‘Berg Hosts Latin American Film Festival
The department of languages, literatures and cultures at Muhlenberg College will host a Latin American Film Festival from Sunday, February 10 through Sunday, February 17, 2013.Wednesday, January 30, 2013 09:58 AM
All screenings are free and open to the public, however, some of the films may have themes that are inappropriate for younger audiences.
“Marimbas from Hell,” directed by Julio Hernández Cordón, will be screened on Sunday, February 10, 2013 at 7:00 p.m. in the Recital Hall of the Baker Center for the Arts. In the 2012 Guatemalan film, the character of Don Alfonso plays the marimba (xylophone) for a living but as his traditional music is seen as increasingly old-fashioned, he finds himself without a job. When he is introduced to Blacko, an old heavy-metal legend of the Guatemalan underground, they decide to do something radical and fuse the sounds of the marimba with heavy metal, sparking the beginning of an unexpected collaboration.
“The Man Next Door,” directed by Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat, will be screened on Tuesday, February 12, 2013 at 7:00 p.m. in Trumbower Hall, Room 130. The 2010 Argentinean black comedy tells the story of Leonardo, a prestigious designer who lives with his family in a famous house designed by Le Corbusier. Life is seemingly ideal until Leonardo’s boorish neighbor Victor breaks through a common wall to make a window. Victor’s new window looks directly into Leonardo’s living space, and as the tension mounts between the two men, complex relationships between class differences, social barriers and right and wrong are explored.
“Chico & Rita,” directed by Fernando Trueba, Javier Mariscal and Tono Errando, will be screened on Thursday, February 14, 2013 at 8:00 p.m. at the Red Door in Seegers Union. The 2012 Cuban and Spanish film is an animated love story starring the music, culture and people of Cuba. Chico is a dashing piano player and Rita is an enchanting Havana nightclub singer. When they meet, sparks fly and they fall madly in love. An epic romance unfolds as the pair travels the glamorous stages of 1940s and 1950s Havana, New York City, Las Vegas, Hollywood and Paris.
The documentary “From the Land to the Table” will be screened on Friday, February 15, 2013 at 7:00 p.m. in the Event Space in Seegers Union. This documentary is the first of its kind in that it shows the perspectives of seven majorly talented filmmakers and directors from all over Latin America as they capture the conditions and cultural diversity of popular produce markets in their individual countries. The seven directors are Alejo Hoijman, Marcos Loayza, Josué Méndez, Carolina Navas, Paola Vieira, Alejandra Szeplaki and Jorge Coira.
The Nicaraguan film “La Yuma,” directed by Florence Jaugey, will be screened on Sunday, February 17, 2013 at 6:00 p.m. in the Recital Hall of the Baker Center for the Arts. This is Nicaragua’s first full-length feature in 20 years and is the story of a young woman who dreams of transcending her bleak life in the slums of Managua by becoming a boxer. Looking beyond the meager possibilities that seem available to her, she finds solace and hope in her training and falls in love with a middle-class journalism student.
The Latin American Film Festival is brought to Muhlenberg through Spanish Film Club (SFC), an initiative by PRAGDA. SFC supports and facilitates the organization of Spanish and Latin American Film Festivals in universities and cultural institutions across North America. The goal of the SFC is to introduce students and other audiences to the cultures of these territories and to establish a stable exhibition platform for Spanish and Portuguese language cinema in the U.S. and Canada. The SFC series was made possible with the support of PRAGDA, the Secretary of State for Culture of Spain and its Program for Cultural Cooperation with United States’ Universities.
The Latin American Film Festival at Muhlenberg is being hosted in collaboration with the Office of the Provost, the Trexler Library, the Latin American and Caribbean studies program, the music department and the Lectures and Forums Committee.
For more information on the festival, contact Mirna Trauger at [email protected] or visit www.muhlenberg.edu/main/academics/llc.
