Program

Cinema Tropical is proud to present in collaboration with Women Make Movies, a selection of their most highly acclaimed films by and about Latin American women. For nearly 30 years, Women Make Movies has supported the talents of emerging and established women filmmakers from Latin America and has been among the first to distribute their work to audiences in the United States.

During the month of April, Cinema Tropical and Women Make Movies will showcase, at Two Boots Pioneer Theater and Americas Society, a unique program that unravels the unique history of women in Latin American cinema and examines the distinct cross-cultural experience of Latinas living in the
United States.

All films in this program are distributed by Women Make Movies, except screenings at the Pioneer theatre on April 8 and April 29. For information and distribution of films by Woman Make Movies, please visit www.wmm.com.

Please read an article on women film makers by Xochitl Dorsey, managing editor of Women Make Movies, in Cinema Tropical's newsletter.

Films are in Spanish with English subtitles, except as noted.

Films screenings are Mondays at 8:00 p.m. at Two Boots Pioneer Theater, 155 East 3rd St. (at Avenue A) Tel. (212) 254-3300.

Video screenings are Tuesdays at 6:30 p.m. or 8:00 p.m. (see schedule for time) at Americas Society, 680 Park Avenue (at 68th Street). Free Admission. Please reserve a seat by calling (212) 249-8950, ext. 364.


April 2002 Program Women Make Movies, Latin Style	Cinema Tropical is proud to present in collaboration with Women Make Movies, a selection of their most highly acclaimed films by and about Latin American women. For nearly 30 years, Women Make Movies has supported the talents of emerging and established women filmmakers from Latin America and has been among the first to distribute their work to audiences in the United States. During the month of April, Cinema Tropical and Women Make Movies will showcase, at Two Boots Pioneer Theater and Americas Society, a unique program that unravels the unique history of women in Latin American cinema and examines the distinct cross-cultural experience of Latinas living in the United States. All films in this program are distributed by Women Make Movies, except screenings at the Pioneer theatre on April 8 and April 29. For information and distribution of films by Woman Make Movies, please visit www.wmm.com. Please read an article on women film makers by Xochitl Dorsey, managing editor of Women Make Movies, in Cinema Tropical's newsletter. Films are in Spanish with English subtitles, except as noted. Films screenings are Mondays at 8:00 p.m. at Two Boots Pioneer Theater, 155 East 3rd St. (at Avenue A) Tel. (212) 254-3300. Video screenings are Tuesdays at 6:30 p.m. or 8:00 p.m. (see schedule for time) at Americas Society, 680 Park Avenue (at 68th Street). Free Admission. Please reserve a seat by calling (212) 249-8950, ext. 364.
	Monday, April 1, 8:00 pm at Two Boots Pioneer Theater, 155 East 3rd St. The Devil Never Sleeps / El Diablo Nunca Duerme Lourdes Portillo, US/Mexico, 1996, 82 min. Academy Award nominated filmmaker Lourdes Portillo mines the complicated intersections of analysis and autobiography, evidence and hypothesis, even melodrama and police procedure in this ground-breaking work. Early one Sunday morning, the filmmaker receives a phone call informing her that her beloved Tío (Uncle) Oscar Ruiz Almeida has been found dead of a gunshot wound to the head in Chihuahua, Mexico. She returns to the land of her birth to investigate her uncle's identity and death. Finding clues in old tales of betrayal, lust, and supernatural visitation, Portillo blends traditional and experimental techniques to capture the nuances of Mexican social and family order. Poetic and tragic, humorous and mythic, this film crosses the borders of personal values, cultural mores, and the discipline of filmmaking in a fascinating look at family mysteries. "Portillo speaks in the visual language recognizable as personal or lyrical documentary - family photographs, thoughtful voice-overs, metaphorical imagery. But the moment the family gossip begins to flow, Portillo becomes the star sleuth in a personal journey with the suspense dynamics of a classic murder mystery." - SF Cinemateque Preceded by: Columbus on Trial Lourdes Portillo, US/Mexico, 1993, 18 min. Inspired by the controversy surrounding the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' "discovery" of America, Portillo has fashioned a fanciful version of a courtroom were Columbus to return from his grave to stand trial. Cross-examined by the Latino comedy group, Culture Clash, Columbus is charged with atrocities against the Native peoples of the New World, including the rape and violent treatment of women. Satire and parody rule in this dynamic document about American history and colonization.
	Tuesday, April 2, 6:30pm at Americas Society, 680 Park Avenue Macho Lucinda Broadbent, Nicaragua/Scotland, 2000, 26 min. Macho provides an in-depth profile of Men Against Violence, a pioneering group working to eliminate attitudes of male chauvinism (known as machismo in Spanish) and violence against women in Nicaragua and Latin America. The organization was founded shortly after Nicaraguan Sandinista leader and ex-President Daniel Ortega was accused on multiple charges of rape and battery by his stepdaughter, Soilamerica Narvaez. A powerful film challenging assumptions about "machismo” and its continued application to Latino culture, Macho forcefully demonstrates how violence is a worldwide epidemic in need of attention by every man, in every country. A Man, When He is a Man Valeria Sarmiento, Chile,1982, 66 min. Set in Costa Rica and touched with dark humor, this stylistically imaginative documentary illuminates the social climate and cultural traditions that nurture machismo and allow the domination of women to flourish in Latin America. Alarmingly honest interviews with men and boys of all ages reveal the effects male posturing and its potentially serious consequences.
	Monday, April 8, 8:00 pm at Two Boots Pioneer Theater, 155 East 3rd St. Danzón María Novaro, Mexico, 1992, 103 min. This balmy tropical breeze of a movie tells the story if a switchboard operator who finds fulfillment in the dance hall performing that elegant mixture of passion and precision known as danzón. With its vibrant colors, torchy love songs, and engaging characters, the film negotiates a delicate balance between modern notions of female empowerment and the no less valid appeals of tradition, nostalgia, sexiness and old fashion romance. “A delicately sensuous tale.” - NY Daily News Preceded by: Drum Solo/Solo Tambor Liliana Porter, USA/Argentina, 2001, 19 min. A mini musical presented as a series of vignettes involving inanimate objects and toys that refer to both serious and funny situations. In Drum Solo, each character carefully contrived cast communicates a different dialogue told not with words but with silence or under the spell of various unique musical compositions. Music by Sylvia Meyer. Filmmaker present to introduce her film
	Tuesday, April 9, 6:30 pm at Americas Society, 680 Park Avenue Daughters of War Maria Barea, Peru, 1998, 30 min. How does a 17 year old mother and leader of a girl gang survive in a region where violence and abuse has become the norm? In Daughters of War Peruvian director, Maria Barea, documents Gabriela’s life in Ayacucho, Peru, the former Maoist guerrilla stronghold ravaged by civil war in the 1980’s. As Gabriela’s story unfolds, we witness first hand the effects that war, drugs and poverty have had on this generation of youths in Peru and will have on generations to come. Home is Struggle Marta Bautis* ,1991, 37 min, Color Using interviews, photographs and theatrical vignettes, Home is Struggle explores the lives of women who arrived to the United States after leaving their homelands in Latin America - including, Nicaragua, Chile, Argentina and the Dominican Republic - as a result of economic and political crisis. By sharing stories about their past and present, as well as their views on sexism and political repression, Home is Struggle presents an absorbing picture on the construction of 'Latina' identity and the immigrant experience. *Filmmaker present to discuss her film with the audience
	Tuesday, April 16, 6:30 pm at Americas Society, 680 Park Avenue Love, Women and Flowers Marta Rodriguez and Jorge Silva, 1988, 58 min Flowers are Colombia’s third largest export. But behind the beauty of the carnations and chrysanthemums sold in the U.S. and Europe, lies a horror story of hazardous labor conditions for the sixty thousand women who work in the flower industry. This powerful documentary evokes with urgency and intimacy the testimonies of the women fighting to organize and bring attention to the harmful pesticides and fungicides that have caused drastic health and environmental consequences in their communities. La Mirada de Miryam Clara Riascos, Colombia, 1986, 25 min Miryam Ramírez, a single mother of three children, lives in a squatter settlement constructed on land claimed from one of the steep slopes of the Andes which bound Bogotá, Colombia. The film tells Miryam's story of advancement and growth, and portrays this woman's incredible strength throughout a life of struggle with harsh poverty and both physical and emotional violence.
	Monday, April 22, 8:00pm at Two Boots Pioneer Theater, 155 East 3rd St. Carmen Miranda: Bananas is My Business Helena Soldberg and David Meyer, Brazil/USA, 1995, 92 min. This fascinating film skillfully combines reenactments, interviews with confidants and commentators, and footage from her many films to tell the haunting story of 1940’s superstar Carmen Miranda. Charting Miranda’s transformation from famed Brazilian singer to Hollywood’s first Latina star to independent artist, award-winning Brazilian filmmaker Helena Solberg shows how Miranda’s saga exemplifies contradictions in the relationship between Latin America and the United States that persist today. At the convergence of sexual politics, cultural colonialism, and one woman’s life, this moving film powerfully explores the complex factors behind the image and life of the “Tutti-Frutti Woman”, Carmen Miranda. “Complex and probing…As enjoyable as it is thought-provoking…” - Variety
	Tuesday, April 23, 6:30 pm at Americas Society, 680 Park Avenue My Filmmaking, My Life: Matilde Landeta Patricia Diaz, Colombia /Mexico/UK, 1990, 30 min. Matilde Landeta entered the flourishing Mexican film industry in the 1930s, working her way up from script girl to direct 110 shorts and, in the late 40s, to produce and direct three features, including La Negra Angustias. In this engrossing documentary filmed in Mexico City, a vibrant Landeta, now in her 70s, recalls those years. Interviews with Mexican directors Marcela Fernandez-Violante and Maria Novaro enrich this illuminating tribute. My Island Surrounded by Water Maria Novaro, Mexico, 1985, 25 min. A beautiful and poetic account of a young girl’s search for her mother, whomysteriously leaves her family to join a guerilla movement, My Island Surrounded by Water presents the first cinematic foray by the award-winning filmmaker, Maria Novaro. This unique narrative combines the young woman’s real and imagined journey through the landscape of Mexico with her passage into adulthood to provide a fresh perspective on the relationship between cultural traditions and an emerging female subjectivity.
	Monday, April 29, 8:00pm at Two Boots Pioneer Theater, 155 East 3rd St. Sea of Roses Ana Carolina, Brazil, 1977, 90 min. On the road to Rio, a husband and wife argue in front of their daughter Betinha, and upon their arrival, Betinha’s mother decides to dispose of her husband cutting his neck with a razor blade. Mother and daughter set off on the road again towards a series of hilarious misadventures increasingly shaped by Betinha’s diabolical imagination. Using humor as the “best way to talk about serious things,” Ana Carolina explores absurd familial situations as a springboard for exposing sexism, repression, and alienation. Made just as Brazil was moving towards re-democratization, the film continually presents characters incapable or unwilling to express themselves, until their feelings finally burst forth with unplanned and unexpected rage. “Explosive humor…a comedy to offend everyone …count Ana Carolina as a helmer to watch.” - Variety Preceded by: Rita Goes to the Supermarket Jessica Grossman, Colombia, 1999, 15 min. One morning, after three years of marriage, Rita’s husband asks her to buy him some cherries. She goes to the supermarket and in each aisle she is confronted with the demons that are part of her complex and pink feminineworld. Domestic life won’t be same after this particular journey to the store. Filmmaker present to introduce her film
	Tuesday, April 30, 6:30 pm at Americas Society, 680 Park Avenue La Boda Hannah Weyer,* US-Mexico, 2000, 53 min. In an intimate portrait of migrant life along the U.S.-Mexican border, La Boda delves into the challenges faced by a community striving to maintain their roots in Mexico, while pursuing the “American Dream” across the border. Weyer follows Elizabeth Luis during the weeks before her marriage to Artemio Guerrero, interweaving the anticipation of the upcoming wedding with candid stories that explore the architecture of the Luis family. Along with her seven siblings, 22 year-old Elizabeth has contributed to the family income throughout her adolescence and young adulthood, often forced to sacrifice school for fieldwork, social life for travel as she and her family move between Texas, California and Mexico. *Filmmaker present to discuss her film with the audience
	Films screenings are Mondays at 8:00 p.m. at Two Boots Pioneer Theater, 155 East 3rd St. (at Avenue A) Tel. (212) 254-3300. Video screenings are Tuesdays at 6:30 p.m. or 8:00 p.m. (see schedule for time) at Americas Society, 680 Park Avenue (at 68th Street). Free Admission. Please reserve a seat by calling (212) 249-8950, ext. 364.
Cinema Tropical is proudly presented by Jameson, Irish whiskey. It is also made possible with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency. Additional funding provided in part by the Mexican Cultural Institute of New York and the US/Mexico Fund for Culture. Additional support provided by Latin American Video Archives and the Consulates of Argentina and Chile in New York. Special thanks to: Debra Zimmerman, Xochitl Dorsey and Christie George.