Documentaries

13 Pueblos Defending Water Air and Land

Callum — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 07:34:48 -0400

This beautiful documentary explores the actions that 13 indigenous communities in Mexico are collectively taking to defend their environments from destruction and contamination by industrial and commercial projects that are threatening the water, air and land where they live. Francesco Yaboada Yabone. Mexico. 62min

Los Paraguayos

Callum — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 12:06:17 -0400

‘Los Paraguayos’ takes us on an audiovisual journey showing us the Guarani nation and contemporary Paraguay: historians, anthropologists, writers and artists’ attempt to untie the knots of a reality full of contrasts.

A group of Paraguayans recount the central axis on which their identity was being formed through their daily lives, their opinions and their experiences in a country whose reality is full of contrasts and which never fails to surprise.

El estado de las cosas / The State of Things

Callum — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 15:53:18 -0400

El estado de las cosas / The State of Things

(Marcos Loayza, 2007, 76 min)

Documentary that explores the social, cultural, linguistic, and ethnic diversity of Bolivia. After traveling around the country with his production team for some time, Loayza interviews politicians, local union leaders, intellectuals, and common people who manifest the state of things in their communities, cities and the country in general. Class and regional divisions of the Bolivian state are questioned in this film that investigates the aspirations of the people in relation to the state and to the universal rights of every individual.

Little Voices, Moving Stories

admin — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 19:07:34 -0400

Director: Eduardo Carrillo
Duration: 20min

The conflict in Colombia through the eyes of displaced children.
Eduardo Carrillo's short film Little Voices.

Little Voices is a film made with children who are displaced and victims of violence in Colombia. This film is driven by children's stories, which they told using their own voices and drawings. The result is a unique and powerful hybrid of documentary and computer animation, rooted in the real experiences of displaced children in Colombia.

Little Voices has won several prices in Spain and Italy and a special mention by UNICEF prize International Television Festival in 2003.

Maquilapolis: City Of Factories

admin — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 13:43:41 -0500

Maquilapolis: City Of Factories
This unique documentary tells the story of globalization from the personal perspectives of Carmen and a dynamic group of Mexican maquiladora workers who together are working towards creating liveable solutions to the complexities of life in a globalized city. The film meets women who are each dealing with the hardships of environmental toxins, labor rights abuse, infrastructure and housing issues, and women's rights. MAQUILAPOLIS approaches the workers as experts who can provide us with keys to our common future, inviting them to co-author their own story on videotape. www.maquilapolis.com

+ Presentation, film clips and discussion hosted by Business Human Rights showcasing the start of a series of case studies of their work in Latin America

www.business-humanrights.org

Favela Rising

Agustin — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 22:06:40 -0400

Favela Rising
2006, Brasil, USA
by Jeff Zimbalist, Matt Mochary

About Grupo Cultural Afroreggae

FAVELA RISING documents a man and a movement, a city divided and a favela (Brazilian squatter settlement) united. Haunted by the murders of his family and many of his friends, Anderson Sá is a former drug-trafficker who turns social revolutionary in Rio de Janeiro’s most feared slum. Through hip-hop music, the rhythms of the street, and Afro-Brazilian dance he rallies his community to counteract the violent oppression enforced by teenage drug armies and sustained by corrupt police.

At the dawn of liberation, just as collective mobility is overcoming all odds and Anderson’s grassroots Afro Reggae movement is at the height of its success, a tragic accident threatens to silence the movement forever.

FAVELA RISING celebrates the strength of the human spirit to assert itself in the face of human rights violations, social injustice, and unexpected adversity. Chronicling the rise to greatness of the AfroReggae movement, the film shows how the music and culture of Brazil's underclass transform into a catalyst for grassroots social-change. But most of all, FAVELA RISING is the story of a community that works. The success of the film should be judged on how well it serves to activate its viewers; how well it inspires action.
Jeff Zimbalist (Co-Director)

La Toma (The Take)

Agustin — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 16:58:08 -0400

The Take
by Naomi Klein & Avi Lewis
2004, Argentina, 89 minutes

In the wake of Argentina's dramatic economic collapse in 2001, Latin America's most prosperous middle class finds itself in a ghost town of abandoned factories and mass unemployment. The Forja auto plant lies dormant until its former employees take action. They're part of a daring new movement of workers who are occupying bankrupt businesses and creating jobs in the ruins of the failed system.
But Freddy, the president of the new worker's co-operative, and Lalo, the political powerhouse from the Movement of Recovered Companies, know that their success is far from secure. Like every workplace occupation, they have to run the gauntlet of courts, cops and politicians who can either give their project legal protection or violently evict them from the factory.

The story of the workers' struggle is set against the dramatic backdrop of a crucial presidential election in Argentina, in which the architect of the economic collapse, Carlos Menem, is the front-runner. His cronies, the former owners, are circling: if he wins, they'll take back the companies that the movement has worked so hard to revive.
Armed only with slingshots and an abiding faith in shop-floor democracy, the workers face off against the bosses, bankers and a whole system that sees their beloved factories as nothing more than scrap metal for sale.

With The Take, director Avi Lewis, one of Canada's most outspoken journalists, and writer Naomi Klein, author of the international bestseller No Logo, champion a radical economic manifesto for the 21st century. But what shines through in the film is the simple drama of workers' lives and their struggle: the demand for dignity and the searing injustice of dignity denied.

El Che

Agustin — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 10:01:58 -0400

“El Che”
2004, Cuba – France, 133 min
Director: Maurice Dugowson
Based on the book “Che, Ernesto Guevara, una legende du siede” (by Pierre Kalfon)

A prismatic portrait of both the man and the myth of Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara.
This documentary retraces Guevara’s life and political career, beginning with his youth in 1950’s Argentina, when he set out on the road, writing travel diaries, poetry, and stories. His wanderings through the Andes, Patagonia, Peru, and the Chilean desert informed his identity not as a citizen of one nation but as a Latin American. Following his medical studies, he left Argentina forever, dedicating his life to fighting imperialism, poverty, and social injustice throughout the continent.

Ernesto 'Che' Guevara de la Serna represents one of the most enduring images of a political leader. His legendary character has been the inspiration for millions of people over the last fifty years. Lawrence Elman, a Canadian director, went in search of the man behind the myth. He embarked on the journey that gave Che his name. A trip through South America on an old Norton motorcycle. Che chronicled this trip during a break from medical school in a book called the Motorcycle Diaries. Lawrence encounters Che's family and oldest friends who shed light on this true icon of the 20th century. From the cousin who tells of Ernesto's chronic lack of hygiene to the tragedy of being rejected by a woman who is still believed to be his first love.

Ernesto became Che and changed the perceptions of many. His love and friendship of Sartre (who called Che the only whole man he had ever met), his philosophical journals that began at the age of 15; all helped to shape a man who struggled with potentially fatal asthma all his short life.

There are some remarkable scenes of Guevara's youth in Argentina, as well as much footage of the early days in Cuba, circa 1955-59. The interviews with those who knew him are fascinating, particularly the ones with one of his old comrades in arms.

Volver a la gente

Agustin — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 20:00:43 -0400

Dir: David Caneva,
2006, Colombia

A documentary about the women who had to assume the status of head of the refugee families because of the loss of men due to the armed conflict in Colombia. The film exposes the crude reality of the manner in which the Colombian government has abandoned these communities, while attempting to help integrate them with the society that denies their existence.

Hasta Siempre

Agustin — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 19:05:26 -0400

Dir. Ishmail Blagrove Jr,
Cuba - UK, 2005, 58 mins, Colour

Cuba embraced tourism in the early 90's as a means of surviving the collapse of the Soviet Union. As a result, the Island has begun to witness many changes which now threaten the integrity of the revolution: racial discrimination, prostitution, consumerism, and the re-emergence of class divisions. Hasta Siempre takes the viewer on a journey through the lives of ordinary Cubans, examining the results of the Cuban revolution from the perspective of the Cuban people, and asks the question: Can the revolution survive after the death of Fidel Castro?