April 6-14, 2018
UWM Union Theatre
2200 East Kenwood Boulevard
Free Admission
All films will be shown in their original language with English subtitles. Films are not rated; many include adult content. For more information please call the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies at (414) 229-5986.
Friday, April 6
5:00-6:30 pm
You are cordially invited to the opening reception of our 40th Annual Latin American Film Series. Please join us for light refreshments and drinks at the Kenwood Interdisciplinary Research Facility Atrium (3135 N Maryland Ave, Milwaukee).
Help us celebrate 40 years of fantastic Latin American films at UWM!
Friday, April 6
7:00 pm
The Surge (Vazante)
Brazil, 2017, 116 min
Dir. Daniela Thomas
Thomas (frequent co-director with Walter Salles) directs this contemplative black and white drama set during the 1820s. Antonio (a wealthy landowner) marries Beatriz, a childbride. Beatriz is left alone to connect with others who live on the estate while her husband is away trading and droving. This film explores the brutal and tragic past of colonialism, with its understated depiction of the complex and disturbing dynamics of race, class, and gender.
9:15 PM
Another Story of the World (Otra historia del mundo)
Uruguay, 2017, 105 min
Dir. Guillermo Casanova
In collaboration with the Chicago Latino Film Festival
History is rewritten by the losers in this dark satire chosen by Uruguay as its official submission to this year’s Best Foreign Language Oscar. Outraged by the recent appointment of a military governor to their town, best friends Esnal and Milo decide to play a prank on the new appointee with dire consequences: Milo is arrested and imprisoned while Esnal goes into seclusion. Pulled out of his doldrums by Milo’s daughters, Esnal concocts a plan to liberate his friend: to teach the study group led by the governor’s wife an alternative history of the world where Milo’s family played a significant (albeit fake) role. Uruguay’s official entry for the 2018 Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film
Saturday, April 7
5:00 pm
Moving Parts
Trinidad and Tobago, 2017, 77 min
Dir. Emilie Upczak
Shot in Trinidad and Tobago and produced mostly by female Caribbean women, this film is the story of a Chinese woman smuggled into Trinidad and Tobago. This small crowdfunded film was endorsed by the United Nations for its approach to diversity and human trafficking.
7:00 pm
Sealed Cargo (Cargada Sellada)
Bolivia/México/Venezuela/France, 2016, 107 min
Dir. Julia Vargas-Weise
In 1995, toxic cargo travels through the Bolivian countryside towards Chile on an antique train bound to secretly deposit the poisonous cargo into a rural dumpsite. Described as a seriocomedy and as a fact-based fiction, this film comments on the imposition of First World waste upon unsuspecting communities in the Andes. Bolivia’s 2017 official entry for the Academy Awards Best Foreign Language Film Category.
Sunday, April 8
5:00 pm
Havana’s Forgotten Jewels, A Haven in Havana
US/Cuba, 2017, 46 min
Dir. Robin Truesdale and Judy Kreith
Co-presented with the Sam and Helen Stahl Center for Jewish Studies and the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation
Funded by The National Center for Jewish Film, Truesdale and Kreith tell the story of two disparate yet intermingled cultures. Cuba becomes a safe haven for so many exiled Jewish people. The film chronicles Kreith’s mother’s story of evading Nazi capture and the welcoming and safe community found in Havana.
7:00 pm
When the Mountains Tremble
US/Guatemala, 1983, 83 min
Dir. Newton Thomas Sigel and Pamela Yates
Brought back in conjunction with Yates’s 500 Years (showing on Monday, April 9th), this film is about the war between the Guatemalan military and the Maya. Nobel Peace Prize winner, Rigoberta Menchú, provides first-hand accounts of her experience and that of her people. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival.
Monday, April 9
7:00 pm
500 Years: Life in Resistance
US/Guatemala, 2017, 83 min
Dir. Pamela Yates
The final film in the Resistance Trilogy about Guatemala’s recent history, historic genocide, and the ousting of the dictator (José Efraín Ríos Montt) and former president, Otto Pérez Molina, from the perspective of the Mayan population. Irma Alicia Veláquez Nimatuj, Journalist/Anthropologist is the protagonist of this film. Official selection of the Sundance Film Festival.
Tuesday, April 10
7:00 pm
New Cinema (Cinema Novo)
Brazil, 2016, 90 min
Dir. Eryk Rocha
Eryk Rocha (Glauber Rocha’s son) directs this poetic visual essay of the Brazilian film movement by looking at its most renowned auteurs including: Nelson Pereira dos Santos, Glauber Rocha, Leon Hirszman, Joaquim Pedro de Andrade, Ruy Guerra, Cacá Diegues, Walter Lima Jr, Paulo César Saraceni, among others. Winner L’OEil D’or for Best Documentary at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival.
Wednesday, April 11
7:00 pm
Magallanes
Peru/Argentina/Colombia/Spain, 2015, 109 min, Dir.
Dir. Salvador del Solar
Adapted from Alonso Cueto’s “La pasajera,” this political thriller tracks Magallanes (a taxi cab driver in Lima) and his self-exploration about his role in the Shining Path insurgency in the 1980s. A film about the obstinacy of old wounds during Peru’s civil conflict and the line between duty and morality, Magallanes is also a look into the atrocities and maltreatment of the indigenous population of Peru.
Thursday, April 12
8:00 pm
Raising Zoey
US, 2016, 54 min
Dir. Dante Alencastre
Co-presented with the Milwaukee LGBT Film/Video Festival
Peruvian director Alencastre directs this story about 13-year old Zoey, her family, and their struggles as they navigate Zoey’s transition. The documentary reveals how the support of a loving family and community can overcome adversity, discrimination and ignorance. This film is Alencastre’s most recent work since Transvisible: Bamby Salcedo’s Story.
Friday, April 13
7:00 pm
Return to Cuba (Volver a Cuba)
Cuba/Canada, 2016, 78 min
Dir. David Fabrega
This energetic documentary about Barbara Ramos’s return to Santa Clara, Cuba after living in Italy for 18 years is shot over three years (the time it took to build her home). The film is a close up of Ramos’s return to her beloved community, hometown, and country amidst all of the changes in transition between Fidel Castro and Raúl Castro’s governance.
9:00 pm
Amalia, the Secretary (Amalia, la Secretaria)
Colombia, 2017, 103 min
Dir. Andrés Burgos
In collaboration with the Chicago Latino Film Festival
Fortysomething Amalia is the secretary of the CEO of a family business going through hard times. Tidy and efficient, she is also rather cranky and hostile towards anyone who may have an appointment with her boss. That is, until maintenance worker Lázaro walks into her office. There is something about this rather chaotic man that Amalia finds attractive and she will come up with any excuse to have him around, even if it means tearing the place apart.
Saturday, April 14
5:00 pm
Treasures (Tesoros)
Mexico, 2017, 95 min
Dir. María Novaro
This film follows siblings, Dylan and Andrea, who make new friends in Barra de Potosí on the Pacific Coast of Mexico. The children set out on an adventure seeking lost pirate treasure after Dylan claims he has seen the ghost of explorer Francis Drake. Childhood innocence and the natural beauty of the Pacific coastal town are at the forefront of this heartwarming and beautiful film. Part of the Berlin Film Festival’s Generation Kplus.
7:00 pm
Zama
Argentina, 2017, 115 min
Dir. Lucrecia Martel
Nine years after The Headless Woman, Martel returns with an adaptation of Antonio Di Benedetto’s 1956 novel. Zama is a dystopic colonial film that leads to more questions at every turn. The film is just as much about film form as it is about content, inviting viewers to interrogate not only the abuses and violence of colonialism but also the way in which it is represented and revealed on screen. This story is about Don Diego de Zama, an officer of the Spanish crown in the 18th century, and his trials and tribulations on his quest to assume a higher position in Buenos Aires instead of the coastal colony of what is now Paraguay. Zama has left audiences baffled and simultaneously held captive by Martel’s mastery of sound and image. Argentina’s 2018 official entry for the Academy Awards Best Foreign Language Film Category.
LAFS 2018 programmer: EJ Basa
The series is co-sponsored by Colectivo Coffee, UWM Union Sociocultural Programming, the UWM Provost’s Office, Global Inclusion and Engagement, the Center for International Education, the Sam and Helen Stahl Center for Jewish Studies, the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation, the Milwaukee LGBT Film/Video Festival, the Center for 21st Century Studies, the Roberto Hernández Center, the Honors College, Departments of Art History, Cultures and Communities, Film Studies (English), Film, French, Italian and Comparative Literature (FICL), History, MA in Language, Literature and Translation (MALLT), Political Science, Translation & Interpreting Studies, Spanish & Portuguese, Urban Studies, Women’s and Gender Studies, the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Certificate Program, and the major in Latin American, Caribbean, and U.S. Latin@Studies (LACUSL).
In collaboration with the Chicago Latino Film Festival.
And for more Latin American film: