XI Latin American Film Festival

SPOTLIGHT ON CONTEMPORARY MEXICAN CINEMA

Festival Organizers: Jacobo Sefami, Cynthia Quintero,
Alberto Landaveri & Raquel Román

FREE and open to the public

Thursday, May 13
Screening: 7p.m.
HG 1070


Conozca la cabeza de Juan Pérez
(Meet the Head of Juan Pérez)
Directed by Emilio Portes
2009 • Mexico • 83 minutes
(In Spanish w/English subtitles)

Introduced by Dr. Jacobo Sefamí
(Spanish and Portuguese Department)

"Extreme times call for extreme measures" seems to be motto of the magician of the Aztlan Circus.

The severed head of “Juan Perez the Great” tells the story of how he was forced to execute not just a magic trick, but a desperate act to save his friends and himself.

 

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Friday, May 14
Screening: HG 1070. 7:00 p.m.


Párpados azules (Blue Eyelids)
Directed by Ernesto Contreras
2007 • Mexico • 98 minutes
(In Spanish w/English subtitles)

Presented By: Dr. Armin Schwegler
(Spanish and Portuguese Department)

Mariana wins a paradise vacation for two, but when she realizes that she has no one to bring along, she decides to invite Victor, a complete stranger. The pair soon discovers that true love depends more on compatibility rather than idyllic scenery or perfect situations.

 

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Saturday, May 15, 2010
HG 1070. 7p.m.


Intimidades de Shakespeare y Victor Hugo
(Shakespeare and Victor Hugo's Intimacies)
Directed by Yulene Olayzola
2009 • Mexico • 83 minutes
(In Spanish w/English subtitles
Documentary)
Presented by Benjamin Cluff
(Spanish and Portuguese Department)

To call this film a documentary is not accurate. It is more than that; it's a story of the multiple and hidden meanings that everyday places encapsulate. The visual narrative also shows us a common place in literature: Telling the story of another person is talking about oneself.

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“Cosecha Latina” series, in association with the UCI Film and Video Center:

Thursday, May 20, 2010
HIB 100


WORLD PREMIERE OF:
HARVEST OF LONELINESS: The Bracero Program
Directed by Gilbert G. González & Vivian Price
2010    • U.S./Mexico • 58 minutes

Presented by Dr. Gilbert G. González (Professor Emeritus and Historian, UCI Chicano/Latino Studies) and
Dr. Vivian Price (Interdisciplinary Studies/PACE, CSU-Domínguez Hills)
Reception: 6:15 p.m.
Screening: 7:00 p.m.
Q & A with the directors to follow
Co-sponsored by the Chicano/Latino Studies Department

 

Hidden within the historical accounts of minorities, workers and immigrants in American society is the story of the millions of Mexico’s men and women who experienced the temporary contract worker program known as the Bracero Program. Established to replace an alleged wartime labor shortage, research reveals that the Program intended to undermine farmworker unionization. Harvest shows how several million men, in one of the largest state managed migrations in history, were imported from 1942 to 1964 to work as cheap, controlled and disposable workers. The documentary features the men speaking of their experiences and addresses what to expect from a new temporary contract worker program.

For more information please visit: http://www.humanities.uci.edu/fvc/schedule.html

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Friday, May 21, 2010
HG 1070. 7:00PM


Desierto Adentro (The Desert Within)
Directed by Rodrigo Plá
2007 • Mexico • 100 minutes
(In Spanish w/English subtitles)

Introduced by Raquel Román
(Spanish and Portuguese Department)

 

Elias has committed a great sin against God and is convinced that his children will bear the burden of a premature death because of these sins. Wanting to put a halt to the terrible punishment he is sure to receive, he dedicates his life to the construction of a church hoping to gain the pardon from God that he seeks. The story is narrated through Aureliano, the youngest and most vulnerable son, who will depict the family saga in religious ‘retablos.’

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Saturday, May 22, 2010
HG 1070 7p.m.


Los ladrones viejos: la leyenda del artegio
(Old Thieves: The Legend of Artegio)
Directed by Everardo Gonzalez
2007 • Mexico • 95 minutes
(In Spanish w/English subtitles
Documentary)

Presented By: Dr. Gonzalo Navajas
(Spanish and Portuguese Department)


Using a wealth of archive images from film and television vaults, this documentary reveals Mexico City’s crime as an occupation subject to a strict code of conduct. Ranking in the hierarchy of thieves depended on, as in any other profession, talent and personal ambition. The footage is intercut with contemporary prison interviews of elderly criminals and the “old boys” are cheeky, charming – and chillingly ruthless.

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Thursday, May 27, 2010
HG 1070 7p.m.


Partes usadas (Used Parts)
Directed by Aaron Fernandez
2007 • Mexico, France, Spain • 95 minutes
(In Spanish w/English subtitles)

Presented by Alberto Landaveri
(Spanish and Portuguese Department)


Ivan is a 14-year-old boy who lives with his uncle Jaime, a mediocre businessman involved in a stolen car parts operation. Both of them dream of a better life and are saving to pay their way to Chicago, but when they realize they need more money to pay the “pollero”, Ivan recruits his friend Efrain to lend a hand. Both teenagers start to have fun and fulfill the uncle's "invoice orders" until Ivan realizes that his uncle has other intentions behind the trip they are saving and planning to take together.

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Friday, May 28, 2010
HG 1070 – 2 p.m.

SPECIAL MATINEE SCREENING
Co-sponsored by the Ph.D. Program in Visual Studies &
the Study of the Americas Working Group

“Retrieving & Preserving /It's All True/: Unreleased Rushes From
Orson Welles's Unfinished Four-Part Film”
1941-42 • Mexico/Brazil
(4 reels approximately 90 minutes)

Q&A with associate producer and archival consultant Dr. Catherine Benamou (Film and Media Studies/Visual Studies)

In 1941, Orson Welles and his Mercury Productions embarked on a 4-part film project, titled IT'S ALL TRUE, that was to have depicted the labor of cultural expression and spaces for sociocultural interaction in the Americas, while engaging in collaborations with local artists and film talent. Three of the planned episodes for the film went into production - "My Friend Bonito," shot under the direction of Norman Foster, followed the friendship between a young boy and a bull in central rural Mexico; "Carnaval" blended the documentation and reenactment of 1942 Carnival festivities in Rio de Janeiro; "Jangadeiros" (aka "Four Men on a Raft") reenacted the voyage undertaken by four fishermen from the state of Ceará to Rio de Janeiro to petition President Getúlio Vargas for inclusion in his social security legislation. Owing to wartime difficulties and studio censorship,Welles was never able to complete and release IT’S ALL TRUE, yet the footage survived in the vaults at RKO, then at Desilu, and again at Paramount Pictures, Inc., where it was discovered in 1980. 200,000 feet of black-and-white footage were deposited at UCLA Film and Television Archive for preservation in March of 1985, and a documentary reconstruction of portions of the three episodes was released by Paramount and Les Films Balenciaga in 1993. Nearly half of the surviving footage was preserved for this purpose; yet more than 100,000 feet corresponding to the three episodes are still in nitrate form – and thus have yet to reach the public eye. This program features four unique reels of footage preserved since the 1990s with funding from the National Center for Film Preservation/American Film Institute and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association.