Latin America

Latin America and Caribbean See also: Indians of South and Central America Latrinos/Hispanic Americans And the Dish Ran Away With the Spoon [VHS 955] 1992 Bullfrog Films 1/2" video Color 1 cass., 50 min. Using poetry, interviews, music, and clips from television shows, this film highlights the effects of American television broadcasts on local cultures in the Caribbean. Looks at Cuba's attempts to produce locally-oriented broadcasting, and the response to this from the United States by introducing the anti-Castro station TV Marti. Argentina Land Of Natural Wonder [VHS 1443] 1990 Gessler Publishing Company. 1/2" Video Color 1 cass., 52 min. A video tour of Argentina, a land of natural wealth and beauty. Includes a collection of terrain and climates among the most diverse anywhere. See Aconcaua (the tallest mountain in the western hemisphere), the beaches of Mar del Plata, and Perito Moreno (the world's only growing glacier), and Buenos Aires. Balseros [DVD 810] 2002 Docurama 4 3/4" DVD Color 1 videodisc, 120 min. An account of seven Cuban refugees who risked their lives in homemade rafts to reach the United States, and what life is like for those who succeed. Follows a lively group of rafters, many of whom were detained at the Guantanamo naval base before being allowed onto American soil. In Spanish with English subtitles. Subjects – Immigration and Emigration ; Latin America and the Caribbean ; Language: Spanish Banking on Life and Debt [VHS 1219] 1995 Maryknoll World Productions 1/2" video Color 1 cass., 30 min. Visits three countries (Ghana, Brazil and Philippines) where influences of the international banking community have resulted in diminished living conditions. It shows how millions of children are sacrificed for the sake of financial stability. Traces the post-World War II change which led to the current world economic order. Subject -- Economics ; Asia: Philippines ; Africa ; Latin America and Caribbean Bettina Gray Speaks With Luis Valdez [VHS 970] 1993 KQED 1/2" video Color 1 cass., 26 min. Luis Valdez, founder of Teatro Campesino, describes how he became a playwright and director and explains how his plays retrace the experience of Chicano families. Biculturalism and Acculturation Among Latinos [VHS 590] 1992 Films for the Humanities 1/2" video Color 1 cass., 28 min. Examines the question of which part of their culture Latinos feel they should keep and leave behind. Explodes some beliefs and misconceptions about who they are today in the United States and probes the relationship between ethnic identity and entrepreneurial success. Borges and I [VHS 903] 1987 RM Arts/Home Vision 1/2" video Color 1 cass., 76 min. A study of the Argentine author that combines interviews with him, readings from some of his biographical and fictional writings, and dramatizations of his life and works. In English with dramatic sequences in Spanish. (Profile of a Writer, v.7) Burn The Floor [VHS 1870] Universal 1/2" video Color 1 cass., 97 min. This dance extravaganza features 44 of the world's champion ballroom and Latin dancers and was filmed at its world premiere in 1999. Features championship dance couples from fifteen different countries. The show explores beyond Ballroom and Latin dance styles - including rhumba, samba, cha cha, waltz, jive, jitterbug, swing, mambo, salsa, tango and quickstep. The traditional pivots, voltas, swirls and sways of Ballroom dancing have been pulled apart and stitched back together with sexy, saucy, hip gyrating abandonment. Closed captioned. Subjects -- Dance ; Latin America The Business Of Hunger [VHS 1267] 1984 Maryknoll World Video 1/2" video Color 1 cass., 28 min. Examines a major cause of world hunger which is being created when small, native farmers are forced off the land and replaced by multinational agribusinesses that produce food for export rather than local consumption. Shows scenes of recent food riot in Brazil and the Dominican Republic of starving women and children, and displaced farmers. Cautiva [DVD 508] 2005 Primo Plana Film Group 4 3/4" DVD Color 1 videodisc, 115 min. Cristina’s life is thrown into turmoil when she is suddenly escorted from her strict Catholic school and told that she is really Sofía Lombardi, the daughter of activists who disappeared in the ’70s. Questioning everything she once thought true, Cristina embarks on a journey to find her true identity. Meeting others like herself, the young girl soon discovers the real-life horrors of Argentina’s relatively recent past and the nightmare that claimed tens of thousands of lives during the country’s ’Dirty War.’ Cast: Barbara Lombardo, Mercedes Funes. Spanish dialogue, English subtitles. Subjects – Movies and Plays ; Language: Spanish ; Latin America and Caribbean Central Station [DVD 884] 1998 Sony Pictures 4 3/4" DVD Color 1 videodisc, 113 mins Inside Rio de Janeiro’s bustling Central Stations, two very unlikely souls, a motherless young boy and a lonely retired school teacher become inextricably linked and form an uncommon bond as they venture from the bustling city to Brazil's remote northeast region in search of the boy's father. In Portuguese with English subtitles. Cast: Fernanda Montenegro, Vinícius de Oliveira. Subjects – Movies and Plays ; Latin America and Caribbean Chiapas: Landscape After The Battle [VHS 1266] 1999 Films for the Humanities 1/2" video Color 1 cass., 60 min. Examines the 30 year rebellion and conflict between the Mexican government and the indigenous population in Chiapas through interviews with village residents, journalists, politicians and rebel Zapatista leaders. In Spanish with English subtitles. Chicana [VHS 898] 1979 Women Make Movies 1/2" video Color 1 cass., 23 min. Employs Mexican murals, rare photographs, prints, and documentary footage to trace the traditional and emerging roles of Mexican/Chinanas from pre-Columbian times to the present. Shows how women have made important contributions as workers, mothers, activists, educators, leaders, and numerous other ways despite their generally oppressed status in the Latino culture. Chile, Obstinate Memory [VHS 1811] 1997 First Run/Icarus Films 1/2" video Color 1 cass., 58 min. Patricio Guzmán, former bodyguard of Salvador Allende and creator of the documentary film of the 1973 Chilean coup, The battle of Chile, returns to his homeland and shows his film to a group of students who have grown up with no knowledge of the event. Subjects -- Latin America City Of God = Cidade de Deus [DVD 932] 2004 Miramax Films 4 3/4" DVD Color 1 videodisc, 130 min. The streets of the world's most notorious slum, Rio de Janeiro's "City of God," are a place where combat photographers fear to tread, police rarely go, and residents are lucky if they live to the age of 20. In the midst of the oppressive crime and violence, a frail and scared young boy will grow up to discover that he can view the harsh realities of his surroundings with a different eye: the eye of an artist. In the face of impossible odds, his brave ambition to become a professional photographer becomes a window into his world ... and ultimately his way out. Cast: Alexandre Rodrigues, Matheus Nachtergaele. In Portuguese with English subtitles. Subjects – Photography ; Latin and Caribbean DEFCON 2: Cuban Missile Crisis [DVD 162] 2002 Films for the Humanities & Sciences 4 3/4" DVD Color 1 videodisc, 52 min. As Kennedy and Khrushchev squared off over the issue of offensive missiles in the Western hemisphere, the full strength of the U.S. Strategic Air Command was placed on DEFCON 2—the highest level of military readiness short of all-out war. Hosted by Tom Clancy and shot on location in the U.S., the former Soviet Union, and Castro’s Cuba, scrutinizes the events of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Eyewitness testimony and expert analysis by key participants, reinforced by recently declassified audio tapes of secret meetings with JFK, previously secret film and photos, and powerful dramatizations, shed new light on a time when the fate of the world truly hung in the balance. Subjects -- Latin America and Caribbean ; United States: History Developing Stories: Life and Debt [VHS 1035] 1992 Bullfrog Films 1/2" video Color 1 cass., 50 min. Brazil's massive debt is the ultimate cause of the shocking assassination of 500 street children a year in Rio de Janeiro. The children's only crime is that they are poor and have nowhere to go. The film examines the links between Brazil's economic crisis and its tragic social and ecological plight following 500 years of domination and exploitation by Europeans, Americans, and now Japanese. Fidel Castro: Maximum Leader [DVD 167] 2004 Films for the Humanities & Sciences 4 3/4" DVD Color 1 videodisc, 53 min. Forty years after his emergence as the Robin Hood of Cuba, Fidel Castro has found himself on the wrong side of history. Using compelling archival footage, this program critically examines the single-minded idealism of a lifelong rebel. All of the milestones that have shaped Castro’s Cuba are documented—from his ousting of Batista, to his policy of brinkmanship with the U.S., to his ruinous economic reforms in the face of decades of embargo and the loss of Russian rubles. But as times continue to change, Cuba is experiencing a thaw, with a revival of tourism and a renewed tolerance of the Catholic faith. Isolated and aging, will Castro finally lower the flag of his revolution? Subjects -- Latin America and Caribbean Frida Kahlo: Portrait of a Woman [VHS 651] 1992 Films for the Humanities 1/2" video Color 1 cass., 20 min. Examination of the life and work of the Mexican painter Frida Kahlo, told principally through her self portraits in which the artist charted not only physical changes, but also the events in her life, including love, loss, politics, and her husband. A Glance At The Mexican Prehispanic Cultures [VHS 1445] 1989 Inside Mexico 1/2" Video Color 1 cass., 26 min. Profiles the various civilizations of pre-Colombian Mexico, including their influence on contemporary Mexican culture. Islas Hermanas: Sister Islands [VHS 1581] 2000 Bullfrog Films 1/2" video Color 1 cass., 28 min. Ometepe Island in Nicaragua and Bainbridge Island near Seattle, celebrate a 13 year relationship between people on the two islands. Shade grown organic coffee, produced on Ometepe, is imported to the U.S., and profits are returned to Nicaragua to fund clean water and school building projects. Each year Ometepe families welcome Bainbridge High students into their homes for two weeks. An enterprising third grade class on Bainbridge creates and sells calendars to support community projects on their sister island. In an era of many negative impacts of globalization, this program, conveys a positive story of international friendship. Subjects -- Latin America ; Environmental Sciences Juan Peron [VHS 1351] 1993 Films for the Humanities 1/2" video Color 1 cass., 13 min. Discusses the rise of Juan Peron and his impact on the history of Argentina. The JVC Video Anthology Of World Music And Dance [VHS 1536-1565] 1990 Victor Company of Japan 1/2" Video Color 30 cass., 50 min. each Accompanying guide and captions translated from Japanese into English; language of performances untranslated. [VHS 1563] v.28. The Americas 2: Mexico, Cuba, Bolivia, Argentina The JVC/Smithsonian Folkways Video Anthology Of World Music And Dance Of The Americas [VHS 1986-1991] 1995-1996 Victor Company of Japan 1/2" Video Color 6 cass., 59 min. each Presents examples of music and dance from the Americas documented in the booklet. [VHS 1986] Volume 1: Canada – Francophone Traditions, Native and Anglophone Traditions. The United States – African American Secular Traditions. [VHS 1987] Volume 2: The United States – European Traditions in the New World. [VHS 1988] Volume 3: The United States – African American Sacred Traditions, European & other Sacred Traditions. [VHS 1989] Volume 4 The Caribbean – Barbados, Cuba, Curacao & Bonaire, Dominica, Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique, Puerto Roco, St. Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago, Carnival Montage. [VHS 1990] Volume 5: Central and South America – Belize, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Guatemala, Guyana. [VHS 1991] Volume 6 Central and South American – Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, Venezuela. Subjects -- Music ; United States ; Latin America ; Canada ; Dance Latin American Historical Personalities [VHS 1446] 1997 Video Knowledge 1/2" Video Color 1 cass., 27 min. Focuses on personalities who played significant roles in the history of Latin America, including Christopher Columbus, Pope Alexander VI, Pedro Cabral, Ferdinand Magellan, Vasco Nunez de Balboa, Hernando Cortez, Montezuma and others. Legacy, #5: Central America, the Burden of Time [DVD 150] 2002 Ambrose Video 4 3/4" DVD Color 1 videodisc, 60 min. Explores the Mayan and Aztec civilizations which in may ways paralleled ancient Mediterranean empires: God-like kings and a noble ruling class dominated cities of temples and pyramids. Subjects -- World History ; Latin America The Legacy of the Mexican Revolution [DVD 621] 1994 Films for the Humanities & Sciences 4 3/4" DVD Color 1 videodisc. 30 min. Provides an overview of the Mexican Revolution and traces its human legacy through the Mexican population in San Antonio, Texas. Several prominent Mexican-Americans discuss how the war drove thousands of poor Mexicans across the border into the U.S., and how their descendants are still struggling today for integration into American society. Segregation and exploitation of Mexican farm workers—examples of ongoing racial prejudice—are discussed, along with cultural contributions by Mexican-Americans in the areas of art, business, and education. The program provides excellent insight into the roots of anti-Mexican sentiment, as well as the often quarrelsome relationship between the U.S. and Mexico from a historical perspective. Subjects – Latin America and Caribbean The Life and Times of Frida Kahlo [DVD 663] 2004 PBS 4 3/4" DVD Color 1 videodisc, 90 min. Frida Kahlo was more than a great painter: her life and art reflected the maelstrom of revolution and culture that defined the first half of the twentieth century. She was at times a socialist, a communist, and a revolutionary. This program presents her life as a reflection of her cultural history, her art and the times in which she lived. The film combines her artwork with photographs, archival films and interviews. Subjects – Movies and Plays ; Artists ; Latin America and Caribbean Machuca [DVD 1002] 2004 Columbia 4 3/4" DVD Color 1 videodisc, 115 mins. In 1973, in Santiago of Chile of the first socialist president democratically elected in a Latin-American country, President Salvador Allende, the principal of the Saint Patrick School, Father McEnroe makes a trial of integration between students of the upper and lower classes. The bourgeois boy Gonzalo Infante and the boy from the slum Pedro Machuca become great friends, while the conflicts on the streets leads Chile to the bloody and repressive military coup of General Augusto Pinochet on 11 September 1973, changing definitely their lives, their relationship and their country. In Spanish with English subtitles. Cast: Matias Quer, Ariel Mateluna, Manuela Martelli, Aline Kuppenheim Subjects – Movies and Plays ; Latin America and the Caribbean ; Language: Spanish Maria Full Of Grace [DVD 549] 2004 HBO Films 4 3/4" DVD Color 1 videodisc, 101 min. In a small village in Colombia, the pregnant seventeen years old Maria supports her family with her salary working in a floriculture. She is fired and with a total lack of perspective of finding a new job, she decides to accept the offer to work as a drug mule, flying to USA with sixty-two pellets of cocaine in her stomach. Once in New York, things do not happen as planned. Cast: Catalina Sandino Moreno. Subjects – Movies and Plays ; Latin America and Caribbean ; Drugs and Drug Abuse The Motorcycle Diaries [DVD 625] 2004 Universal Studios 4 3/4" DVD Color 1 videodisc, 127 min. In 1952, a medical student called Ernesto Guevara de la Serna teamed up with his friend Alberto Granado, a biochemist, and journeyed eight thousand miles through South America. Both young men are of middle-class Argentinean stock, and Ernesto has a girlfriend so rich and beautiful that her family's estate looks like Switzerland. If he had stayed with her, Latin-American history might have taken a more placid turn; instead, Ernesto remounted his motorbike, headed into the Andes, and began the determined process of turning into Che Guevara. Cast: Gael García Bernal, Rodrigo de la Serna. In Spanish with English and French subtitles. Subjects – Latin America and Caribbean ; Language: Spanish; Movies and Plays El Norte (The North) [DVD 638] 1983 Frontera Films 4 3/4" DVD Color 1 videodisc, 141 min. A brother and sister, two young Indians from Guatemala, set out to find a better life when their father is killed by government soldiers and their mother is taken away. Their journey to the north, the "promised land," is fraught with dangers and when they reach Los Angeles they are "illegals" submerged in an alien culture.,. Cast: Zaide Silvia Gutiérrez, David Villalpando, Ernesto Gómez Cruz. Spanish and English dialogue; English subtitles. Subjects -- Movies and Plays ; Latin America ; Language: Spanish The Panama Deception [DVD 903] 1992 Docurama Films 4 3/4" DVD Color 1 videodisc, 91 min. Offers a view of the 1989 invasion of Panama that was not given by the American media. Presents evidence of mass burials of civilian casualties and internment of homeless civilians which was concealed by the U.S. military or went unreported. Also claims to reveal President Bush's "secret agenda" behind the invasion: to keep U.S. military bases in Panama after the year 2000 in defiance of canal treaties. Subjects – Latin America and Caribbean ; United States: History Pancho Villa [VHS 705] 1995 Schlessinger Video Productions 1/2" video Color 1 cass., 30 min. (1878-1923) Pancho Villa is a paradoxical figure in history. Considered to be a murderous bandit by some and a heroic revolutionary by others, Villa was committed to improving life for the poor and redistributing wealth in Mexico. When the Mexican Revolution broke out in 1910, Villa created a powerful rebel army, and his success in northern Mexico made him an international celebrity, though he and his followers were highly criticized for their brutality. He is remembered as both a force of destruction and an agent of reform who fought oppression and brought justice to the people. (Hispanic and Latin American Heritage Video Collection) Closed captioned. Subjects -- Latin America A Place In The World [DVD 300] 1993 Transmundo Films 4 3/4" DVD Color 1 videodisc, 120 min. Mario and Ana, in voluntary exile from Buenos Aires, live in a remote Argentine valley with their 12-year-old son Ernesto. Mario runs a school and a wool cooperative; Ana, a doctor, heads a clinic with Nelda, a progressive nun. Into this idealistic family comes Hans, a jaded Spanish geological engineer -- surveying the land for the local patron, to see if it can be dammed for hydro-electric power, which would drive the peasants from the land into the cities. Spanish with English subtitles. Subjects -- Movies and Plays ; Language: Spanish ; Latin America and Caribbean Rigoberta Menchu: Broken Silence [VHS 770] 1993 Films for the Humanities 1/2" video Color 1 cass., 25 min. In recognition of her work for social justice and ethno-cultural reconciliation, Rigoberta Menchu of Guatemala was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. She is one of the most outspoken, articulate, and persuasive advocate of native rights. Rivera: The Frescoes Of Diego Rivera [VHS 1311] 1986 Home Vision 1/2" video Color 1 cass., 35 min. Explores Rivera's evolution as an artist, his use of the fresco technique, and his politics, creating a fascinating portrait of one of the geniuses of the twentieth century. A leader of the Mexican renaissance movement of the 1920's and 1930's, his frescoes unite themes of nature and revolution, drawing a parallel between the evolution of life and the struggle for human dignity. Sexuality In Mesoamerica: Machismo And Marianismo [VHS 1468] 1996 Cinema Guild 1/2" Video Color 1 cass., 33 min. A study of the concept of sexuality in Mexico and Central America. Focus is on the cultural archetypes of machismo and marianismo, orientations which have defined social conduct and sexual orientation throughout Latin America. In English and Spanish with translations into English. Simon Bolivar [VHS 743] 1995 Schlessinger Video Productions 1/2" video Color 1 cass., 30 min. (1783-1830) Vowing not to rest until he had broken "the chains of Spain," Simon Bolivar was instrumental in uniting and liberating South America. An eloquent, persuasive speaker and writer, his political statements stirred sympathies, but gained little political support for South American countries that were badly in need of social, political and economic reform. Bolivar eventually liberated five countries, adopting a Declaration of Independence for Venezuela and making it the first free Spanish-American colony. Simon Bolivar is known today by the people of South America as El Libertador -- the Liberator. (Hispanic and Latin American Heritage Video Collection) Closed captioned. Subjects -- Latin America Sin Nombre = Nameless [DVD 1009] 2009 Universal Studios 4 3/4" DVD Color 1 videodisc, 96 mins. Seeking the promise of America, a beautiful young woman, Sayra from Honduas, joins her father on an odyssey to cross the gauntlet of the Latin American countryside. Along the way, she crosses paths with a teenaged Mexican gang member, El Casper, who is maneuvering to outrun his violent past. Together they have to rely on faith, trust and street smarts if they are to survive their increasingly perilous journey towards the hope of new lives. In Spanish with English subtitles. Cast: Paulina Gaitan, Edgar M. Flores. Subjects – Movies and Plays ; Latin America and the Caribbean; Language: Spanish Threads Of Hope [VHS 1738] 1996 Films for the Humanities & Sciences 1/2" video Color 1 cass. 50 min. The powerful story of a group of Chilean women who banded together in silent protest and dared to defy a dictatorship. They are the sisters, mothers and wives of Pinochet's 'disappeared' and, armed with scraps of cloth, sewing needles and the overwhelming desire to find their loved ones, they set to work telling their stories by creating arpilleras: colourful handmade tapestries that chronicled the horror and inj Unfinished Country: Haiti's Struggle for Democracy [DVD 361] 2005 Films for the Humanities & Sciences 4 3/4" DVD Color 1 videodisc, 57 min. Through unfettered access to powerbrokers and ordinary citizens, this Wide Angle report covers Haiti’s ongoing struggle to craft a truly representative government from a volatile failed state. Butteur Métayer and Guy Philippe—strongmen of the National Front for the Reconstruction of Haiti Party and former rebels who drove Jean-Bertrand Aristide from power in 2004—and three other Haitians express their points of view. An interview between Bill Moyers and James Dobbins, former U.S. Special Envoy to Haiti , concludes the program. Will the Western hemisphere ’s most impoverished nation finally succeed in creating a stable democracy? Subjects – Latin America and Caribbean	to Subject Listing