|
(kə nā′dē ən) Marc Arellano Canada, Documentary, 20088 min, MiniDV, Color/Black & WhiteSpanish, French, English with English subtitles
(kə nā′dē ən) is a short documentary that explores the notion of identity. Memory, history and family are all interwoven into a narrative about one Canadian family. One of the top 10 finalists in CBC/Radio Canada's Migrations Film Competition 2009.
US Premiere Producer: Marc ArellanoProduction Companies: Transparent MediaScreenwriter: Marc ArellanoCinematographer: Marc ArellanoEditor: Marc ArellanoSound Design: Marc ArellanoMusic: Terry ScarboroughCast: Gizele Arellano, Ron Arellano, Ian Arellano, Ramiro Arellano, Marc Arellano, Natalie Perrier and Camille Arellano
Panorama Documentary Shorts Showcase Mexican American Cultural Center (MACC) Tues. April 27 9:00PM FREE Artzainak: Shepherds and Sheep Jacob Griswold, Javi Zubizarreta USA, Documentary, 2010 15 min, DVCPro HD, Color Spanish, English, Basque with English subtitles
High up in the hills of Idaho, immigrants earn their wages in solitude as the quiet caretakers of thousands of serene sheep. This short documentary traces the history of Basque immigration to Idaho, while addressing the difficulty of life as a shepherd, as well as the current issue of immigration within the sheep herding industry.
World Premiere
Jacob Griswold, a Dominican-American filmmaker from western New York, developed a passion for creating films that provoke thought and create discussion about difficult topics such as struggle, despair, and faith. Javi Aitor Zubizarreta is a Basque-American filmmaker from Boise, Idaho. Throughout his filmmaking career, Javi has searched for new and innovative ways to bring the story of the Basque people into public attention. Javi and Jacob are completing their Bachelor of Arts in Film Production at the University of Notre Dame.
Producer: Jacob Griswold Cinematographer: Jacob Griswold, Javi Zubizarreta Editor: Jacob Griswold, Javi Zubizarreta Sound Design: Jacob Griswold
Regal Metropolitan - Fri. April 23 8:00PM (preceding Which Way Home) Directors Jacob Griswold and Javi Zubizarreta in attendance.
Regal Metropolitan - Sat. April 24 6:00PM (preceding O Areal) Directors Jacob Griswold and Javi Zubizarreta in attendance. Bracero Stories explores the personal experiences of five former “guest workers” in the controversial US-Mexican government Bracero Program, which granted temporary work contracts to millions of Mexican laborers between 1942 and 1964. Their stories are interwoven and illustrated with archival materials, creating a composite narrative of the “bracero” experience. Interviews with other participants in the program assess its effectiveness—and its justness. These discussions mirror contemporary concerns about illegal immigration and the possible implementation of a new guest worker program. Ultimately, the film seeks to put a human face on the concept of foreign “guest worker.”
Casimiro tells the story of an illegal immigrant living in central Texas. As Casimiro tries to write a comforting letter to his family back home, we experience the truth about his days in America. The story follows him through his difficult routine, and demonstrates how a lonely man copes with hardships.
Cleats Maria Carter USA, Drama, 2009 7 min, DVCPro - HD, Color Spanish with English subtitles
Each morning shrouded by fog, two pairs of hands sort through curbside garbage looking for bottles and cans. Rising every day at dawn, Sr. and Sra. Martinez gather recyclables in hopes of building an inheritance for their son, one nickel at a time. A story about an immigrant family's unflagging belief in the American Dream, Cleats is a short film inspired by a true story of sacrifice and dignity, where a family’s humble, yet heroic acts help make each other's dreams come true.
Regional Premiere María Agui Carter is the founder of Iguana Films in Boston and a graduate of Harvard University. A former staff producer for WGBH Boston and currently a Brandeis Visiting Scholar, Agui Carter was the only woman director featured for her dramatic work on Discovery En Espanol's Hispanic Heritage Month. Over a dozen of her documentaries have aired on public television.
Producer: Sarah Schenck Production Companies: Iguana Films Screenwriter: Maria Carter Cinematographer: Edwin Pagan Editor: Maria Carter Sound Design: Geof Thurber Music: Joseph Julian Gonzales Cast: Christian Ortega, Brenda Garcia, Ted Mejia
Regal Metropolitan - Sun. April 25 4:00PM (preceding Morenita) Conversations II offers an intimate look at the female universe; a journey in time through evocative images and the testimonies of women from the same family. Through the personal search of a daughter into the lives of her mother and grandmother, the film explores the evolution of the female role in a Latin American society and how the views of marriage and motherhood have changed with each generation, as well as the view that women have of themselves.
What do you do if the day your first child is to be born is also the same day your father is to be executed? If you are twenty-six-year old Manny, you use your father's impending execution as an excuse to flee the daunting responsibility of fatherhood. There's only one problem: Manny lives in Monterrey, Mexico and his father sits in on death row in Texas. Against his wife's wishes, Manny embarks on an ill-planned quest to cross the border to see his father, hoping that the trip will buy him time and insight into his upcoming responsibility.
De ollas y sueños Cooking Up Dreams Ernesto Cabellos Peru, Documentary, 2009 75 min, HDV, Color Spanish with English subtitles
Could it be that an entire nation is represented through its kitchen? Crossing air, land and sea, De ollas y sueños explores Peru’s gastronomic revolution for an answer. From the most humble family kitchens to high-end restaurants, this documentary finds that Peru's cuisine is deliciously integrating with its people who have historically been marked by ethnic and economic differences. Renowned chefs such as Gastón Acurio, Ferrán Adrià, Juan Mari Arzak and Bernardo Roca Rey share their views alongside unsung chefs, who also dream of Peru's cuisine as a motor of development. Audience Award winner at Festival Filmar en América Latina (Geneva, Switzerland).
Texas Premiere
Ernesto Cabellos is an award winning Peruvian documentary filmmaker. His first feature documentary, Choropampa, el precio de oro, earned him three awards including the 2002 OCIC Cinematographic Post-Production Award at the Mar del Plata Film Festival. De ollas y sueños is his second documentary feature.
Producer: Ernesto Cabellos, Susana Araujo Production Companies: Guarango - Tal Screenwriter: Ernesto Cabellos Cinematographer: Ernesto Cabellos Editor: Lessandro Sócrates, Antolín Prieto Sound Design: Takuo Shima, Jose Balado Music: Martin Choy-Yin, Jose Balado Cast: Gastón Acurio, Teresa Izquierdo, Bernado Roca Rey
Mexican American Cultural Center (MACC) Sun. April 25 5:00PM FREE Exiled In America is a film that explores immigration issues in the United States related to detention and deportation from the point of view of those most affected: children. Over 1.5 million immigrants have been deported since 1996—a policy that has torn families apart and led to human rights violations. Exiled In America tells the story of five siblings who struggle to live in America after their mother was deported to Mexico.
Extranjero is a short film about belonging. The smell of things, the noises and the flavors of the country left behind, haunt you and make you realize that life, maybe, wasn't that terrible back in your country. A story about an immigrant's beloved, whose sadness and loneliness are not eased by the remittances sent back to them. Does Venezuela represent the dream of a new socialist society or is it just another distortion of populism and dictatorship? A trip with President Chávez over the largest oil reserve in the world, situated beneath the Orinoco River, becomes the occasion in which to enter into the lives of Venezuelans, nine years after the beginning of the Bolivarian Revolution. The government missions to fight illiteracy and hunger, the creation of a public health care system, and the development of an economy based on cooperative work are some of the achievements which characterize the Chavez era. But on the other hand there are the country’s 60 violent deaths a week and its collapsing hospitals, the closure of the most popular television channel, the old European immigrants in flight, the opposition black list, and the ubiquitous government propaganda. Venezuela en route to socialism: is this still possible in our post-ideological times.
For over 50 years, the Kahnawake Mohawks of Quebec, Canada occupied a 10 square-block hub in the North Gowanus section of Brooklyn, which became known as Little Caughnawaga. The men, skilled ironworkers, came to New York in search of work and brought their wives, children and, often, extended family with them. Little Caughnawaga tells the personal story of Mohawk filmmaker Reaghan Tarbell from Kahnawake, Quebec, as she explores her roots and traces the connections of her family to the once legendary Mohawk community through the stories of the women who lived there.
Looking for Palladin Andrzej Krakowski USA/Guatemala, Comedy/Drama, 2009 115 min, HDVcamPro, Color English, Spanish with English subtitles
Arrogant Hollywood talent agent, Josh Ross, is sent to Guatemala to find two-time Oscar winning actor Jack Palladin. Although they’d never met, the search is emotionally complicated as the long-time retired star was once married to the Josh’s late mother. The young agent’s contempt for the old actor mirrors his comedic distaste for the local community whose help he desperately needs in order to find Palladin. What Josh hopes will be a quick and lucrative deal turns into a soul-searching journey. The retired star and his estranged son must confront the past they had forsaken.
Regional Premiere
Andrzej Krakowski studied at the famed Polish National Film School in Lodz, Poland and at the American Film Institute in Los Angeles. Krakowski has written, produced, and directed over 50 films all over the world, tackling subject matters often considered risky and unpopular by Hollywood standards. Looking for Palladin is his latest feature.
Producer: Mahyad Tousi Production Companies: Looking for Palladin LLC Screenwriter: Andrzej Krakowski Cinematographer: Giovanni Fabietti, Alberto Chaktoura Editor: Babak Rassi Sound Design: Bob Pomann Music: Joel Dancyger, James Skinger Cast: Ben Gazzara, David Moscow, Talia Shire, Vincent Pastore, Angelica Aragon, Pedro Armandariz Jr., Roberto Diaz Gomar, The Morales Brothers
Regal Metropolitan - Sun. April 25 2:00 PMBuy Tickets
In 1930, the American Smelting & Refining Company hired William "Bill" Parker to work at the Angangueo mines in Michoacán. Bill arrived with his girlfriend, Joyce Hartzell, a photographer. Bill and Joyce fell in love with the town and its simple ways and decided to make it their permanent home. Bill was an amateur filmmaker and used his 16mm camera to shoot several documentaries portraying day-to-day life in Angangueo and Joyce’s trips around Spain and South America. But Joyce died in 1975, victim to pulmonary cancer, and 36 days later, Bill shot himself in the head. Bill’s diary describes those last few days: from Joyce’s passing to his own suicide. The movies and photographs made by the Parkers over the years become the material that relives their memories and tells the story of these two lovers that even death couldn’t tear apart.
Luca is the story of Luca Prodan, a young Italian man educated in Great Britain caught in the frenzy of London’s punk rock scene in the late 1970s, who takes a leap of faith by traveling to Argentina during the military dictatorship just before the war in the Falkland Islands. Here he formed SUMO, a rock band that left its mark on three generations and that, still to this day, remains a legend and an inescapable reference for Latin American musicians.
Rosa is a Mexican woman who, in 1999, at the age of 17, migrated illegally to Austin, Texas. In January of 2003, she was arrested for suspicion of murder and then sent to trial in August 2005. Rosa’s imprisonment in a foreign country, the judicial process, the verdict, the separation from her family, and her powerlessness make Mi vida dentro a true and revealing look into the life of Mexican immigrants in the United States.
Norteado Northless Rigoberto Perezcano Mexico/Spain, Drama, 2009 95 min, 35mm, Color Spanish with English subtitles
Andrés reaches the Mexican border to cross into the United States. Between each attempt, he discovers that Tijuana, the city that adopts him, is a troubled one. As he waits there, Andrés is not only confronted with his feelings and what he left behind, but also with those he meets in Tijuana: Cata, Ela, and Asensio.
Austin Premiere
Born in Zaachila, Mexico, Rigoberto Perezcano's training as a filmmaker is the result of having directed documentaries. His film XV en Zachila participated in different festivals, receiving several national and international prizes. Norteado is his first feature film.
Producer: Edgar San Juan Production Companies: Tiburón Filmes, IMCINE, FOPROCINE, McCormick de México Screenwriter: Edgar San Juan, Rigoberto Perezcano Cinematographer: Alejandro Cantú Editor: Miguel Schverdfinger Sound Design: Pablo Tamez Sierra Music: Ruy García Cast: Harold Torres, Sonia Couoh, Alicia Laguna, Luis Cárdenas
Alamo South Lamar - Mon. April 26 9:45 PMBuy Tickets
Nashville, Tennessee, the “buckle of the Bible Belt” and the country music capital of the world, has become one of the most popular destinations for Latino immigrants. Despite the recent growth of this community, until December of 2007 Hispanic Catholics in Nashville did not have a place of worship they could call their own. This film follows the story of Nashville’s first 100% Hispanic Catholic church from the idea of its creation through its inauguration six months later. The film depicts a community that is proud and grateful, having finally found its own place for its members to let go of their minds, let go of their spirits, and truly be free. Point of Entry Zeus Quijano, Jr. USA, Documentary, 2009 27 min, MiniDV, Color Spanish, English with English subtitles
Carlos is an illegal immigrant living in the United States with his wife and two children. His decision to leave Mexico, his parents and siblings weighed heavily on him, but he knew that for them to get ahead he would have to leave to America. He was 15 years old at the time. Today, Carlos is 30 and continues sending money home to his family. Accolades for Point of Entry include numerous Official Selection entries in festivals as well as awards for Best Short Documentary at the Downtown Film Festival Los Angeles, and Best Non-Scripted Drama at NexTv Entertainment Web Series and Short Film Competition.
Texas Premiere
Zeus Quijano, Jr. is a graduate Film Production student at the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts. Zeus grew up in the suburbs of New York City. He was introduced to the craft of visual media while interning and eventually working as a production assistant on the sitcom, Spin City. He attended the University of Hawai'i and developed his craft of visual arts. USC has enabled him to integrate his love of still photographic storytelling and translate that to a fluid cinematic art.
Producer: Zeus Quijano, Jr. Cinematographer: Zeus Quijano, Jr. Editor: Zeus Quijano, Jr. Sound Design: Zeus Quijano, Jr. Music: Jake Monaco
Documentary Shorts Competition Showcase Regal Metropolitan - Sat. April 24 4:00PM
Mexican American Cultural Center (MACC) Wed. April 28 5:00PM (preceding Stages) Andrei Ivanov, a Russian immigrant in Spain, set off sometime ago on a very particular journey.... Red Mesa Ilana Lapid USA, Coming of Age Drama, 2009 17 min, 35mm, Color Spanish, English with English subtitles
Unable to share her beloved grandfather's dreams for her future, Lynn charts her own path by seeking love beyond familiar borders. Caught in the crossfire of her love for her grandfather and her secret love with an undocumented worker, she must decide which borders she is willing to cross. Set on a cattle ranch on the US-Mexico border, Red Mesa, winner of the Best Short Film award at Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival in 2009, is a cinematic exploration of love, loyalty, and coming of age through the struggle with difficult choices.
Austin Premiere
Ilana Lapid, Artist in Residence at Slifka Center at Yale, is a filmmaker, writer and arts-educator interested in exploring the personal faces of global conflict. Ilana was born in New York City, spent her childhood in Jerusalem and Ottawa before moving to Las Cruces, New Mexico. She has a B.A. in Political Science from Yale University, with a focus on International Relations and Middle Eastern studies. She has produced three award-winning USC thesis films and directed 11 short films, for which she was awarded both the Jack Nicholson and the John Huston Directing Awards from USC.
Producer: Vineet Dewan Screenwriter: Ilana Lapid Cinematographer: John DeFazio Editor: Franklin Peterson Sound Design: Chris Brenner, David Lankton Music: Sasha Ivanov Cast: Tom Bower, Jessica Spotts, Gabriel Rivera
Regal Metropolitan - Wed. April 28 6:00PM (preceding Sincronía) Gabriel Rivera welcomes you to Cine Las Americas: Welcome and Trailer Shades of the Border Patrick William Smith Dominican Republic/Haiti/USA, Documentary, 2009 12 min, HDCAM, Color Spanish, Creole, English with English subtitles
Co-sponsored by Austin Film Society Located on the same small island but divided by class, wealth, and skin color, Haiti and the Dominican Republic face heated immigration issues. Through the eyes of a Dominican newspaper's editor-in-chief and through the lives of several Haitians crossing the Dominican border, this film explores the disconnections between the Dominican media and the reality of violence and racism against Haitians within the Dominican Republic.
Producer: Patrick William Smith Cinematographer: Patrick William Smith Editor: Patrick William Smith Sound Design: Patrick William Smith Music: Patrick William Smith
Hecho en Tejas Shorts Showcase Regal Metropolitan - Sat. April 24 12:00PM Director Patrick William Smith and cinematographer Roshan Murthy in attendance. Shopping to Belong is a documentary about the relationship between consumerism and the sense of belonging and citizenship among Latino immigrants. This documentary aims to explore the hypothesis that immigrants use shopping as a way to feel part of this country, given that it is one of the main cultural activities in the United States. This documentary shows this process through interviews with first generation immigrants who come from various parts of Latin America; they all have different immigration histories and have lived here from only a few months to as long as 25 years.
The near future. The world is divided by closed borders but connected by a digital network that ties together people around the world. Memo Cruz lives in an isolated farming community in Mexico, the kind of place that seems frozen in time—except for the hi-tech, militarized dam that was built by a corporation, and now controls the town’s water supply. Memo dreams of leaving his small pueblo and finding work in the hi-tech factories in the big cities in the north. On his journey north, he meets Luz, an aspiring journalist who dreams of writing a story that might one day change the world. Unwittingly their fates are manipulated by a chain of events emanating from the highest levels of technological advances.
Stages Meerkat Media Collective USA, Documentary, 2009 82 min, Mini DV, Color Spanish, English with English subtitles
In New York City's changing Lower East Side, a group of older Puerto Rican women and inner-city youth come together to create an original play out of the stories of their lives. Over twenty weeks, the participants confront stereotypes and examine their own histories, exploring themes of immigration, relationships, aging and coming of age. Woven together, their stories take on new meaning, first as they are spoken across generations, and later when they are performed for a sold-out show. In response to a political climate that assigns little value to community arts initiatives, Stages offers an intimate portrait of an unlikely ensemble, transformed by the liberating power of their own stories. Stages was awarded the Best Documentary Award at HBO's New York International Latino Film Festival.
Austin Premiere
Collaboratively directed by twelve people, Stages is the Meerkat Media Collective’s first feature-length film. Meerkat Media has also produced over twenty short films, which have been featured in film festivals and screenings nationally and internationally. Through skill sharing and collective authorship, Meerkat Media strives to create works with a non-hierarchical and inclusive creative process.
Producer: Meerkat Media Collective Production Companies: Meerkat Media LLC Screenwriter: Meerkat Media Collective Cinematographer: Eric Phillips-Horst, Jay Arthur Sterrenberg Editor: Jay Arthur Sterrenberg Sound Design: Meerkat Media Collective Music: Meerkat Media (Josh Davis, Elliot Liu, Josh Hoisington) Cast: Lucy Calderon, Juanita Ferrier, Monsserate Vasquez, Maria Roman, Kelli Holsopple, Shontina Vernon, David Williams, Min Naing, Robin Munro
Mexican American Cultural Center (MACC) Sun. April 25 7:00PM FREE Filmmakers Sally Bergom, Brian John and Jay Arthur Sterrenberg in attendance. Mexican American Cultural Center (MACC) Wed. April 28 5:00PM FREEFilmmakers Sally Bergom, Brian John and Jay Arthur Sterrenberg in attendance. As part of its new policy to end the “catch and release” of undocumented immigrants, the U.S. government opened the T. Don Hutto Residential Center in May 2006 as a prototype family detention facility. The facility is a former medium-security prison in central Texas operated by the Corrections Corporation of America, the largest private prison operator in the country. The facility houses immigrant children and their parents from all over the world who are awaiting asylum hearings or deportation proceedings. As information about troubling conditions at the facility leaks out, three activist attorneys seek to investigate and address the issues.
The Other Side of Immigration examines the causes and effects of international migration from the perspective of rural Mexican communities where large numbers of people leave to work in the United States. The film explores how NAFTA, Mexican agricultural policies, and Mexican politics have stimulated emigration over the past two decades; the extent to which households in rural Mexico directly and indirectly depend on money that undocumented immigrants send home; and the effects of emigration on families and children left behind in rural Mexico.
Un fragmento de intimidad tells the story of two Mexican immigrant cross dressers in Montreal who are part of a show in which they portray famous Latin American women artists. Which Way Home Rebecca Cammisa USA, Documentary, 2009 83 min, HD Cam, Color Spanish with English subtitles
As the United States continues to build a wall between itself and Mexico, Which Way Home shows the personal side of immigration through the eyes of young Central American and Mexican children who face harrowing dangers with enormous courage and resourcefulness as they endeavor to make it to the United States on freight trains. The film is a gripping documentary about a situation that adults should never have to endure, let alone children. Which Way Home was an Academy Award nominee for Best Feature Documentary.
Texas Premiere
A native of Sleepy Hollow, New York, Rebecca Cammisa became a filmmaker in 1998 when she teamed up with Rob Fruchtman to co-direct, co-produce and shoot the feature documentary film, Sister Helen, which aired on HBO's Cinemax Channel and won the 2002 Documentary Directing Award at Sundance as well as the Gold Hugo for Best Documentary at the Chicago International Film Festival. Which Way Home is her second feature documentary as a director and cinematographer.
Producer: Rebecca Cammisa Production Companies: Mr Mudd, Documentress Films Cinematographer: Lorenzo Hagerman, Eric Goethals Editor: Pax Wasserman, Madeleine Gavin Sound Design: Luis Mercio, Gabriel Coll Barberis, Jesus Sanchez Padilla, Eduardo Trejo Music: James Lavino, Alberto Iglesias Regal Metropolitan - Fri. April 23 8:00PMBuy Tickets
Regal Metropolitan - Sun. April 25 12:00PM |
Search, View and Navigation
Join Our Mailing List
Search
