PROGRAM

VIDEOTECA DEL SUR in NEW YORK 15TH ANNIVERSARY

PROGRAM

AUGUST – NOVEMBER 2004
MILLENNIUM FILM WORKSHOP | 66 East 4th Street
Between 2nd Avenue & Bowery.
Train F, V, to 2nd Avenue or #6 to Blecker St. in Manhattan

sta pareja, y de como estos han luchado por una mejor vida para su familia. Y donde cada uno tiene sus sueños y aspiraciones propias.

 Notes from the Director 

CONFESSIONS OF AN ANNIVERSARY

Our land -wide land, wilderness-
was filled with murmurs, arms, mouths.
A mute syllable kept burning,
congregating the clandestine rose,
until the meadows shook,
trampled by metals and gallops.

Truth was hard as a ploughshare.

It broke the earth, established desire,
sank in its germinal propaganda,
and was born in the secret springtime.

Its flowers was silent, its gathering of light
repulsed -the collective yeast,
the hidden banners- kiss
was beaten back,
but it rose up breaking the walls,
uprooting the jails from the soil.

The dark race, its cup,
Received the repulsed substance,
dispersed it in the marine limits,
crushed it in indomitable mortars.
And it emerged with its pages hammered
and springtime on the road.
Yesterday’s hour again, hour awaited
between the minute expired and the newborn,
in the bristling age of the lie….

(From Canto General, Pablo Neruda. )

Pedro Zurita
Director

TUESDAY, August 31 7:30pm
15TH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL PROGRAM
PABLO NERUDA, PRESENTE!
Dir.: Mark Eisner CHILE – USA 83′
The movie begins as narrator Isabel Allende flees Chile after the 1973 CIA-backed Pinochet military coup. Neruda dies twelve days after that death of democracy, as the communist Neruda was such a part of Chile’s political history, such a part of Chile herself. He is a literary prodigy and began publishing poems in popular magazines by the age of 14. At 20, he publishes “20 Love Poems and a Song of Despair,” the most popular book of Latin American poetry ever. We follow him through his lonely years as a consul in the Far East, to his involvement with the Spanish Civil War, to Macchu Picchu, through Europe in exile, back to Chile, and then to France to where he is named ambassador by the president, Salvador Allende. Archival footage, recited passages from the Nobel Laureate’s hugely influential writings, handsome shots of the native landscapes he loved, and interviews with surviving intimates make smoothly handled package a well-rounded salute.

TUESDAY, September 7 7:30pm
EL DIA QUE MURIO EL SILENCIO
Dir.: Paolo Agazzi BOLIVIA 108′ With: Gustavo Angarita, Dario Grandinetti, Elias Serrano, Guillermo Granda, Maria Laura Garcia, Blanca Morrison.
Into this blissful remove comes a mysterious stranger who sets up a radio and loudspeakers in the town square playing music and selling air-time to townspeople to broadcast their dirty laundry and street desires. When the radio operator falls in love with the shackled daughter of a cuckolded husband, The Day Silence Died settles into its ‘dreamy, lyrical way, ghatering a comic momentum built on themes of sexual jealousy and theatrical lergermain’.

TUESDAY, September 14 7:30pm
CONDOR: LES AXES DU MAL
Dir.: Rodrigo Vazquez ARGENTINA-FRANCE 90′
In name of the fight against the terrorism, a special operation called “Condor”, developed in South America between 70s 80s. Its purpose was the pursuit of the political dissidents, union organizations and intellectuals of the left wing. “Operation Condor” quickly became a network of military dictatorships supported by the American State Department, the CIA and the Interpol. This is the history of several victims of this operation

TUESDAY, September 21 7:30pm
AMANECIO DE GOLPE
Dir.: Carlos Azpurua VENEZUELA 90′
With: Ruddy Rodriguez, Daniel Lugo, Dalila Colombo, Elba Escobar, Hector Mayerston, Gonzalo Cubero,
Isabel Herrera, Asdrubal Menendez, Victor Cuica, Beatriz Santana.
On the early morning of February 4, 1992 the most stable of the democratic systems in Latin America turned into a battlefield. For Venezuelans, this was a difficult night to forget . Besides leaving an imprint in the unconscious collective of the citizens of Venezuela, this day marked the country’s path today. A segment of the military assaulted the president’s house with the intention to take the power by force. The uprising was suffocated on time and the Military coup attempt failed. This plot tells about several parallel stories in this event through which different perspectives are shown.

TUESDAY, September 28 7:30pm
TRAFINO
Dir.: Mauricio Galarza ECUADOR 28′
The “Panama” hats are globally known by their luxury and elegance. But these hats, baptized in the name of a central-American country, are not from Panama but from Ecuador. “Trafino” travels through the main hats production centers in Ecuador, unveiling the poverty of the ‘tejedores’ and their struggle to survive.

CHAME GENTE: 50 YEARS OF TRIO ELECTRICO
Dir.: Mini Kerti BRAZIL 60′
One day in the Brazilian carnival 52 years ago, some musicians decided to travel through the streets of Pernambuco in an old Ford car. They wanted to be entertained and entertain others. But they really did more: they invented the Electric Trio that brought the carnival from elitist clubs to the people. After years, Electric Trio integrated new rhythms from Brazilian popular music, promoting the social, racial, and ethnic changes that continue until today. This documentary portrays the internationally acclaimed works of Electric Trio through the years featuring Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso, among others.

TUESDAY, October 5 7:30pm
EL ULTIMO TREN
Dir.: Diego Ursuaga URUGUAY 90′ With: Federico Luppi, Hector Alterio, Pepe Soriano, Saturnino Garcia, Gaston Pauls.
Hollywood producers decide to purchase an antique locomotive in Uruguay. While the news is welcomed by many locals, members of the Friends of a Railroad Association are not happy and decide to sabotage the sale by obstructing its transfer to the US. They seize the train and embark upon a trip throughout the countryside. Their actions causes a police pursuit and inadvertently brings hope to a community abandoned when the train stopped running many years ago.

TUESDAY, October 12 7:30pm
50 YEARS OF CHA CHA CHA, ORQUESTA AMERICA
Dir.: Jill Hartley CUBA-MEXICO 25′
This film features the story of the cha cha cha through the Orchestra America, a band of French ‘charanga’ music type which begun in 1942. This orchestra was one of the pioneers to play the then famous Cha cha.

SABADO, A MOVIE IN REAL TIME
Dir.: Matias Bizet CHILE 63′
Con: Blanca Lewin, Antonia Zegers, Diego Muñoz, Victor
Montero, Sebastian Layseca. An hour in the life of a young girl who finds out her future husband has a lover a few minutes before she is to be married . Wearing her wedding gown, the bride goes through the city searching for revenge while a cameraman records the facts, without cutting the recording from the start to the end of the movie.

TUESDAY, October 19 7:30pm
JUAN MOREIRA
Dir.: Leonardo Favio ARGENTINA 100′ Con: Rodolfo Beban, Eduardo Rudy, Alba Mujica Edgardo Suarez, Elcira Olivera, Elena Titek, Carlos Muñoz, Jorge Villalba, Pablo Cumo, Osvaldo de la Vega.
Juan Moreira is sent to prison for claiming for his own rights. When set free, he decides to do justice and this marks his future. He is chased and many people die. He enlists on the troops of Alsina and accepts the ‘committees policies’ After being betrayed, he joins General Mitre. In the middle of political fights, fraud and betrayal his only escape is death. Classic Argentinean film made in 1971.

TUESDAY, October 26 7:30pm
CHILDREN OF THE STREET
Dir.: Eva Aridjis MEXICO 82′
This documentary film features the harsh reality of four children who live in the streets of Mexico City. This documentary recorded between September and December of 2001 features the lives of Erika, Antonio and Juan in the middle of their struggle to survive in a gigantic metropolis.

TUESDAY, November 2 7:30pm
PAI, PAI, NO ESTOY
Dir.: Jorge Cajar PANAMA 27′
Features the life of the former world champion boxer Jaime “Cieguito” Ramos and his beginnings as a boxer; his success and failure and how fame led him to a world of drugs, until he was imprisoned to seek rehabilitation and reintegration to society.

CUBA MIA: RETRATO DE UNA ORQUESTA DE MUJERES
Dir.: Cecilia Domeyko CUBA-US. 60′
This documentary features today’s Cuba, through the music and sounds of Camerata Romeu, an orchestra whose members are only women as they deliver their classical interpretation of melodies and Latin-American rhythms that have become famous beyond the country’s borders, enchanting audiences of all ages and nationalities. The documentary features the daily life of the nine female members of this orchestra whose music director is Zenaida Romeu, one of the few female music maestros in the world. This movie also features the arrangements for the fabulous end-of-year concert in the magnificent Basilica of Havana.

TUESDAY, November 9 7:30pm
CATHARSIS
Dir.: Andrea García – Paul Aragón COSTA RICA 6′
In the dictionary, the third meaning for the word ‘catharsis’ is ‘elimination of memories that disturb the conscious or emotional equilibrium’. In this short movie of sensuality and drama, a beautiful woman submerges in an ordeal of pain.

CARLITOS 13 MEDELLIN
Dir.: Jean-Stephane Sauvaire COLOMBIA-FRANCE 75′
Carlitos, a13-year-old boy, lives in the city of Medellin, Colombia. His task is to protect his suburb from war and violence. His only weapon: a statue of the Holy Virgin. This is the true confession to the Virgin, Maria Auxiliadora, in a suburb where kids are prosecuted by guerrilla kill to survive and protect their independence.

TUESDAY, November 16 7:30pm
URANUS IN THE SEVENTH HOUSE
Dir.: Jorge Oliver PUERTO RICO 16′
A sad young man who has broken with his fiancee gets the best spiritual guide in his new life thanks to a gaudy and plethoric apparition: the Puerto Rican dancer Iris Chacon.

WHITE ORGANDY
Dir.: Maria Jose Alvarez & Martha Clarissa Hernandez NICARAGUA 15′
A girl, impeccably dressed in “White Organdy” leads us into her dreams where symbols and feelings discover to us her inner world…

LA OFRENDA, PRESENCIA DEL RECUERDO
Dir.: Enrique Aguilar GUATEMALA 56′
Through this magic journey through Guatemala by Humberto Pinto (a famous marimba player from Huehuetenango), we discover the traditions and customs of this extraordinary culture. In his pilgrimage through towns and markets, we witness the deep indigenous sentiment during the week of the Dead, symbol of the indigenous belief that souls come back alive through the materialization of remembrance.

TUESDAY, November 23 7:30pm
LA CIENAGA BAJO LA LLUVIA
Dir.: Pedro Gonzalez Llorente DOMINICAN REPUBLIC 11′
Chronicle of the life of a neighborhood on the outskirts of Santo Domingo when a fatidic flood splits the neighborhood into two.

TINA IN MEXICO
Dir.: Brenda Longfellow MEXICO-CANADA 77′
Innovative documentary about the artistic, passionate and revolutionary life of the famous photographer, Tina Modotti (1896-1942). Modotti and her mentor, American photographer Edward Weston arrived in Mexico. This film mixes photographs and her works providing a testimony of her works in the revolutionary Mexico of the twenties, bringing to life artists such as Diego Rivera.

TUESDAY, November 30 7:30pm
CESAR MENENDEZ, EL CAZADOR DE FANTASIAS
Dir.: Jorge Dalton EL SALVADOR 27′
Cesar Menendez acknowledges he has lived. At same time, he acknowledges that he is doomed to be an artist. This deep journey into Menendez’ work we witness a world loaded with magnificent sacrilegious and religious metaphor, in Luis BuÒuel or Federico Fellini’s style. In Spanish.

EL ABRAZO DE LA MEMORIA
Dir.: Joel Calero PERU 51′
At the beginning of the 21st Century, a mestizo town in the Peruvian Andes celebrates an ancient Andean wedding ritual called the Palapa, in which all the townspeople revive the well-known practices on “Andean reciprocity,” to the newlyweds amid significant customs and frenzied communal dancing that ecstatically express their rottenness in the Andean world.

NEXT PROGRAM: March 2005