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NFB Abroad: Latin-America On Screen
Discover a selection of NFB films made across Latin-America that illuminate the continent and its people, arts and culture, in addition to Canadian intersections with Latin-America over eight decades.
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CimarronesCarlos Ferrand 1982 23 min“This powerful, short fiction film recreates events that took place in Peru in the early 1800s, when a group of cimarrones—runaway slaves—attacked a caravan to free friends who’d been sentenced to death. Several of Peru’s vanguard artists of the early 1980s participated in the making of this film. The Afro-Peruvian leader is played by Amador Ballumbrosio, the elder patriarch of the legendary Ballumbrosio family, and the script was co-written by Enrique Verástegui, the iconic Peruvian poet (of African and Chinese descent) who founded the Movimiento Hora Cero. The film’s music was composed by Carlos Hayre, the great Peruvian musicologist who introduced the use of the cajón (box drum) in creole waltzes and Andean harmonies in modern jazz and bossa nova arrangements. -
StatelessMichèle Stephenson 2020 1 h 35 minIn 1937, tens of thousands of Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian descent were exterminated by the Dominican army on the basis of anti-black racism. Fast-forward to 2013: the Dominican Republic’s Supreme Court stripped the citizenship of anyone with Haitian parents, retroactive to 1929, rendering more than 200,000 people stateless. Director Michèle Stephenson’s new documentary follows the grassroots campaign of a young attorney named Rosa Iris, as she challenges electoral corruption and fights to protect the right to citizenship for all people.
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ProsecutorBarry Stevens 2010 1 h 34 minThis feature documentary follows the Chief Prosecutor through the first trials of the newly formed International Criminal Court. Luis Moreno-Ocampo investigates and prosecutes some of the world's worst criminals for some of the world's worst crimes. He's a hero to genocide survivors, but has bitter enemies on both the Right and the Left. Is the ICC a groundbreaking new weapon for global justice or just an idealistic dream?
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From the Forests of Kitcisakik to the Forests of XinguEvelyne Papatie 2009 6 minEvelyne Papatie talks about her trip to the Mato Grosso forests of Brazil. In the rites and customs of the Ikepengs, she rediscovers the pride of being Anishnabe.
Since 2004, the travelling studios of Wapikoni Mobile have enabled Quebec First Nations youth to express themselves through videos and music. This short film was made with the guidance of these travelling studios and is part of the 2008 Selection - Wapikoni Mobile -
The Coca-Cola CaseGermán Gutiérrez & Carmen Garcia 2009 1 h 25 minFor decades, Colombia has ranked first among countries in the number of social leaders assassinated. From 2002 to 2009, more than 470 leaders were killed by paramilitary militias in the pay of companies ready to do anything to crush the unions. Among these unscrupulous corporate brands were bottling plants of Coca-Cola company products.
These unpunished crimes spur U.S. activists Dan Kovalik, Terry Collingsworth and Ray Rogers into an ambitious crusade against the soft drink giant, accusing them of turning a blind eye to the misdeeds brought to their attention. By following the relentless efforts of this unshakeable trio, The Coca-Cola Case takes us on a fascinating legal road-movie, against a backdrop of denunciation campaigns claiming: Stop Killer Coke!
After five years of struggle, will Coca-Cola yield in the end? And on the verge of a settlement, what will the victims choose—cash, or power and integrity? -
The Dark Side of the White LadyPatricio Henríquez 2006 52 minIn this feature-length documentary, filmmaker Patricio Henriquez seeks to untangle the web of lies surrounding the Chilean navy's training vessel, the Esmeralda. Heralded as a symbol of national pride, a dark secret lies behind the facade of the ship the Chileans call The White Lady: Following the 1973 coup d'état, it was used as a floating prison. Thirty years later, the victims of the dictatorship are demanding justice. The Dark Side of the White Lady is a fascinating journey to uncover the truth.
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Who Shot My Brother?Germán Gutiérrez 2005 1 h 35 minSome phone calls can turn your life upside down. That's what happened to filmmaker Germán Gutiérrez when he got a call from Colombia informing him there had just been an assassination attempt on his older brother Oscar, a political activist hated by the establishment but adored by the disenfranchised. In this film, Germán Gutiérrez, who has been living in Montreal for the past thirty years, recounts his quest to find the hired gunmen who tried to kill Oscar, and also to expose the roots of the violence that has taken hold of his native country.
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La Cueca SolaMarilú Mallet 2003 52 minSantiago, Chile. September 11, 1973. A military dictatorship seizes power and wields it for 17 years. Thousands of men disappear. "Donde estan? (Where are they?)," ask the women, their partners in la cueca, the traditional Chilean courtship dance. Surmounting their grief, the women speak out and struggle to restore democracy. Their lives suspended, they continue to dance la cueca sola, alone.
This documentary by Marilu Mallet tells the stories of five women who suffered under dictatorship and emerged as heroes under democracy. The threads of the five stories are closely intertwined with the history of Chile, encouraging reflection on the burden of heritage, the relativity of happiness and the power of memory. Navigating through the past but firmly moored in the present, the film expresses an entire nation's faith in a future in which such a thing will never happen again. -
El ContratoMin Sook Lee 2003 51 minThis documentary from Min Sook Lee follows a poverty-stricken father from Central Mexico, along with several of his countrymen, as they make their annual migration to southern Ontario to pick tomatoes. For 8 months a year, the town's population absorbs 4,000 migrant workers who toil under conditions, and for wages, that no local would accept. Yet despite a fear of repercussions, the workers voice their desire for dignity and respect.
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A Score for Women's VoicesSophie Bissonnette 2002 1 h 26 minBetween March and October 2000, millions of people around the world took to the streets to denounce poverty and violence against women. The historic World March of Women was a bold initiative of the Québec Federation of Women and represented a turning point in global solidarity.
Director Sophie Bissonnette invited five filmmakers from around the world to cover the march. She also asked each one to film an innovative project. In Senegal a community battles female genital mutilation through education. In Australia a women's circus teaches survivors of sexual assault to become skilled performers. In India a group of low-caste women mediate domestic disputes in informal women's courts. Native women in Ecuador offer leadership training programs to create women leaders. In the United States, Linda Carney describes why she founded Survival Inc. for poor women in Boston: this wealthy city refused her and her son welfare benefits unless she quit her minimum-wage job.
Set against the backdrop of a song, A Score for Women's Voices ends at the UN, where women deliver 5 million cards signed during the marches. Their goal? To change the world!
Some subtitles. -
Spirits of HavanaBay Weyman & Luis Osvaldo Garcia 2000 1 h 30 minThis feature documentary offers a glimpse of contemporary Cuba’s rich musical culture through the experiences of renowned Canadian soprano sax player and flautist Jane Bunnett. Jane and her husband, trumpeter Larry Cramer, are surrounded by the charm of Old Havana as they connect with some of the city's finest musicians—like singers Bobby Carcasses and Amado Dedeu —for a recording session. Bunnett and Cramer then venture to small towns like Cienfuegos and Camaguey, where they hook up with local musicians and visit music schools. Global music fans will be captivated by the performances of Los Muñequitos de Matanzas, a celebrated Afro-Cuban rumba group, and Desandann, a 10-member a cappella choir that sings in Haitian Creole.
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Chile, Obstinate MemoryPatricio Guzmán 1997 58 minIn this feature documentary, a Chilean filmmaker returns to the motherland for the first time in 23 years. Time is passing. A generation of young Chileans has grown up with no knowledge of the facts surrounding the military coup of September 11, 1973. In his suitcase, The Battle of Chile his 3-part cinéma vérité chronicle of the political tensions in Chile in 1973 and of the violent counterrevolution against the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende. His documentary toured the world but was never seen in Chile. Discreetly, he shows it to his friends and a small group of students. After the screening, the young people are in a state of shock. They have an urgent need to know the truth, for it is they who must build the Chile of tomorrow. In Spanish with English subtitles
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Mexico Dead or AliveMary Ellen Davis 1996 52 minThis feature documentary is a portrait of the country of Mexico, as seen through the eyes of Mario Rojas Alba, a physician and former member of Congress, who fled to Montreal as a political refugee after surviving a brutal physical assault. During a cautious trip home, he guides us through the workings of political repression and violence in Mexico. The resulting film reveals the darker side of this vast country which became our official trading partner in 1994 under NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement), an accord criticized by a great many Mexicans, especially the indigenous people of Chiapas, who rose in revolt, demanding a more just and democratic society. On the Day of the Dead, families and friends remember those who have "disappeared"; widows lay flowers on the graves of husbands slain for opposing the ruling party. By their side, Alba reaffirms his commitment to a peaceful transition toward true democracy. In Spanish with English subtitles.
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Hanging OnGermán Gutiérrez 1993 11 minThe deplorable situation of peasants who try to subsist in the overexploited land of the Northeastern Brazil.
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Five Centuries Later ...Germán Gutiérrez 1991 53 minFive centuries after the "discovery" of America by the Europeans, the Indigenous Peoples of Guatemala and Bolivia affront difficult times. What is left of their culture? What will their future hold?
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My MacondoDan Weldon 1990 1 h 1 minInspired by the people and landscape of Colombia's Banana Zone, Nobel Prize-winning author Gabriel Garcia Marquez created the Buendia family and the village of Macondo, placing them at the centre of his acclaimed novel, One Hundred Years of Solitude. Among the events described in Marquez' novel is the 1928 Banana Strike and the subsequent murder of 3 000 banana workers by the Colombian Army. My Macondo sets out in search of Marquez' legendary village and the truth behind that incident. Is the fictional village of Macondo a real place with a real history? Did the slaughter of the strikers actually take place? In trying to answer these questions, My Macondo explores the nature of history and myth, and poses questions about fiction and truth.
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Of Lives UprootedPierre Marier 1988 9 minThis short film illustrates the impact of the civil war in El Salvador and Guatemala through the words and drawings of children who have known conflict or refugee camps. The film was adapted from an exhibition entitled Disrupted Lives, organized by Linda Dale and sponsored by INTER-PARES and CUSO.
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Child of the AndesMarilú Mallet 1988 27 minThis documentary presents the people of Andahuaylillas, Peru, a small village located high in the Andes. Ten-year-old Sébastiana recounts their history and legends and explains the local customs, which have persisted for over three centuries. Child of the Andes is a look at a simpler way of life still undisturbed by modern society's technology and materialism.
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Black SugarMichel Régnier 1988 57 minThis feature documentary offers a shocking look at the living and working conditions of Haitian agricultural laborers in the Dominican Republic. Each year, some 20 000 workers cross the border to cut sugar cane, lured by promises of good money. Instead, they toil up to 14 hours per day and live in unhealthy, cramped camps without running water, electricity, medical or educational facilities.
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Abortion: Stories from North and SouthGail Singer 1984 54 minWomen have always sought ways to terminate unwanted pregnancies, despite powerful patriarchal structures and systems working against them. This film provides a historical overview of how church, state and the medical establishment have determined policies concerning abortion. From this cross-cultural survey--filmed in Ireland, Japan, Thailand, Peru, Colombia, and Canada--emerges one reality: only a small percentage of the world's women has access to safe, legal operations.
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Salvador Allende Gossens: A TestimonyMaurice Bulbulian & Michel Gauthier 1974 18 minA brief acquaintance with the president of Chile before his assassination in September, 1973. In 1972, several miners from Québec went to Chile to observe mining operations there. They also met with the President of the Republic. Salvador Allende explains, publicly at a meeting of icampanneros r, as well as in a conference with the visitors, the revolutionary socio-economic reforms he envisages for his country, which include nationalization of the copper industry. René Lévesque, Théo Gagné and Joseph Gosselin appear in the film. (A film for all students of political change. With English subtitles).
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Waiting for FidelMichael Rubbo 1974 57 minThis feature-length documentary from 1974 takes viewers inside Fidel Castro's Cuba. A movie-making threesome hope that Fidel himself will star in their film. The unusual crew consists of former Newfoundland premier Joseph Smallwood, radio and TV owner Geoff Stirling and NFB film director Michael Rubbo. What happens while the crew awaits its star shows a good deal of the new Cuba, and also of the three Canadians who chose to film the island.
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Background to Latin America1963 58 minThis feature documentary is a curious example of the mid-20th century ethnographic film and its depiction of non-Western peoples. We begin our tour of Central and South America in the Caribbean and move along to the vast agricultural and urban locales of Mexico, a socio-economic profile of the so-called “banana republics”, and the rich oil fields of Venezuela and its neighbours. Across the vast Andes mountain range and down towards the coffee industry in Colombia, we continually see the contrast between Spanish colonial architecture and the ruins of ancient Indigenous temples. The film shows the proud history of twenty republics and their growing unrest.
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Festival in Puerto RicoWolf Koenig & Roman Kroitor 1961 27 minThis short documentary features Canadian contralto Maureen Forrester as she sings at the Festival Casals, a musical event founded by the great Spanish cellist and conductor Pablo Casals and sponsored annually by the Puerto Rican government. Part concert film, part tourism film, Festival in Puerto Rico offers viewers candid glimpses of mid-20th century Puerto Rico intercut with performance footage of Forrester and her husband, violinist-conductor Eugene Kash.
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Chair of GoldThomas Farley 1956 30 minIn this film, Jack Scott, a Vancouver newspaper columnist, visits Bolivia, South America, to bring us a report on conditions in that country and on the technical assistance program undertaken in the late 1950s by member countries of the United Nations, including Canada. We hear from Canada's Dr. Hugh Keenleyside, who headed a U.N. Commission, and from specialists from other countries who are helping to create a new economy for Bolivia.
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Man of AmericaThomas Farley 1956 30 minThis film brings a report from Jack Scott, a Vancouver newspaper columnist, about a United Nations-sponsored migration program in Bolivia in which icampesinos r--tin miners of the Andes mountains--are being moved from the desolate Altiplano to more fertile lowlands. We hear most of the story from one of the miners who describes the skepticism with which his people first met the ideas and what it eventually came to mean to them in terms of new dwellings, land to cultivate, and work to support their families.
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Mexico Today1947 10 minThe film provides a short history of Mexico and then looks at its current situation and its expectations for future development. Trade ties between Canada and Mexico are outlined.
