Latin American Films at the
Human Rights Watch International Film Festival 2003
June 13- 26, 2003
Co-presented by Cinema Tropical

All screenings at Lincoln Center's Walter Reade Theater, 165 West 65th Street, plaza level
(between Broadway and Amsterdam Ave.)

For tickets visit Filmlinc or call (212) 875-5600

$9.50 general admission
$6 for students with valid photo ID
$5 for members
$4.50 for seniors (only at screenings Monday - Friday before 6pm)
For group rates, please call (212) 875-5476 weekdays between 10:30am - 5:30pm.

For more information visit Human Rights Watch

Pinochet's Children New York Premiere
(Paula Rodríguez, Germany, 2002, 35mm, 83min.)
Alejandro Goic was sixteen, Enrique Paris, twelve, and Carolina Tohá, eight years old, when General Pinochet seized power in Chile on September 11, 1973. During the coup Alejandro and Carolina lost their fathers, and all three lost their innocence and their youth. And eventually all went on to become powerful student leaders in the tumultuous eighties. With thoughtful, emotional interviews and rich archival footage, Pinochet's Children is a remarkable film that beautifully renders three people's course of life against the background of the socio-political developments in their homeland.

Friday, June 13, 2pm
Saturday, June 14, 2pm
Sunday, June 15, 9:15pm
Tuesday, June 17, 9:15pm

Madame Sata
(Karim Ainouz, Brazil/France, 2002, 35mm, 105 min.)
Lapa, the bohemian district of Rio de Janiero, 1931: João Francisco dos Santos, AKA Madame Sata, was a flamboyant transvestite, cabaret performer, street fighter, prince of thieves, cook, prostitute, and killer, who became one of the most famous personalities in this colorful but seedy district of Rio de Janeiro.

Karim Ainouz's first feature is as seductive as the character it portrays. It is the true story of dos Santos, the son of former slaves who, over the course of his lifetime, spends 28 years in prison and adopts seven children, as he dances, loves, and battles his way through life and becomes a black diamond in Rio's inky sea of samba composers, female impersonators, and denizens of the underworld. (Opening at Film Forum, NYC on July 9, 2003).

Saturday, June 14, 6:30pm. Filmmaker present. Reception to follow discussion

Madame Sata page at Wellspring Media

Balseros New York Premiere
(Carles Bosch and Josep M. Domenech, Spain, 2002, 35mm, 120 min., Documentary)
In the summer of 1994, a crew of television reporters with unprecedented access filmed and interviewed seven Cubans with their relatives before they set out as economic refugees on homemade rafts headed for US shores. The crew followed the survivors who were rescued at sea and transported to Guantánamo, a United States military base and, at that time, site of a temporary refugee camp.

Seven years later, this same crew reconnects with their subjects to discover the outcome of their new lives in different regions across the United States. Life in the US and under capitalism is not a fairy tale for these refugees; Balseros is a true story about some of the authentic survivors of our times, an epic adventure of castaways caught between two worlds. (Opening at Film Forum, NYC on July 23rd).

Friday, June 20, 9pm*
Sunday June 22, 9pm*

* Filmmaker present

Wartakes/Tomas de Guerra New York Premiere
(Patricia Castano and Adelaida Trujillo, Colombia/England, 2002, video, 78 min., documentary)
For over four years, three Colombian filmmakers turned their cameras on themselves, using personal stories to expose the tough reality in their violent, war-ravaged country. According to these filmmakers, Colombia has been functioning for many years in the gray area between legalism and lawlessness. Their portrayal does not aim to confirm the image the outside world has of Colombia as a hotbed of excessive political violence and drug traffic, but instead draws out the beauty and warmth amidst the larger turmoil within their homeland. The humor borders on surreal as the film moves between conversations in the jungle with guerrillas to elegant dinner parties with society's elite. Wartakes allows the real lives of its heroes, forever changed by war, to break through the stereotypes, forcing us to rethink our own conceptions, or misconceptions, of the beliefs and values by which these Colombians live.

Wednesday, June 25, 4:15pm* & 9pm*
Thursday June 26, 7pm*

* Filmmakers present