INDOCUMENTALES / UNDOCUMENTARIES

An exciting and original on-going traveling program committed to enrich the discussion on a wide variety of issues pertaining to Mexican immigration to the US.

This series is made possible with the support of the Mexican Cultural Institute of New York.
Special thanks to WCPUN (World Council of Peoples for the United Nations).

All films are in Spanish with English subtitles.
More dates, programs, and complete list of special guests will be announced soon.
All screenings are free and open to the public.

Friday, August 27, 6:30pm - 10pm, Outdoor Screening, Queens Museum of Art
New York City Building, Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Queens NY | (718) 592-9700| www.queensmuseum.org
Presented as part of the Queens Museum of Art's "Passport Fridays." Film introduced by co-director Carlos Hagerman. Screening preceded by dance by Mexicanos Unidos de Queens Ballet Folklorico Groups Nueva Juventud and Ballet Infantil Tepochli, and Colombian and Mexican cumbias by Brooklyn-based band Cumbiagra.

Monday, August 30, 7pm, King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center Auditorium at NYU
53 Washington Square South (between Thompson and Sullivan), Manhattan, NY | (212) 998-3650 | http://clacs.as.nyu.edu/
Free admission (picture ID required at door).
Discussion following the screening with co-director Carlos Hagerman.

Los que se quedan / Those Who Remain
(Juan Carlos Rulfo, Carlos Hagerman, Mexico, 2008, 96 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
“Those Who Remain shines a light on the families left behind by loved ones who have traveled North for work, while also illuminating the rich glow of the Mexican spirit. With great balance and sensitivity, this intimate documentary follows a number of families who each share their stories, ranging from the American Dream to heartbreakingly tragedy. Examining the emotional cost of long-term estrangement, directors Juan Carlos Rulfo and Carlos Hagerman find rich cinematic metaphors in the deserted, newly constructed homes on the highway, their empty rooms a powerful reminder of the absence of loved ones at otherwise joyous occasions like communions and graduations. Despite this void in their communities, many of those profiled emerge as colorful characters with boundless vitality and wonderful senses of humor.” – L.A. Film Festival.

Wednesday, Cinco de Mayo at 7pm
The King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center Auditorium, NYU, Manhattan
53 Washington Square South (between Thompson and Sullivan), Manhattan, NY | (212) 998-3650 | http://clacs.as.nyu.edu/
FREE ADMISSION (picture ID required at door)
Post screening discussion with Karina Escamilla, Co-director, Subterraneans; Javier Dorantes and Ausencio “El Palomo”, Los Inmigrantes del Sur and Ethan Nadelmann, Drug Policy Alliance.

Al Otro Lado
(Natalia Almada, US/Mexico, 2005, 66 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Like many in Sinaloa, the drug capital of Mexico, 23-year-old Magdiel faces two choices to better his life: trafficking drugs or crossing the border into the United States. Yet Magdiel has a special talent that could be his ticket out: composing corridos – ballads about the narcotics underworld and undocumented immigrant life. For over 200 years corridos have been Mexico's musical underground newspaper and the voice of those rarely heard outside their communities. From Sinaloa, Mexico, to the streets of South Central and East L.A., Al Otro Lado explores the world of drug smuggling, immigration and the corrido music that chronicles it all. Natalia Almada's award-wining documentary features Los Tigres del Norte and Jenny Rivera, among other musicians.

Watch the trailer | Official website

Preceded by Subterraneans: Norteña Music in New York
(Gaspar Orozco and Karina Escamilla, US, 2010, 26 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Five musical groups from south-center Mexico survive playing music in the subways of New York. For them, Mexican Norteña music is more than a way of life –it is an expressive vehicle that reflects their experience as immigrants in this country and gives them a sense of identity in a radically new society. Caught between a yearning for the country they left behind and the hope of building a new life in a new society. This small community of norteña musicians is the manifestation of an identity in transformation.

Tuesday, May 11, 6pm - 9pm: Casita Maria Center for Art & Education, Bronx.
928 Simpson Street, Bronx NY | (718) 589-2230 | http://www.casita.us/
Presented locally in partnership with the Bronx Council for the Arts as part of The Big Read in the Bronx, a community reading project that celebrates the short story collection, Sun, Stone and Shadows. The Big Read is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services and Arts Midwest.

Los que se quedan / Those Who Remain
(Juan Carlos Rulfo, Carlos Hagerman, Mexico, 2008, 96 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
“Those Who Remain shines a light on the families left behind by loved ones who have traveled North for work, while also illuminating the rich glow of the Mexican spirit. With great balance and sensitivity, this intimate documentary follows a number of families who each share their stories, ranging from the American Dream to heartbreakingly tragedy. Examining the emotional cost of long-term estrangement, directors Juan Carlos Rulfo and Carlos Hagerman find rich cinematic metaphors in the deserted, newly constructed homes on the highway, their empty rooms a powerful reminder of the absence of loved ones at otherwise joyous occasions like communions and graduations. Despite this void in their communities, many of those profiled emerge as colorful characters with boundless vitality and wonderful senses of humor.” – L.A. Film Festival.

Thursday, May 13, 5:45pm – 9pm: Dwyer Cultural Center, Harlem
258 Saint Nicholas Avenue, Harlem, NY (entrance at 123rd St. between St. Nicholas Ave. and Frederick Douglass Blvd.) | (212) 222-3060 | http://www.dwyercc.org/
Presented locally in partnership with the New York Metropolitan Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolence and the International Communications Association.

Mi vida dentro / My Life Inside
(Lucía Gajá, Mexico, 2007, 120 min. In Spanish and English with English subtitles)
“In January 2003, 21-year-old Rosa Estela Olera Jiménez, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico working as a nanny in Austin, Texas, is brought to trial for the homicide of 21-month-old Bryan Guttierez, a young boy who died under mysterious circumstances while in her care. The prosecution is relentless in its demonization of Jiménez, a soft-spoken mother of two who was working to one day buy her mother a house and build a better life for herself in the land of opportunity. With a sweeping, lyrical focus, the film encompasses the obstacles, prejudices and Sisyphean struggles faced by many Mexican migrant workers who leave their lives behind to pursue the American dream. A powerful and heart-wrenching documentary, My Life Inside alternates between tense courtroom drama and moving personal profile, providing a cautionary tale about the experience of outsiders in the United States.” – Hotdocs.

Friday, May 21, 6:30 – 9:30: I.S. 291, Bushwick, Brooklyn.
231 Palmetto Street between Knickerbocker and Wilson Avenues.
Presented locally in partnership with the Coalition for Hispanic Family Services, Beacon Center for Arts & Leadership.

Los que se quedan / Those Who Remain
(Juan Carlos Rulfo, Carlos Hagerman, Mexico, 2008, 96 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
“Those Who Remain shines a light on the families left behind by loved ones who have traveled North for work, while also illuminating the rich glow of the Mexican spirit. With great balance and sensitivity, this intimate documentary follows a number of families who each share their stories, ranging from the American Dream to heartbreakingly tragedy. Examining the emotional cost of long-term estrangement, directors Juan Carlos Rulfo and Carlos Hagerman find rich cinematic metaphors in the deserted, newly constructed homes on the highway, their empty rooms a powerful reminder of the absence of loved ones at otherwise joyous occasions like communions and graduations. Despite this void in their communities, many of those profiled emerge as colorful characters with boundless vitality and wonderful senses of humor.” – L.A. Film Festival.

Wednesday, June 30, 7pm – 10pm*: The Children's Aid Society, Harlem
130 East 101st Street (between Lexington and Park Avenues), Harlem, NY | (212) 348-2343
Q&A with the filmmakers and musicians. Food for sale to raise money for the Head Start program. *Rain or shine (in case of rain the event will be held indoors at the gym).

Subterraneans: Norteña Music in New York / Subterráneos: música norteña en Nueva York
(Gaspar Orozco and Karina Escamilla, US, 2010, 26 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Five musical groups from south-center Mexico survive playing music in the subways of New York. For them, Mexican Norteña music is more than a way of life –it is an expressive vehicle that reflects their experience as immigrants in this country and gives them a sense of identity in a radically new society. Caught between a yearning for the country they left behind and the hope of building a new life in a new society. This small community of norteña musicians is the manifestation of an identity in transformation.

The Manhatitlán Chronicles / Crónicas de Manhatitlán
(Felipe Galindo, Feggo, US, 1999, 7 min.) The Manhatitlán Chronicles is an animated flight of fancy that transposes elements of Mexican culture onto the cityscape of Manhattan. A humorous view on how Mexican and American cultures playfully intertwine.
The Manhatitlán Codex
(Felipe Galindo, Feggo, US, 2008, 5 min.) Felipe Galindo's new digital animation, narrates an imaginary migration of a group of Mexican people to the US, inspired by Aztec mythology and American history. This animation explores the concepts of homeland, migration and globalization.

The Sixth Section / La sexta sección
(Alex Rivera, US, 2003, 27 min. In Spanish and English with English subtitles)
The Sixth Section is a groundbreaking documentary that follows the transnational organizing of a community of Mexican immigrants who live and work in upstate New York. The men profiled in the film form an organization called ‘Grupo Unión,’ which is devoted to raising money in the United States to rebuild the Mexican town that they’ve left behind. Grupo Unión is one of at least a thousand “hometown associations” formed by immigrants in the U.S. The film shows how immigrants are responding to the pressures of economic globalization, how small groups of people can make big change, and how immigrant communities are building transnational communities, even in these times of increasingly militarized borders.

Tuesday, July 13, 6:30pm, Americas Society
680 Park Avenue (at 68th Street) | (212) 249-8950
Free Admission. Reservations required. Click here to register online
For more information and directions click here

Discussion with guest speakers Rodolfo O. de la Garza, Eaton Professor of Administrative Law and Municipal Science at Columbia University; Vice President of the Tomás Rivera Policy Institute; and Kirk Semple, Journalist, The New York Times.

FARMINGVILLE
(Carlos Sandoval and Catherine Tambini, US, 2004, 78 min. In Spanish and English with English subtitles)

The shocking hate-based attempted murders of two Mexican day laborers catapult a small Long Island town into national headlines, unmasking a new front line in the border wars: suburbia. For nearly a year, Carlos Sandoval and Catherine Tambini lived and worked in Farmingville, New York, so they could capture first-hand the stories of residents, day laborers and activists on all sides of the debate. This timely and powerful film is more than a story about undocumented immigration. Ultimately, it challenges viewers to ask what the "American dream" really means.

Watch the trailer | Official website