Latin American Films at the
Human Rights Watch International Film Festival 2005
June 10—23
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

For more information visit Human Rights Watch

Special thanks to:

Compadre New York Premiere
Mikael Wistrom, Peru/Sweden, 2004, 90 min. In Spanish with English subtitles.

In 1974, the Swedish photographer and journalist Mikael Wiström traveled across Perú chronicling the lives of people who literally had nothing and were forced to live off what they could find in rubbish dumps. There, Wiström met Daniel Barrientos, a young man stricken with polio. Daniel asks Mikael what a man his age is doing with such an expensive camera. From that moment, a complicated friendship, lasting over 30 years, develops between these two men.

Following Wiström’s 1991 documentary The Other Shore, which chronicled Daniel’s family’s continual struggle to create a decent life for themselves, Wiström returns once more to Perú in 2003 in hopes of coming to terms with both his responsibility and Daniel’s plight. In Compadre, Wiström documents the daily life of Daniel’s family and also involves the viewer in the great dilemma of the Western filmmaker being confronted with dire poverty, an existential inequality that puts great pressure on the friendship. Wiström may call Daniel his brother, but how far does his “fraternal” responsibility extend?

Thursday, June 16, 3:30pm
Friday, June 17, 8:45pm (Filmmaker present)
Sunday, June 19, 8:30pm (Filmmaker present)
Wednesday, June 22, 2pm

Justice/Justica New York Premiere
Maria Ramos, The Netherlands, 2004, 100 min. In Portuguese with English subtitles.

How and for whom does the judicial system work in Brazil? Without attempting to provide definite answers, Maria Ramos takes her camera to a place where many Brazilians have never been: a criminal courtroom in Rio de Janeiro. She observes the daily routine of several individuals, people on both sides: those who work there every day (public attorneys, judges, prosecutors), and those who are merely passing through (the accused).

Strongly reminiscent of the work of Frederick Wiseman, the camera is used as an instrument to see the social theater and the structures of power — things generally invisible to us. The corridors of the Courts of Justice, the design and layout of the courtroom, the discourse, the codes, postures — all the little visual details and sounds become relevant. The filmmaker does not interpret what she films: she gives us no interviews or narration; the camera simply records what goes on in front of it. The film cuts between scenes of hearings and images shot outside the closed world (in the detention centre, at some of the characters’ homes), linking the courtroom with the society of which it is part and showing its impact on people’s lives.

Co-Presented by BrazilFoundation
Saturday, June 18, 3:30pm (Filmmaker present)
Tuesday, June 21, 8:30pm (Filmmaker present)
Wednesday, June 22, 4:30pm

La Sierra New York Premiere
Scott Dalton and Margarita Martinez, Colombia/USA, 2004, 84 min. In Spanish with English subtitles.

Shot over the course of a year, La Sierra follows three young people — a leader, a soldier, and a young woman — affiliated with Colombia’s illegal paramilitary armies as they go about their daily lives. The charismatic Edison is a 22-year old commander, de facto mayor of La Sierra, and neighborhood playboy who has fathered six children with six different women. Cielo is a 17-year old widowed mother who has a new paramilitary boyfriend she devotedly visits in jail every Sunday, while trying to find a way to make a living without taking a job in Medellin’s red light district. And wounded 19-year old Jesus seems ready for death while indulging his taste for marijuana and cocaine, but when the war in La Sierra comes to an end and the gang members begin a government-sponsored disarmament process, he starts to think of life without war.

Co-presented by Independents Night
Thursday, June 16, 6:30pm (Filmmaker present)
Saturday, June 18, 8:45pm (Filmmaker present)
Monday, June 20, 1pm

State of Fear New York Premiere
Pamela Yates, Paco de Onis and Peter Kinoy, USA/Peru, 2005, 94 min. In Spanish with English subtitles

How can an open society balance demands for security with democracy? State of Fear dramatizes the human and societal costs a democracy faces when it embarks on a “war” against terror, a “war” potentially without end, all too easily exploited by unscrupulous leaders seeking personal political gain. The film follows events in Perú, yet it serves as a cautionary tale for a nation like the United States.

Filmmakers Pamela Yates, Paco de Onís and Peter Kinoy masterfully blend personal testimony, history, and archival footage to tell the story of escalating violence in the Andean nation and how the fear of terror undermined democracy, making Perú a virtual dictatorship where official corruption replaced the rule of law. Terrorist attacks by Shining Path insurgents provoked a military occupation of the countryside. Military justice replaced civil authority. Widespread abuses by the Peruvian Army went unpunished. Terrorism continued to spread. Nearly 70,000 civilians eventually died at the hands of Shining Path and the Peruvian military.

Co-presented by the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) and the Tribeca Film Festival
Friday, June 10, 6:30pm (Filmmaker present)
Sunday, June 12, 4:15pm (Filmmaker present)
Tuesday, June 14, 1pm

Una de Dos US Premiere
Alejo Hernan Taube, Argentina, 2004, 88 min. In Spanish with English subtitles.

December 2002: Argentina is in turmoil over the economic crisis and demonstrators are flooding the streets of Buenos Aires. Filmmaker Taube uses this as the backdrop for his gritty, fictional drama about a small rural town trying to cope with the real affects caused by the deflation of the peso. The story centers around Martin and Pilar, two people living on the fringe of society. While everyone else in the town struggles to find a few pesos for a beer, Martin mysteriously has enough money to buy beers for everyone. Martin says he has a job, but when asked what it is he exactly does he’s reluctant to share any details. Pilar is from a good family which is rapidly slipping into poverty. Martin and Pilar are drawn together by a powerful erotic undercurrent and eventually fall in love while struggling to get by.

Saturday, June 11, 9pm (Filmmaker present)
Monday, June 13, 6:30pm (Filmmaker present)
Thursday, June 16, 1pm