Winter 08 Film Series
 FRIDAYS at 7pm, 1322 STORER
FREE ADMISSION, ENGLISH SUBTITLES |
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| Friday, Jan 18, 7pm O ANO EM QUE MEUS PAÍS SAÍRAM DE FÉRIAS (Brazil) (The Year my Parents Went on Vacation) In 1970, near the World Cup for Soccer, Daniel Stern and his wife Miriam leave Belo Horizonte in a hurry with their ten years old son Mauro in their Volkswagen. While traveling to São Paulo, the couple explains to Mauro that they will travel on vacation and will leave Mauro with his grandfather Mótel. Daniel promises to return before the first game of the Brazilian National Soccer Team in the Cup. The boy is left in Bom Retiro, a Jewish and Italian neighborhood, and waits for Mótel in front of his apartment. When the next door neighbor Shlomo arrives, he tells the boy that Mótel had just had a heart attack and died. Alone and without knowing where his parents are, the boy is lodged by Shlomo and the Jewish community. Through the young neighbor Hanna, Mauro makes new friends, cheers for the Brazilian team and sees the movement of the police and military forces on the streets while waiting for his parents. Written by Claudio
Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
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| Friday, Jan 25, 7pm EL VIAJE DE CAROL (Spain) (Carol’s Journey) Carol, a twelve-year-old Spanish-American girl from New York, travels with her mother to Spain in the spring of 1938, at the height of the Spanish Civil War. Separated from her beloved father, Carol arrives in her mother's home village and transforms the secretive family environment. Her innocence and rebellious nature drive her at first to reject a world that is at once new and foreign. But she soon journeys into adulthood through a friendship with Maruja, the village teacher, and a young local boy, Tomiche. Written by Film Movement
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| Friday, Feb 1, 7pm VIVA CUBA (Cuba) (Long Live Cuba) Written and directed by the internationally acclaimed screenwriter and director Juan Carlos Cremata Malberti, this award-winning film explores the bond of friendship, as the close relationship between Malú and Jorge, two children living in Cuba is threatened by the class differences between their families. The young cast (Malú Tarrau Broche y Jorge Miló Ávila) portrays the vivid and blunt language of children and the intensity of drama in social differences. Trailer |
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| Friday, Feb 8 25 WATTS (Uruguay) One neighborhood. Three kids. Twenty four hours. 25 Watts is about three young boys, Leche, Javi and Seba, who live in the urban Uruguayan city of Montevideo. All three live different lives with different problems dealing with money, school, girls and family; however, they manage to spend time with each other and move around the neighborhood that knows them very well. This urban movie shot in black and white portrays the lives of young Uruguayan men who spend most of their day drinking, sleeping with girls and meeting diverse people in the streets: a crazy delivery boy, a mentally challenged person, a drug addict and a philosophic video renter. The 90-minute movie condenses 24 hours of their lives. |
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| Friday, Feb 15, 7pm QUASE DOIS IRMÃOS (Brasil) (Almost Two Brothers) Paulo Lins, writer of Cidade de Deus (City of God), collaborates with movie director Lúcia Murat in a movie about Miguel and Jorge, who have a common background and share a unique childhood friendship. Miguel is a senator who faces political enemies. Miguel ends up in prison in the 70s and he meets his childhood friend Jorge who became a major drug-dealer. Miguel was there for political reasons, and Jorge, as a common criminal. Though both belong to opposite social classes they grow to be friends with very different lives. This movie explores many themes such as friendship, politics, social differences, the Brazilian judicial system, etc. This award winning drama combines fictional drama and history, immersed in the reality of Brazilian political turmoil in the 70s. Trailer |
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| CANCELLED Friday, Feb 22, 7pm JUDIOS EN EL ESPACIO (O POR QUÉ ES DIFERENTE ESTA NOCHE A LAS DEMÁS NOCHES) (Argentina) (Jews in Space or Why Is this Night Different from All Other Nights?) This edgy comedy from Argentina focuses on the crazed members of a Jewish family, reuniting to celebrate Passover amid dizzying personal crisis. The director is avid in portraying the traditional Jewish rituals in an Argentine family. This movie invites viewers to celebrate the diversity in Argentina and view the life of a boy who is raised in a family united by religion and culture. Trailer |
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| NEW FILM Friday, Feb 22, 7pm ABRAZO PARTIDO (Argentina) (Lost Embrace) This is Ariel's world: the small, slightly seedy shopping center in downtown Buenos Aires, where the Italian shopkeepers scream all day, the Koreans sell feng-shui and old Osvaldo sells nothing. Where Ariel's mother runs a lingerie shop and his brother deals in import-export. It's a comfortable little world, in spite of an undercurrent of malaise and uncertainty. Many young people are searching for their immigrant roots to obtain a coveted foreign passport, the key to a world full of promise. Ariel, however, wants more than a passport from Poland, where his grandparents fled to escape the Holocaust. He wants to understand. Why his father left his family shortly after his birth to fight a war in Israel. Why he never returned. And why this seems to leave his mother and brother indifferent...But the truth changes. And when Ariel's father returns, he brings with him new truths, a new story and, ultimately, a long-overdue embrace--one that had been lost for so long. Written by Sujit R. Varma Trailer |
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| Friday, Feb 29, 7pm PADRE NUESTRO (Chile) (Our Father) Padre Nuestro is an award winning Chilean movie about a dying man who decides to embark on a trip with his family. He wants to revive some past memories and he wants to deal with family problems that were not confronted in years. This comedy-drama has an excellent cast, including the famous Argentinean actress Cecilia Roth and Jaime Vadell (who won a well deserved the Golden India Catalina Award and the Valdivia Award for this role). The story explores family problems filled with intense dialogues, emotional swings, and repressed bitterness. Family drama entangles with situational irony, mixing drama and comedy. |
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| Friday, Mar 7, 7pm EL VIOLÍN (Mexico) (The Violin) Mexican writer-director Francisco Vargas settles into the sweet, beautifully crafted story of an old man and his violin. The violin belongs to a farmer named Plutarco, who joins his son and grandson as traveling musicians. Plutarco has a secret life: He uses his fields to hide ammunition for the guerrillas who are fighting an oppressive government. When troops bar him from his land, Plutarco strikes up a friendship with the army commander (Dagoberto Gama). This soldier may be brutal, but he appreciates Plutarco's soothing music. Don Angel Tavira, an octogenarian making his screen debut, gives a memorable performance as the grizzled Plutarco (he won a best-actor prize at 2006 Cannes). He is a lifelong musician, despite losing a hand in an accident when he was 13. Tavira's acting is the high point of this suspenseful yet beautiful movie, which - for a while at least - proves that music can soothe the savage breast. Trailer |
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