Stories from here and the other side,
March 30, 2007
Una Causa Noble
Letters from the Other Side
Mon, Apr 2, 3pm
Teatro Santa Ana
Biblioteca Pública
Insurgentes 25
50 pesos
The Center for Global Justice concludes its Snowbird Symposium Film Series with a double feature on immigration: Una Causa Noble and Letters from the Other Side.
Shot in San Miguel de Allende Una Causa Noble (A Noble Cause) tells the tragic story of a young Mexican man who emigrates to the US to join the army based on President Bush’s offer of a fast track to citizenship. Told from the point of view of the wife, son and extended family left behind, this short film highlights the human side of migration. Ignacio and Marina, a young Mexican couple, are at odds over what is best for their young son’s future. Ignacio, who has been working most of the time in the US, believes that more opportunities exist for them and their young son en el otro lado (on the other side). Marina feels that their son is better off being raised among family and tradition. When Ignacio decides to join the US Army in order to expedite their application for citizenship, Marina is faced with some heartrending decisions. This is a feature-length story packed into a riveting 26 minutes.
Also shot in the San Miguel area, in Letters from the Other Side, director Heather Courtney sensitively interweaves the personal stories of four women left behind in post-NAFTA Mexico by husbands and sons working in the US, an aspect of the immigration issue rarely touched upon by the media or in national debates.
“After a few months of filming several families, I was about to drive back to the US for a visit,” says Courtney, “when one of the women asked if I would show the videos I filmed of her to her sons, undocumented immigrants working in the US When I offered to shoot and bring back videos of them, I realized how messed up it was—I could visit the sons she couldn’t, and shepherd messages over a border she wasn’t allowed to cross.”
In addition to Carmela and Laura, two other Guanajuato women, Eugenia González and María Yañez send and receive video “letters” via Courtney. The result is a complex portrait of families torn apart by economics; hopes and dreams fulfilled then broken or found empty; communities and traditions dying at the hands of globalization; and governments incapable or unwilling to do anything about it.
A discussion follows both films.
Film
Lost and Found in Mexico
Mon, Apr 2, 5pm
Teatro Santa Ana
Biblioteca Pública
Insurgentes 25
50 pesos
The illusion of the American dream is challenged in this portrait of ex-pats in San Miguel de Allende who discovered that some vital things were missing in their prior lives. While many Mexicans are leaving families behind and risking their lives to cross the border to a better life, this film focuses on the Americans who have decided to cross the border in the other direction—for a simpler life. In Caren Cross’s documentary we meet ex-pats of varying ages who have given up ‘the good life’ in the US for a home in Mexico that provides more than money can buy. Happy to live with less, among a people they respect and admire, these ex-professionals and executives explain why they have left family and friends behind to live in a country where crowded malls and Blackberries have been replaced by books, art and casual conversations. A question & answer session with writer/director/producer, Caren Cross, follows the film. Documentary. 53 minutes.
Memories do not burn
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Shalom SMA film and talk Memories Do Not Burn Mon, Apr 9, 4:30pm Quinta Loreto Hotel calle Loreto 50 pesos |
Focus on the affects of war is often placed on the adults who have experienced it. In Memories Do Not Burn the focus is altered to depict what happens to children during wartime. This powerful film was released in 1997, narrated by Sarah Jessica Parker, and made by award-winning documentary directors Paul Dukochitz and Mary Ann McCune. In the film Bosnian and Croatian children talk about what war is like for them, the program on a small island in the Adriatic Sea that aims to “restore children to childhood” to heal some of the inner wounds of war and the volunteers who come to work with them.. The film won many awards at film festivals and was in consideration for an Academy award nomination.
Judith Jenya, who founded and directed Global Children’s Organization, created and directed the program that was one of the focuses of the film. Now a San Miguel resident, she discusses the film, the program, the children, her work with children in war torn areas and reads one of her short pieces from the war.
Judith was awarded “Humanist of the Year” in 2002, in Sarajevo by the International Association for Humanists, and made an honorary citizen of Sarajevo for her work there during the siege. She was given the Temple award for Creative Altruism, named a Giraffe by the “Giraffe Heroes Project,” honored by the Ibn Sal Khattab Foundation for her work with the Muslim community in LA after 9/11, Hadassah Woman of the Year in Hawaii, UC Berkeley Alumni of the Year for Service, among many other awards. She has been interviewed on all major television networks and on programs such as the Today show and Roseanne. She and her work have also appeared in Time magazine, AARP, and many other newspapers and magazines for her pioneering work with children of conflict. She has lectured around the US and Europe about her work with children of war.
Cinemateca at the Biblioteca Pública, April 2 thru 8
José Luis’s Pick & tip:
The Pick: Mahler’s The Resurrection
| Conductor Leonard Bernstein leads The London Symphony Orchestra and the Wiener Philharmoniker in performing Gustav Mahler's deep and beautiful symphony in this historic 1973 performance captured live at the magnificent Ely Cathedral. | |
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The uplifting refrains of "Symphony No. 2 (Among the modernist strains of "Symphony No. 1, and the spiritual sounds of "Symphony No. 3") make this career-defining performance showcases one of the classical genre's most talented figures performing in his natural environment.
Another must is the classic The Mission, very appropriate for this time of turning our souls to the profound and mystic of the human love and forgiveness.
The Tip: The Library will be closed from Thursday, April 5 to Saturday, April 7
Important:In order 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. I also remind you our new ticket price; 50 pesos and discount cards of 12 shows for 450 pesos
Starting Monday, after 12 noon, buy in advance your tickets for any movie or show of the week. If you have a discount card, collect your pass to assure you a seat; don’t take the risk of being locked out…. Nos vemos en el Cine….
You want to receive this info by E-mail? Write to Jose Luis at alephamour@hotmail.com
The Movies:
Bill Moyer’s Faith and Reason film series
Featuring: Pema Chödrön
Monday, April 2 at 12 noon, 50 pesos
Ani Pema Chödrön is an American Buddhist nun and author whose teachings and writings on meditation have helped make Buddhism accessible to a broad Western audience. She currently directs the Gampo Abbey in Nova Scotia, Canada; the first Tibetan monastery in North America for Western monastic and lay practitioners.
Francis Bacon (1985)
Wednesday, April 4 at 12 noon
Painting Documentary, English. 55 minutes.
Director: David Hinton
Cast: John Normington
Famous for his paintings of screaming popes and slabs of meat, Francis Bacon is considered one of the most talented British painters of the 20th century. This documentary explores the man behind the paintings through interviews, slide show commentaries and tours of the artist's studio and favorite bars and restaurants. Francis discusses his influences, his work and his (surprising) inherent optimism.
The Mission (1986)
Wednesday, April 7 at 7 pm
Faith & Spirituality, English with Spanish subtitles, 125 minutes
Director: Roland Joffe
Cast: Robert De Niro, Jeremy Irons, Bercelio Moya
A Jesuit missionary (Jeremy Irons) establishes a church in the hostile jungles of Brazil (circa 1750) and then finds his work converting the Rain Forest Indians threatened by greed and political forces among his superiors. Rodrigo Mendoza (Robert De Niro) is a heartless soldier who kills his own brother and then convinces Irons’ missionary to oversee his penance and conversion to the clergy. Winner of the 1987 Oscar for best cinematography.
Music Special
Mahler’s The Resurrection
Wednesday, April 4 at 5 pm
Leonard Bernstein and the Wiener Philharmoniker, 100 minutes.
The Symphony No. 2 in C minor by Gustav Mahler, known as the Resurrection, was written between 1888 and 1894. Apart from the Eighth Symphony, this symphony is one of Mahler's most popular and successful works. The symphony began life as Totenfeier (Funeral Rites), a one movement symphonic poem, which Mahler completed in 1888. Later, he returned to the movement, and added three others so that by late 1893, the first four movements of the symphony as we now know it were complete. He then set the work aside for a while, aware that it needed something else to complete it, but lacking inspiration as to what that something else might be. In 1894, the conductor Hans von Bülow died, and Mahler went to his funeral. There he heard a setting of Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock's Die Auferstehung (The Resurrection), and this inspired him to complete his symphony with a massive choral movement with text based on Klopstock's poem.
Kids Movie: Cartoons
Holy week, There will be no Kids movie
Musical Saturdays:
Holy week, There will be no opera movie
Teatro Santa Ana and Sala Quetzal at the Biblioteca Publica,
Friday, March 30 to April 8
Friday, March 30
4 pm Pen poetry reading (Sala Quetzal)
5 pm Movie: Keep the River on your Right
8 pm Live Concert: Wendy Bichel
Saturday, March 31
12 noon, Kids cartoons
2:30 pm, Ballet: Firebird, Petrushca, Sherezade
7:30 pm Live Concert: Shannon Day
Monday, April 2
12 pm Bill Moyers Film Faith and Reason: Pema Chodron
3 pm Global Justice Special Film
7 pm Guitar Concert: Gypsy Guitar
Tuesday, April 3
3 pm Film-Conversation Cafe: Bioneers
4 pm Martes Literarios (Sala Quetzal)
5 pm Lecture: Robert de Gast
5 pm Lecture the Power of the Mind (Sala Quetzal)
7 pm Benefit Concert: Gil and Cartas
Wednesday, April 4
12 noon Movie: Francis Bacon
5 pm Musical Special: Mahler Resurrection
7 pm Movie: The Mision
Thursday to Saturday the Library will be closed for Easter