Favela Rising  Friday, September 22, 6pm, Monday, September 25, 5pm Teatro Santa Ana, Insurgentes 25, 50 pesos Portuguese with English subtitles

One night in 1993 in a favela—an impoverished barrio on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro—an infamous drug lord shot and killed four policemen, launching what the favela residents refer to as “The Massacre.” In retaliation, the military police, known for their oppressive corruption, made a sadistic surprise attack on the community and slaughtered 21 innocent citizens. The film focuses on Anderson Sá, the brother of one of the victims. Instead of seeking revenge by further entrenching himself in drug trafficking—often the only mode of survival for those living in the favelas—he sought to counteract the cycle of violence. In order to save the youth in his barrio from the grim fate that would most likely await them, Sá began Grupo Cultural AfroReggae, an organization that uses music and dance to rally against the violence and crime that these youth face every day. Then, suddenly, Sá was paralyzed in a freak accident, and the true power of his movement was put to the test. Through their vivid, disturbing and poetic 
filmmaking, first-time feature directors Jeff Zimbalist and Matt Mochary move beyond a portrait of despair to chronicle the community’s transcendental fight for a better life, culminating in the inspiring ability to persevere and even flourish in the most unspeakable of circumstances.

The directors and producers of Favela Rising give all proceeds back to the community where it was filmed and to the AfroReggae movement.

Favela Rising has won numerous film awards including: Best Film (International Documentary Association), Best Emerging Documentary Filmmaker for Co-Director’s Jeff Zimbalist and Matt Mochary (Tribeca Film Festival), The Audience Favorite Award (Leeds International Film Festival) and many others.

The film’s official website is http://favelarising.com/default.php  from which this information comes.

Favela Rising co-director’s statement
By Jeff Zimbalist

My close friend and co-filmmaker Matt Mochary called me on the phone from a shantytown in Brazil. He told me to pack my bags because he’d found the story we’d been searching for. A week earlier, I’d sat with Matt at a Mexican bar in Bushwick, Brooklyn, and expressed my wish for more nonfiction stories in the news, television, and theaters about communities that succeed, that overcome great adversity, that unite and reach and achieve. In short—communities that work.

It seems most people’s image of global harmony or disharmony is predominantly shaped by the media. When I find myself surrounded by stories of the world falling apart, naturally I imagine the world as a place falling apart.

The more access I have to stories of communities that work, the more I imagine a world in which people are also realizing change and breaking the odds stacked against them. I am attracted to these vital and inspiring stories because it is in them that I find myself the most activated and alive.

On the phone, Matt told me of a chance meeting with the two leaders of a movement in the slums of Rio called AfroReggae. Here were a couple of broken individuals infected with idealism, eager for any chance to represent themselves, to share their winning prescription. I quit my job teaching editing and 10 days later was with Matt in Vigário Geral, Rio’s most violent slum. Across the table from us sat José Junior and Anderson Sá.

Over the next couple years Matt and I made many trips back to live in the favela with Anderson and Junior. We had taught youth from AfroReggae and a group called Nos do Cinema how to shoot with some of our DV equipment and would sometimes leave cameras with the children when we returned to New York. The idea was to encourage self-representation, to empower the youth using the same inside-out model of third world development preached and practiced by the AfroReggae movement itself. What was achieved was unique access to some of the more violent episodes of the favela and some of the most visceral and authentic scenes in the film.

On one of my trips I found myself driving to the emergency room at a beat-down public hospital in Rio after getting the call that Anderson had a freak accident and was paralyzed from the neck down. Anderson was a good friend by this point, and it was devastating to see him in full body traction, unable to move, in a room overcrowded with gunplay victims and the nearly dead. In a faint whisper, Anderson told us to film him. He told us this was the truth, this was part of his story. Just as suddenly as a man finds himself unable to move below his neck, Matt and my film had unexpectedly shifted. What had started as a more general investigation into the AfroReggae movement and the horrors of the favela had become the story of one man’s fight to overcome. As Anderson faced the biggest obstacle of his life, a vast favela community held its breath, praying for a miracle to resurrect their leader.

Favela Rising celebrates the strength of the human spirit to assert itself in the face of human rights violations, social injustice and unexpected adversity. Chronicling the rise to greatness of the AfroReggae movement, the film shows how the music and culture of Brazil’s underclass transform into a catalyst for grassroots social-change. But most of all, Favela Rising is the story of a community that works. The success of the film should be judged on how well it serves to activate its viewers; how well it inspires action.

The October Surprise

Global Justice Film Series, WalMart: The High Cost of Low Price

Thursday, October 5, 3pm, Teatro Santa Ana, Insurgentes 25, 50 pesos

November’s mid-term Congressional elections in the US are widely expected to be pivotal. As a prelude to the balloting, the Center for Global Justice is sponsoring a film series called “The October Surprise,” focusing on some of the issues in the campaign. As usual, each film will be followed by a discussion—an opportunity to express your opinion and share analysis with others. 

Some eye-opening documentary films will be shown on the five Thursdays before election day at 3pm in Teatro Santa Ana. The series opens October 5 with WalMart: The High Cost of Low Price. This is the film that has made the labor practices of America’s largest retailer a focus of many congressional campaigns. 

Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear, and the Selling of Empire will be screened the next Thursday, October 12. This documentary examines how a radical fringe of the Republican Party used the trauma of the 9/11 terror attacks to advance a pre-existing agenda to radically transform American foreign policy while rolling back civil liberties and social programs at home. The documentary places the Bush Administration’s false justifications for war in Iraq within the larger context of a two-decade struggle by neoconservatives to dramatically increase military spending in the wake of the Cold War, and to expand American power globally by means of military force

On October 19 the Center for Global Justice screens Invisible Ballots: A Temptation for Electronic Vote Fraud. Governments are installing computerized voting systems with no paper record to verify accuracy. Elections will be controlled by companies that do not allow voters to inspect their software. If vote counting becomes privatized, there may be no way to get it back. High-tech vote fraud is already a reality.

Robert Greenwald’s newest documentary, Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers, will be shown October 26. It tells the story of what happens to everyday Americans when corporations go to war, taking viewers inside the lives of soldiers, truck drivers, widows and children who have been changed forever as a result of profiteering in the reconstruction of Iraq. Iraq for Sale uncovers the connections between private corporations making enormous profits in Iraq and the decision makers who allow them to do so. 

Nearing election day, The Road to Guantanamo will be shown on November 2. 

This is the terrifying, first-hand account of three British citizens who were held for two years without charges in the US military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. They were eventually returned to Britain and released. Part documentary, part dramatization, this story of their chilling ordeal illustrates the gross violations of human rights that have become a hallmark of the Bush administration.

Pre-election film series 



Oct. 5 WalMart: The High Cost of Low Price 

Oct. 12 Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear, and the Selling of Empire 

Oct. 19 Invisible Ballots: A Temptation for Electronic Vote Fraud 

Oct. 26 Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers 

Nov. 2 The Road to Guantanamo 

Nov. 7 US election day

Film premier Viaje por Tubo del Obraje Tuesday, September 26, 5pm Teatro Santa Ana, Insurgentes 25 Donations

A trip through the pipeline



Are you afraid of the heights? A new short film lets you experience the adrenaline without taking any risk. Viaje por Tubo del Obraje (Trip through the Obraje Pipeline), an experimental short film by Rafael Almaguer Valadéz, has no dialog—just images of a great monument from San Miguel’s industrial era. The soundtrack includes “Orion,” from the heavy metal group Metallica’s Master of Puppets, and a tribute to Cliff Lee Burton, who died 20 years ago. This cinematic journey takes viewers through a pipeline located in the Charco del Ingenio botanical garden.

Rafael Almaguer Valadéz was born in San Miguel de Allende in 1990 and is a self-taught photographer. He participated in this year’s Expresión en Corto Film Festival with his first video, Bomba de Petróleo (an interesting short film about the old gas pump). The filmmaker will introduce the short film and hold a question-and-answer session after the screening.





Cinemateca from September 22 to September 29

José Luis’s Pick and Tips:



The pick: 

The Name of the Rose 

Adapted from Umberto Eco's best-selling novel, director Jean-Jacques Annaud's The Name of the Rose is a 14th-century murder mystery-thriller starring Sean Connery as a Sherlock Holmes-esque Franciscan monk called William of Baskerville. When a murder occurs at a secluded Benedictine abbey, William is called in to investigate. As he and his apprentice, Adson von Melk (Christian Slater), delve deeper and deeper into the case, more dead bodies begin to turn up. Eventually, Bernardo Gui, an inquisitor played by F. Murray Abraham, gets involved, but he may not have the best intentions. Sean Connery's performance earned him an award for best actor at the 1988 British Academy Awards.



The tips:

Please note that in order to provide the best viewing experience, the show times for some movies may be adjusted to accommodate their length. So double-check the times in your schedule. Also, please remember our new ticket price is 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….



Favela Rising (2005)
Friday, September 22, 6pm
Monday, September 25, 5pm
Portuguese with English subtitles, 80 minutes
Director: Matt Mochary, Jeff Zimbalist
Cast: Anderson Sa, Jose Junior 
Co-directors Jeff Zimbalist and Matt Mochary's acclaimed documentary charts the growth of Rio de Janeiro's AfroReggae movement, a grassroots effort to combat the soul-crushing oppression of the city's most notorious slum. Led by former street thug Anderson Sa, the nonviolent program celebrates Afro-Brazilian culture, drawing on hip-hop music and dance to unite the impoverished neighborhood against the ubiquitous drug pushers and corrupt cops.



My Name Is Bill W. (1989)
Tuesday, September 26, noon
English with Spanish subtitles, 100 minutes
A discussion follows the movie; donation requested 
This program runs every Tuesday at noon until October 3
Director: Daniel Petrie
Cast: Gary Sinise, James Woods, JoBeth Williams, James Garner.

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. 



Comedy Special
Diary of a Mad Black Woman (2005)
Tuesday, September 26, 7pm
English with Spanish subtitles, 116 minutes
Director: Darren Grant 
Cast: Lisa Marcos, Kimberly Elise, Tamara Taylor, Steve Harris, Tyler Perry 
Helen McCarter (Kimberly Elise) is happy and completely satisfied with her life: She has a doting husband, Charles (Steve Harris), an impressive home in their native Atlanta complete with a swimming pool and tennis courts, and anything else money can buy. But the night before her 18th anniversary, Charles kicks her out of their home and replaces her with his mistress, calling into question what Helen had long considered a solid marriage.



Cinemateca for Mexican Youth
The Name of the Rose (1986)
Wednesday, September 27, 7pm
English with Spanish subtitles, 131 minutes
Director: Jean-Jacques Annaud
Cast: Sean Connery, F. Murray Abraham, Elya Baskin, Christian Slater, Michael Lonsdale
Fourteenth-century Franciscan monk William of Baskerville (Sean Connery) and his young novice (Christian Slater) arrive at a conference to find that several monks have been murdered under mysterious circumstances. To solve the crimes, William must rise up against the Church's authority and fight the shadowy conspiracy of monastery monks using only his intelligence—which is considerable. Adapted from Umberto Eco's best-selling novel.



50 Years War: Israel and the Arabs (1999)
Thursday, September 28, 5pm, Part I
Friday September 29, 7pm, Part II
English, 150 minutes each part
Director: Norma Pery and Dia Richards
In this PBS production, leading statesmen, generals and others from one of history's most bitter and enduring struggles tell the story of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Cinemateca Series:

The Singing Detective (1986) 
Chapters III (Lovely Days) & IV (Clues)
Two chapters each week; discount cards accepted. 
Friday September 29, 4pm
Director: Jon Amiel
Cast: Michael Gambon, Imelda Staunton, Joanne Whalley, David Ryall, Janet Suzman and more

Mystery writer Philip E. Marlow (Michael Gambon) is suffering a debilitating bout of arthritis in a British hospital. Unable to move without pain, he escapes into his imagination, plotting out a murder tale in which he's both a big-band singer and a super-sleuth. Mix in flashbacks of Marlow's youth and his unhappy marriage, and you have a gripping murder mystery and a lavish musical rolled into one.