Documentary (Cuba/Germany, 101mins)

September 15th and 21st at 5:30pm @Cornell Cinema

Introduced by Prof. Enrique González-Conty (IC)

A film by Wim Wenders that follows the Cuban musicians who formed the Buena Vista Social Club and performed at Carnegie Hall. The film features interviews, live performances, and commentary on the history and culture of Cuban music. (criterion.com)

Documentary (Colombia, 96mins)

Co-sponsored by the LGBT Center at Ithaca College

FREE - September 18th at 4pm @Textor 101 - Ithaca College

Introduced by Prof. Enrique González-Conty (IC)

In a Colombian prison in 2012, the left-wing intellectual FARC rebel Jaison and the hitherto apolitical trans former sex worker Laura fall in love. Their bond initially causes distrust within the FARC, but the charismatic Jaison is able to dispel such misgivings by calling for a common class struggle, and evoking a sense of solidarity that draws on the shared experience of discrimination. This utopia of a just world sees trans activists stand together with disarmed FARC fighters at demos in Bogotá’s red-light district and in FARC camps in the mountains. (berlinale.de)

Feature (Paraguay, 85mins)

September 21st at 8pm @Cornell Cinema

Introduced by Isabel Calderón (Cornell)

Eami is a young girl and member of the Ayoreo Totobiegosode community whose homeland is invaded by settlers intent on brutally corralling the Ayoreo and driving them out of their ancestral lands. Embodying Asojá, the bird-god-woman, Eami falls into trance in which she walks slowly and stunned through her beloved forest as she prepares to leave it forever. (Cornell Cinema)

Documentary (Venezuela, 90mins)

September 26th at 7pm @Cornell Cinema

Introduced by Prof. Cecelia Lawless (Cornell)

The peninsula of Araya in northeastern Venezuela, is one of the most arid places on earth. For five hundred years, since its discovery by the Spanish, the region’s salt has been exploited manually. A 17th-century fortress built to protect against pirate raids stands as a reminder of the days when salt was worth almost as much as gold and great fortunes were made. Benacerraf captures the life of the salineros and their back-breaking work in breathtaking images. (Cornell Cinema)

Feature (México, 95mins)

September 27 at 8:30pm @Cornell Cinema

Introduced by Rosamaría Durán (Cornell)

In a bustling Mexican household, seven-year-old Sol is swept up in a whirlwind of preparations for the birthday party for her father, Tona, led by her mother, aunts and other relatives. As the day goes on, building to an event both anticipated and dreaded, Sol begins to understand the gravity of the celebration this year and watches as her family does the same. (Cornell Cinema)

Feature (Costa Rica, 106mins)

FREE - September 28th at 8pm @Cinemapolis

Introduced by Lilly Schaber (Cornell)

In a remote village in Costa Rica, Clara, a withdrawn 40-year-old woman, experiences a sexual and mystical awakening as she begins a journey to free herself from the repressive religious and social conventions which have dominated her life. (imdb.com)

Feature (Puerto Rico, 93mins)

FREE - September 29th at 8pm @Cinemapolis

Introduced by Prof. Enrique González Conty (IC)

Noelia, a 40-year-old Puerto Rican visual artist, discovers her cancer has metastasized after spending several years in remission. Despite the insistence of her partner, Jorge, she refuses to continue her treatment and decides to return to Vieques, the small Caribbean island east of Puerto Rico where she grew up and where her mother, Flora, lives. Once there, she keeps her cancer a secret in order to live freely and throws herself into the work she had dedicated herself to years before - denouncing pollution left by the U.S. Army after years of military exercises on the island. (imdb.com)

Documentary (Latinx USA, 88mins)

Co-sponsored by CUSLAR and TCIRC

Free - October 1st at 8pm @CUSLAR in Anabel Taylor Hall, Cornell

Most people dream of a better future. Pedro, an aspiring social worker, is nodifferent. But as a blind, undocumented immigrant, Pedro faces political restrictions to obtain his college degree, secure a job in his field, and support his family. As he finally graduates, uncertainty looms over Pedro.

Documentary (Argentina/Mexico/USA, 56mins)

Co-sponsored by the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program at Ithaca College

Free - October 3rd at 10:50am in Textor 102, Ithaca College

Introduced by Prof. Michael Smith (IC)

For the Andean community of Hatun Q’ero in Peru, where the direct descendants of the Inka live as they have for centuries, news of the Covid-19 pandemic was initially terrifying — as it was for the Kallawaya and the Qhara Qhara in Bolivia, the Mapuche of Patagonia, the Lickanantay of Northern Chile, and the Salasaka of Ecuador. Pandemics, after all, wiped out most of their ancestors — smallpox, measles, influenza and other European diseases killed an estimated 95 percent of the Americas’ original inhabitants.

Feature (Chile, 97mins)

Free - October 5th at 8pm @Cinemapolis

Introduced by Prof. Jonathan Ablard (IC)

In Chile in 1901, three horseman are paid to protect a vast estate. Accompanying a British soldier and an American mercenary is a mixed-race sniper, who realizes that his true mission is to kill the indigenous population. (imdb.com)

Documentary (Brazil, 93mins)

October 6th at 5pm @Cornell Cinema

Introduced by Arturo Ruiz Mautino (Cornell)

Brazil’s official selection for the 2024 Academy Awards, Pictures of Ghosts, from acclaimed director Kleber Mendonça Filho is a multidimensional journey through time, sound, architecture and filmmaking, set in the urban landscape of Recife, Brazilian coastal capital of Pernambuco. The film examines this historical and human territory through the great movie theatres that served as spaces of conviviality during the 20th century. (Cornell Cinema)

Documentary (Latinx US, 72mins)

Co-sponsored by the Center for the Study of Culture, Race and Ethnicity

FREE - October 7th at 2pm in Textor 101, Ithaca College

Introduced by Prof. Pamela Sertzen (IC)

Riding at night through Eastside Los Angeles, the Ovarian Psycos use their bicycles to confront the violence in their lives. At the helm of the crew is founder Xela de la X, a single mother and poet M.C. dedicated to recruiting an unapologetic, misfit crew of women of color, yet she struggles to strike a balance between motherhood and activism. (film website)

Documentary (Rep. Dominicana/Colombia, 122mins)

October 10th at 7pm @Cornell Cinema

Introduced by Prof. Patricia Keller (Cornell)

A voice that claims to be from a hippopotamus. A voice that doesn’t understand the perception of time. Pepe, the first and last hippo killed in the Americas, tells his story with the overwhelming orality of these towns. (letterbox.com)

Documentary (Panamá/Italy, 70mins)

FREE - October 23rd at 6pm in Textor 102, Ithaca College

Introduced by Prof. Enrique González-Conty (IC)

In his documentary feature debut, filmmaker Mauro Colombo immerses himself in the Darién Gap, a dense and mysterious jungle that divides Panama and Colombia. At the dangerous border between these two countries, guerrillas, immigrants, indigenous people, farmers, drug traffickers, local police, and wild animals cross paths. (iffr.com)