FILM:
Amar a Morir
WORLD PREMIERE When every opportunity has been granted you in life except for the opportunity to make your own decisions, losing everything for love is the only option. In this world premiere of Fernando Lebrija's debut feature film, Alejandro (José María de Tavira) is the son of a Mexico City magnate whose impending marriage has been arranged to coincide with a corporate merger. In an act of rebellion, a senseless tragedy occurs. Instead of relying on his father's wealth or influence, Alejandro escapes to the beaches of Michoacán where he meets Rosa, a beautiful young girl who is in a situation that mirrors his own. Together they finally discover what it means to love someone to death.-Ilana Luna
FILM:
Before Tomorrow (Le jour avant le lendemain)
After leaving their island and their clan for the summer to dry meats, Ninioq and Maniq (grandmother and grandson both in the film and in real life) find themselves quite alone. A tragic turn of events in their insular community has forced them to fight for survival on the frozen tundra. Warmed only by the glow of their burning tallow and the stories and songs they share, this Inuit boy and his grandmother struggle to imagine a brighter time. Before Tomorrow is a careful meditation on the cycle of life through both the eyes of the young and the quiet strength of the very old. It offers a glimpse into traditions that survive by sharing stories from one generation to the next.-Ilana Luna
FILM:
The Dead Girl's Feast (A Festa da Menina Morta)
Santinho is a young man whose life has revolved around the miracle that he performed as a young boy, a destiny that has sheltered him from the outside world but not from pain. THE DEAD GIRL'S FEAST represents the yearly pilgrimage that is made to this patron saint of a small Brazilian town. In preparing for the festivities, we come to understand the cross that the entire town has to bear: raging poverty, alcoholism, incest and a blind devotion to a saint whose only claim to sainthood was to find the torn clothing of a dead girl. After a visit from his long-lost mother, Santinho shares the dead girl's revelation with his followers.-Illana Luna
FILM:
The Demons of Eden (Los Demonios del Eden)
US PREMIERE This hard-hitting documentary follows the trials and tribulations of the persecuted Mexican journalist Lydia Cacho. In her book LOS DEMONIOS DEL EDÉN, Cacho sought to expose millionaire businessman Jean Succar Kuri for exploiting young girls through a child pornography and prostitution ring. Kuri's powerful connections in the hotel and garment industry led to a nightmarish journey in which Cacho was kidnapped in Cancún by orders from the Governor of Puebla and driven 800 miles to face false charges. This film not only traces the roots of corruption, exposing the collusion of politicians and corporations, but it also offers wire-tapped recordings of the criminals and their political protectors. These conversations among the powerful—previously only imagined—validate Cacho's version of her horrific ordeal.-Ilana Luna
FILM:
The Path (El Camino)
Young Saslaya and her mute younger brother, live a life of abuse and destitution, living off scraps in the junkyards of suburban Managua. They leave their grandfather in search of their mother and a better life in Costa Rica. Like thousands of Nicaraguans before them, they set out on a journey that will take them from their home on a path of uncertainty, in the hope of a better future on the other side of the border. EL CAMINO is a stunning visual exploration that maps the terrifying journey so many young people must take, only to discover that the promised land is not all they imagine it to be. -Ilana Luna
FILM:
Empty Nest (Nido vacío, El )
Leonardo and Martha (Cecilia Roth) are a middle class couple in Buenos Aires with three teenage children and a life that has stagnated. Leonardo is a well-respected author, and Martha is an active supporter of her husband, having long ago abandoned her degree in sociology. What happens when their youngest daughter, Julia (Inés Efrón of XXY), leaves to marry an Israeli author and they are left all alone? Can their marriage survive the desires that rise to the surface now that they are finally free? EL NIDO VACÍO explores how Leonardo and Martha deal with their empty nest and what they can do to rescue what they may have lost.-Ilana Luna
FILM:
The Inheritors (Los Herederos)
US PREMIERE Children in the Mexican countryside begin working at a very young age. Their labors are many and diverse. They are farmers and herders, they walk long distances to chop wood, they weave, they make bricks, and they care for younger siblings. They migrate with their families to work in the harvests, they carry water, and they carve and paint delicate wooden figurines called "Alebrijes." While they inherit the tools and techniques of their ancestors, these children inherit destitution, as well. Generation after generation, they remain captives to a cycle of inherited poverty. LOS HEREDEROS tells their story.
FILM:
The Land of the Devil (El pais del diablo)
US PREMIERE Have we behaved like civilized men? asks the white man after he has brutally crushed an entire people. EL PAÍS DEL DIABLO takes a close look at the tragic consequences of the 1879 campaign to exterminate the indigenous Ranquel people of the pampas in the "Conquest of the Desert". It seeks to name those people whose existence, both physical and cultural, was seen as a threat and later as a museum curiosity, to the Argentine nation. This film examines the ways in which the image of indigenous people has been usurped, and reinvented by the white man, and how the surviving descendants in Leobucó have reclaimed the body of their Chief, Mariano Rosas and are rebuilding their cultural identity through language teaching.-Ilana Luna
FILM:
Mapuce Nation (La Nación Mapuce)
US PREMIERE We are part of the land, not owners of it. Thus affirm the Mapuce activists that are fighting to reclaim their tribal territories, land that has been usurped by the Argentine government only to be handed over to large multi-national corporations for their exploitation of natural resources. LA NACIÓN MAPUCE details the legal battle of the Mapuce community that seeks official redress for their expulsion from the Pulmarí territory. Together they struggle to find equilibrium in their lives, reunite a dispersed community, physically occupy the territory of their ancestors, and envision a future of economic prosperity and cultural wholeness for their people.-Ilana Luna
FILM:
Oso Blanco
US PREMIERE The Río Piedras State Penitentiary, known as Oso Blanco (White Bear), housed some of Puerto Rico's toughest criminals. It gave birth to two of the prison gangs that control Puerto Rico's prison system to this day: Ñetas and Los 27. Before its 2004 closure, it was also the stage for some of the most brutal and inhumane conditions on the island and perhaps in the world. Through personal accounts and animated illustration, OSO BLANCO follows one of the jail's long-time residents and one of its oldest guards to tell the story not of a single jail, but of an institution. It questions the validity in our culture of incarceration and examines the psychological implications that prison has on those who are locked within its walls.-Ilana Luna
FILM:
Our Disappeared
Three decades after government repression marked by kidnapping, torture and exile, Juan Mandelbaum returns to his native Argentina after discovering that an old girlfriend from his college days, Patricia Dixon, was among the thousands of people known as "the disappeared." His exploration is at once personal—tracing the fates of several of his friends and co-workers, militant youth who were later murdered—and political, with an excellent explanation of 1970s Argentina, an era fraught with complex contradictions. The goal of this entire lost generation was to effect change and to eradicate social injustice. OUR DISAPPEARED stands not only as a testament to the memory of those who died for their utopian ideals, but also as a reminder to recommence the work they began.-Ilana Luna
FILM:
Purgatorio
PURGATORIO seamlessly weaves together the stories of several pining souls—displaced people who, for one reason or another, find themselves walking the thin line between life and death. In gorgeous, stylized black and white, with some of Mexico's most brilliant stars, such as Pedro Armendáriz Jr. and Ana Claudia Talancón, the film brings to life several of Juan Rulfo's characters from his acclaimed book of short stories EL LLANO EN LLAMAS. His characters are forced to leave the post-revolutionary countryside in search of work across the border; they are men in cantinas and women of cabarets in urban desperation; and a murderous landowner who cannot buy the love of his beautiful young wife must lament her death for eternity. -Ilana Luna
FILM:
The Sky, The Earth and the Rain (El cielo, la tierra, y la lluvia)
Ana is the sole provider and caretaker for her ill mother and elderly grandmother, as well as a friend to an autistic neighbor, Marta. When she loses her job in the local mainland store, she swallows her pride and takes a job as a housekeeper for a local man who is as solitary as she is. Through muted dialogues and misinterpreted gestures of affection and need, we come to understand that the young of this town are suffering quiet alienation. There is little else for them but sky, earth and rain, and perhaps the possibility of companionship. EL CIELO, LA TIERRA Y LA LLUVIA is a finely crafted psychological portrait, set against a beautiful yet lonely Chilean landscape.-Illana Luna
FILM:
Tear This Heart Out (Arrancame la vida)
The human heart is one thing you simply cannot control by force. Mexico's official entry for the Oscar, ARRÁNCAME LA VIDA is an epic adaptation of Angeles Mastretta's iconic novel of political intrigue. Set in the tumultuous era of the Mexican Revolution, it is the story of a daring and ambitious general (Daniel Giménez Cacho), his exploits of power, and the one woman he needed but could never conquer – his wife (Ana Claudia Talancón). It is the tale of a girl whose spirit could not be broken and a woman whose profound love of a revolutionary composer (José María de Tavira) would change the face of politics from behind the bedroom curtain. -Ilana Luna
FILM:
Titon, from Havana to Guantanamera (Titón, de la Habana a Guantanamera)
A look at the life and work of Cuban filmmaker Tomas Gutierrez Alea.
FILM:
The Watercolorist (El Acuarelista)
US PREMIERE What is a man to do when he can simply find no peace in his own home to complete his masterpiece? Mr. T. is the newest renter in a downtown apartment whose tenants' association is in the middle of a heated debate over renovating their aging building. His artistic mystique and his unwillingness to participate in their meetings make him an irresistible target for all their schemes. When he meets his muse, in the form of a prepared-food delivery girl, he believes that he will finally be able to complete the ultimate watercolor, but his neighbors have other plans for him. EL ACUARELISTA is a light-hearted reflection on the possibility of art for art's sake.-Ilana Luna
FILM:
Youth Cinemedia
Youth CineMedia is a nationally recognized program that utilizes state-of-the-art technology to help teach teenagers the fundamentals of digital video, music production, photography and other multimedia. Youth CineMedia (YCM) also provides area youth with the means to create inspiring, thought-provoking media that promotes dialogue and social change, as well as the training, knowledge and relationships that help foster expression and confidence. YCM is currently a program of Zona Seca and collaborates with Primo Boxing, The Granada Teen Project, the Creeks Division for the City of Santa Barbara and others. YCM focuses its outreach on underserved communities, with an emphasis on youth from low-income or newly-immigrated families, or those with an unfortunate history of below average school performance, substance abuse or involvement in the juvenile justice system. The Youth Cinemedia Shorts Program is a FREE program - no tickets or passes are needed Youth Cinemedia Documentaries FINDING NEMO - THE LIFE AND DEATH OF A CHOLO Produced by: Maximina Carachure MY QUINCEANERA Produced by: Selena Chavez A SECOND CHANCE - LIBERTY TATTOO REMOVAL Produced by: Omar Ceja HOMELESS FOR THE HOLIDAYS - THE EVICTION OF 90 SANTA BARBARA KIDS Produced by: Gonzalo Rios REMEMBERING EMANUEL ROLDAN R.I.P. Produced by: Reynaldo Lopez, Eric Guerrero BEHIND THE SCENES WITH YOUTH CINEMEDIA 2002-2009 Produced by YCM Students & Staff BREAKING ADDICTION Directed & Produced by: Brian Ruiz Youth Cinemedia Envrionmental Shorts JOSE AT WEST BEACH Produced by: Jose Almanza NATIVE PLANTING CRUISIN' CREEKS OCEANO JONES ADVENTURE CLUB STEPHAN'S PARK Youth Cinemedia & Primo Boxing FIGHT BACK AGAINST HIV/AIDS 10 THINGS ABOUT ME BOXING WITH A SURFER Youth Cinemedia & The Granada Teen Project BE SAFE BE AWARE THE GRANADA HARD HAT OPENING CLASSICAL MUSIC PARA TODOS Live musical performances by: Sleepy Loka, Dosia, and El Kid
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