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Triad/Triangle film festival to screen work from six Latin American nations Nov. 3-19

CHAPEL HILL -- Six colleges and universities in North Carolina's Triangle and Triad areas will host free public showings of Latin American films and videos Nov. 3-19, presenting work from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Cuba and Mexico.

The 17 evenings of viewing, discussion and interpretation will comprise the 16th annual Latin American Film and Video Festival at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, N.C. State University in Raleigh, Duke and N.C. Central universities in Durham and UNC-Greensboro and Guilford College in Greensboro.

Titled "Silent Film, Cinema Novo, Contemporary Trends/Cine Mundo, Cinema Novo, Tendencias Contemporaneas," the festival will depict periods ranging from the era of silent pictures to today's postmodern works. All will be in original languages with English subtitles.

The festival will coincide with the fourth annual William Brown Jr. Latin American Film and Video Festival in the Charlotte area, at Davidson College, Johnson C. Smith University, UNC-Charlotte and Wingate University from Nov. 1-26.

For more information about both festivals, visit http://www.unc.edu/depts/ilas/filmfest.html. "This festival differs from others in that we are focusing on three different time periods in Latin American cinema," said Sharon Mújica, outreach director of the Consortium in Latin American Studies at UNC-Chapel Hill and Duke, which sponsors the Triangle/Triad festival. "We will begin with Mexico's silent film era, move on to films from the Cinema Novo movement of the 1960s and then highlight nueva cinema, or the new Latin American cinema.

"Nueva cinema selections will include 'Y Tu Mama Tambien' from Mexico, 'Historias de Futbal' from Chile and the new Argentine film 'Nueve Reinas,' " said Mujica. "Only three of this year's selections have been seen in North Carolina commercial theatres."

The festival will begin with "Y Tu Mama Tambien" at NCSU’s Witherspoon Center at 7 p.m. Nov. 3. The sexy comedy broke box office records last year in Mexico and won awards at the Venice and Havana film festivals. Keith Richards, a faculty member at Wake Forest University and expert on Latin American film and narrative, will introduce the film and lead a discussion afterward.

Another highlight will be an appearance by Mexican film and theater director Claudio Valdes Kuri, who will explain the art of benshi, popular in Japan in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In this practice, a narrator, called a benshi, stood on stage beside the movie screen and interpreted silent film verbally for Japanese audiences.

At two showings of the 1927 Mexican silent film "El Puno de Hierro/The Iron Fist," at NCSU on Nov. 8 and UNC-Chapel Hill Nov. 10, Valdes Kuri will describe the practice. Raleigh performance artist Thomasi McDonald, also a reporter for The News & Observer, will act as the benshi, demonstrating this unusual art.

Benshis rose to stardom in Japan beginning in 1896, when silent films first came to Japan from other countries and depicted cultural situations that weren't familiar to Japanese audiences, Mujica said. Their artistry faded in the 1920s, when films introduced subtitles.

"Many of the benshis became so well known that theaters gave their names top billing, even over the actors," Mujica said.

Concurrently, Mexico boasted a thriving silent filmmaking industry from 1897 to about 1925, when Hollywood began taking over the market. "Valdes Kuri once studied film in Japan, and during that time he met one of the last living benshis, an older person who told him about the art," Mujica said.

Triangle audiences can look for Valdes Kuri again in February, when he'll present his new play, "El Automobile Gris/The Grey Automobile" in Raleigh, Durham and Siler City. The actors will be silent, and a benshi will interpret.

The festival will include a retrospective of work by Brazilian director Nelson Pereira dos Santos, prominent in Brazil's Cinema Novo movement of the 1960s and '70s. The movement sought to establish a genre of popular national film not influenced by foreign work.

Films in the retrospective, all at 8 p.m. in Griffith Theater in Duke's Bryan Center, will be "Rio 40 Graus" Nov. 4; "Tenda dos Milagres" Nov. 11; "Amuleto de Ogum" Nov. 13 and "Vidas Secas" Nov. 18. All will be available courtesy of the Brazilian Embassy in Washington, D.C.

Pereira dos Santos' recent documentary, "Masters and Slaves," shot in four one-hour segments, also will be shown. The film explores Brazil's colonial past, blurring lines between history, art and the social sciences. The first and second parts will be shown Nov. 15 at Duke's Center for Documentary Studies; the last two on Nov. 18 in the film auditorium of the Frank Porter Graham Student Union at UNC-Chapel Hill.

The Consortium in Latin American Studies at UNC-Chapel Hill and Duke aims to enhance the Latin American curricula on both campuses, increase awareness of Latin American cultures and traditions and provide research and training opportunities for faculty and students.

For more information, contact the program’s outreach office, 919-962-2414 or la_films@unc.edu. Information on venues, festival rating codes and a schedule follow below, with film descriptions by Mujica.

Duke: Griffith Theatre, Bryan Center, West Campus, Science Drive, 684-2323; Center for Documentary Studies, 1317 W. Pettigrew St., 919-681-3980..

Guilford: 101 Frank Family Center, Arcadia Street (off Guilford College Road) facing an entrance to the college, 336-316-2209.

NCCU: School of Education Auditorium, corner of Alston Avenue and Cecil Street, 919-560-6331.

NCSU: Campus Cinema, Witherspoon Student Center, Cates Avenue off Dan Allen Drive, 919-515-5161.

UNC-Chapel Hill: Carolina Union Film Theater, Frank Porter Graham Student Union at the corner of Raleigh Street and South Road; Hanes Art Center Auditorium, 115 S. Columbia St., off Cameron Avenue near Columbia Street; 919-962-2414.

UNC-Greensboro: Ferguson Building lecture hall, corner of Highland and Spring Garden avenues, 336-334-5655.

Latin American films are not rated, but the festival uses these codes to identify elements if they are included in the films: V, violence; N, nudity; S, sex; L, strong language.

Nov. 3, 7 p.m., NCSU: "Y Tu Mamá También," Mexico, 2001; director Alfonso Cuarón; 105 minutes, Spanish with English subtitles. Introductions by Sharon Mujica, outreach director for the Duke/UNC Consortium in Latin American Studies, and Wake Forest University film scholar Keith Richards. Winner, Best Screenplay and Best New Actors, Venice Film Festival 2001, and an award at the Havana Film Festival 2001. N, S.

This sexy comedy follows two teen-aged boys who go on the road with an older Spanish woman after whom they both lust. Sumptuous cinematography, wonderful performances by the young cast and a subtle glimpse into Mexican life and its politics.

Nov. 4, 7 p.m., Guilford: "An Evening of Bolivian Indigenous Film," introduced by Stepffany Drozdo-Jones, an assistant professor of foreign languages at Guilford. Two Bolivian films will be shown:

· "Qati, Qati. Susurros de la muerte," 1999, director Reynaldo Yujra; Aymara with English subtitles, 35 minutes. V. Fulo, a man from a small village in Bolivia’s Andean region, does not believe old traditions about souls and spirits. But he has to face his wife’s mysterious disappearance as a punishment for challenging these ancient beliefs. Winner of the best scenic production award at the 1999 Latin American Film and Video Festival of Indigenous Communities.

"Oro Maldito," 1999, director, Marcelino Pinto; Quechua with English subtitles, 35 minutes. A young man’s obsession with finding gold draws him deep into the Bolivian jungle. Arriving at a town in the tropical Cochabamba region, he has two significant encounters: one with an enchanting young woman, the other with a mysterious old man. Emphasized in the story are themes of greed and redemption.

Nov. 4, 11, 13, 18, all at 8 p.m., Duke's Griffith Theatre, Bryan Center, "Retrospective on the Work of Brazilian Filmmaker Nelson Pereira dos Santos," introduced Nov. 4 by Monica Rector, a faculty member in Spanish at Guilford. Pereira dos Santos was prominent in Brazil's Cinema Novo movement of the '60s and '70s, which sought to establish a genre of popular national film not influenced by foreign work. The films will be "Rio 40 Graus" on Nov. 4; "Tenda dos Milagres" on Nov. 11; "Amuleto de Ogum" on Nov. 13; and "Vidas Secas" on Nov. 18. All are presented courtesy of the Brazilian Embassy in Washington, D.C., in Portuguese with English subtitles.

Nov. 5, 7 p.m., NCCU: "El Mariachi," United States/Chicano, 1993, director Robert Rodríguez, 81 minutes, Spanish and English with subtitles; V; shot with no second takes using borrowed equipment and a talented cast of unknowns. Jordi Mari, a film specialist and faculty member in Spanish at NCSU, will introduce the film, which won audience awards in 1993 at the Sundance and Deaurville film festivals. A deadly case of mistaken identity leads the protagonist, who aspires only to be a mariachi, to trade his guitar for a gun and play for his life in this vision of bandido violence in Mexico.

Nov. 6, 8 p.m., Duke, Griffith Theatre, "Life and Debt," United States, 2001, director Stephanie Black; 85 minutes, English.Dr. Evelyne Huber, who once lived in Jamaica, will introduce the film. Huber is a political science professor and director of the Institute of Latin American Studies at UNC. A hit at the 2002 Human Rights Watch Film Festival, "Life and Debt" has a vibrant reggae soundtrack by Ziggy Marley and a narration written by author Jamaica Kincaid from her book "A Small Place."

A look at how the policies of globalization and free trade devastate indigenous ways of life. The focus is on Jamaica, which the director believes has been virtually destroyed by 25 years of involvement by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

Nov. 7, 7 p.m., UNC-Chapel Hill's Hanes Art Center, "Señorita Extraviada," United States, 2001, director Lourdes Portillo, 74 minutes, English and Spanish with English subtitles. Stuart Day, a UNC professor of Romance languages who specializes in theater and film, will introduce the film. V

This documentary investigates the kidnapping, rape and murder of more than 230 young women in Juárez, Mexico. Using interviews with families of the victims, the film reveals a web of complicity that has contributed to the persistence of the killings. It serves as a frank portrayal of Ciudad Juárez and effects of the new global economy.

Nov. 8, 7 p.m., NCSU, "An Evening of Silent Film with Claudio Valdés Kuri" and showing of "El Puno de Hierro/The Iron Fist," Mexican silent film, 1927, the first to touch on the issue of drug addiction in Mexico. The plot follows bandits and a poor detective who strives to be like a famous one.

Mexican film and theater director Valdés Kuri will explain the art of benshi, practiced in Japan in the silent films era, in which human narrators stood beside the movie screens and verbally interpreted silent films from other countries for Japanese audiences. Raleigh performance artist Thomasi McDonald will demonstrate the art, acting as benshi for the 1927 film.

Nov. 9, 7 p.m., UNC-Greensboro, "Historias de Futbol/Soccer Stories," Chile, 1997, director Andrés Wood, 87 minutes, Spanish with English subtitles. Dr. Claudia Femenias, an assistant professor of Spanish at High Point University, will introduce the film. It won a jury mention at the 1997 San Sebastian International Film Festival, Best Director and the 1997 Huelva Film Festival and a Casa de las Americas Award in Madrid in 1998. N, S.

Latin America's passion for soccer impacts three lives. In Santiago, a third-division soccer player is offered a bribe and the possibility of playing professional soccer. Further north, a boy swaps his mother's most prized possession to play a soccer match. On the island of Chilolot, a young man traveling to visit relatives finds himself stranded in a small village on the day of a national soccer match.

Nov. 10, 7 p.m., UNC-Chapel Hill's Hanes Art Center, "El Puño de Hierro/The Iron Fist," Mexico, 1927, director, Gabriel García Moreno; a silent movie and the first to touch on the issue of drug addiction in Mexico. The plot follows bandits and a poor detective who strives to be like a famous one.

Mexican film and theater director Claudio Valdés Kuri will explain the art of benshi, practiced in Japan in the silent films era, in which human narrators stood beside the movie screens and verbally interpreted silent films from other countries for Japanese audiences. Raleigh performance artist Thomasi McDonald will demonstrate the art, acting as benshi during the film.

Nov. 12, 7 p.m. NCCU, "Si Me Comprendieras/If You Only Understood Me," Cuba, 1998, director Rolando Díaz; 87 minutes, Spanish with English subtitles. Jordi Mari, a faculty member in Spanish at NCSU and a specialist in film, will introduce the movie.

A film director embarks upon a search for black women actresses to play the central dramatic role in his next project, a musical comedy. Rather than opt for an experienced actress, he searches for the freshness and the spontaneity of inexperience. Interviews with candidates and the film crew reveal underlying conflicts in Cuba today.

Nov. 13, 7 p.m., Guilford, Two films introduced by Maria Amado, a Guilford faculty member in sociology and anthropology:

"New World Border," United States, 2001, producer Casey Peek, 28 minutes, English. The documentary reports a rise in human rights abuses along the U.S.-Mexico border since blockades were added in populated areas over the last decade. Immigrant rights organizers and immigrants and interviewed; free trade policies and efforts to build a vibrant movement for immigrant rights are analyzed.

"Maquila: A Tale of Two Mexicos," United States/Mexico, 2000, directors Saul Landau and Sonia Angulo, 55 minutes, English and Spanish with subtitles. This film examines the impact of corporate globalization in Mexico, focusing on maquiladoras, U.S.-owned factories employing cheap Mexican labor. Archival footage and interviews provide historical background for the present crisis.

Nov. 14, 7 p.m., NCCU, "Eu, Tu, Eles/Me, You, Them," Brazil, 2000, director Andrucha Waddington, 107 minutes, Portuguese with English subtitles. Won best picture and best actress awards at the Cinema Brazil Festival and was the official selection of the Sundance Film Festival in 2001. Rob Anderson, an adjunct associate professor of Portuguese at UNC-Chapel Hill, will introduce the film.

Based on a true story, this film is set in the majestic landscape of rural Brazil. Darlene abruptly uproots herself from her small town to find a man who can fulfill her desires. Three years later, she returns to her hometown and accepts a modest marriage proposal from her humble neighbor Osias. The film portrays Darlene’s struggle to find happiness and love in this isolated town.

Nov. 15, 7 p.m., Duke's Center for Documentary Studies, "Masters and Slaves," Parts I & II, Brazil, 2000, director, Nelson Pereira dos Santos, 120 minutes, Portuguese with English subtitles. Reception afterward. Parts III and IV will be shown Nov. 18 at UNC-Chapel Hill. N, S

This four-part documentary elaborates on the 1933 text "Masters and Slaves" by Brazilian anthropologist and historian Gilberto Freyre. The camera follows professor Edson Nery, friend and biographer of Freyre, on an exploration of Brazil’s colonial past that blurs lines between history, art and the social sciences. Besides explaining the circumstances of colonization, it examines the darker, sensual side of Brazil’s past in an attempt to define what the country is today.

Nov. 16, 7 p.m., Guilford, "Lista de Espera," Cuba, 2000, director Juan Carlos Tabío, 106 minutes, Spanish with English subtitles. Sylvia Trelles, head of international studies at Guilford, will introduce the film. N

A diverse group of Cubans find themselves stuck at a remote bus station, and their shared situation brings them together. They transform the bus station into a kind of socialist utopia, and when they can finally leave, they don't want to.

Nov. 17, 7 p.m., NCSU, "Nueve Reinas/Nine Queens," Argentina, 2000, director Fabian Bielinsky, 115 minutes, Spanish with English subtitles. Winner of best film, best director and best actor in Argentina's 2000 Condór de Plata Awards. Lydia Barovero, an assistant professor of Latin American literature at NCSU, will introduce the film.

This polished, vastly entertaining and elaborate caper film also is a sharp character study that examines the question of honor among thieves. Juan is a small-time crook who gets caught conning a convenience store clerk' Marcos is a big-time swindler who professes to arrest him with the hope of recruiting him for a bigger job: obtaining a counterfeit collection of some extremely rare stamps known as the Nine Queens.

Nov. 18, 7 p.m., UNC-Chapel Hill, film auditorium, Frank Porter Graham Student Union, "Masters and Slaves," Parts III and IV, Brazil, 2000, director, Nelson Pereira dos Santos, 120 minutes, Portuguese with English subtitles. (Parts I and II Nov. 15, Duke.) S

Part III looks at how the Portuguese mixed with Indians and black slaves and the influence of Portugal’s Moorish and Jewish past on this relationship. The concluding segment examines the different African cultures that were brought to Brazil and their influence on Brazilian sexuality, society and family life. N,

Nov. 19, 7 p.m., UNC-Greensboro, "Blossoms of Fire," United States, 2000, directors Maureen Gosling and Ellen Osborne, 74 minutes, English.

This documentary portrays the indigenous Zapotec society of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Mexico. There, women dominate home and businesses while men do much of the heavy hauling and seem happy to let women rule. The matriarchy also fosters progressive politics, which include standing up to the Partido Revolucionario Institucional, the ruling party of Mexico until the last election in 2000, and warding off the global market. Juana Suarez, a professor of Latin American literature and film at UNC-Greensboro, will introduce the film.

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Contact: Sharon Mújica, (919) 962-2414, smujica@email.unc.edu

News Services contact: L.J. Toler, (919) 962-8589, laura_toler@unc.edu