Cine Latino
DocuLatino
Directed by Anabel Rodríguez (Venezuela, 2020)
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On Lake Maracaibo, beneath the mysterious silent Catatumbo lightning, the village of Congo Mirador is preparing for parliamentary elections. This once-prosperous fishing community is now sinking into the sediment, unraveling after years of criminal pollution and government neglect – a reflection of all the flaws of contemporary Venezuela. Focusing on two fierce, independent women who epitomize opposing sides of this vulnerable community, Rodríguez Ríos’s film is a stunning microcosm of a global battle to safeguard cultural heritage and retain political relevancy. 99 minutes. Spanish with English subtitles.
Saturday, March 6, 2021, 5:00 - 9:00 pm Pacific Time
CLAS Virtual Event
A Screening to Support CLAS
Directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles (Brazil, 2019)
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We provide the film; you provide the popcorn – and a gift to CLAS!
CLAS is asking for your help. This year for Big Give, Berkeley’s once-a-year fundraising event, we are presenting a special showing of Bacarau, winner of the Jury prize at the Cannes Film Festival. This is a unique opportunity to support CLAS by buying a ticket for a film in our CineLatino series. Your support will help us continue to offer free film screenings in the future.
Thursday, March 11, 2021, 5:00 - 9:00 pm Pacific Time
CLAS Virtual Event
DocuLatino
Directed by Claudia Sparrow (Peru, 2019)
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Máxima tells the incredible story of 2016 environmental Goldman Prize winner Máxima Acuña and her family, who own a small, remote plot in the Peruvian Highlands. The Acuñas rely solely on the environment for their livelihood, but their land sits directly in the path of a multi-billion-dollar project run by one of the world’s largest gold-mining corporations. Faced with intimidation, violence, and criminal prosecution, the film follows Maxima’s tireless fight for justice, taking her from the Peruvian Supreme Court to the doors of the World Bank in Washington, D.C. Máxima sings of her love of the land in the face of widespread oppression of indigenous people and relentless attempts to destroy environmental resources that the world relies on. 88 minutes. Spanish with English subtitles.
Sunday, March 14, 2021, 5:00 - 9:00 pm Pacific Time
CLAS Virtual Event
DocuLatino
Directed by Simón González (Colombia, 2020)
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This film took a decade to complete. It is about love, affection, respect, humility, temperance and courage; about balance with oneself and the other. It is a tour through the mountains, jungles and plains where the jaguar has directly engaged with humans, creating a journey of chants, myths and cultural traditions which narrate the history of the human-jaguar relationship, and speak to the importance of preserving this severely threatened species. 72 minutes. Spanish with English subtitles.
Saturday, March 20, 2021, 5:00 - 9:00 pm Pacific Time
CLAS Virtual Event
DocuLatino
Directed by Jaime Murciego (Bolivia, 2020)
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Five Bolivian Indigenous women are involved in a unique expedition. As a symbol of liberation and empowerment, they propose to climb the highest mountain in the Americas. They are more than climbers, they are brave women who find, on the mountain, a space to feel free, happy and alive. Their adventure will show the world an inspiring way to be a woman, to live tradition and to relate to Mother Earth. 82 minutes. Spanish with English subtitles.
Sunday, March 28, 2021, 5:00 - 9:00 pm Pacific Time
CLAS Virtual Event
CineLatino
Directed by Diego Mondaca (Bolivia, 2020)
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Between 1932 and 1935, there was severe military conflict on the border between Bolivia and Paraguay, because of suspicions there might be oil. This historical drama about the Chaco war focuses on a small Bolivian regiment wandering across the inhospitable, dry Chaco plain. The group of Bolivian, Aymara and Quechua Indigenous soldiers are led by gruff German commander Hans Kundt, who refuses to accept how fruitless his mission has become. Despite dwindling rations, dissidents, and fights among his men, he is determined to continue. Isolation, despair, and hunger grow with every day, every hellish march, and every hastily erected camp. The miserable war transforms into a battle with their own demons, all with scarcely a gunshot heard in this sensuous film. 77 minutes. Spanish, Quechua and Aymara with English subtitles.
Bolivia’s candidate for the 2021 Academy Awards.
Saturday, April 3, 2021, 5:00 - 9:00 pm Pacific Time
CLAS Virtual Event
CineLatino
Directed by Rodrigo Sepúlveda (Chile, 2020)
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In Chile, 1986, a few days before Pinochet's attempted assassination, we witness a love story between "the Queen of the Corner," a middle-aged transgender woman who embroiders tablecloths for military wives, and a young guerrilla member of the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front. Under the Pinochet dictatorship, among gunshots and boleros, a passionate relationship flourishes. 93 minutes. Spanish with English subtitles.
Saturday, April 17, 2021, 5:00 - 9:00 pm Pacific Time
CLAS Virtual Event
CineLatino
Directed by Patricio Guzmán (France/Chile, 2019)
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In the film that won Best Documentary Award at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, Director Patricio Guzmán (Nostalgia for the Light) examines the enduring legacies of Chile’s 1973 coup, using the imposing landscape of the Andes as a focal point. The majestic mountains loom over the countryside, but like many parts of the country, much of the range is privately owned and off limits to the people. 84 minutes. Spanish with English subtitles.
Sunday, April 25, 2021, 5:00 - 9:00 pm Pacific Time
CLAS Virtual Event
Summer Cine
Directed by Fernanda Valadez (Mexico, 2020)
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Middle-aged Magdalena has lost contact with her son after he took off with a friend from their town of Guanajuato to cross the border into the U.S., hopeful to find work. Desperate to find out what happened to him—and to know whether or not he’s even alive—she embarks on an ever-expanding and increasingly dangerous journey to discover the truth. At the same time, a young man has returned to Mexico after being deported from the U.S., and eventually his path converges with Magdalena’s. 94 minutes. Spanish with English subtitles.
Winner of the Gotham Award for Best International Feature
Sunday, June 6, 2021, 5:00 - 9:00 pm Pacific Time
CLAS Virtual Event
Summer Cine
Directed by Rodrigo Reyes (Mexico, 2020)
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The year 2021 marks the 500-year anniversary of the Spanish Conquest of Mexico. 499 offers a bold, hybrid cinema experience, mixing non-fictional and performative elements with components of a road movie. Through the eyes of a ghostly conquistador, the director recreates Hernán Cortez’s epic journey from the coasts of Veracruz to the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan, the site of contemporary Mexico City. As the anachronistic fictional character interacts with real victims of Mexico’s failed drug wars, the filmmaker portrays the country’s current humanitarian crisis as part of a brutal and unfinished colonial project, still in motion, 499 years later. 87 minutes. Spanish with English subtitles.
Winner of the 2021 Latin American Studies Association Award for Best Film
Saturday, June 12, 2021, 5:00 - 9:00 pm Pacific Time
CLAS Virtual Event