44th Annual Latin American Film Series (streaming options)

Select films will be screened at the UWM Union Theater and other selections will be made available online.

All films will be shown in their original language with English subtitles. You must register in order to gain access to the virtual festival and watch the films. (Films are not rated; many include adult content.)

Register for streaming films at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeFdmNQLZsmNDt-xRyffhDaPOfuAtmE-wvxwZQUV7vruuif5Q/viewform. For more information contact LAFSatUWM@gmail.com

To see entire schedule including in-person showings, see calendar or https://uwm.edu/clacs/public-engagement/film-series/

April 13 through 20 – watch anytime
Streaming – 5 films

A BRUDDAH’S MIND (CABEÇA DE NÊGO)
Brazil, 2020, 86 min, Dir. Déo Cardoso
Based on real events, this political drama fuses Brazilian history with international anti-racist movements. Saulo, a black introvert student and fan of the Black Panther Movement, challenges his school in the largely white city of Fortaleza.

MIRIAM MIENTE (MIRIAM LIES)
Dominican Republic, Spain, 2018, 90 min, Dirs. Natalia Cabral and Oriol Estrada
The first dramatic feature by documentary duo Natalia Cabral and Oriol Estrada centers on a quinceañera celebration and shows how racial prejudices affect a teenage girl’s choices.

PIROTECNIA (MUTE FIRE)
Colombia, 2020, 83 min, Dir. Federico Atehortúa Arteaga
In the tradition of Harun Farocki and João Moreira Salles, in this personal film essay, Federico Atehortúa Arteaga examines the relationship between film footage, the events of the war in Colombia, his family’s story, and the origins of cinema in the country.
On March 6, 1906, four people were executed in the streets for the attempted assassination of the then-president of Colombia, Rafael Reyes. The representation in images of this event is considered the beginning of cinema in Colombia. Arteaga embarks on a deep investigation of media representation through his film, which explores how cinema became an instrument of power and control in the country’s violent political history.
As Arteaga’s mother suffers an episode of mutism -without any explanation she stops talking-, the film’s focus widens to examine the family’s own relationship with imagery, memory, and politics. As a result, Arteaga decides to investigate the family’s past and finds a video archive of a children’s play in which he himself acts, pretending to be a captured false guerrilla.
These images bring him back to his original film and lead him to find the relationship that exists between recent tragic events in Colombian history, the false positives, innocent people extrajudicially killed by members of the Colombian army, and then falsely labeled as enemy combatants. Nobody knows exactly how many young people became false positives. The most recent report released by Colombia’s attorney general’s office says that between 1988 and 2014, around 2,248 people were killed. Previous reports by human rights organizations have estimated that the number may be 5,000 or even higher.

EL PERRO QUE NO CALLA (THE DOG WHO WOULDN’T BE QUIET)
Argentina, 2020, 73 min, Dir. Ana Katz
Acclaimed Argentine auteur Ana Katz’s funny, adventurous, and bittersweet new film follows Sebastian’s peaceful life as it begins to crumble when he loses his job because of his dog’s barking. From that moment on, he begins to wander through life between different temporary jobs over the years. Years in which he will also know friendship, love, and fatherhood, until, unexpectedly, existence on earth is totally altered by a phenomenon from outer space, transforming the film into a dystopian satire about the future we will leave to new generations.

Nudo Mixteco
Mexico, 2021, 91 min, Dir. Ángeles Cruz
Taking place in a rural Mixtec village in Oaxaca, southern Mexico, Nudo Mixteco follows the return of María, Esteban, and Toña, each from a different direction. Each of them has a different reason for coming back, just like each had a different reason to leave in the first place. However, all three face a confrontation that will force a turning point in their lives.
María buries her mother, her father rejects her, and in uncertainty, she asks her childhood love, Piedad, to leave with her. Esteban returns after three years to discover that Chabela, his wife, is living with another man. Enraged he calls the village people to prosecute her in an assembly. Toña, faced with her daughter’s abuse, relives her own pain when she returns to confront her family to protect her.
Narrated from the point of view of the women, the three stories momentarily intersect with each other and together paint an exceptional picture of the local culture, in which filmmaker Ángeles Cruz herself grew up. Festivities, rituals, and a village council that acts as a tribunal – these elements make up the fabric of a community that should offer protection, warmth, and security. However, the fates of the three protagonists will reveal a constant fight against age-old patriarchal power and prejudice.