Juan Jose Lozano, 2010, 2011, Documentary, Colombia, 84min, Spanish with English subtitles
Colombia today: the biggest trial against Paramilitary armies - accused of killing thousands of Colombians - is designed to create “peace and justice”. Instead the process comes to an abrupt halt, when the political and economic interests in the paramilitary war are uncovered. Are the victims’ families doomed to stay victims forever or are they able to fight Impunity?
Mario Handler, 2007, 2010, Documentary, Uruguay, 75min, Spanish with English subtitles
After a long exile in Venezuela, Uruguayan filmmaker Mario Handler returns to his native country. He senses that despite the passing of so many years, the dictatorship is still present in the media, in public opinion and above all in people’s memory. Mario openly records the testimonies of the dictatorship’s victims, politicians, policemen and a member of the military. With poetry, black humour and a sharp consciousness, Handler manages to evoke the precise and dense atmosphere of those dark times for Uruguay.
Rodrigo Vazquez, 2008, 2010, Documentary, Bolivia, UK, 44min, Spanish/English with English subtitles
Since the beginning of the Iraq War the Llallagua mine has seen a boom of mineral demand from the US arms manufactures. As a result, many poor peasants without any experience such as Alex Choque and Jorge Campos (aged 9 and 13 respectively) have started working in the mines. Their parents are ill or dead after contracting what the people of Llallagua call the “mine disease”, the same disease that they are prone to everyday. Alex and Jorge have dreams of a better life. They want to study, but they can’t, their families depend on them to survive.
Rodrigo Diaz McVeigh
12 Sep 2010 - 8:00pm, 12 Sep 2010 - 10:00pm, 2009, 2010, Documentary, Cuba, Spain, USA, 55min, Spanish with English subtitles
The story of six young Cuban surfers and legendary Australian surfer, Bob Samin, who has made his home in Baracoa, Cuba.
Presented in association with Ambulante Film Festival
Luis Rincón, 2009, 2010, Documentary, Mexico, 80min, Spanish with English subtitles
A documentary that revisits a famous film location: the slums where Los Olvidados was shot more than fifty years ago. The people of this area of Mexico City still live by the train tracks, just like they did in Buñuel’s masterpiece.
The Forgotten Tree captures fragments of the lives of Juan, Gaby, Noemí, and Ivonne, who attempt to escape the cycle of extreme poverty and violence in which they live. However, the decisions they make only seem to sink them further into the abyss of their grim everyday life and their tragic fate.
This session will be followed by an engaging discussion with a guest panel. Entry by donation courtesy of Dendy Cinemas, arrive early to get your seat!
Greg Brosnan, Jennifer Szymaszek, 2009, 2010, Documentary, Guatemala, Mexico, United States, 30min, Spanish/English with English subtitles
When the US government stormed a Kosher meat plant in the American heartland arresting nearly 400 undocumented workers, a Guatemalan village wept. The biggest immigration raid in US history severed an economic lifeline to one of the poorest corners of the Western Hemisphere while pushing an Iowa
farm town to the brink of collapse.
A powerful and topical documentary about the human cost of deportation and detention of immigrants.
Vincent Carelli, 2009, 2010, 2011, Documentary, Brazil, 117min, Portuguese, English with English subtitles
A film crew’s 20-year quest to tell the world the story about modern day genocide in the heart of the Amazon.
This session will be introduced by the film’s Screenwriter and Editor Jose Luis Fernandez. Fernandez will participate in the post screening panel discussion. Entry by donation courtesy of Dendy Cinemas, arrive early to get your seat!
Jose Álvarez, 2009, 2010, Documentary, Mexico, 72min, Huichol, Spanish with English subtitles
In this visually arresting documentary, the Huichol people, an indigenous tribe in Mexico, offer rare access to their traditional Peyote pilgrimage to the sacred region of Wirikuta. The filmmakers were allowed unfettered access to the group’s rituals and daily lives over a two-year period with only one ceremony off limits: the deer hunt. For this they trained a few male hunters of the tribe to operate the camera turning it into a stunning collaboration between the film crew and these traditionally very private people.
Presented in association with Ambulante Film Festival
Natalia Almada, 2009, 2010, Documentary, Mexico, United States, 83min, Spanish with English subtitles
Sundance Film Festival’s 2009 Documentary Directing Award winner!
An inspiring Iranian documentary that gives a whole new spin on Che’s legacy.
Alireza Rofougaran, 2009, 2010, Documentary, Iran, 78min, Farsi/Spanish/English with English subtitles
An inspiring Iranian documentary that gives a whole new spin on Che’s legacy.