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South America

Brazilian Dreams: Visiting Points of Resistance

Explores cultures of opposition in Brazil as documented by two US travelers in 1988-1989.

Buenos Aires, Rock IV. Festival B.A., Rock

Performances by: Spinta Jade, Raul Porchetto, Litto Nebia, Pedro y Pablo, Cantilo y Punch, Ruben Rada, Los Abuelos de la Nada, Leon Gieco, Piero con Prema, Alejandro Lerner, Orions, La Torre, and V-8. Documents performances at the 4th Festival of Buenos Aires, Rock. The filmmakers interview musicians about their music, and explore how it is received by their audiences. 1983.

Burden of Dreams.

Directed by Les Blank. Documents German film director Werner Herzog's struggle to complete his film Fitzcarraldo in the face of plane crashes, torrential rains, attacks by armed, hostile Indians, and the loss of several sets of leading actors. 1982. 94 min. Online Access through LFLFC and Kanopy.

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Bus 174 (Onibus 174)

Based on extensive research, stock footage, interviews and official documents, investigates the tragic series of events that followed a desperate bus hijacking in Rio de Janeiro in 2000 that turned deadly when a SWAT team took evasive action against a drug-addled hijacker. Directed by Jose Padilha & Felipe Lacerda. 2002. 120 min.

Cabra Marcado Para Morrer (A Man Listed to Die)

Directed by Eduardo Coutinho, 1984. The film examines the brutal suppression and murder of peasant actors in 1964 who were creating a radical docudrama contrasting the poverty of Brazil's rural poor with the imperialism of the state. The film was aborted by Brazil's coup d'etat in 1964. 119 min.

Calle Santa Fe: un amor revolucionario

A documentary about a leftist activist coming back to Chile from exile. Old harrowing memories come back to mind along with fears of finding a submissive Chile that doesn't fit in with the ideals they struggled for, so it triggers mixed feelings and the sensation of a lost battle. Presented at the International Latino Film Festival held in the San Francisco Bay Area. Directed by Carmen Castillo. 2007. 167 min.

Caminos de Liberacion.

A documentary which examines the religious practices and works of a socially committed sector of the Catholic Church in Peru. Interviews with priests complement footage of their work as they struggle to serve their congregations within a context of poverty, violence and injustice. In Spanish. 198-?. 20 min.

Can't Do It In Europe

A look at the unlikely tourist destination of Potosi, Bolivia, where wealthy travelers pay for the right to experience an authentic Third World silver mine. This film portrays the new phenomenon of 'reality tourism,' whereby bored American or European travelers seek out real-life experiences as exciting tourist "adventures." The film follows a group of such international tourists as they visit the mines in Potosi--the poorest city in the poorest nation in Latin America--where Bolivian miners work by hand, just as they did centuries ago, to extract silver from the earth.

Candamo: La Ultima Selva sin Hombres


Candombe: Afro-kultur e Uruguay.

Fernando Nunez, a black man, a musician, and a maker of drums, sees himself as the heir to "Candombe," an important social and cultural legacy from his slave forefathers in Uruguay. However, the official history and culture of Uruguay continues to marginalize expressions of black culture. Fernando Nunez and his friends from Barrio Sur, a back street quarter of Montevideo, fight to keep these important cultural roots alive in the consciousness of the Uruguayan people. 1994. 17 min.