most awarded Chilean film in history. Copies: 3 (DVD and 2 VHS) Length: 120 minutes

GALLO DE ORO, EL

Description: Based on a story by Juan Rulfo. A poor man is given a near-dead fighting cock and he nurses him back to life. While this brings him life, he finds that when he forgets his roots and he soon runs out of luck. Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 105 minutes

GRINGOTON (GRINGO-THON)

Description: During the invasion of Iraq in 2003, a misplaced gringo in Mexico City helplessly watches the atrocities through Mexican television news. Taking a tip from his local neighbors, he begins to sell chewing gum and wash car windows in the streets…to raise money for a guerrilla army to take out Bush. “Gringo-thon” is a personal expression of protest of an expatriate living abroad and a meditation of the complexities of “gringo” identity. Copies: 2 (DVD and VHS) Length: 17 minutes

HISTORIA OFICIAL, LA (THE OFFICIAL STORY)

Description: Set in the 1980s, the film follows the sheltered wife of a wealthy businessman who finds herself face to face with a legacy of terror as she begins to discover that her adopted daughter may have been stolen from a family "disappeared" during the Argentine military dictatorship in the 1970s. Copies: 2 (DVD and VHS) Length: 112 Minutes

HISTORIAS DE LA REVOLUCION

Description: Documentary including three dramatic stories about the insurrection struggle in Cuba during the 50’s. The saga of young people, who lived, loved and fought with the hopes of a better future. Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 81 minutes

HOMBRE DE EXITO, UN

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 scruples continue to decline, and his connections to family and friends deteriorate. Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 106 minutes

I LOVE PINOCHET

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, I LOVE PINOCHET offers a unique look at the social and political system left by Augusto Pinochet, as seen from his followers’ point of view. Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 52 minutes

IN THE TIME OF THE BUTTERFLIES

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 plot to overthrow him. Salma Hayek stars as Minerva Mirabal, whose direct personal experience with Trujillo’s abuse of power and suppression of his enemies pushes her into active participation in the opposition. She is joined by her two sisters, who become known as the butterflies and serve as an inspirational example of resistance to other Dominicans. Copies: Master Copy and Copy 1 (DVD) Length: 92 minutes

LACANDONA : THE ZAPATISTAS AND RAINFOREST OF CHIAPAS MEXICO

Type: Documentary, Year: 1998, Director: Bran Taylor, Country: Mexico, Format: DVD-R, Language: English and Spanish, Subtitles: English

LAST REVOLUTIONARY, THE

Description: CBS Reports with Dan Rather presents a biography of Fidel Castro. Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 60 minutes

LEGACY: CENTRAL AMERICA

Type: Documentary, Year: 1992, Country: Latin America, Format: DVD-R, Language: English, Subtitles: None

LEJANIA

Description: A dramatic and sensitive analysis of the lejanía, the distance or separation among members of the same family, created by the Cuban revolution. A Cuban mother, now living in Miami, returns to visit her son whom she abandoned 10 years earlier. Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 90 minutes

LUCIA

Description: A classic of Cuban cinema, which looks at the lives of three women, an upper class Lucía in the 1890s, a middle class Lucía in the 1930s, and a working class Lucía in the 1960s. Copies: 2 (DVD and VHS) Length: 160 minutes

MACHUCA

Description: Set in 1973, in Santiago, Chile, Machuca is a poignant coming-of-age film, drawn from the filmmaker’s childhood. Two boys from different economic backgrounds become great friends, while the conflicts on the streets lead Chile to the bloody and repressive military coup, changing forever their lives, their relationship and their country. Copies: 2 (DVD) Length: 115 minutes

MADRES DE LA PLAZA DE MAYO, LAS

Description: This Academy award-nominated documentary about the Argentinean mothers’ movement to demand to know the fate of 30,000 "disappeared" sons and daughters is extraordinary. As well as giving an understanding of Argentinean history in the 70’s and 80’s, it shows the empowerment of women in a society where they are expected to be silent. Copies: 2 (DVD and VHS) Length: 64 minutes

MANUELA

Description: Manuela is the story of a mulato guajira (peasant woman) who is transformed into a revolutionary guerrilla fighter. With little dialogue and the use of hand held cameras Solas manages to convey the message and engage the viewer emotionally. A collaboration with cinematographer Jorge Herrera. Por Primera Vez is a documentary in which the crews of ICAIC’s Moving Cinema visit “Los Mulos,” in the mountains of Baracoa. There, they observe and interact with the peasants of the area who are seeing film for the first time. Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 41 minutes

MARIA CANO

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 not prepared for, after her five years of imprisonment (beginning 1928), was that the whole movement would lose steam and that she would have to live the rest of her life with her lost dreams of what might have been. These feelings are very strongly represented in her poetry. This biographical movie shows her life during those years, and considers her bitterness in later life Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 106 minutes

MISSING

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 to their own country and the country they are investigating. A 1982 Cannes Film Festival winner. Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 122 minutes

MONTANA DE LUZ

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 Montaña de Luz orphanage, their lives a living testament to the beauty and innocence of childhood in the face of adversity beyond their years. With artistry and honesty, the camera paints a stirring portrait of a loving community where nothing is truly certain but hope and where each birthday is a celebration of dreams fulfilled and dreams to come.

MUERTE DE UN BUROCRATA

Description: The story of a young man’s attempt to fight the system is an entertaining, hilarious account of galloping bureaucracy and the tyranny of red tape.

Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 87 minutes

NEGRA ANGUSTIAS, LA

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 her role as a revolutionary.

Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 85 minutes

NOCHE DE LOS LAPICES, LA

Description: The brutal kidnapping, torture, and killing of six out of seven high school students in 1976 is the subject of this powerful docudrama, a highly-charged, emotionally gripping condemnation of Argentina’s military rulers at that time. One of the students survived the ordeal, and this story is based on his experiences and knowledge of the tortures they endured under a military government that laid down oppressive restrictions on student activities

Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 95 minutes

OWNERS OF THE WATER: CONFLICT AND COLLABORATION OVER RIVERS

Description: The Xavante of central Brazil and the Wayuu of Venezuela are two indigenous groups who both face considerable challenges in their efforts to maintain control over and access to one of the most basic of natural resources, fresh water. In this compelling documentary an anthropologist from the United States collaborates with a member of the Xavante and a member of the Wayuu to explore the ways in which indigenous peoples are responding to threats to their environment and natural resources. The film focuses primarily on efforts by the Xavante to combat the deforestation and excessive use of agritoxins associated with the expanding Brazilian soy industry that threatens the viability of the Rio das Mortes as a viable water source. Through a focus on this particular movement, the filmmakers explore the close connection between the the goals of protecting our environment and defending the interests of indigenous peoples, as well as an growing solidarity among indigenous peoples throughout South America that is centered around mobilization with respect to environmental issues. Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 34 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

PICTURES FROM A REVOLUTION

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 both sides of the conflict. Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 93 minutes

¿QUIEN DIABLOS ES JULIETTE? (WHO IN THE HELL IS JULIETTE?)

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

QUILOMBO

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 send in their troops to restore control. This historical saga is a stirring fusion of folklore, political impact, and dynamic story-telling, realized in vibrant colors and set to the pulsing beat of Gilberto Gil’s musical score. Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 114 minutes

REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE TELEVISED, THE (LA REVOLUCIÓN NO SERA TELEVISADA)

Description: This daring documentary about political muscle and media manipulation captures the short-lived overthrow of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. Two independent filmmakers were present in April 2002, when the president’s powerful political enemies forcibly removed him from office, and when 48 hours later he remarkably returned to power amid cheering aides. Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 74 minutes 

ROMERO

Description: Incisive, quietly powerful drama chronicling the last three years of the life of Oscar Romero, Archbishop of San Salvador. The focus is on the way in which he became an outspoken defender of human rights and was eventually assassinated. Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 102 minutes

SUPER AMIGOS

Description: In this mix of live action and comic book style animation, five masked activists fight against corruption, homophobia, animal rights, pollution and poverty in Mexico City. Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 70 minutes

TLATELOCO: LOS CLAVES DE LA MASACRE

Description: This documentary represents the culmination of four years of investigation into the military operations behind the October 1968 massacre of students at the Plaza de las Tres Culturas in Tlateloco, Mexico. It incorporates all known film footage related to the events of October 2, 1968 and presents evidence that documents the steps taken by the government and other repressive forces against the student movement.

Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 57 minutes

VENEZUELA: REVOLUTION FROM THE INSIDE OUT

Description: This documentary seeks to get beyond the cult of personality of Hugo Chavez to gain a deeper understanding of what the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela has meant for many citizens at the local level. Through interviews with government officials, community memebers and scholars such as former Duke Mellon visiting professor Steve Ellner, the film examines political developments of the last twenty years from the perspective of popular participation. Beginning with a brief discussion of the Caracazo of 1988, the documentary looks at the role that grassroots mobilization in the form of cooperatives and other locally-based organizations in efforts to reshape Venezuelan economy and society.

Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 85 minutes

ZAPATA’S GARDEN

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 of the community ensure their autonomy by tending to an organic vegetable garden and working collectively in all endeavors.

Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 19 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