NUESTRAS RAÍCES SHOWCASE
A
collection of films highlighting the places we come from, the languages we speak, the songs that define us, our resilience in pushing past borders and obstacles, and the collective bonds that tether us together through our cultural histories.
bending score composed by Cuban Aldo Lopez-Gavilan performed with his American brother, Ilmar, and with guest appearances by maestro Joshua Bell and the Grammy-winning Harlem Quartet. Nuestras Raíces Showcase. MARIPOSAS DEL CAMPO Dir. Bill Yahraus (USA, 86 min., 2021, English, Spanish, Mixteco, Zapoteco w/ English Subtitles, Documentary)
3/13 / 2:00 / S8
3/19 / 3:40 / S7
Virtually 3/11
Mariposas del Campo shares the stories of indigenous Mixtec, Zapotec, and Purépecha teenagers from Mexico striving to change their families’ destinies in the strawberry fields of Oxnard, California. Through a stormy year of sanctioned racism and antiimmigrant policies, the documentary captures their journeys—with help from the characters’ own intimate videos—as they navigate cultural identity, parental expectations, economic challenges, and the justice needs of their migrant farmworker community. Nuestras Raíces Showcase. TEJIENDO SOMBRAS Dir. Erica Nguyen (Peru / USA / Spain, 97 min., 2020, Spanish, Quechua w/ English Subtitles)
3/12 / 11:00 AM / S10
APENAS EL SOL Dir. Arami Ullón (Paraguay / Argentina / Switzerland, 2020, 75 min., Ayoreo, Spanish w/ English Subtitles, Documentary)
3/12 / 11:30AM / S8
3/16 / 9:20 / S7
Facing the consequences of a violent uprooting, and in an attempt to preserve fragments of a disappearing culture, Mateo walks across communities in the arid and desolate Paraguayan Chaco region, and registers on cassettes the experiences of other Ayoreo who, like him, were born in the vast forest, free and nomadic, without any contact with civilization, until religious missionaries forced them to abandon their ancestral territory, their means of subsistence, their beliefs and their home. Nuestras Raíces Showcase. CANTOS QUE INUNDAN EL RÍO Dir. Germán Arango Rendón (Colombia, 72 min., 2021, Spanish w/ English Subtitles, Documentary)
3/13 / 3:20 / S7
3/18 / 4:45 / S7
(Virtually 3/10)
Oneida was still a child when she learned the Afro-Colombian tradition of singing “alabados” to accompany the dead on their journey to purgatory. With one leg devoured by a snake, and a war without truce, she became the composer of new songs and made her wounds a source of inspiration. Today, Oneida’s compositions unite the voice of millions in the reconciliation process of a country with one of the longest wars in history. Nuestras Raíces Showcase. LOS HERMANOS / THE BROTHERS Dir. Marcia Jarmel, Ken Schneider (Cuba / USA, 84 min., 2021, English, Spanish w/ English Subtitles, Music Documentary)
3/11 / 5:00 / S8
3/13 / 11:30 AM / S7
(Virtually 3/20)
A joyful celebration of family, love, creativity and music, played out against the backdrop of more than half a century of strife amongst the world's superpowers, weaving the many complex layers of the story of two musical brothers, their families, their divergent trajectories, and the tides of geo-politics. Featuring an genre-
29TH SAN DIEGO LATINO FILM FESTIVAL
3/16 / 4:45 / S7
(Virtually 3/10)
Languages are irretrievably lost at a rapid rate. The silence that follows can be filled by the testimonies in this documentary, which decipher the vernacular of Peru's living hat cultures before they too are forgotten. Although Peruvian hats might seem an unlikely place to find vindication, the diversity of dialects and communities they represent is boisterous. Each village flashes their coat of arms through subtle cues found on their hat- flowers, pompoms, sequins, and designs become legible forms of communication that must be put on every day. Witness the rituals, legends, rites of passage, conflicts and connection to land that only a hat has the privilege of seeing. Nuestras Raíces Showcase. WHAT I'VE NEVER LOST Dir. Marina Thomé (Brazil, 86 min., 2021, Portuguese w/ English Subtitles, Music Documentary)
3/14 / 4:45 / S7
3/17 / 8:45 / S8
(Virtually 3/19)
The film tells the story of Alzira E, a pioneer artist from a small town close to the Brazilian Pantanal and the Paraguayan border, one of the country’s most conservative and patriarchal places. She has broken barriers all her life and becomes an icon in the urban and underground scene of São Paulo, where she migrated by herself as a young mother of 5 children. She has crafted an impressive career as an instrumentalist and songwriter. Alzira E, a 63 years old rock band leader, is a woman ahead of her time. Nuestras Raíces Showcase. LOS GUARDIANES DEL MAÍZ Dir. Gustavo Vazquez (Mexico / USA, 60 min., 2020, Zapotec, Chinantec, Spanish w/ English Subtitles, Documentary)
3/19 / 3:30 / S5
Available virtually 3/15
Los Guardianes del Maíz presents the story of native corn told by the indigenous farmers, artisans and cooks in Mexico whose ancestors shepherded the ever-evolving seeds from the dawn of agriculture into the 21st Century – a story of collective labor spanning more than 350 generations. Their voices are joined by community leaders, scientists, chefs, and others whose knowledge and activism stand not only in defense of food sovereignty and the genetic integrity, diversity, and community ownership of native seeds, but in defense of a durable cultural legacy and a way of life. Nuestras Raíces Showcase.
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