Institute for the Study of the Americas

Title: VIVA CUBA Description: Jorgito (age 12) and Malú (age 11) are neighbors, classmates and best friends. When Malú's mother decides to marry a foreigner so she can leave Cuba Malú is deeply upset and hopes to reach her father before he signs an agreement allowing her to emigrate. She runs away from her home with Jorgito, her traveling companion. Thus begins their adventure. The film was shown in the San Francisco International Film Festival, and was nominated for the 2006 Oscar. Type: Feature Film Year: 2005 Director(s): Juan Carlos Cremata Malberti Country: Cuba Language: Spanish Subtitles: English Length: 6 minutes; 13 minutes; 12 minutes Format: DVD

Title: SANTITOS Description: Based on the novel by Esperanza’s Box of Saints by Maria Amparo Escandon. Santitos is a character-driven comedy about a young Mexican woman who has to come to terms with the loss of her teenage daughter. Esperanza's daughter Blanca suddenly and mysteriously dies in the hospital where she was having her tonsils removed. Shortly afterward, the vision of a saint appears on the greasy glass door of the oven, telling Esperanza that Blanca is not dead. Despite warnings from her best friend and the local priest, she embarks on an incredible journey across the country and over the border that helps her shed her inhibitions one by one. Out comes a different Esperanza, a liberated independent woman who is also sexually uninhibited. Type: Feature Film Year: 1999 Director(s): Alejandro Springall Country: USA Language: Spanish Subtitles: English or Spanish Length: 105 minutes Format: DVD

Title: CHOCOLATE: PATHWAY TO THE GODS Description: Our universal passion for chocolate goes back over 3,000 years. This documentary explores the history of this divine substance through artifacts, rituals, and obsession and takes the viewer in a journey from ancient Mesoamerica to Europe’s finest chocolate houses. It is the first documentary of a series focusing on four ritual foods of the Americas; chocolate, tequila, corn and potatoes. The series is produced by Archeo Productions. Subject: Anthropology/Archeology, Culture/Festivals/Food Type: Documentary Year: 2005 Director(s): Meredith Dreiss and Grant Mitchell Country: USA Language: English Subtitles: None Format: DVD-R

Title: LO QUE LE PASO A SANTIAGO Description: A song for love and hope. Santiago is retired by the company to which he has dedicated forty years of his life. He is a widower, his children have problems, and he is bothered by materialism and the crisis of values in society. His life takes an unexpected turn when he meets a beautiful and enigmatic woman. Type: Feature Film Year: 1990 Director(s): Jacobo Morales Country: Puerto Rico Language: Spanish Subtitles: None Length: 105 minutes Format: VHS

The ISA Film Library has a six volume collection of Mexican short films. This collection is entitled "Cortometrajes".

Title: Cortometrajes Description: This collection of short films is part of the series “Corto metraje, más que un instante” from INCINE and Cinema Films. This original series showcases 51 short films by up and coming Mexican directors, cinematographers and actors. The films touch on a variety of subjects, people, and lifestyles. Some are comical, some are sad, and some are thought provoking. All of these films are very useful for Spanish Language classes. Subject: Social Issues, Women's Studies, History, Shorts Type: Feature Film Year: 2004 Director(s): Various Country: Mexico Language: Spanish Subtitles: None Length: 5 to 20 minutes Format: DVD

Every Year the Consortium in Latin American & Caribbean Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University holds a Latin American Film Festival. This year’s festival was the 22nd Annual Film Festival. The festival lasted from November 2-21, 2008. For more information on the Film Festival, please visit http://www.duke.edu/web/carolinadukeconsortium/filmfestival/index.html.

This month, we will feature 2 films shown in the festival.

Title: Young Rebels (Jóvenes Rebeldes) Description: Young Rebels follows five Cuban hip-hop groups and two producers over the course of a Havana summer. Battling onstage or at home, the characters’ personal travels collide in a summer of explosive concerts, intense debate, unbearable heat and rising tensions as government agencies begin to institutionalize hip-hop’s street roots. From the makers of the acclaimed feature film Half Nelson. “As young Cuban musicians with few hopes of commercial success embrace rap music, they look at American hip-hop with a mixture of pride (in the purity of their own political and social messages) and envy (at the wealth and fame achieved by American rappers). This informative doc introduces us to a number of these earnest young pop messengers, who barely have the resources to make a CD, but have the wherewithal to organize a rap festival.” – Stephen Holden, The New York Times. Subject: Rap music, free speech issues & the youth culture of contemporary Cuba Type: Documentary Year: 2005 Director(s): Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck Country: USA/Cuba Language: Spanish and English Subtitles: English Length: 70 minutes

Title: El Colombian Dream Description: A psychedelic multiple-storyline narrative happens around a disco called "El Colombian Dream" (a metaphor of a territory). A group of young slackers (a twin couple and their girl-friend) steal a large shipment of hallucinogenic pills and try to cash in on it. Wide-angle and fish-eye lenses, acid color and over-exposures contributes to the disorienting, spaced-out visual style, while the bizarre voice-over narration from an aborted baby (the narrator), speaking omnisciently as an adult, serves mostly to clarify an increasingly convoluted plot. Subject: Social Issues Year: 2006 Director(s): Felipe Aljure Country: Colombia Language: Spanish Subtitles: English Length: 120 minutes