Tag Archives: U.S./Mexico border

LATINAS IN CINEMA: FILMWORKS BEYOND THE GLASS CEILING

Pagan Images, Inc., in association with Anthology Film Archives, cordially invites you to the NewLatino Filmmakers Screening Series – The best and only independent Latino “cinematheque” showcase in New York City — now in its 6th year! — is still ONLY $5! Docs, shorts & features. “Come early, stay late, pay one price.”

When: Wednesday, July 30, 2008 – 6~9:30PM
Where: Anthology Film Archives, 32 Second Avenue at Second Street
Price: $5 admission ~ at the box office

6:00PM – Documentary Shorts Program
7:15PM – Narrative Shorts Program
8:150PM – Narrative Feature

“LATINAS IN CINEMA: FILMWORKS BEYOND THE GLASS CEILING”

Curated by Edwin Pagan

NewLatino Filmmakers puts the spotlight on creative Latinas working behind the cameras in both the independent film and Hollywood systems as image-makers. This emerging crop of dynamic filmmakers and producers are putting their unique mark on the industry with their own unique spin on the Latin Film New Wave, and blazing the trail as today’s emerging auteurs. Featuring short-form documentary, narrative shorts and feature presentations. Live panel discussion and Q&A with the filmmakers.

6:00PM NEWLATINO FILMMAKERS – DOCUMENTARY SERIES

* AL OTRO LADO Natalia Almada, Altamura Films, (2006, 66 Minutes, Video)

Al Otro Lado (To the Other Side)” tells the human story behind illegal immigration and drug trafficking between the U.S. and Mexico through the eyes of Magdiel, a 23-year-old fisherman and aspiring composer who dreams of a better life. For people south of the border, the “other side” is the dream of an impossibly rich United States, where even menial jobs can support families and whole communities that have been left behind. For people north of the border, “Al Otro Lado” sheds light on harsh choices that their neighbors to the south often face because of economic crisis.

As movingly chronicled in “Al Otro Lado,” Natalia Almada’s debut feature, the border is a place where one people’s dreams collide with another people’s politics, and the 200-year-old tradition of corrido music vibrantly chronicles it all. In fact, if you really want to understand what is happening on the U.S./Mexico border, listen to the corridos, troubadour-like ballads that have become the voice of people whose views are rarely heard in mainstream media.

7:15PM NEWLATINO FILMMAKERS – SHORT FILM PROGRAM

* JOLOPEO, Glenys Javier, Director / Michael Diaz, Producer (2007, 5 Minutes, Video)

Living that life leads to death, I choose to LIVE!

* SOLEDAD IS GONE FOREVER, Mabel Valdiviezo, Writer/Director (2007, 14 Minutes, 16MM)

SOLEDAD IS GONE FOREVER is a spellbinding, visually stunning, psychological drama that explores the long-term psychological impact of political persecution. Based on real accounts, this film presents an intimate portrait of a young immigrant photographer living in San Francisco, Soledad Gonzales, who learns her father’s remains have been found in a mass grave in Chile. Soledad’s recurring visions of chilling childhood images shatter her life, making her discover that these are real memories that have been repressed for twenty years.

Torn by her aunt Delia’s advice to forget the past but faced by the implications of her father’s death, Soledad must make a crucial decision. Does she have the courage to pursue the truth and will this realization finally bring peace to her tortured soul?

* LOSS OF INNOCENCE IN LOISAIDA, Veronica Caicedo, Writer/Director (2007, 30 Minutes, Video)

Joana is a curious teen ready to explore and have sex and willing to go all the way with her boyfriend, Tommy. Not prepared for the situation, Tommy must score some condoms — FAST — but he must first get past the gatekeeper to his bliss: the local pharmacist, who also just happens to be Joana’s father!

8:15PM NEWLATINO FILMMAKERS – FEATURE PRESENTATION



MUNECA, Christina Soto, Writer/Director (2007, 70 Minutes, Video)


You find love in the most unexpected places. All Esteban wants to do, is to be happy and recapture his creative inspiration. With the death of his muse, and best friend, Pepe — a miniature fox terrier — it seems as if everyone in his life is trying to push their idea of a replacement on him with that of a perfect woman. What’s a man to do?

ABOUT THE SERIES

NewLatino Filmmakers showcases emerging Latino filmmakers/producers whose work is contributing toward the face of the Latino Film New Wave and who have not yet had a major commercial theatrical release. It also features non-Latino filmmakers/producers whose films are Latino-themed and/or whose primary subject matter touches upon the Latino/Latin American experience in a respectful manner, and who have not yet had a major commercial theatrical release. The series is now in its six year and is organized in collaboration with New Filmmakers at Anthology Film Archives.

Anthology Film Archives is America’s only year-round film cinematheque and is one of the few festivals in the world today that is entirely curated and administered by filmmakers. Currently celebrating its 35th year of serving the independent film community. (www.anthologyfilmarchives.org)

“Tell’em Who You Are” screening at Camaradas El Barrio

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Preview Screening & Fundraiser

DATE: DECEMBER 10, 7p.m.
LOCATION: Camaradas El Barrio, 2241 1st Ave /115 St./ Manhattan

Please join us in support of the documentary “Tell’em Who You Are.”

We will be screening exclusive clips from the film followed by a Q&A with filmmaker Michelle García.

The Wall is rising along the southern border. Even as the federal government reports construction delays and cost overruns, the Department of Homeland Security condemns hundreds of acres of privately owned land, Tejano owned land, the birthright of gU.S. citizens, whose roots in the region run centuries deep.

You are invited to preview a documentary film, a work in progress that strikes at the Border Wall by rescuing memory of a region and its people whose land and identity has come under siege for over 150 years and the story it tells about being an “American.”

Film Summary:

The U.S.-Mexico border occupies a mythical place in the U.S. psyche, a wasteland of lawlessness, dirty and wild. With that image firmly rooted in our minds,, the U.S. government sold the public on the idea of a multi-billion dollar Border Wall across hundreds of miles of the southern border.

Turns out, there’s some truth to those tales and legends. Blood once soaked the brush country and Tejano and Mexican rebels sacked towns and traded gunfire with Texas Rangers and Army soldiers. My heart pumps with the blood of those rebels, I am their heir and successor and the spirit of their cause summons me home.

Tell’em Who You Are is a return home, the embattled South Texas frontier, to recover memory, the historical memory of the Tejano-owned land that will be lost to the wall. Fighting on the front lines of Border Wall battle are the descendents of those largely known Tejano rebels and revolutionaries, continuing in a struggle for respect that began over a century ago. Our ancestors, the bandits and outlaws of Hollywood stories were actually Tejanos defending their protect land,identity and dignity from colonization. More than a century later, their fight is now ours.