|
 Mexico / Central America
- Cuba / Caribbean
- Other
- Latin America: Argentina
- Latin America: Brazil
- Latin America: Colombia
- Latin America: Peru
- Latin America: Other
- Film History (for documentaries about Latin American Cinema)
- Spanish History and Culture; Spanish/Latin American Literature
- Latin America & the Caribbean videography
- Movies by Director videography
- Links to Latin American cinema sites and publications (via the Latin American Video Archive)
- Archivo
De Film (The largest archive of Movies, Radio and TV in Latin America: Holdings included in MIC: Moving Image Collections database )
- Selected Bibliography of Books on Mexican and Latin American Cinema
Mexico / Central America
Unless otherwise noted, all videos are in Spanish with English subtitles.
- Mexican Film Resources Page
- !Ahí Está el Detalle! (Mexico)
- Cantinflas finds himself pretending as Mrs. Cayetanos long lost brother Leonardo, whom they needed to find in order to claim a considerable inheritance. The real Leonardo's girl friend shows up and demands marriage to the father of her eight children. Spanish dialog, no subtitles. Video 999:1740
 Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Allá en el Rancho Grande. (Mexico, 1948)
- Cast: Jorge Negrete, Lilia del Valle, Eduardo Noriega, Lupe Inclan. Depicts the music and romance of daily life in rural Mexico. Some English subtitles. Video 999:1731
- Credits and other information ffom the Internet Movie Database
- Alsino and the Condor (Alsino y el Cóndor) (Nicaragua / Cuba / Mexico / Costa Rica, 1983)
- Director, Miguel Littin. Set in Nicaragua, this film depicts the clash between Central American governments and Sandinista rebels. It is the story of a boy's dream of flying above the Some English subtitles. 89 min. Video 999:1862
- Credits and other information fom the Internet Movie Database
- Amar te duele (Love Hurts) (2002)
- Director, Fernando Sariñana. Cast: Luis Fernando Pena, Martha Higareda, Ximena Sariñana.
In a story of social class differences, a rich teenage girl falls in love with a poor teenage boy in Mexico City. They must fight against peer pressure, prejudice, and her parents that want to send her to Canada, to try to save their love. 104 min. DVD 7508
- Credits and other information ffom the Internet Movie Database
- Amores Perros (2000)
- Director, Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu. Three different people are catapulted into dramatic and unforseen circumstances in the wake of a terrible car crash: a young punk stumbles into the sinister underground world of dog fighting; an injured supermodel's designer pooch disappears into the apartment's floorboards; and an ex-radical turned hit man rescues a Rotweiler with a gunshot wound. 153 min. DVD 1132
- Credits and other information ffom the Internet Movie Database
- El Ángel Exterminador (The Exterminating Angel) (Mexico, 1962).
- Directed by Luis Buñuel. The guests at a dinner party are held prisoner for several days without food, water or other essentials in a room in their host's house. 92 min. Video 999:242
-
Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Angelitos negros(Mexico, 1970)
- Directed by Joselito Rodríguez. Cast: Manuel Lopez Ochoa, Martha Rangel, Titina Romay, Juanita Moore.
Ana Luisa De La Fuente is a beautiful, rich Mexican senorita. But she is also filled with vanity, and has a cruel heart. She is racist and prejudiced against black people, and that is why she hates her nanny, Nana Merce. But what Ana Luisa doesn't know is that Nana Merce is her real mother. When Ana Luisa meets famous singer Juan Carlos Flores, they fall in love and marry but when Ana Luisa bears a child she is horrified and angry when her baby girl turns out to be black. 112 min. DVD 8978
-
Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Anselmo and the Women
- Directed by Chick Strand. A Mexican husband and wife express their attitudes and expectations concerning their spouses. Primarily a reflection of Mexican male attitudes towards Mexican women. Video 999:633
- ¡Así Es Mi Tierra! (1937)
- Director, Arcady Boytler. Cast: Cantinflas (Mario Moreno), Manuel Medel, Antonio R. Frausto, Mercedes Soler. With revolutionary Mexico as a backdrop, a successful local rancher returns triumphant from the war to the praise of townsfolk, and "El General" is ready to take a wife. However the senorita of choice already has fallen for a secret admirer, and a boyhood rival who is threatened by the General's popularity. In Spanish without subtitles. 90 min. DVD 2195
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Así es la vida (Such is life) (2000)
- Directed by Arturo Ripstein. Cast: Arcelia Ramirez, Luis Felipe Tovar, Patricia Reyes Spindola, Ernesto Ya?nez, Francesca Guillen.
Poor and uneducated, Julia lives in a seedy barrio in Mexico City where she practices homeopathic medicine and performs abortions to support her family. When her husband abandons her for another woman, Julia's world crumbles. She is thrown out of her apartment by her landlord -- soon to be her husband's new father-in-law -- and her children are about to be taken away from her. With the help of her godmother, she plans to take revenge on her low-life, opportunistic husband.
98 min. DVD 8577
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Aventurera (1950)
- Directed by Alberto Gout. Cast: Ninon Sevilla, Tito Junco, Andrea Palma, Ruben Rojo, Miguel Inclan. Elena tries to make a new life for herself after her mother leaves her alone, but she is drugged, seduced, and forced to work as a dancer/call girl in a Mexican nightclub. She soon rises to stardom as a dancer, but still plots revenge and escape. 101 min. DVD 2815
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Bandidos (Mexico / Spain, 1990)
- Directed by Luis Estrada. Cast: Pedro Armendariz, Jorge Russek, Daniel Gimenez Cacho, Gabriela Roel, Bruno Rey. In 1913 during the Mexican revolution, a gang of young pre-teen boys scavenge places looted by adult bandits. The quartet soon become fast friends bound together by their many adventures and their need to fend off the lethal bullying of the adult bandits. Before long, the kid bandits are wreaking havoc in the countryside all on their own. 95 min. DVD 1289
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- The Brute (El Bruto) (Mexico, 1952)
- Directed by Luis Buñuel. The story of a powerfully strong but slow-witted slaughter-house worker who is hired by a slumlord to break a tenant strike. He accidentally kills one of the strikers and is drawn into a doomed affair with the slumlord's wife. 81 min. DVD 2560; Video 999:1061
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Las Cabareteras (The Bar Girls)(Mexico, 1980)
- Director, Icaro Cisneros. More than a detailed story, it is the chronicle of the repression exercised by an English Company over a small Chilean town whose inhabitants are determined to win the minimal human rights due to them as workers and citizens. Spanish dialog, no subtitles. Video/C 1369
- Cabeza de Vaca (Mexico / Spain / USA / UK, 1993)
- Directed by Nicolás Echevarria. Based on the true account of a Spanish explorer's capture, escape, and journey from Texas to Mexico City between 1527 and 1537. Includes tales of El Dorado. 110 min. Video 999:946
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Canoa(1976)
- Directed by Felipe Cazals. Cast: Enrique Lucero, Salvador Sanchez, Ernesto Gomez Cruz. Based on actual events that occurred on Sept. 14, 1968 in the mountainous town of San Miguel de Canoa, Mexico. A group of employees from the Puebla University who set out on a hiking excursion, were mistaken for radical communist agitators by a domineering local priest. A mob of townspeople are incited to riot, resulting in the brutal murders of several of the young men. 115 min. DVD 8856
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- El Castillo de la Pureza (Mexico)
- Directed by Arturo Ripstein. Portrays the austere and regimented life led by a family imprisoned by an authoritarian father for 18 years. Accidentally, the police go to his house, thus discovering the prison where he has "sheltered" his family from the outside world. Spanish dialog, no subtitles. Video 999:1733
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Chac: The Rain God (Chac: Dios de la lluvia) (Mexico / Panama, 1974)
- Directed by Rolando Klein. Based on ritual and legends from the Popul Vuh and Mayan stories, the film focuses on a small Tzeltal village during a terrible drought. Desperate for relief, thirteen men set out on a quest to save their people by seeking a solitary diviner who lives in the mountains and knows the ways of the ancients. Hoping that he can summon Chac, the Rain God the men follow the diviner who takes them on a strange journey that challenges their beliefs and even their sanity. 95 min. Video 999:2957
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- El Compadre Mendoza(1934)
- Directed by Juan Bustillo Oro and Fernando de Fuentes.
Cast: Alfredo del Diestro, Carmen Guerrero, Antonio R. Frausto, Luis G. Barreiro, Emma Roldan.
In this classic tale of betrayal and treason Mendoza, a Mexican landowner, tries to maintain friendships with both the leader of the government forces and the general of the Zapatista rebels during the Mexican Revolution. Based on an original story by Mauricio Madaleno and Juan Bustillo Oro. 82 min. DVD 6558
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Far Apart (aka Far Way With You) (Contigo en la distencia)(TV, 1992)
- Directed by Tomas Gutierrez Alea. Written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Eliseo Alberto. Cast: Blanca Sanchez, Bruno Rey, Roberto Cobo, Margarita Isabel, Brigida Alexander, Ada Carrasco, Justo Martinez, Oscar Aguirre, Heron Pazzi, Jose C. Moreno.
On April 11, 1956, destiny (and a trivial mistake) sabotaged a plan by two young lovers to elope. But when a letter arrives 35 years after it was mailed, Ofelia Rosales de Mendoza, once known as Ofelita "My Eyes," begins making inquiries into the whereabouts of her lost paramour, Jose Luna. The conflicting stories she hears from the people who knew them as teenagers only increase her confusion--until up walks the man himself, at the cafe where they were to rendezvous so many years ago. 28 min. DVD 8188; vhs Video 7549
- The Crime of Padre Amaro (El crimen del Padre Amaro) (Mexico / Spain / Argentina / France, 2002)
- Directed by Carlos Carrera. Cast: Gael Garcia Bernal, Ana Claudia Talancon, Sancho Gracia, Angelica Aragon, Luisa Huertas, Pedro Armendariz, Ernesto Gomez Cruz, Gaston Melo, Damian Alcazar. A recently ordained priest is sent to a small parish church in rural Mexico to help an aging priest. Upon arriving at his new post, he meets a beautiful young woman with a religious passion that borders on obsession. Quickly her passion for her faith becomes entangled in a growing attraction to the new priest. When the priest crosses the line that seperates temptation from sin, he finds himself torn between the devine and the carnal, the righteous and the unjust. 119 min. DVD 2297
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz (Ensayo de un Crimen; La vie criminelle d'Archibaldo de la Cruz)(1955)
- Directed by Luis Buñuel. Cast: Miroslava Stern, Ernesto Alonzo, Rita Macedo, Ariadna Welter. Archibaldo's criminal life began on the eve of the Mexican Revolution when he wished his nanny dead. A bullet blasted through the window and killed her. Thus begins his life of murder, alleged murder and insanity. DVD 9135 ; vhs 999:253
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Crónica de Familia. (Mexico, 1955)
- Directed by Diego López. Depicts the life of a fictional middle-class Mexican family, its faith in power and money as the basis of life, without considering how these values affect the lives and behavior of its children: their experimentation with drugs, premarital sex, and crime, occasionally leading to serious consequences and even death. 205 min. Video 999:1734
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Danzón. (Mexico/Spain, 1991)
- Directed by Maria Novaro. Julia, a Mexico City telephone operator whose life is enlivened only by the ballroom dancing she enjoys each week, stuns her friends by impulsively following the trail of her missing dance partner to Veracruz. 103 min. Video 999:1375
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
Movie Review Query Engine
-
- De noche vienes, Esmeralda (Esmeralda Comes By Night) (1997)
- Directed by Jaime Humberto Hermosillo. Cast: Maria Rojo, Claudio Obregon, Martha Navarro, Pedro Armendariz, Jr., Alberto Estrella, Ignacio Retes, Humberto Pineda. The story of Esmeralda, a nurse who is happily married to five husbands. As Esmeralda is about to marry husband number six, she is charged with bigamy. During her interrogation and detention, she reveals her spellbinding charm. 107 min. DVD 6110
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Deep Crimson (Profundo carmesí) (1996)
- Directed by Arturo Ripstein. The story of Nicolas and Coral, a couple who roam the back roads of Mexico looking for lonely women who Nicholas seduces and insane Coral then murders. 109 min. Video 999:3374
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Doña Bárbara. (Mexico, 1943)
- Directed by Fernando de Fuentes. Cast: Maria Felix, Julian Soler, Maria Elena Margues. A lawyer arrives in Caracas in the solitary lands dominated by the feared Dona Barbara, noted for her witchcraft. Dona Barbara disputes with him over a piece of land, yet both she and her daughter, Marisela , fall in love with the lawyer. Based on the novel by Romulo Gallegos. Video/C 999:1743
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Él (This Strange Passion). (Mexico,1951)
- Directed by Luis Buñuel. A psychological study of a man obsessed. Francisco's romantic love and marriage fades as a paranoid obsession with his wife's supposed infidelity causes him to display fits of jealousy and repentance for his unfounded suspicions. 87 min. DVD 9135; vhs Video/C 999:1079
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Entre Pancho Villa y una mujer desnuda (Between Pancho Villa and a naked woman) (Mexico, 1995)
- Directed by Sabina Berman and
Isabelle Tardin. In this comedy Gina looks for a commitment from her longtime boyfriend Adrian. Angered by his refusal to marry and fed up with his sexist attitudes, she takes a younger man as her lover. Adrian, however, will not surrender his woman or his antiquated ways of thinking. Channeling the spirit of Pancho Villa himself, he tries to fully embrace his machismo and win back the passion of Gina. 100 min. Video 999:3375
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Eréndira (France / Mexico / West Germany, 1983)
- Directed by Ruy Guerra. Cast: Irene Papas, Claudia Ohana, Michael Lonsdale, Oliver Wehje, Rufus. A black comedy about a wicked grandmother and her exploitation of her beautiful teenage granddaughter, Erendira. An erotic, black comedy, laden with surreal prankishness and political allegory. 103 min. Video 999:234
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
-
- La Faraona(Mexico / Spain, 1956)
- Director, René Cardona. Cast: Lola Flores, Augustin Lara, Joaquin Cordero, Julio Villareal, Florencio Castello, Carmen Flores.
A millionaire wants to leave his money to his granddaughter, a singer who desires to expand her career and become famous. But there are others who want to steal his inheritance and they set a trap for him. In Spanish without English subtitles. 84 min. DVD 8629
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Fever Mounts in El Paso (La Fièvre monte à El Pao) (Los Ambiciosos) (1959) (Mexico,1959)
- Directed by Luis Buñuel. The secretary to the assassinated governor of an impoverished island dependency of a large and powerful Latin American nation successfully stops a prisoners' revolt which threatens to take over the island's capital, and so becomes the dead governor's successor. Dubbed into English. Video 999:241
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Frida: Naturaleza Viva(1984)
- Directed by Paul Leduc. Cast: Ofelia Medina, Juan Jose Gurrola, Salvador Sanchez, Max Kerlow, Claudio Brook. On her deathbed, the artist Frida Kahlo recalls her life as a painter and reflects on the effects of her illnesses and injuries and on her relationships with Leon Trotsky, husband Diego Rivera, and others. Video/C 2944
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- El Gallo de Oro (The Golden Cockerel) (1964)
- Directed by Roberto Gavaldón. Cast: Ignacio Lopez Tarso, Lucha Villa, Narciso Busquets. A poor man, after nursing a near-dead fighting rooster back to life, forgets his roots in the fame, wealth and romance of the cock-fighting arena. The beginner gamesman is tempted into a partnership with a rich gambler and his free-wheeling songstress. Eventually when his luck runs out he is returned to his origins. 105 min. DVD 1870
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- The Garden of Aunt Isabel (El Jardin de Tia Isabel) (Mexico, 1986?)
- Directed by Felipe Cazals. Based on a story by Jaime Casillas, depicts a trip from Spain to the Caribbean island of Hispaniola in the first half of the 16th century. Shipwrecked on an island, seven survivors begin to perish one by one, thus ending their hope of finding a place where justice, freedom, and the rule of law reign. 112 min. Video/C-1390
- The Great Madcap (El Gran Calavera) (Mexico, 1949)
- Directed by Luis Buñuel. "Bu?uel's first "comeback" film since "L'Age d'Or" in 1930 (he made only a few musicals in the interim), "El Gran Calavera" concerns a family's attempts to change the patriarch's somewhat indulgent and hedonistic ways by fooling him into thinking his large fortune is gone. They assume a life of poverty in Mexico in an attempt to teach him a lesson. However, he discovers it's a ruse, but continues to perpetuate the facade of ignorance while sneaking off during the day to conduct his thriving business. Why? To teach his family a lesson - they are all lazy, worthless leeches!" [Internet Movie Database] 90 min. Video 999:1063
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- The Holy Mountain (Mexico, 1973)
- Directed by Alexandro Jodorowsky. Cast: Alexandro Jodorowsky, Horacio Salinas, Ramona Saunders, Juan Ferrara, Adriana Page, Burt Kleiner, Valerie Jodorowsky. A Christ-like vagrant and thief wanders through a perverse and unfriendly land until he encounters an enlightened one, who gathers the thief and six of the world's most powerful individuals for a spiritual pilgrimage. Non-US format DVD. 114 min. DVD 2955
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Illusion Travels by Streetcar (La Ilusión viaja en Tranvía).(Mexico, 1953)
- Directed by Luis Buñuel. A motley crew of passengers on a rundown streetcar go on a series of picaresque adventures, with elements of political, social and religious satire expressed in the form of a fairy tale. 90 min. Video/C 999:1068
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Innocent Voices (Voces inocentes).(Mexico / USA / Puerto Rico, 2004)
- Directed by Luis Mandoki. Cast: Carlos Padilla, Leonor Varela, Gustavo Muñoz, Jose Maria Yazpik, Ofelia Medina.
Set in El Salvador in the 1980s, the story of an eleven-year-old boy and the pressures on his life from the civil war. Based on the true story of screenwriter Oscar Torres's embattled childhood.
118 min. DVD (PAL, region 2) DVD 7340
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Landron de Sabado (Saturday's thief) (TV, 1992)
- Director, Jose Luis Garcia Agraz. Cast: Blanca Guerra, Damian Alcazar, Giovana de Portillo, Jackelin Walters. Written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Consuelo Garrido
When a burglar named Hugo comes to rob the house of a woman whose husband is conveniently away on business, is it any surprise that he makes himself at home for the weekend? Linked by a passion for music and dance and a romantic notion of love, Hugo and Ana Luisa Guzman--host of his favorite radio show--find in each other what has been missing in their otherwise sterile lives. 29 min. DVD 8188; vhs Video 7548
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- La Ley de Herodes (Herod's Law) (1999)
- Director, Luis Estrada. Cast: Damian Alcazar, Pedro Armendariz, Alex Cox, Guillermo Gil, Ernesto Gomez Cruz, Leticia Huijara, Eduardo Lopez Rojas, Manuel Ojeda, Salvador Sanchez, Isela Vega. When the mayor of San Pedro de los Saguaros is lynched by a group of indigenous people, the old junkyard operator Juan Vargas is named the Temporary Municipal President. This makes him believe that his dream of power is going to come true; but when confronted with the problems of the place, he decides to resign. However, his boss obliges him to stay by telling him that he's been touched by Herodes Law and gives to him the constitution as an aid and a gun. He soon discovers the delights of power applying the law along the way and provoking reactions that get out of control. 122 min. DVD 2280
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Like Water for Chocolate (Como Agua Para Chocolate)(1992)
- Directed by Alfonso Arau. Cast: Marco Leonardi, Lumi Cavazos, Regina Torne. Based on the novel by Laura Esquivel. Romantic fantasy set in the early 20th century about a young couple blocked from marrying by the demands of her cold and selfish mother. To be near his love the young man marries her sister, and she expresses her passion for him through her cooking. 105 min. DVD 194; Video 999:1188
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
-
Movie Review Query Engine
- Lola Torbellino (Mexico / Spain, 1952)
- Directed by René Cardona. Cast: Lola Flores, Agustin Lara, Ricardo Adalid, Luis Aguilar, Abel Salazar.
The singer dancer Lola meets the great Mexican composer Agustin Lara and offers to travel to Mexico where she has promised to do several performances for him. Lola stays in his house as a guest and Agustin falls in love with her, but complications ensue when another falls for her too. In Spanish without English subtitles. 79 min. DVD 8628
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- El Lugar sin Límites (Place Without Limits) (1977)
- Director, Arturo Ripstein. La Manuela, a transvestite, lives in a brothel run by his daughter. When his daughter is threatened, La Manuela steps in to protect her with tragic consequences. 110 min. DVD 1235
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- María Candelaria. (1943)
- Directed by Emilio Fernandez. Cast: Dolores del Rio, Pedro Armendariz, Alberto Galan. Maria is an outcast in her small Mexican village because of her late mother's immoral behavior. Shunned and outcast, forbidden to earn a living, she lives a solitary life. Her only friends are the town priest and a peasant whom she loves and wants to marry. Their poverty and misery are exploited by the local farm lord and a well-to-do city artist who sees in her face the perfect woman whom he wishes to paint which ultimately leads everyone into tragedy. Based on an original story by Emilio Fernandez. 101 min. Video 999:1381
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Mecánica Nacional (1972)
- Directed by Luis Alcoriza. Depiction of the preparation, events, and conflicts leading to a car race in a fictional Mexican barrio. Spanish dialog, no subtitles. 105 min Video 999:1736
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Men with Guns (USA, 1997)
- Directed by John Sayles. Cast: Federico Luppi, Damian Alcazar, Tania Cruz, Damian Delgado, Dan Rivera Gonzalez, Mandy Patinkin, Kathryn Grody. Dr. Fuentes is a man in search of his legacy, seven medical students he trained to work in impoverished native villages in Mexico. But early in his odyssey he begins to suspect that men with guns got there first, and with every step he is confronted by bloody realities he had long ignored. Now, his is an almost desperate quest for a mythical village deep in the rainforest, one last refuge of hope called Cerca del Cielo. 128 min. Video 999:3248
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Mexican Bus Ride (Subida al Cielo) .(Mexico,1947)
- Directed by Luis Buñuel. A young peasant is forced to leave his bride on their wedding night to travel to the city to finalize his dying mother's will. On his journey by bus, he encounters a diverse group of passengers in a picaresque adventure. 80 min. Video 999:1394
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Luis Buñuel bibliography
- Midaq Alley (El Callejón de los milagros) (Mexico, 1994)
- Directed by Jorge Fons. Stories of three neighbors whose lives are intertwined in the old downtown section of Mexico City: Rulio, the family man who experiences homosexual feelings that shatter his domestic life; Susanita, the spinster who dreams of getting married and falls prey to a thief; and Alma, the virgin who becomes a cocaine snorting prostitute. 140 min. 999:2216
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- La Mujer del Puerto (The Woman of the Port) (1933)
- Directed by Arcady Botyler. Cast: Andrea Palma, Domingo Soler, Consuelo Segarra, Luisa Obregon, Joaquin Busquets, Arturo Manrique Panseco. Rosario becomes a prostitute after losing her father and discovering her boyfriend had a liaison with another woman. In Veracruz, Rosario lives above a sordid cabaret "selling her love to the men coming from the sea." One night, sailor Alberto rescues Rosario from the dirty hands of a drunken man. They get along and go to Rosario's room. After making love, they begin to talk and Rosario discovers they're siblings. Based on stories by Guy De Maupassant and Leo Tolstoy.
Special features: Scene selection; photo gallery; theatrical trailers of 1933 and 1949 versions. 76 min. DVD 6559
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Nazarín (1958)
- Directed by Luis Buñuel. A humble priest tries to live by Christian precepts and becomes an outcast and an outlaw. Using a variation of the Don Quixote theme applied to religion and hypocrisy, this candid comedy presents the impossibility of spiritual purity in a corrupt world. 92 min. Video/C 999:1370
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- La Negra Angustias (Mexico, 1949)
- Directed by Matilde S. Landeta. Based on the award-winning work by Francisco Rojas Gonzalez (Main Stack PQ7297.R74.N4 1948), depicts the racial problems encountered by a black woman who becomes a revolutionary leader of the Mexican campesinos struggling against rich landowners during the Mexican Revolution. Video/C 999:1863
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Nosotros los pobres (We the Poor)(Mexico, 1948)
- Directed by Ismael Ismael Rodríguez. Cast: Pedro Infante, Blanca Estela Pavon, Evita Munoz, Carmen Montejo, Katy Jurado, Miguel Inclan, Rafael Alcayde.
Pepe el Toro is a humble carpenter who lives peacefully with his paralized mother, his daughter, and his girlfriend. They all join together to fight injustice after Pepe is wrongfully accused of murder. The first in Infante's Pepe el Toro Trilogy. 115 min. DVD 9305
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Nuevo Mondo (New World)(Mexico, 1978)
- Directed by Gabriel Retes. Cast: Aaron Hernan, Juan A. Martinez, Ignacio Retes, Tito Junco, Elpidia Carrillo, Jorge H. Robles, Bruno Rey, Guillermo Gil, Maria Rojo.
A controversial story, banned by the Vatican for twenty years, Nuevo Mundo is set in the 16th century. A priest decides to plot with an artist to create an icon of the Virgin Mary closely resembling a native Aztec woman, in order to win the hearts and minds of the population of the new world and promote conversion to Christianity. 91 min. DVD 8128
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Los Olvidados (The Young and the Damned)(Mexico,1951)
- Directed by Luis Buñuel. The film focuses on Pedro, a young boy whose mother has no use for him, and who becomes involved with a malevolent gang of delinquents; and on Jaibo, an older, more hardened youth, who leads Pedro deeper into the world of crime. Despite Pedro's sincere attempts to reform, he moves inevitably toward tragedy. 79 min. DVD 9135; vhs 999:24
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- La Otra Conquista (The Other Conquest) (1999)
- Director, Salvador Carrasco. A historical drama telling the story of Mexico in the decade after the conquest by Spain in 1520. Topiltzin, an Aztec scribe whose half-sister Tecuichpo is the mistress of Cortes, tries to keep his way of life and beliefs in the face of attempts by a Spanish priest to convert him. 112 min. 999:3574
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Pena, penita, pena) (Mexico / Spain, 1953)
- Directed by Miguel Morayta. Cast: Lola Flores, Luis Aguilar, Antonio Badu, Manuel Luna.
Brothers Carlos and Luis Melgor find themselves with no money in a hotel in Madrid. Their rich father living in Mexico is behind on sending them money and they have to pawn their suits. They enter a nightclub and meet Carmen, a pretty gypsy and a lottery vendor, who desires to go to Mexico. She convinces them to buy lottery tickets and requires that they must share the money with her if they win. 90 min. DVD 8583
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Por mis pistolas (1968); El senor doctor (1965); El padrecito (1964)
- Directed by Miguel M. Delgado, featuring Mario Moreno (Cantinflas) Por mis pistolas: Isela Vega, Carlos Cardan, Manuel Lavarado ; El Senor doctor: Marta Romero, Wolf Rubinski ; El padrecito: Angel Garasa, Rogelio Guerra. Three films starring the Mexican comedian Cantinflas. Por mis pistolas: Cantinflas plays a gunfighter who couldn't hit an elephant with a guitar. El Senor doctor: As the crafty doctor, Cantinflas is at his finest in examining the physical aspects of medical comedy. El Padrecito: Cantinflas comes to a new town to replace a priest. At first he is not accepted until the townspeople begin to appreciate that he knows everything, including a mean game of poker. In Spanish. 118, 112, 124 min. 999:3460
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database (Por mis pistolas)
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database (El senor doctor)
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database (El padrecito)
- Las Poquianchis
- Director, Felipe Cazals. Las Poquianchis, so nicknamed by the local townspeople, would purchase young country girls for their infamous bordello. Once inside, they were exploited, tortured and even murdered. Spanish dialog, no subtitles. Video 999:1735
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Prisoner 13 (El Prisionero 13)(1933)
- Director, Fernando de Fuentes. Cast: Aldredo del Diestro, Adela Sequeyro, Luis G. Barriero, Arturo Campoamor. Two gripping stories are interwoven in 'Prisoner 13'; a son pays for his father's faults, and a desperate mother tries to save her son's life at any cost. Destiny and corruption play a trick on Carrasco when he is bribed to free a revolutionary and arrest someone in his place. Unbeknownst to him he ends up arresting his own son. 76 min. DVD 6530
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- ¡Que Viva Mexico!(1932)
- Director, Sergei Einstein; producer/editor, Grigori Aleksandrov. Que viva Mexico: A film document of the history of Mexico, presented in four novellas: Sandunga, an exposition of Tehuantepec jungles and the peaceful lifestyles of their inhabitants; Manguei, a love story about a poor peon and his bride; Fiesta, devoted to bullfighting and romantic love; and Soldadera, a portrayal of the 1910 revolution in Mexico as depicted in the frescoes of Siqueiros, Rivera, and Orosco. Previously issued in less complete version under title: Thunder over Mexico. Reconstructed by Grigori Aleksandrov in 1979 from materials directed by Sergei Einstein in 1931. 85 min. DVD 668
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Reed: Insurgent Mexico (Reed, México Insurgente)(1971)
- Directed by Paul Leduc. A dramatization of John Reed's accounts of the Mexican Revolution depicting the young journalist's adventures with Pancho Villa's army between 1913 and 1914. 104 min. Video/C 999:1195
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Robinson Crusoe (1952)
- Directed by Luis Buñuel. Cast: Dan O'Herlihy (Robinson Crusoe), Jamie Fernandez (Friday), Felipe de Alba, Chel Lopez, José Chavez, Emilio Caribay. The year is 1659. There is a shipwreck and sole survivor Robinson Crusoe is washed ashore on a deserted island. Suddenly faced with a hostile wilderness, he carves out a life for himself. This filmed presentation of Daniel Defoe's immortal classic is a story about the human spirit's ability to endure what seem insurmountable challenges. 90 min. DVD 3020
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Rosa Blanca (The White Rose) (Mexico, 1961)
- Directed by Roberto Gavaldón. The "Condor Oil Company" hits an immovable object in its quest for oil rights: Don Jacinto Yanez, owner of the hacienda "The White Rose." Yet the oil company will not take no for an answer. Plot based on the novel "La Rosa Blanca" de B. Traven. 100 min. Video 999:1737
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Salón México (1996)
- Directed by José Luis Garcia Agraz. The glamour and romance of a popular 1930's dance hall are replaced by violence and mystery when Maria and her lover Paco kill each other in a terrible fight. Inspector Castellon is called in to investigate the deaths, tracing the couple's stormy and passionate past as he interviews those who knew them. Based on a story by Rafael Ramirez Heredia and on "Salon Mexico", a 1948 film by Emilio Fernandez. 100 min. Video/C 999:3376
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Sexo, pudor y lágrimas (Sex, Shame & Tears)(Mexico,1999)
- Directed by Antonio Serrano. Cast: Demian Bichir, Susana Zabaleta, Victor Huggo Martin, Cecilia Suarez, Jorge Salinas, Monica Dionne. Tells the story of Ana and Carlos, a young couple who share an apartment in Mexico City. He is a writer who is financially supported by his mother. One day Tomas, an old friend of the couple, who was traveling around Europe returns and stays in their apartment. In the apartment building across the street live Andrea and Miguel. He is a publicist who does not care to support women morally and financially. She is an ex-model who although surrounded by luxury lacks an authentic amorous relationship. When Miguel invites his ex-girlfriend, Maria, to his apartment he unleashes a sexual and gender war between the characters. In Spanish without subtitles. 121 min. Video/C 999:3789
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Simon of the Desert (Simón del Desierto) (Mexico,1965)
- Directed by Luis Buñuel. Buñuel's bizarre, very off-beat film based loosely on the life of the 5th century saint, Simeon Stylites. Simon has stood on top of a pillar in the desert for six years, six weeks and six days. His saintliness and denial prompts the Devil to try and tempt him in a variety of guises (all of them female). A bizarre conclusion, with a hint of nuclear catastrophe waiting in the wings, rounds things off quite nicely in this off-beat film. 45 min. Video 999:165
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Sueños de oro (Mexico / Spain, 1958)
- Directed by Miguel Zacarías. Cast: Lola Flores, Julio Aldama, Felix Gonzalez, Carmen Flores.
In this musical comedy the beautiful gypsy Carmen flees to avoid being forced into an arranged marriage to a man she does not love. She runs into the director of a show and convinces him that she should join his troup to sing and dance in Mexico. In Spanish without English subtitles. 79 min. DVD 8582
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Susana. (Mexico,1951)
- Directed by Luis Buñuel. Cast: Fernando Soler, Rosita Quintana, Victor Manuel Mendoza, Maria Gentil Arcos, Luis Lopez Somoza, Matilde Palou. An incorrigibly delinquent girl escapes from prison and hides out on a plantation, where she becomes a steamy, scheming temptress, running wild with her sexual favors and turning its orderly domestic life into frenzied chaos. Based on the novel by Manuel Reachi. 87 min. DVD 8894; vhs Video/C 999:1064
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- The Summer of Miss Forbes (El Verano de la Señora Forbes) Gabriel Garcia Marquez Collection. (Cuba / Mexico / Spain, 1988)
- Directed Jaime Humberto Hermosillo. Miss Forbes is a governess hired to look after two boys whose parents have taken a six-week vacation. By day, she runs the household with oppressive discipline. By night, she gets drunk on tequila. The boys spy on her nighttime binges and fantasize about her brutal death. But their plans for her death are not as grim as her ultimate fate. 87 min. Video 999:487
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- This Strange Passion (Él). (Mexico,1951)
- Directed by Luis Buñuel. A psychological study of a man obsessed. Francisco's romantic love and marriage fades as a paranoid obsession with his wife's supposed infidelity causes him to display fits of jealousy and repentance for his unfounded suspicions. 87 min. Video/C 999:1079
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Tívoli(Mexico, 1974)
- Directed by Alberto Isaac; script by Alfonso Arau. The mayor of a city, wishing to show his moral leadership and authority, decides to close the Tivoli cabaret, known for its risque shows and performances. The employees of the Tivoli challenge the imminent closing and discover the mayor's greater involvement in corruption. Spanish dialog only; no subtitles. Video 999:1732
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- El Topo (Mexico, 1971)
- Directed by Alexandro Jodorowsky. Cast: Alexandro Jodorowsky, Brontis Jodorowsky, Mara Lorenzio, David Silva, Paula Romo, Jacqueline Luis, Robert John, Hector Martinez, Juan José Gurrola, Victor Fosado, Agustin Isunza. First part of the film follows El Topo, a gunfighter and his seven year old son on their journey across the desert as they come upon a massacre and hunt down the killers. The second part shows the death of El Topo, and the rise of his son to fill his place. Non-US format DVD. 119 min. DVD 2955
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Tristana. (Mexico, 1970)
- Directed by Luis Buñuel. Set in 1920's Spain, this film is a scathing examination of moral decay. Tristana, a victim of her own captivating beauty, is desired by two men. One is her lecherous guardian whose physical advances repulse her and cause her to have nightmares of his death, and the other is a young artist who wants to marry her, but lacks the courage. 98 min. Video/C 999:798
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- The Two Way Mirror (El espejo de dos luna)(TV, 1990)
- Directed by Carlos Garcia Agraz. Written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Susana Cato. Cast: Arcelia Ramirez, Daniel Giminez Cacho, Maria Rubio, Victor Hugo Martin del Campo, Antonieta Murillo Nieto, Ines Murillo Nieto, Garcia Vazquez Gil, Jose Antonio Marros.
Three weeks before her marriage in 1990, a young woman named Susana has a massive antique mirror hung on her bedroom wall. What is she to think when she discovers a soldier--circa 1863--living in the room's reflection? And what are her family and fiancee to think when, having fallen deeply in love with him, Susana steps through the glass to enter his bygone world? 30 min. DVD 8188; vhs Video 7547
- Ustedes los ricos (You, the Rich)(1948)
- Directed by Ismael Rodríguez. Pedro Infante, Blanca Estela Pavon, Evita Munoz, Miguel Manzano, Fredy Fernandez, Fernando Soto, Mimi Derba.
Pepe el Toro hits Manuel's car with his truck. Manuel, an affluent gentleman with secret and dark ties to Pepe's family, then decides to meddle in Pepe's life and threaten those he loves. The second in the Pepe el Toro Trilogy. 115 min. DVD 9311
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Viridiana (Mexico / Spain, 1961)
- Directed by Luis Buñuel. Cast: Silvia Pinal, Francisco Rabal, Fernando Rey. Viridiana, about to take religious vows, visits her uncle at his country estate. He drugs her and attempts rape, and hangs himself, leaving the estate to Viridiana and his illegitimate son Jorge. While Jorge pursues plans to modernize the estate, Viridiana attempts to convert it into a haven for derelicts. A powerful film widely considered to be one of Bunel's most important works. 90 min. DVD 6625; vhs 999:243
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- A Woman Without Love (Una Mujer Sin Amor). (Mexico, 1952)
- Directed by Luis Buñuel. Cast: Rosario Granados, Tito Junco, Julio Villareal, Joaquin Cordero. An unhappily married woman indulges in a brief, torrid affair with an engineer, but then refuses to leave her elderly husband. Twenty-five years later, the former lover leaves a fortune to her son causing an uproar. From the story Pierre et Jean by Guy de Maupassant. 91 min. DVD 8652; vhs Video 999:1066
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Wuthering Heights (Abismos de Pasión) (Mexico,1954)
- Directed by Luis Buñuel. In this adaptation of Bronte's novel, doomed Latin lovers mirror hopeless passion as Buñuel interweaves his own personal views on death and morality, Freudian analysis and romantic excess into the film. 90 min. Video/C 999:1368
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Y Tu Mamá También (2001)
- Director, Alfonso Cuarón. Cast: Maribel Verdu, Gael Garcia Bernal, Diego Luna. Two teens set off on a wild cross-country trip with seductive, 28-year-old Luisa. Lisa schools them in the finer points of passion, but will their mutual desire for her destroy their friendship forever? 105 min. DVD 1386
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Movie Review Query Engine
- Yanco (Mexico, 1964)
- Directed by Servando Gonzalez. A young Indian boy in a village near Mexico City learns to play a home-made violin, nicknamed "Yanco." When the old man who is his teacher dies the boy is kept from having the violin. However, each night he "borrows" it to play beautiful music, thus frightening the superstitious villagers. The film has only music, background dialogue and natural sounds, hence there are no subtitles. Spanish dialog, without subtitles. 90 min. Video 999:240
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- The Young and the Damned (Los Olvidados) (Mexico,1951)
- Directed by Luis Buñuel. The film focuses on Pedro, a young boy whose mother has no use for him, and who becomes involved with a malevolent gang of delinquents; and on Jaibo, an older, more hardened youth, who leads Pedro deeper into the world of crime. Despite Pedro's sincere attempts to reform, he moves inevitably toward tragedy. 79 min.) Video 999:24
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- The Young One (La Joven) (Mexico, 1960)
- Directed by Luis Buñuel. Set in the American South on a remote coastal island, a black man fleeing a lynch mob meets a racist sheriff and a recently orphaned 13 year old white girl. Upon release in 1960, this film shocked American audiences with its depiction of a strong, sarchastic black man, capable of holding his own against racism. 95 min. Video/C 999:1369
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- To the top
- Adorables Mentiras (Spain / Cuba, 1992)
- Director, Gerardo Chijona. Explores the encounter of a promising screenwriter and a woman who fantasizes about becoming the star of his next film. As the two pursue their affair, they enter into a fantasy film that in the end will never be made. In Spanish, no subtitles. 108 min. 999:3037
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- La Aventuras de Juan Quin Quin (1967)
- Director/screenplay, Julio Garcia Espinosa. A peasant farmer becomes a soldier in the Cuban revolution in this offbeat adventure comedy. His healthy cynicism towards the police, wealthy landlords, and the government serves him well after he joins up with a female guerilla. He rises to become a lieutenant as he waits for the signal for the rebellion to begin. In Spanish, no subtitles. 110 min. 999:3034
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Azúcar Amarga (Bitter Sugar) (Cuba / Dominican Republic, 1996)
- Directed by Leon Ichaso. Gustavo, an idealistic young Cuban Communist, sours on the political conditions in his country and is willing to let his girlfriend and family go in order to take action in this blazing tale of romantic and political passions amid the ruins of the Cuban Revolution. 102 min. DVD 641
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- via Movie Review Query Engine
- Cecilia (Cuba, 1982)
- Directed by Humberto Solás. This classic film, based on the novel by Cirilio Villaverde, is set in nineteenth-century Cuba. The story of Cecilia, a mulatta, and her relationship with a white man provides an intimate and stark portrayal of colonial Cuba. 147 min. 999:2155
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- De Cierta Manera (Cuba, 1977)
- Directed by Sara Gómez Yera. Set in a new housing project replacing a slum area just outside Havana, three young people try to readjust their lives to the new social order of Fidel Castro's Cuba in this fascinating cinematic mix of documentary and fiction. 79 min. DVD 6577 [preservation copy]; vhs 999:3384
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Death of a Bureaucrat (La Muerte de un Burócrata) (Cuba, 1966)
- Directed by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea. A hilarious social satire concerning the tyranny of red tape in Cuba. The comedy begins when a sculptor is buried with his union card and the widow needs his card to get her pension. A nephew who is sent to get permission to exhume the body becomes entangled in a bewildering world of red tape. 87 min. 999:1385
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Un Dia de Noviembre (In Spanish, 1972)
- Director, Humberto Solás. After the death of his girlfriend, a young man is forced to take a closer look at his life as a Cuban revolutionary and at his relationships with others as he questions the meaning of suffering in his own and other's lives. In Spanish. 94 min. Video 999:3261
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Die Riese des Lowen (Journey of the Lion) (Jamaica, 1992)
- Directed by Fritz Baumann. Brother Howie (Howard A. Trott) is a Jamaican Rastafari who dreams of the land of his ancestors: Africa. On a journey in search of his roots and his identity he travels through three continents and, with great humor and sensitivity, discovers the world and Africa. In Jamaican languages with English subtitles. 90 min. Video 999:1984
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Las Doce Sillas (1962)
- Director, Tomás Gutiérrez Alea. Before his death a rich person decides to hide the jewels of the family under the lining of a chair. An ex-proprietor and his ex-driver, discover this and undertake a desperate search for the treasure which gives rise to amusing situations and incredible adventures. In Spanish, no subtitles. 97 min. 999:3032
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- El Elefante y la Bicicleta (The Elephant and the Bicycle) (UK / Cuba, 1967)
- Direccion, Juan Carlos Tabío. Returning to his home in 1925 to an island off the Cuban coast, an ex-con brings a silent film projector and a print of Robin Hood with him. All the islanders flock to enjoy this new experience. But with revolution in the air, repeated viewings of the film give it a new meaning in the eyes of its audience: they see a drama in which they, as underdogs, rise up against the capitalists, represented by the island's unpopular landowners. In Spanish, no subtitles. 85 min. 999:3033
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- El Súper (USA, 1971)
- Directed by Leon Ichaso and Orlando Jiménez-Leal. A humorous and touching view of Cuban exiles living in a basement apartment during a snowy winter in New York. El Super is the story of Roberto, a superintendent, who dreams of his warm and friendly homeland, and stubbornly refuses to assimilate into the new culture. 80 min Video 999:1130
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Guaguasi (USA / Dominican Republic, 1983)
- Directed by Jorge Ulla. Cast: Orestes Matacena, Marilyn Puppo, Raymundo Hidalgo-Gato, Marco Santiago, Rolando Barral. Focuses on the disintegration of a young peasant's morality once he joins the revolutionary forces of Castro's Cuba. The naive peasant was expecting adventure but before his stint in the military has ended, whether he wants to be fully aware of it or not, he is a trained killer. When he falls in love with a chorus girl in Havana, Guaguasi turns to drugs and alcohol. His decline accelerates, putting both his lover and his friends at the mercy of his slipping hold on stability. 107 min. DVD 3586
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Guantanamera (Cuba / Spain / Germany, 1995)
- Directed by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea. In this romantic comedy, Yoyita, a world-famous diva, returns to her home town of Guantanamo for an elegant reception and a surprise reunion with her once beloved, Candido. Overjoyed with the rekindled memories of her first love, Yoyita's elated heart fizzles while in Candido's embrace. Joining Yoyita's procession back to Havana are her sexy niece Gina, a former professor blacklisted for political nonconformity, and her husband Adolfo, a tasteless government official. As the cortege wends westward across Cuba, its path keeps crossing that of Mariano, a gallant truck driver who once had a crush on Gina and whose recurring presence crystallizes her doubts about her marriage. 104 min. 999:2087
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
-
- Guardafronteras (1980)
- Director, Octavio Cortazar. In 1963 in Cuba, a platoon of border guards is sent to a small island where exiled Cubans have been landing to stage raids on the country. After successfully stopping an attempted raid by an offshore boat, the nervous soldiers accidentally attack one of their own boats, unrecognized at first because it had been repainted. In Spanish without titles. 129 min. Video 999:3263
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- The Harder They Come (Jamaica, 1973)
- Directed by Perry Henzell. Featuring Jimmy Cliff, Janet Bartley, Carl Bradshaw, Ras Daniel Hartman, Basil Keane, Robert Charlton, and Winston Stone. A rural Jamaican musician journeys to the city of Kingston in search of fame and fortune. Pushed to desperate circumstances by shady record producers and corrupt cops, he achieves notoriety as a murderous outlaw. A cult movie favorite featuring reggae music and reggae superstar Jimmy Cliff. 103 min. DVD 383; VHS 999:814
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Slater, Candace. "The Harder They Come and the Picaresque Hero." Review, 18 (Fall 1976), 88-91.
- I Am Cuba (Soy Cuba/Ja Cuba) (Soviet Union / Cuba, 1964)
- Directed by Mikheil Kalatozishvili. A Cuban propaganda film first exhibited outside of Cuba and the Soviet Union in 1992. The film, an anthology of pre-revolutionary folk tales, is divided into four parts, each presenting fictional events which led to the success of the revolution under Fidel Castro. In the first film a poor, Havana girl loses herself in the decadent night life of the city and becomes a prostitute serving American tourists; in the second, an old farmer who is about to be evicted from his land by the United Fruit Company sets fire to his house and cane fields and collapses in despair; in the third, university students demonstrate and plot against the government, and are martyred; and in the last an ignorant campesino, driven from his home by Batista's forces, sees the light and follows it to a rebel camp where Fidel's troops welcome him. In Spanish, dubbed in Russian, with English subtitles. 141 min. DVD 5782; vhs 999:1212
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- West, Dennis "I am Cuba."
Cineaste v 22 no2 1996. p. 52
- Krik? Krak!: Tales of a Nightmare. (Haiti, 1997)
- Directed by Jac Avila and Vanyoska Gee. This story of Haiti's misery under two generations ofDuvaliers is told impressionistically, mingling absolutely extraordinary documents of daily life (including an interview with Papa Doc himself) with scenes from fiction films to convey what a straightforward documentary cannot: the continual shifts between levels of reality in Haitian life, some of which are inaccessbile to the camera, in particular, the omnipresence of the Voodoo religion. 78 min. 999:2106
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- The Last Supper (La Última Cena) (Cuba, 1976)
- Directed by Tomás Guitiérrez Alea. A motley crew of passengers on a rundown streetcar go on a series of picaresque adventures, with elements of political, social and religious satire expressed in the form of a fairy tale. 110 min. Video/C 999:616
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Lejanía (Cuba, 1985)
- Directed by Jesús Díaz. A woman's relationship with her husband is jeopardized when his mother who lives in the United States, returns to Cuba to visit after abandoning him at the age of 16. 85 min. Video 999:1350
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Letters from the Park (Cartas del Parque) Gabriel García Márquez Collection. (Cuba / Spain, 1988)
- Directed by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea. Two shy young lovers enlist the help of the local poet to write passionate letters to each other, but soon the woman becomes the object of the poet's affection, and all are faced with a perplexing dilemma. 85 min. 999:490
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Libertad: The Dark Untold Story of Castro's Cuba
- A dramatization "based on true stories and interviews with Cuban political refugees and rafters." After a failed attempt to flee Cuba, an artist is captured, tortured and imprisoned for years. When he is mysteriously released he makes a second attempt to flee with friends in a homemade raft but the group finds terror at sea and their search for freedom becomes a journey for survival. 2001. 110 min. Video/C 999:2955
- Lucía. (Cuba, 1969)
- Directed by Humberto Solás. Deals with the theme of women and revolution by following the lives of three different women named Lucia during three different revolutionary periods of Cuba's history; the Cuban War of Independence in 1895, the Machado era in the 1930's, and post-revolutionary Cuba of the 1960's. 160 min. Video 999:1348
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Madagascar (1994)
- Producer and director, Fernando Pérez. (50 min., col., 1994): Set in contemporary Cuba, a bored physics professor is confronted with her lost idealism as her adolescent daughter's search for identity moves from typical teenage interests to an obsession with religion and good works. In Spanish (with Quiereme y Veras). 50 min. Video/C 999:3039
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Manuela (1966)
- Directed by Humberto Solás. A young girl travels to Sierra Maestra to join the rebels during the early years of the Cuban revolution. In Spanish without subtitles. 39 min. Video 999:3259
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Memories of Underdevelopment (Memorias del Subdesarrollo). (Cuba, 1968)
- Directed by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea. A study of Cuban society before and after the revolution as seen through the eyes of a man who is a landlord and self-styled writer. 97 min. Video 999:507
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Una Mujer, un Hombre, una Ciudad ... (1978)
- Directed by Manuel Octavio Gómez. Cast: Idalia Anreus, Mario Balmaseda, Raul Pomares, Omar Valdes, Alden Knight, Raquel Gonzalez, Ramon Veloz. Set in Cuba this is the story of Marisa and Miguel and the town they live in, Nuevitas. Marisa is an accomplished woman but with family problems. Miguel, who has achieved personal stability, has to rebuild his life when he has to return to his hometown of Nuevitas. In Spanish without titles. 96 min. Video 999:3258
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Una Novia para David (1985)
- Director, Orlando Rojas. A young man comes of age in post-revolution Cuba and begins an amorous pursuit of his high school's beauty but finds himself falling for the honesty and charm of a less attractive girl. In Spanish. 106 min. Video/C 999:3031
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Nueba Yol (Domincian Republic, 1995)
- Directed by Angel Muniz. Relates the story of Balbuena, a Dominican immigrant to New York, and his daily struggles in a strange land, devoid of the comforts of his native customs, language and culture. 102 min. 999:1753
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- One Way or Another: Sort of About Real People and Fictitious Ones (De cierta manera: pelicula de largometraje sobre algunos personajes reales y otros de ficcion) (Cuba, 1984)
- Directed by Sara Gómez Yera, Julio Garcia Espinosa, Thomas González
Pérez, Tomás Gutiérrez Alea. Set in a new housing project replacing a slum area just outside of Havana, three young peole try to readjust their lives to the new social order of Fidel Castro's Cuba. 79 min. 999:1349
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Papeles Secundarios (1988)
- Director, Orlando Rojas. Follows the loves and frustrations onstage and off of a group of professional stage actors in Havana as they rehearse for a play. In Spanish without subtitles. 113 min. Video/C 999:3035
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Playing Away (UK/USA, 1986)
- Directed by Horace Ove. To mark the conclusion of their "Third World Week" celebration, a stiff and snooty cricket team in a small English village invites a West Indian cricket team from South London to a charity game with comic results. 102 min. Video 999:1992
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Portrait of Teresa (Retrato de Teresa) (Cuba, 1979)
- Directed by Pastor Vega. Teresa is a Cuban housewife, mother, and employee in a textile factory whose involvement in political and cultural groups incurs the displeasure of her husband. 115 min. Video 999:1341
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Burton-Carvajal, Julianne. "Portrait(s) of Teresa: Gender Politics and the Reluctant Revival of Melodrama in Cuban Film." In: Multiple Voices in Feminist Film Criticism. Diane Carson, Linda Dittmar, and Janice R. Welsch, editors. pp: 305-17. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, c1994. (Main Stack PN1995.9.W6.M82 1994; Moffitt PN1995.9.W6.M82 1994)
- Se Permuta (1984)
- Director/writer, Juan Carlos Tabío. Gloria, Yolanda's mother, exchanges their old house in Guanabacoa for a modern apartment in Vedado to keep Yolanda away from her boyfriend, but her plans soon backfire. In Spanish. 93 min. Video/C 999:3036
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Quiéreme y Verás (1994)
- Director, Daniel Diaz Torres. An old thief is obsessed with the idea of discovering the identity of a woman whose unexpected apparition thirtyfive years before, had foiled his attempted holdup of a bank. In Spanish (with Madagascar). 47 min. Video/C 999:3039
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Los Sobrevivientes (1979)
- Director, Tomás Gutiérrez Alea. A bourgeois Cuban family, of aristocratic origin, locks itself into its mansion when the Cuban Revolution comes to power to sit out the bad times and preserve its class values. As time passes, the family and its servants regress through the different social systems of humanity, ending in their total destruction. In Spanish without subtitles. 130 min. Video 999:3260
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Strawberry and Chocolate (Fresa y Chocolate), (Cuba,1994)
- Directed by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea. A naive college kid, on his own for the first time, meets a writer and a passionate woman who teach him everything there is to know about the things that aren't taught in school. 104 min. DVD 7424; Video/C 999:1337
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
-
- Links to full-text reviews via Movie Review Query Engine
- Up to a Certain Point (Hasta Cierto Punto). (Cuba, 1961)
- Directed by Tomas G. Aléa. This clever self-reflexive satire about the battle of the sexes in contemporary Cuba tells the story of an educated, liberal filmmaker who, in doing research for a film about the social problem of machismo in Cuban society, finds himself falling in love with the sexy, liberated Lina, a pioneering female dockworker. 70 min. Video/C 999:1336
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Crowdus, Gary. "Up to a Point: An Interview with Tomás Gutiérrez Alea and Mirta Ibarra." Cineaste, vol. 14 no. 2. 1985. pp: 26-29.
- Macbean, James Roy. "A Dialogue with Tomás Gutiérrez Alea: On the Dialectics of the Spectator in Hasta Cierto Punto. Film Quarterly, v. 38 (Spring '85) p. 22-9
- Ustedes Tienen la Palabra (1973)
- Director, Manuel Octavio Gómez. Depicts the trial of four men who are being prosecuted for burning their town's warehouse and killing eight people. As several witnesses testify, their accounts evolve into different sub-plots which portray the obstacles preventing the establishment of an egalitarian society in Cuba. In Spanish without subtitles. 120 min. Video 999:3262
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- La Vida Es Silbar (1998)
- Director, Fernando Pérez. The story of a group of Havana bohemians looking for love: Bebe, an 18-year-old Cuban who was raised in an orphanage and her two best friends, petty thief Elpidio and aspiring dancer Mariana. In Spanish. 110 min. Video/C 999:3038
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- To the top
Other
- After the Earthquake (Despur'es del Terremoto)
- Directed by Lourdes Portillo (1979). Video/C 3355
- Death and the Maiden. (UK, USA, France, 1994)
- Directed by Roman Polanski. Featuring Sigourney Weaver, Ben Kingsley, Stuart Wilson. Fifteen years ago, Paulina Escobar had her life shattered when she was taken prisoner and tortured by a sadistic doctor. Now, through a chance encounter, she may have found the man responsible for her nightmares and tonight he's going to pay. But how far will she go to get even? And how can she be sure, after so many years, that she has found the right man? 103 min. 999:2060
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- El Norte (USA, 1983)
- Directed by Gregory Nava. Beginning in the remote mountain jungles of Guatemala, awash with the lushness of nature and the rainbow colors of the Mayans, this highly-acclaimed drama about a brother and sister seeking a better life centers on two young Indians. When their father is killed by government soldiers and their mother taken away, they set out for the "promised land" to the north--El Norte. When they finally reach Los Angeles, however, their trials are not over for they are "illegals" submerged in an alien culture. 141 min. Video 999:268
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Luis Buñuel.
- Biographical account of Spanish born film director, Luis Buñuel, and a critique of his work through interviews with family, friends and collaborators. Clips of Buñuel at work and from some of his movies provide an additional dimension to the commentary. In Spanish. 75 min. Video/C 4219
- El Mariachi (USA, 1992)
- Directed by Robert Rodriguez. Cast: Carlos Gallardo, Consuelo Gómez, Reinol Martinez, Peter Marquardt. All he wants is to be a mariachi, like his father, his grandfather and his great grandfather before him. But the town he thinks will bring him luck brings only a curse--of deadly mistaken identity. Forced to trade his guitar for a gun, the mariachi is playing for his life. Independent filmmaker, R. Rodriguez financed this film with earnings from a stay in a research hospital using borrowed equipment with no second takes and a talented cast of unknowns. 81 min. DVD 3936; vhs 999:1071
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Sugar Cane Alley (Rue Cases-Negres) (France / Martinique, 1995)
- Directed by Euzhan Palcy. Cast: Darling Legitimus, Garry Cadenat, Douta Seck, Joby Bernabe. The teenage life and adventures of young José, who lives in a shanty-town on Martinique in the mid-1930s, comprises the body of this film. José lives with his grandmother and is well aware of the French colonial presence. He gets into mischief, learns valuable lessons on living from an old former slave, drinks too much one time, and even sets fire to one of the run-down shanties. Regardless of his pranks, José never neglects his education. 107 min. DVD 3041; vhs 999:254
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Ebrahim, Haseenah: "Sugar Cane Alley: Re-reading race, class and identity in Zobel's La rue cases negres" Literature/Film Quarterly (30:2) 2002:2 , 146-155 . (2002)
- To the top
Latin America
Argentina
- Alla Lejos y Hace Tiempo (Far Away and Long Ago) (Argentina, 1974)
- Directed by Manuel Antin. A film based on the autobiography of Guillermo Enrique Hudson who was a dedicated Argentine naturalist. This is the moving story of growing up in the pampas. Through his deep friendship with an old gaucho, a boy on the threshold of life becomes fascinated with nature and the mysteries of the human soul. 999:1414
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Ana y los otros (Ana and the Others) (Argentina, 2003)
- Directed by Celina Murga. Cast: Camila Toker, Ignacio Uslenghi, Natacha Massera, Juan Cruz Diaz la Barba.
Ana is a young woman who lives in Buenos Aires and returns to her native city, Parana, where she meets old friends, makes new ones, revisits her past and begins to rethink her life. 80 min. DVD 6897
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Un Año sin amor (A Year Without Love) (Argentina, 2005)
- Directed by Anahi Berneri. Cast: Juan Minujin, Mimi Ardu, Carlos Echevarria, Osmar Nuñez, Javier Van De Couter, Ricardo Merkin, Barbara Lombardo.
Pablo, a young writer dying of AIDS searches for a cure and human interaction in the hospitals and sex clubs of Buenos Aires. 95 min. Video DVD 6884
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- El aura (The Aura)(Argentina / France / Spain, 2005)
- Directed by Fabián Bielinsky. Cast: Ricardo Darin, Dolores Fonzi, Alejandro Awada, Pablo Cedron, Jorge D'Elia, Manuel Rodal, Rafael Castejon, Walter Reyno, Nahuel Perez Biscayart.
A quiet, cynic taxidermist, who suffers from epilepsy attacks, is obsessed with committing the perfect crime. He claims that the police are too stupid to find out about it when it's well executed, and that the robbers are too stupid to execute it the right way. He feels that he could do it himself by relying on his photographic memory and his strategic planning skills. He is invited on a hunting trip away from his home. Once there, an accident gives him the chance of a lifetime: the possibility to commit the perfect crime. 138 min. DVD 9050
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Bolivia. (Argentina, 2001)
- Directed by Israel Adrian Caetano. Cast: Freddy Waldo Flores, Rosa Sanchez, Oscar "Oso" Bertea, Marcelo Videla, Hector Anglada, Alberto Mercado. A man must work as an illegal alien in Argentina in order to support his family in Bolivia. The film paints a portrait of struggle in the modern economy of Argentina and the mistreatment of illegal workers. 71 min. DVD 6814
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- El bonaerense (Argentina, 2002)
- Directed by Pablo Trapero. Cast: Jorge Roman, Dario Levy, Mimi Ardu, Hugo Aganuzzi, Victor Hugo Carrizo, Graciana Chironi.
Zapa is a 32-year-old locksmith in a small village who's sent by his boss to assist in a robbery by cracking a safe. The next day the boss has left town, leaving Zapa to take the blame. He gets arrested, but an uncle who used to be the police chief gets him out of jail and arranges for him to move to Buenos Aires and join the city's police force, the notorious Bonaerense. In his new life as a cop, he finds himself drawn into a world of corruption and brutality. 99 min. DVD 6898
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Boquitas pintadas (Painted Lips) (Argentina, 1974)
- Directed by Leopoldo Torre Nilsson. Lies, double personalities, and the evil pettiness of life in a small town are revealed in this adaptation of the novel by Manuel Puig. Nene, a married woman with two children, receives news that her childhood sweetheart, Juan Carlos, has died. Gradually she pieces together a complex mosaic of his life revealing the portrait of a man driven by fear into a life of self-deception. Adapted from a novel by Manuel Puig. 120 min. 999:3374
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Buenos Aires 100 Kil?metros (Argentina, 2004)
- Directed by Pablo Jos? Meza. Cast: Ignacio Pérez Roca, Emiliano Fernandez, Alan Ardel, Hernan Wainstein, Juan Pablo Bazzini.
In a town 100 kilometers from Buenos Aires, five friends approaching thirteen years begin to understand that life is not simply about riding bikes, winning football matchs, or enjoying the summer as is their custom. The boys all yearn to grow older faster, dreaming about better places. However realising that this may be their last summer together, the consequences of adolescence and growing older come flooding in. 95 min. DVD 6892
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Buenos Aires viceversa (Argentina / Netherlands, 1996)
- Directed by Alejandro Agresti. Cast: Mario Paolucci, Raul Cardenas, Axel Pauls.
In Argentina, an entire generation has been ripped out of history, orphaned by the systemic destruction and "disappearance" of their families and friends during the military dictatorship. Allejandro Agresti dramatizes how disconnected and disoriented they have become in this film of more than 20 characters. He follows several through small adventures that connect them in the larger story of social disintegration of an entire system. 95 min. DVD 6900
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Caballos salvajes (Wild horses) (Argentina, 1995)
- Directed by Marcelo Piñeyro. Cast: Hector Alterio, Leonardo Sbaraglia, Cecilia Dopazo.
When an elderly pensioner named Jose resorts to bank robbery to recover his $15,000 nest egg, a young employee named Pedro gives him $500,000 and volunteers to be his hostage. The unlikely duo escape and hit the road to Patagonia. During their flight from justice, Jose and Pedro send videotaped messages to the press detailing the money's illegal origins and their own good intentions. Ordinary citizens soon come to their aid, driving Jose and Pedro further into the limelight. 122 min. Video/C 999:2009
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Cama Adentro (Live-In Maid) (Argentina, 2004)
- Directed by Jorge Gaggero. Cast: Norma Aleandro, Norma Argentina, Susana Lanteri, Claudia Lapaco, Marcos Mundstock.
A wealthy woman and her live-in housekeeper must adjust their entrenched routines and relationship when Buenos Aires is plunged into an economic crisis. 83 min. DVD 6877
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Camila. (Argentina, 1984)
- Directed by Maria-Luisa Bemberg. Recounts the true story of a young Catholic socialite from Buenos Aires, Camila O'Gorman, who falls in love and runs away with a young Jesuit priest, Ladislao Gutierrez, in 1847. Eventually they are found and executed by the repressive government. 105 min. DVD 1552; vhs 999:244
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Crowdus, Gary. "Camila: An Interview with Susu Pecoraro." Cineaste, vol. 14 no. 3, 1986, pp: 25
- La Cienaga (2001)
- Directed by Lucrecia Martel. Mecha, her husband Gregorio and their friends are spending another stifling day drinking and loungingaround the filthy swimming pool of their crumbling summer estate when Mecha stumbles and is badly cut on her broken wine glass. On hearing the news, her less affluent cousin Tali marshals her own large family for a visit. The long, hot summer and crowded situation strain everyone's nerves and repressed family conflicts surface. An atmosphere of oppressive humidity and constant foreboding fill this commentary on the decadence, malaise and racism of Argentina's decaying elite. In Spanish with optional French subtitles. 102 min. DVD 2135
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Crónica de un Niño Solo (Chronicle of a Lone Boy)(Argentina, 1965)
- Directed by Leonardo Favio. Cast: Leonardo Favio, Tino Pascali, Beto Gianola, Diego Puente, Oscar Espindola. Banned by the Argentinian government for nearly thirty years, this film is a searing indictment of a fascist regime running roughshod over its most vulnerable citizens--its children. Focusing on the bleak life of Polin, a boy abandoned by his family and sent to live in a state run orphanage, it is also a moving portrait of the human spirit imprisoned by the chains of well intentioned fools. 86 min. DVD 6876; vhs 999:1656
-
- Farina, Alberto. Leonardo Favio Buenos Aires: Centro Editor de America Latina, 1993. Directores del cine argentino; 5. (Main Stack PN1993.A7.F37 1993)
- Oubina, David. De como el cine de Leonardo Favio conto el dolor y el amor de su gente, emociono al carinoso publico, trazo nuevos rumbos para entender la imagen y otras reflexiones Buenos Aires : Nuevo Extremo, c1993. (Main Stack PN1998.3.F38 O93 1993)
- Oubina, David. "Pop rebel: Argentina's flamboyant movie maverick finds the poetic within the populist."
Film Comment Sept-Oct 2001 v37 i5 p38(3)
- La Cruz Invertida (The Shattered Cross). (Argentina, 1985)
- Directed by Mario David. Three young people in Latin America strive to better their lives and the lives of others. One man brings them together in their battle against injustice and despair: Carlos Samuel Torres, a young priest, who is determined to face Army and Church to defend his ideals. Based on: La Cruz Invertida / Marcos Aguinis ( PQ7798.1.G814 C71 1970 UCB Main Stack). 999:1413
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Cuarteles de Invierno (Winter Retreat) (Argentina, 1982)
- Directed by Lautara Murua. A tango singer who has come to an Argentine village for a temporary engagement refuses to take a position against the military repression he finds there, but suffers the consequences of the repression nonetheless. Based on: Cuarteles de Invierno / Osvaldo Soriano (PQ7798.29.O58 C813 1989 UCB Main Stack) 116 min. Video 999:1407
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Cuesta Abaja. (Argentina, 1934)
- Directed by Louis Gasnier. Cast: Carlos Gardel. A student runs away to Europe with a woman. It doesn't take him long to discover that she frequently deceives him and spends his money carelessly. Even then, he can't seem to leave her, something stronger than love seems to keep them together. Spanish dialog; no subtitles. 999:1410
- De Eso No Se Habla (I Don't Want to Talk About It) (Argentina/Italy, 1993)
- Directed by Maria-Luisa Bemberg. A sophisticated world traveller (Mastroianni) retires to a small town and is drawn to a much younger woman (Podesta). The smartest, most talented woman in town, she is in many ways a perfect match for him. But, because she is a dwarf, she has been sheltered by her overprotective mother from the realities of life. 102 min. 999:1382
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Doli vuelve a casa (Argentina, 1986)
- Directed by Mart?n Rejtman.
Cast: Martin Reyna, Rosario Blefari, Marcelo Magnasco, Maria Elena Otazu. Hernan leaves his home in search of Doli. In the end she agrees to return with him. 30 min. DVD 6905
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Don Segundo Sombra. (Argentina, 1969)
- Directed by Manuel Antin. Don Segundo Sombra narrates the story of Fabio Caceres as he grows into adulthood. Don Segundo Sombra, an old "gaucho", is his mentor and model; he teaches him moral and human values through his behavior, stories, and example. Video 999:1386
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- La Guerra del Cerdo (Diary of the War of Pigs). (Argentina, 1975)
- Directed by Leopoldo Torre Nilsson. An Argentine motion picture in which the generation gap is taken to the extreme by a group of young people who decide to exterminate all senior citizens. 90 min. 999:1415
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Eva Peron. (Argentina, 1996)
- Directed by Juan Carlos Desanzo. An Argentinian version of the "true" Eva Peron saga which examines the life of Eva Peron, an obscure actress, who rose to become wife of Argentine strong-man President Juan Peron and one of the most powerful figures in Argentina until her death in 1952 at age 33. 114 min. 999:2249
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Facundo: la sombra del tigre (Facundo, the Tiger's Shadow) (Argentina, 1995)
- Directed by Nicolas Sarquis. Cast: Lito Cruz (Facundo Quiroga), Victor Manso, Dora Baret, Claudio Garcia Satur, Andrea Politti, Martin Adjemian, Cristina Fernandez, Oscar Ferrigno Jr., Juan Carlos Puppo, Hector Malamud, Norma Aleandro, Ricardo Alanis (Quiroga's bodyguard), Maria Bufano.
General Juan Facundo Quiroga, known as the "Tiger of the Plains," travels north to resolve the conflict between the provinces of Salta and Tucuman. Portrayed as a tragic figure rather than a wicked gaucho, he recalls his political and military past as he struggles with illness. Set in the violent, turbulent years following Argentina's independence from Spain, the film begins with Facundo's assassination in 1835 and dramatizes the events leading up to the murder, and the historical backdrop of the struggle between the Unitarios (those favoring a strong central government) and the Federales (those fighting for more regional autonomy). 177 min. 999:3790 (PAL)
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Familia Rodante (Rolling Family). (Argentina, 2004)
- Directed by Pablo Trapero. Cast: Marianela Pedano, Carlos Resta, Raul Viñales.
When Emilia, an Argentinian grandmother, is invited to be the matron of honor at the wedding of a distant niece, she invites her whole family to accompany her in a 1956 Chevy Viking camper on a cross-country journey to the border of Argentina. 103 min. DVD 6883
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Funny Dirty Little War (No Habrá Más Penas Ni Olvido). (Argentina, 1983)
- Directed by Hector Olivera. A civil war erupts in a quiet rural Argentine village when a local Peronist politician claims a municipal clerk is a communist. This savage comedy lampoons political zealots of all kinds, while exposing the roots of the real terrorism that Argentina suffered under the military junta. At first the petty squabblings make for satirical slapstick, until the machismo escalates into increasingly violent retaliations. Based on: No Habra Mas Penas ni Olvido / Osvaldo Soriano. 999:1412
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Garage Olimpo (Argentina, 1999)
- Directed by Marco Bechis. Cast: Antonella Costa, Carlos Echevarria, Enrique Pi~neyro, Pablo Razuk, Dominique Sanda.
A feature film set in 1970s Argentina during the time of mass disappearances among the population. Maria is a middle-class teacher living in a deteriorating mansion with her Italian mother. They've rented out rooms for extra money and one of the tenants is Felix, a secret officer assigned to watch her. One day Maria is kidnapped and taken to Garage Olimpo, one of the many undercover detention places at the time, where she is brutally interrogated. Her only hope is through Felix who is in love with her and is willing to do anything to win her approval, even if it means lying. 96 min. DVD 6891
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Gatica, "el Mono" (The Magic Gloves) (Argentina, 1993)
- Directed by Leonardo Favio. Cast: Edgardo Nieva, Horacio Taicher, Virginia Innocenti, Eva Gatica.
A dramatization of the life of Argentinian world boxing champion Jose Maria Gatica from his rise to his tragic death. Jose Maria Gatica was born in extreme poverty in the capital of Buenos Aires, Argentina. He learned to fight in the streets and was discovered by Nicolas Preziosa who turned Gatica into "El Mono" and made him the nations greatest boxing idol of the mid 1940s & early 1950s. Noted for his "hurricane" style of punching, Gatica racked up an impressive knockout streak and became the toast of the country. Eventually he faded from the scene after having scored a remarkable 72 knockout victories. He ended up broke, selling nic-nacs in the street and died at age 38. 138 min. DVD 6910
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Los Guantes Mágicos (The Magic Gloves) (Argentina / France / Germany / Netherlands, 2004)
- Directed by Martín Rejtman. Cast: Gabriel Fernandez Capello, Valeria Bertucelli, Fabian Arenillas, Cecilia Biagni, Susana Pampin, Diego Oliveira, Leonardo Azamor.
Tells the story of a 35-year-old driver-for-hire in Buenos Aires who, looking for a new life after breaking up with his girlfriend, invests in a business of importing one-size-fits-all gloves. When things don't work out he loses his beloved Renault 12 and is forced to take a low-paying job as a long-distance bus driver. 90 min. DVD 6907
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- La Historia Oficial (The Official Story) (Argentina, 1985)
- Directed by Luis Puenzo. The wife of a businessman in Argentina finds herself face to face with terror as she begins to discover that her own daughter, adopted at birth, may have been stolen. 118 min. DVD 262; Video 999:587
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Historias Minimas (Minimal Stories) (Argentina, 2004)
- Directed by Carlos Sorin. Cast: Javier Lombardo, Antonio Benedictis, Javiera Bravo, Julia Solomonoff, Laura Vagnoni, Enrique Otranto.
In this road movie nothing will stop three neighbors from reaching San Julian, where they have been promised either fame, love, or redemption. Although they encounter detours along the way, they ultimately get what they wanted, but it will come in unexpected ways. 94 min. DVD 6893
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Hombre Mirando al Sudeste (Man Facing Southeast) (Argentina, 1986)
- Directed by Eliseo Subiela. A man named Rantes appears in a Buenos Aires psychiatric hospital. He claims to be an alien vistor and becomes a source of hope to the other patients. 105 min. Video/ 999:237
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Hoy y mañana (Today and Tomorrow) (Argentina, 2003)
- Directed by Alejandro Chomski. Cast: Antonella Costa, Manuel Navarro, Romina Ricci, Ricardo Merkin, Abian Vainstein, Sergio Alvarez.
The seemingly unavoidable downward spiral of Argentina's middle class during the current economic and social crisis is vividly brought to life in the character of young, street-smart Paula. A talented, would-be actress with a paying job as a waitress, she is always on the run: from her landlord, from the gas bill, from being late for work, and from her father's demands. 83 min. DVD 6879
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Lo Que Vendrá (Times to Come) (Argentina, 1988)
- Directed by Gustavo Mosquera. In a futuristic city designed for aggression and political instability three characters try desperately to survive: a wounded man shot during a demonstration, an antagonistic policeman, and a foolish vigilante. 98 min. 999:1408
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Moss, Nathaniel "Ribbon of cinema: Moebius." (director Gustavo Mosquera)
Film Comment Nov-Dec 1997 v33 n6 p79(2)
- Un Lugar en el Mundo (Argentina,1991)
- Directed by Adolfo Aristarain. A Drama set against the backdrop of a ranching valley in Argentina, which chronicles a confrontation between traditional values and the incursions of progress. In Spanish without titles. PAL format. 120 min. 999:1802
- Martin Fierro (Argentina, 1968)
- Director, Leopoldo Torre Nilsson. Set in the Argentine interior, this film tells the story of a man who abandons his family to fight the Indians. Yet he fails his test of courage, becomes a deserter, kills a man in self-defense, and retreats to live in an Indian villiage with his best friend, Cruz. 134 min. 999:3371
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Miss Mary (Argentina / USA, 1986)
- Directed by María Luisa Bemberg. Cast: Julie Christie, Nacha Guevara, Tato Pavlovsky, Gerardo Romano.
Set in Bueno Aires, this is the story of a cultured English governess whose display of compassion disrupts the tradition-bound existence of the wealthy household in which she works. 100 min. Video/C 999:250
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Los Muertos (Argentina, 2004)
- Directed by Lisandro Alonso. A 54 year-old man is released from prison in Corrientes, Argentina and decides to canoe through the jungle to find his grown daughter. The journey becomes a primordial adventure, filled with solitude and silence as he crosses great distances in a small boat on the rivers, scoring deep into the jungle. 94 min. DVD 6886
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Mundo grúa (Argentina, 1999)
- Directed by Pablo Trapero. Cast: Luis Margani, Adriana Aizenberg, Daniel Valenzuela, Roly Serrano, Federico Esquerro, Graciana Chironi, Alfonso Rementeria.
The film paints a blunt view of the realities of Argentine working-class life. Rulo is a divorced, unemployed 50 year-old day laborer in Buenos Aires who is desperate for whatever work he can scrounge up. The sole supporter of his elderly mother and son, an aspiring rock musician, Rulo takes a job operating an excavating machine in distant Patagonia. 94 min. DVD 6886
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- No Habrá Más Penas Ni Olvido (Funny Dirty Little War). (Argentina, 1983)
- Directed by Hector Olivera. A civil war erupts in a quiet rural Argentine village when a local Peronist politician claims a municipal clerk is a communist. This savage comedy lampoons political zealots of all kinds, while exposing the roots of the real terrorism that Argentina suffered under the military junta. At first the petty squabblings make for satirical slapstick, until the machismo escalates into increasingly violent retaliations. Based on: No Habra Mas Penas ni Olvido / Osvaldo Soriano. 999:1412
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Un oso rojo (Red Bear) (Argentina, 2002)
- Directed by Israel Adrian Caetano. Cast: Julio Chavez, Soledad Villamil, Luis Machin, Enrique Liporace, Daniel Valenzuela, Freddy Flores, Agostina Lage, Rene Lavand.
After seven years in prison for murder and armed robbery, "Oso" is released on parole and returns to his hometown, a depressed suburb of Buenos Aires. He knows that his wife Natalia has moved on and is living with another man, but he's determined to establish a relationship with his young daughter Alicia and to collect the money owed to him by a local crime boss. 120 min. 999:3374
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- La Patagonia Rebelde (The Patagonian Rebel) (Rebellion in Patagonia ) (Argentina, 1974)
- Directed by Hector Olivera. Based on: Los vengadores de la Patagonia tragica, by Osvaldo Bayer. The film is based on actual historical events involving the brutal military suppression of a series of strikes by rural workers in the southernmost province of Argentina in the early 1920's. 105 min. 999:1744
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- El perro una historia de instintos y amistandes (Argentina / Spain, 2004)
- Directed by Carlos Sorin. Cast: Micol Estevez, Mariela Diaz, Kita Ca, Pascual Condito, Claudina Fazzini, Carlos Rossi.
While looking for garage work, Juan travels Patagonia trying to make a living selling hand-made knives. After helping a stranded motorist he is given a giant white purebred dog named Bombon. This leads to an introduction to a dog trainer named Walter, who trains both dog and owner for the dog show circuit. When Bombon wins one of the dog shows, Juan and Walter think they now have it made. 97 min. DVD 6904
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Rapado (Argentina / Netherlands, 1992)
- Directed by Martín Rejtman. Cast: Ezequiel Cavia, Damian Dreyzik, Mirta Busnelli, Horacio Peña. Rapado: 20-year old Lucio shaves his head in mourning for his stolen motorcycle. He decides to replace it by stealing one himself. Thwarted several times, he finally buys a moped which he guards cautiously. 74 min. DVD 6905
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Pizza, Birra, Faso (Pizza, Beer, and Cigarettes) (Argentina, 1998)
- Directed by Adri?n Caetano and Bruno Stagnaro. Cast: Hector Anglada, Jorge Sesan, Pamela Jordan, Alejandro Pous, Walter Diaz, Adrian Yospe.
El Cordobes lives with three friends and his pregnant girfriend, Sandra. They roam the streets of Buenos Aires stealing for a living but always having to hand over the majority of the booty to a higher up. Their philosophy in life seems to be that as long as they have enough for pizza, beer, and cigarettes, life is bearable. But reality may prove them wrong. 78 min. DVD 6890
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Pubis Angelical (Argentina, 1982)
- Directed by Raul de la Torre. While in her hospital bed, a woman reflects on her life and the roles men have played in her life, against a backdrop of Argentine political events. Based on a novel by Manuel Puig. 999:1405
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Señora de Nadie (Nobody's Wife) (Argentina, 1982)
- Directed by Maria Luisa Bemberg. Leonor is living the good life in Argentina: a husband, two kids, a comfortable home. But when she discovers her husband is cheating on her, that life collapses. Leonor flees the world she knows, finds a new job and begins to meet new men. From a distance, she cautiously observes her children. 90 min. DVD 2903
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Los Siete locos (Seven Madmen) (1972)
- Director, Leopoldo Torre Nilsson. When Erdosain, a young inventor in a precarious economic state, is abandoned by his wife, he becomes involved with a terrorist group whose goal is to take power by force. The leader of the gang with a capricious and arbitrary vision of justice, drags his gang toward a chaotic and apocalyptic end. 120 min. 999:3372
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Silvia Prieto (1999)
- Director, Martin Rejtman. Cast: Rosario Blefari, Valeria Bertucelli, Marcelo Zanelli, Gabriel Fernandez Capello, Luis Mancini, Mirta Busnelli, Susana Pampin.
Silvia Prieto is a flitty 27 year-old, newly divorced and looking to change her life. When her ex-husband gives her $1200 to help out, she decides to take a vacation. She meets a man at a windy cafe who lends her an Armani jacket. But she runs away when he goes to buy cigarettes. Later, the jacket's owner telephones her in Buenos Aires and tells her that he was able to track her down because there were only two entries for Silvia Prieto in the phone book. Silvia decides to call the other woman and when they eventually meet, she learns that there are more Silvia Prietos in the city. 99 min. DVD 6906
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Sol de Otoño (Autumn Sun) (Argentina, 1996)
- Director, Eduardo Mignogna. Cast: Norma Aleandro, Federico Luppi, Jorge Luz, Cecilia Rosetti, Roberto Carnaghi, Gabriela Archer.
A love story set in Buenos Aires in which a Jewish woman and her gentile boyfriend conspire to pass him off as a jew in order to avoid conflict with her relatives. 103 min. Video/C
|
