Tulane University

The Stone Center for Latin American Studies presents Latin American film at this year’s 20th Annual New Orleans Film Festival. The Stone Center’s Biennial Latin American Environmental Media Festival awarded Justicia Now! the Grand Jury Best of the Festival prize last April 2009. Filmmakers Robbie Proctor and Martin O’Brien of MoFilms will now present their award-winning film at this year’s 20th Annual New Orleans Film Festival at the Contemporary Arts Center on Wednesday, October 14 at 7:15 pm.

We invite you to a reception preceding the screening at 6:00 pm at the CAC.

Latin American Film Programming at the 20th New Orleans Film Festival:

• El Sistema Germany. 2009. 102 min.
  Jose Antonio Abreu used his love for music to help ordinary children find a way out of the trappings of Venezuela’s pitfalls of dire poverty. His project started in 1975 and three decades later his movement has bloomed into a full-fledged public works program that several countries around the world now want to copy and implement. El Sistema shows how Abreu’s astonishing ideas result in a most improbable social project that has come to embrace all of Venezuelan society. A complex film, its beauty is in showing the emotions of the various children who now have found a way out of the violence and poverty.
  DIR: Paul Smaczny, Maria Stodtmeier PROD: Maria Stodtmeier CAM: Michael Boomers ED: Steffen Herrmann

• El Play USA. 2008. Documentary Short.
  El Play tells the story of Jairo Manuel Candelario, a young aspiring baseball player from San Pedro de Macorís, a small city in The Dominican Republic famous for birthing some of the world‘€™s most talented baseball players. The film paint‘€™s a detailed portrait of Jairo and his tireless commitment to the game as he balances his hopes of signing a professional contract with the reality of its improbability. Interviewed are professional scouts, coaches, family members, a baseball historian, and San Pedro-born Robinson Canó, the second baseman of the New York Yankees.
  DIR: Pablo Medina.

Wednesday, October 14
All at Contemporary Arts Center

• Beauty of the Fight USA. 2008. 69 min. Documentary Feature.
  In his photography book and documentary film Beauty of the Fight, photographer and director John Urbano explores, with intimate and devastating imagery, the effects of historic realities on two Panama barrios. Barraza and El Chorrillo suffered heavy losses when U.S. forces invaded in 1989 in order to capture General Manuel Noriega, and now this ‘€œInterim‘€ shantytown nears extinction due to recent outside private and commercial development. With deft camera work and under military police protection while entering the ‘€œRed Zone,‘€ the filmmakers render for posterity not only the daily struggle but also the dignity, joy, and heightened awareness of its residents. Boxers, cock fighters, gang bangers, street urchins, small business owners, family members, community leaders, and visionaries detail the day to day plight to hold onto the homes and endure the loss of loved ones due to street conflicts while they express the inevitable hopes of all peoples who fall victim to the unconscious political and economic forces. Not only does the film give voice to the people of this neighborhood, but it also explores the vagaries of documenting a community destined to slip into the past.
  DIR/PROD/CAM/ED: John Urbano

• Documentary Shorts Program 3: Latin American Docs (Total 42 mins.)

• Justicia Now! JUSTICIA NOW! is a documentary about Chevron Texaco‘€™s toxic legacy in the Northern Ecuadorian region of the Amazon rain forest‘€“and a courageous group of people called Los Afectados (The Affected Ones) who are seeking justice for the ensuing cancer, sickness and death in the largest environmental class action lawsuit in history. Directors: Martin O‘€™Brien and Robbie Proctor. USA. 2008. 31 min.

• BATTLE FOR THE XINGU
  Imagine Hurricane Katrina was not a hurricane but an event sponsored by the federal government, in collaboration with several multinational corporations. If your imagination fails you, watch Battle for the Xingu. The Xingu, a tributary of the Amazon, is home to over 10,000 indigenous people who rely on the river for survival. The Brazilian government is proposing what would be the world‘€™s third largest hydroelectric dam, threatening to destroy the biodiversity of the region and deprive these people of their rights to a sustainable future. The filmmakers were in Altamira in 2008 for the Xingu Alive Encounter to witness the spectacular determination of the Amazon people to protect their way of life. Today, plans to build the dam continue; so do the protests. Director: Iara Lee. USA. 2009. 11 min. Regional Premiere.

• Super Amigos
• *Mexico. 2007. 82 min. Documentary.
  Mexico City is not Gotham City but if you were to run into any of the five masked activists who protect this metropolis, you’d wonder if you were not living inside a comic book. These modern-day super heroes are a group of Lucha Libre wrestlers who have taken their fight out of the ring and into the streets of the Mexican capital. Super Barrio, Super Gay, Super Ecologista, Super Animal, and Fray Tormenta are real life masked super heroes who fight against evil slumlords, corrupt politicians, homophobia, pollution, animal rights abusers, and poverty. Though their true identity remains a mystery, they could easily be Mexico City’s most popular figures and last salvation.
  DIR/WRITER/PROD: Arturo Perez Torres PROD: Heather Haynes CAM: Mario Gallegos ED: Cameron Esler