José Luis's Picks & Tips


This week's pick:

From May 18 to 28 we will be celebrating the VII Multicultural Festival to promote world community (VII Encuentro Internacional de Convivencia y Hermandad Universal) in San Miguel, and the Cinemateca Santa Ana will join this celebration with a selection of films from the participating countries. This week it is hard to choose one to single out because I like all these movies. This time, you get to choose your favorite 
Note: The documentary Death in Gaza requires viewer discretion; it contains scenes of actual events that may disturb some people. 

The tips

In order to be able to provide the best viewing experience, the show times for some movies may be adjusted to accommodate their length. Be sure to check the schedule carefully. Also, please remember the 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….

Death in Gaza (2004) UK Monday, May 15, 3pm Hebrew with English subtitles 80 minutes Director: James Miller

Documentarians James Miller and Saira Shah planned to produce an in-depth look at the culture of martyrdom and hate pervading the Middle East. In 2003, they chronicled the lives of three Palestinian adolescents growing up in war-torn Gaza. Miller and Shah also wanted to show the Israeli side of the dispute, but during filming, Miller fell victim to the conflict when Israeli forces killed him. This Home Box Office special relates the tragic story.

Autumn Spring (Babí Léto 2001)
Czechoslovakia 
Monday, May 15, 7:30pm
Czech with English subtitles 
95 minutes 
Director: Vladimir Michalek
Frantisek Hana (Vlastimil Brodsky) is a 75-year-old Czech man who refuses to believe his days are nearly over-even as his ever-practical wife prepares for their impending death. He doesn't want to while away his last few years on earth living like a hopeless, aged crone. As a tonic, he spends as much time as he can with his friend Eda, engaging in pranks and other frivolities to infuse hope into his daily existence.

Center for Global Justice Feature Film
Cuba
The Greening of Cuba; 
Verde que te quiero Verde (1996)
Tuesday, May 16, 4pm
English, 38 minutes
Director: Jaime Kibben 
Producer: Marilyn Borchardt.
Challenged with growing food for 11 million people in the face of the continuing U.S. embargo, Cuba embarked on the largest conversion to organic farming ever attempted. The Greening of Cuba is told in the voices of the campesinos, researchers, and organic gardeners who are leading the organic agriculture movement. This moving video reminds us that entire nations can choose a healthier environment and still feed their people. 

The Cuckoo (Kukushka 2002)
Russia
Tuesday, May 16, 6:30pm
Russian with English subtitles
103 minutes
Director: Aleksandr Rogozhkin
A few days before Finland pulls out of World War II, Veiko, a Finnish sniper, is denounced by his comrades for a being a pacifist and a reluctant fighter. As punishment, the young man is shackled to a rock and forced to wear a German uniform, knowing full well that Russian soldiers have orders to shoot Germans on sight. Veiko escapes and forms an unlikely bond with a woman farmer (and other refugees) who are just trying to stay alive.

Cinema for the Mexican Youth
"Salon Mexico" (1948)
Mexico
Wednesday, May 17, 5pm
Spanish with English subtitles
91 minutes
Director: Emilio "Indio" Fernández
In this film, the renowned director enters into one of the most popular genres of Mexican cinema of the 1940s, the cabaret melodrama. This film differs from other films of this genre in that, for the first time in his career, Miguel Inclán, one of the most popular villains of cinema, plays the protagonist indian's policeman protects Mercedes, the showgirl with a heart of gold, played by Marga López, from the villain, played by Rodolfo Acosta. 

Yesterday (2004)
South Africa
Wednesday, May 17, 7pm
IsiZulu with English subtitles 
96 minutes
Director: Darrell Roodt
Darrell James Roodt (Cry, the Beloved Country) directs this heartfelt drama, the first Zulu-language film to be released internationally. Struggling to raise her daughter in a poor African village, Yesterday (Leleti Khumalo) finds the odds stacked against her when she learns that she's HIV-positive. With her husband in denial, Yesterday must somehow find the strength to go on, determined to live just long enough to see her daughter go to school.

The Color of Paradise (1999)
Iran
Thursday, May 18, 5pm
Farsi with English subtitles
90 minutes
Director: Majid Majidi
Eight years old and blind, Mohammed (Moshen Ramezani) returns home from school for the summer after nearly being abandoned by his widower father (Hossein Mahjub). Mohammed savors the country (special sound effects capture his acute sense of hearing), but warm days and wildflowers have no effect on his father's mood. Believing his blind son will ruin his chance to remarry, Mohammed's father needs no less than a miracle to have a change of heart.

Salaam Bombay! (1988)
India
Thursday, May 18, 7pm
Hindi with English subtitles, 114 minutes
Director: Mira Nair
This first fiction film from Mira Nair (director of Monsoon Wedding) won her the new directors award at Cannes in 1988. The wrenching story concerns a 10-year-old boy who is tossed out onto the streets of Bombay to find work. As he tries to earn enough money to return home, he finds it's hard enough just trying to stay alive in this lawless world. Nair hired many Bombay street kids for the film, and some scenes are filmed in an actual brothel.

Happy Times 
China
(Xingfu Shiguang 2002)
Friday, May 19, 5pm
Mandarin with English subtitles 
106 minutes
Director: Zhang Yimou 
Happy Times is a Chinese comedy about human nature when it comes to love and the pursuit of happiness. When a matchmaker sends middle-aged Zhao (Zhao Benshan) the perfect wife, he tries to impress her by promising a far more extravagant wedding than he can afford. Then, desperate to make money, Zhao gets mired in a hilarious, tangled mess before he decides to come clean to his fiancée.

Ikiru (1952)
Japan
Friday, May 19, 7pm
Japaneses, with English subtitles, 143 minutes 
Director: Akira Kurosawa
After finding out he is terminally ill with cancer, a government official (Takashi Shimura) quits his job and prepares to face his last year alive, devoid of family or friends. Determined not to die alone, he heads to a bar to get drunk for the first time. Hoping to drink himself to death, he instead meets an artist who takes him to bars all over the city, and later, a female co-worker sways him on the value of leaving a legacy.

Kids Cartoons
Saturday, May 20, noon
Free