In 1999, two brothers were deported from the United States to Mexico. Within two weeks, one of them overdosed on heroin in a seedy Tijuana hotel room, his body left unclaimed for two months in a mass grave. These U.S.-raised men, military veterans, were deported from the only country they knew—and had sworn to protect—to forge new lives in Mexico. Against the backdrop of increased attention to the U.S.-Mexico border, filmmaker Monika Navarro draws on her family’s experience to explore national identity and ties, the lives of immigrants, and what happens after deportees are sent to a homeland they don’t consider home.

In 1973 in Chile, at the height of the internal tension during Salvador Allende’s three years in office, Carmen, a university employee, maintains her faith in the popular government despite the constant questioning by her colleague Juan and her partner Víctor, who, confronted with the imminent coup, opts for a more radical response than she does. Carmen maintains her hope with the support of Carvajal, an exemplary proletarian in charge of cleaning up the university.

Children of the Amazon follows Brazilian filmmaker Denise Zmekhol to the heart of the Amazon rainforest, in search of the indigenous children she photographed 15 years before. The film invites the viewer to see through the eyes of these inspiring, remarkably resilient people, whose lives have been transformed by a road that was carved through their forest home by an outside world. Poetic and visually stunning, this film engages the senses and sympathies as global issues take on a profoundly human perspective.

Before dying, Nora devises a plan to make José, her ex-husband, take care of her funeral during the height of Passover celebration. But despite her meticulousness she misses something—the only flaw in the plan, a mysterious photograph left under the bed, which leads to unexpected outcomes that remind us that sometimes the greatest love stories are hidden in the smallest places. A heartwarming story of love, doubt, faith, and the importance of family.

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.

In a town where fishing is a deeply rooted tradition, women are considered bad omens on a boat. Without entirely comprehending this creed and inspired by her grandfather’s principles, Tere decides to prove that she can become a fisherwoman. Along with her best friend, one day she is able to catch a great cunaro. But, what seemed to be a dream come true for Tere vanishes quickly in the face of reality, and becomes a life lesson that neither girl will ever forget.

Nina is a 10 year old girl whose life changes dramatically when her dying father and Scissor Dancer master asks her to fulfill his last wish. Inspired by an Andean myth and by the short story by Peruvian writer José María Arguedas, "The Agony of Rasu Ñiti."

Using home movies and other media, Diário de Sintra documents director Paula Gaitán’s return to the Portuguese city of Sintra, to search for memories of her late husband, Brazilian cinema novo pioneer Glauber Rocha. Gaitán and Rocha lived exiled in Portugal in 1981 with their two children, Eryk and Ava, before his untimely death. The filmmaker’s layered experimental work creates an impression of the past through its rich accumulation of images, meditations, and reminiscences.

Ten year old Lizzy and Raúl live next door to each other in a duplex. Through the wall, Raúl hears Lizzy’s parents argue night after night as they head toward divorce, prompting him to try to find a way to help his friend escape her traumatic situation. This is a story about two children and their strength to overcome the common tragedies of everyday life.

Chang Rodríguez, a delivery boy from Havana’s colorful Chinatown, is tired of his routine and longs for anything that will change his life. But unbeknownst to him, Chang’s life is actually connected to others living in the same building—including a young woman obsessed with collecting books and instruction manuals, a former Cantonese opera singer, and a Wushu practitioner. Completely unaware of his own power, Chang becomes an instrument of destiny every 12 years, during the year of the pig.

Ana, a 50-year-old woman, falls into a depression when her husband leaves her. Once she finally decides to get over it, she begins to change from the outside in and, led by rekindled desire, starts a process in which she rediscovers her sexuality.

Past and present collide as filmmaker Natalia Almada brings to life audio recordings she inherited from her grandmother—reminiscences about Natalia’s great-grandfather General Plutarco Elías Calles, a revolutionary general who became president of Mexico in 1924. In his time, Calles was called “El Bolshevique” and “El Jefe Máximo” (the foremost chief). Today, he is remembered as “el Quema-Curas” (the Burner of Priests) and as a dictator who ruled through puppet presidents until he was exiled in 1936. Through his daughter’s recordings, El General moves between the memories of a daughter grappling with her memory of her family life versus history’s portrait of her father, and the weight of his legacy in the country today.

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.

A story about an immigrant's beloved, whose sadness and loneliness are not eased by the remittances sent back to them.

The lodging house owned by Rosa Carbajal at the corner of Shakespeare and Victor Hugo streets in Mexico City, is a shelter that hides an intimate and passionate story. Twenty years ago Rosa met Jorge Riosse, a young tenant who became her closest friend and for eight years made indelible marks on everyone he knew. But after his sudden death, some dark characteristics emerged. The film is a profound sketch of two lonely characters whose lives become strongly and strangely entwined.

Jonathan French, a little white orphan boy, was adopted as a baby by his Mexican Nanny and Gardener in Beverly Hills. On his 10th birthday, he was miraculously blessed by the Virgin of Guadalupe with the gift of music. While Juan rises from the half-empty soccer bars and Mexican restaurants of East L.A. to international stardom, he changes for the worse, under the influence of a wanna-be Puerto Rican movie star and Cuban talent manager. And when the dark truth about his history is revealed, he must choose between the American-Mexican man he feels he is in his heart, and the 33 year-old bald white guy he sees in the mirror. This irreverant musical mockumentary finds the humor in one man’s search for ethnic identity against the backdrop of a celebrity obesessed culture.

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.

A bourgeois woman driving alone on a dirt road becomes distracted and accidentally runs over something. In the days following this jarring incident, she feels dazed and emotionally disconnected from the people and events in her life as she becomes obsessed with the possibility that she may have killed someone. The police confirm that there were no accidents reported in the area and everything returns to normal until a gruesome discovery is made. Lucrecia Martel’s third feature examines the intricacies of class status and the role of women in a male-dominated society.

After Julia is sent to jail for the murder of her lover, she gives birth to a son. Raising a child in prison is difficult, but the only thing that matters to Julia is this new being that accompanies her now. There is no life for her beyond that of her child. Her fellow inmate, Marta, becomes her ally; her mother Sofía, her opponent. While Marta attempts to teach her how to be a mother to her child in the least appropriate place; Sofía wishes to take over rearing the child, so that he can grow up free, outside the prison. The duel between mother and daughter reveals the dilemma facing Julia: is it better for her child to grow up next to his mother in prison, or without her, but in freedom?

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.

Kanien’ kehá:ka—Living the Language is a two-part documentary series about what it takes to save a language in the Mohawk community of Akwesasne. The documentary examines various aspects and approaches of the Akwesasne Freedom School and its Mohawk language immersion program, which addresses key concepts of tradition, traditional education and identity preservation. The school has been in existence for 26 years with a philosophy “to create Mohawk speakers and leaders for two worlds.”

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.

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.

During supper, two women who recently began dating sit down to discuss infidelity. Between wine, a snoring son, and passionate sex, the discussion will lead them to ask each other whether their relationship should and could continue.

Charles, Zuleide, Gilberto, Cleide, Rogério, Claudio, and Lobão are the seven dwarves, all sons of the mythical Pindoba, the smallest and funniest clown in the world. Together they form the Pindorama Circus and travel from town town in northern Brazil, bringing with them their simplicity and humanity, fun and bravery. In their world, everyone wants to be a dwarf and all this makes the Pindorama world something new, and completely different from everything that surrounds it.

For the young narrator of Postcards from Leningrad, being born into a socialist uprising in 1960s Venezuela wasn’t easy. She and her cousin Teo have learned how to live a clandestine life, making an ongoing game out of survival, with everything from code names and creative disguises to making themselves invisible and devising fantastic escape plans. A visual collage with playful animation and nostalgic footage of revolutionary youth, the film injects both humor and pathos into a story where wild imaginations, foggy memories, madness, white lies, and grief all mix seamlessly in a child’s reality.

When Ramona’s son, Osvaldo, disappears, she loses her calm and begins a search that leads her to contact the coroner, and to maybe even accept the possibility that her son is dead. With special appearances by Ana Ofelia Murgía and Damián Alcázar.

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.

This is the story of the Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas, a Native American tribe indigenous to the state. Though they have been present in Texas and the surrounding areas for hundreds of years, their story is hardly taught and their existence is not recognized. In October 2008, members of the Lipan Apache Tribe opened the first museum for the continuation and preservation of their culture. This documentary aims to bring awareness to one Native American group that has become endangered through centuries of oppression and assimilation. As Lipan Tom Castillo expressed, “Hopefully now we can tell our story. Without fear.”