Films For Latina Studies
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Exploring critical social, political and historical issues that affect Latina women today, this collection includes New Release Everyone Their Grain of Sand, best-selling release Senorita Extraviada: Missing Young Woman and 2005 Release Maid in America.
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The Blonds (Los Rubios)
A film by Albertina Carri, Produced by Barry Ellsworth
Albertina Carri’s second feature is a look at Argentina’s recent history from the perspective of a generation forced to mourn those of whom they have no recollection. Carri, who lost her parents to Argentina’s brutal military junta when she was three years old, travels through Buenos Aires with her crew to unravel the factual and emotional mysteries of her parents’ life, disappearance and death. Traces of Carri’s family emerge, colored by sharply conflicting perspectives. Who were the Carris? How did they disappear? Were they blonde, brunette, parents, heroes or merely a fiction of those who remember them?
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CORPUS: A Home Movie for Selena
A film by Lourdes Portillo
This classic rerelease from award-winning filmmaker Lourdes Portillo (Señorita Extraviada, Las Madres: The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo ) is a complex tribute to Selena, the Tejana superstar gunned down in 1995 at the age of 23 by the president of her fan club, just as she was on the brink of blockbuster crossover fame. While the story of her murder, which was filled with sex, glamour and betrayal, caught the attention of many outside the Chicano community, this film moves well beyond the sensational to present a nuanced feminist analysis of Selena's story.
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San Francisco Int’l Film Festival, Golden Spire |
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Everyone Their Grain of Sand
A film by Beth Bird
This award-winning documentary reveals the struggles of the citizens of Maclovio Rojas in Tijuana, Mexico as they battle the state government’s attempts to evict them from their homes to make way for multi-national corporations seeking cheap land and labor. Filmmaker Beth Bird followed the fiercely determined residents for three years as they persistently petitioned the state for basic services like running water, electricity and pay for their teachers, only to be met with bureaucratic stonewalling. Eventually, several community leaders are targeted for persecution, and one is arrested while others are forced into hiding.
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Los Angeles Film Festival, Jury Award Best Doc |
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San Diego Int'l FF, San Diego Feature Film Award |
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I Wonder What You Will Remember of September
A film by Cecilia Cornejo
Cecilia Cornejo presents a haunting personal response to the events of September 11, 2001, informed and complicated by her status as a Chilean citizen living in the U.S. With evocative imagery from both past and present, Cornejo weaves together her own fading childhood memories, her parents vivid recollections of the September 11, 1973 coup in Chile that brought the notorious dictator Augusto Pinochet to power; and post-9/11 conversations with her own young daughter. The resulting montage thoughtfully explores how personal and collective histories intersect, as well as how trauma is lived, supposedly erased, and passed on from one generation to the next.
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LASA Award of Merit in Film |
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The Kidnapping of Ingrid Betancourt
A film by Victoria Bruce and Karin Hayes
In February 2002, in the midst of her controversial campaign for president, Senator Ingrid Betancourt was kidnapped by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and became one of the thousands of victims of Colombia’s 40-year-old civil war. Her impassioned calls for an end to political corruption and Colombia's vicious civil war had made her a popular public figure, but a dangerous instigator to many within her country's political machine. Following the candidate up to the moments before her disappearance, this remarkable film continues to tell the riveting story of her family's desperate and continuing quest to free her and keep her campaign alive.
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DuPont - Columbia Award for Broadcast Journalism |
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Jan Karski Doc. - Film Award for Moral Courage |
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La Cueca Sola
A film by Marilu Mallet
On September 11, 1973, a military coup in Chile brought Augusto Pinochet to power, and over the next 17 years, thousands of women and men were taken from their homes- never to return. Since that time, Chilean women have danced the country’s traditional courtship dance alone, and LA CUECA SOLA has become a symbol of women’s struggle against the dictatorship.
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Maid in America
A film by Anayansi Prado, Produced by Kevin Leadingham
They clean other people’s homes and raise other families’ children—often leaving their own families behind. MAID IN AMERICA is an intimate look into the lives of three Latina immigrants working as nannies and housekeepers in Los Angeles, three of the nearly 100,000 domestic workers living in that city today. Judith hasn’t seen her four daughters for the two years since she left Guatemala, but hopes to give them a better future by sending half her income back home. Telma, from El Salvador, has cared for the now six-year-old Mickey since he was a baby, essentially becoming his “mom” so his mother can keep her career on track. Eva, one of the thousands of college-educated immigrants who have fled Mexico’s unstable economy, is attending night school to improve her skills, and views housekeeping as a necessary transition.
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Senorita Extraviada, Missing Young Woman
A film by Lourdes Portillo
SENORITA EXTRAVIADA, MISSING YOUNG WOMAN' tells the haunting story of the more than 350 kidnapped, raped and murdered young women of Juárez, Mexico. Visually poetic, yet unflinching in its gaze, this compelling investigation unravels the layers of complicity that have allowed for the brutal murders of women living along the Mexico-U.S. border. In the midst of Juárez’s international mystique and high profile job market, there exists a murky history of grossly underreported human rights abuses and violence against women. The climate of violence and impunity continues to grow, and the murders of women continue to this day. More
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Sundance Film Festival - Special Jury Prize |
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Academy of C.A.S.-Mx.- Ariel, Best Mexican Doc. |
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Thunder in Guyana
A film by Suzanne Wasserman
THUNDER IN GUYANA is the remarkable tale of Janet Rosenberg, a young woman from Chicago who married Guyanese activist Cheddi Jagan, and set off for the British colony to start a socialist revolution. For more than fifty years, the couple fought tirelessly to liberate the country from colonial rule and exploitation—despite battering by the international press, imprisonment and the intervention of world figures including Winston Churchill and John F. Kennedy. Free and fair elections were instituted in the early 90's, and Janet Rosenberg-Jagan was elected president of Guyana in 1997, the first foreign-born and first woman to serve in the role.
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War Takes
A film by Adelaida Trujillo and Patricia Castaño
With conflicts raging on nearly every continent, war now regularly transcends the battlefield into everyday life—whether its increased security at airports or infringements on personal privacy. In WAR TAKES, Colombian filmmakers Adelaida Trujillo and Patricia Castaño turn the cameras on themselves to portray the tough realities of civil life in the violent, war-ravaged country of Colombia. Partners in an independent media company, they struggle to balance their family, business and political lives: reporting from dangerous parts of the country; managing their company as the economic situation worsens; parenting young children amid threats of violence and kidnapping; and rethinking their political views as war moves closer to the city. More
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