The Life and Times of Frida Kahlo (2005) Friday, August 25, 3pm & Thursday, August 29, 3pm English with Spanish subtitles, 90 minutes

The Mexican Renaissance of the 1930s and 1940s, along with the political upheavals of the times, form the backdrop of this retelling of the life of Frida Kahlo, an enduring cultural icon and legendary painter.

Kahlo's creative spirit and personal strength prevailed in a life overshadowed by emotional suffering and physical pain, results of her bout with childhood polio and later a debilitating streetcar accident. As an artist Kahlo came into her own with flair and innovation, creating works of personal expression and commentary on her life and milieu.

Kahlo's life was anything but sedate. She was deeply involved in the burgeoning Communist movement in Mexico, had an enduring but tumultuous relationship with muralist Diego Rivera, and had affairs with women and men, including the exiled russian Leon Trotsky.

The film The Life and Times of Frida Kahlo depicts a larger-than-life persona and delves into history, with an eye for the political and cultural tides that shaped and defined Mexico during that era.

Frida, the person and her art, defy easy definition. Often volatile and obsessive, Kahlo was alternately hopeful and despairing. She loved dancing and crowds and flirtation and seduction, but was often very lonely. She had a ferocious and often black sense of humor, as well as a sharp command of wit and metaphor. She took great pride in keeping a home for Rivera and loved fussing over him, but the two artists were both fiercely independent. She abhorred pretension. She treated servants like family and students like esteemed colleagues. Kahlo embodied alegría-lust for life. She valued honesty, especially to self. 

When Kahlo died at the age of 47 on July 13, 1954, she left paintings, including dozens of self-portraits, each of which corresponds to her evolving persona, as well as a collection of effusive letters to lovers and friends, and colorfully candid journal entries. All are irrefutable evidence that her life was nothing less than a quest to be true to herself.

The Life and Times of Frida Kahlo was produced for PBS. Award-winning filmmaker Amy Stechler was given access to photographs, paintings, newsreels and home movies, many of which have never been published or broadcast. Her research includes more than 20 interviews with important figures in Kahlo's life, including Mexican authors Carlos Fuentes and Carlos Monsivais, and Kahlo's principal biographer, Hayden Herrera.

"Three years ago," relates Stechler, "the only thing I knew about Frida Kahlo was that she was a painter who had a legendary, lifelong passion for another painter, and I assumed that he was a ravishing character. Then I saw a newsreel clip of Diego Rivera painting a mural in Detroit. He was an ugly man with the face of a frog and narrow sloping shoulders, an enormous belly and tiny hands and feet. I became enthralled with the question: Who was this woman who adored him?"

The film was shot at several locations in Mexico where Kahlo lived and painted: Casa Azul, her beloved blue home and studio; Xochimilco, the city of floating gardens; Rivera's San Angel studio; and San Ildefonso, where Kahlo attended Mexico's Preparatoria.

The musical score was created entirely using traditional Mexican and period music. Some comes directly from old field or studio recordings found in archives in the United States and Mexico. The rest was recorded for the film in Mexico by contemporary folk musicians.

The film is narrated by well-known actress and entertainer Rita Moreno. Lila Downs, a legend of Mexican music, supplies the voice of Frida Kahlo.

Lila Downs was born in 1968 in Tlaxiaco, Oaxaca, Mexico. Downs is the daughter of Allen Downs, a Scottish/English-American professor of art and cinematographer from Minnesota, and a Mixtec mother.

Downs grew up partly in Oaxaca and partly in the US. She began singing ranchera music at an early age and later sang at local fiestas in towns around the mountainous region of la Mixteca. As a young adult she graduated from the University of Minnesota with degrees in voice and anthropology. 
After Downs returned to Mexico, she began singing in clubs in the city of Oaxaca. She also sang in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, along with Paul Cohen, an American saxophonist. They began collaborating together on songs that would slowly evolve into Downs's subsequent recordings. The couple later became romantically involved.
In recent years, Downs and her band have toured widely in Mexico, South America, the US and Europe. She performs her own compositions, and she taps into native Mesoamerican music of the Mixtec, Zapotec, Mayan and Nahuatl cultures.
She was also heard on the soundtrack of the movie Frida singing "Burn it Blue," which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Song. Downs is currently based in Coyoacán, a neighborhood of Mexico City.
Discography:
Ofrenda (1994) 
Azuláo: En Vivo con Lida Downs (1996) 
La Zandunga (Narada 1999) 
Tree of Life (Narada 2000) 
Border (La Linea) (Narada 2001) 
Una Sangre (One Blood) (Narada 2004) 
La Cantina (Narada 2006)

Center for Global Justice summer film series

Global Justice Film Series, Sir! No Sir! Thursday, August 31, 3pm Teatro San Ana, Insurgentes 25, 50 pesos

The final entry in the Center for Global Justice Summer Film Series, Sir! No Sir!, energetically reveals the untold story of the GI movement to end the war in Vietnam. This is the story of one of the most vibrant and widespread upheavals of the 1960s-one that had a profound impact on American society yet has been virtually obliterated from the collective memory of that time. 

By the Pentagon's own figures, 503,926 "incidents of desertion" occurred between 1966 and 1971; officers were being "fragged" (killed with fragmentation grenades by their own troops) at an alarming rate; and by 1971 entire units were refusing to go into battle in unprecedented numbers. In the course of a few short years, over 200 underground newspapers were published by soldiers around the world; local and national antiwar GI organizations were joined by thousands; thousands more demonstrated against the war at every major base in the world in 1970 and 1971, including in Vietnam itself. This hidden history combines fast-paced archival footage with thoughtful interviews, "perfectly timed with new doubts about the Iraq War."

Cinemateca

José Luis's Pick and Tips:

The picks: 

The Life and Times of Frida Khalo
If you already know Frida's work and life, this program offers a meaty description/analysis of her art and message as explained by several people who knew Frida and some art critics who have studied her work extensively. If you don't know Frida, you are in for a treat. Although the program does not do a good job of explaining the accident that changed her life, it does point out that her art was her way of expressing and getting out her physical and mental pain and suffering. The cherry on top of the sundae is that Rita Moreno narrates the film. Well worth seeing, and fascinating!

Junebug
"Junebug is a great film because it is a true film. It humbles other films that claim to be about family secrets and eccentricities": Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times.

The tips:

Please take note that in order to provide the best viewing experience, the show times for some movies may be adjusted to accommodate their length. So please double-check the times in your schedule. Also, please remember our new ticket price of 50 pesos. 
Discount cards are 400 pesos for 10 shows. 

On Monday after 4pm, buy your tickets for any selection of the week. Don't take the risk of being locked out! Nos vemos en el Cine….

Freestyle: The Art of Rhyme (2004)
Friday, August 25, 5pm
Monday, August 28, 7pm
English, 75 minutes
Director: Kevin Fitzgerald
The trailblazers and contemporary purveyors of freestyle rap rub elbows in this one-hour documentary chronicling the genre's genesis, taboos, societal influence and future. Recorded in Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York City, the film rotates between off-the-cuff vocal performances and commentary from hip-hop mainstays such as Mos Def, Supernatural and the Last Poets. Featured artists include Lord Finesse, Craig G, Jurassic 5 and more.

My Name Is Bill W. (1989)
Tuesday, August 29, noon
English with Spanish subtitles, 100 minutes
A discussion follows the movie
This film shows every Tuesday at noon until October 3
Director: Daniel Petrie
Based on the inspiring true story of the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, this moving drama stars James Woods in an Emmy-winning performance as Bill Wilson, a successful stockbroker who loses everything in the 1929 stock market crash. After succumbing to depression and drink, he eventually sobers up with the help of fellow recovering alcoholic Dr. Bob (James Garner). With newfound hope for the future, the two create the now-famous support group. 

The Life and Times of Frida Kahlo (2005)
Friday, August 25, 3pm
Tuesday, August 29, 3pm
English with Spanish subtitles, 90 minutes
Director: Amy Stechler
Rita Moreno narrates this documentary that chronicles the life of artist Frida Kahlo. The biography reveals Kahlo's story in conjunction with events that defined the times in which she lived and that shaped her life and her artwork. Kahlo's tragedies and triumphs are told, from her childhood to her debilitating accident, her moving self-portraits, her affair with Russian radical Leon Trotsky and her tumultuous marriage to muralist Diego Rivera.

Art Special:
My Architect: A Son's Journey (2003)
Wednesday, August 30, noon
English, 116 minutes
Director: Nathaniel Kahn
Documentarian Nathaniel Kahn examines the life and career of his father, Philadelphia architect Louis I. Kahn (1901-1974), whose work included the Salk Institute and the parliament and capitol buildings in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The elder Kahn died of a heart attack in a Penn Station bathroom in 1974, unidentified and broke despite having been one of the century's most influential architects.

Shower (Xizao, 1999)
Wednesday, August 30, 5:30pm
Director: Zhang Yang
Mandarin with English subtitles, 94 minutes
Wealthy big-city executive Da Ming (Pu Cun Xin) returns to his boyhood home, where his aging father (Zhu Xu) and mentally disabled brother (Jiang Wu) run an old-fashioned communal bathhouse. At first, Da longs to return to his job. But soon, the leisurely pace and abundant camaraderie of the bathhouse, where men gather to chat and play games, has Da thinking twice about leaving his family.

Junebug (2005)
Wednesday, August 30, 7pm
Friday, September 1, 3pm
English, 107 minutes 
Director: Phil Morrison
When Madeleine (Embeth Davidtz), a big-city art dealer from Chicago, makes a trip to North Carolina with her new husband, George (Alessandro Nivola), he finally allows her to meet his small-town Southern family-including his bristly mother, Peg (Celia Weston), reticent father Eugene (Scott Wilson), crabby brother Johnny (Ben McKenzie) and immature sister-in-law Ashley (Amy Adams). Looks like a family with more problems than meet the eye!

Global Justice Feature Film
Sir! No Sir!
Thursday, August 31, 3pm
English, 90 minutes
By the Pentagon's own figures, 503,926 "incidents of desertion" occurred between 1966 and 1971; officers were being "fragged" (killed with fragmentation grenades by their own troops) at an alarming rate; and by 1971 entire units were refusing to go into battle in unprecedented numbers. In the course of a few short years, over 200 underground newspapers were published by soldiers around the world; local and national antiwar GI organizations were joined by thousands; thousands more demonstrated against the war at every major base in the world in 1970 and 1971, including in Vietnam itself. This hidden history combines fast-paced archival footage with thoughtful interviews, "perfectly timed with new doubts about the Iraq War."

Musical Saturdays
Opera: La Traviata 
Saturday, September 2, 2:30pm 
Sung in Italian with English subtitles, 139 minutes

Kids' Cartoons
Saturday, August 26, noon
Free 

Musical Saturdays
Video-Opera: Les Troyens
Saturday, August 26, at 2:30pm
253 minutes