Latin American Studies

Join us for the Latin American and Spanish Film Festival. Celebrate the culture and the language and expand your understanding of world cinema!

Every evening from Monday January 28th through Friday, February 1st, 2013, view a new Spanish-language film presented by Bowdoin faculty members from Romance Languages, Music, Anthropology, Latin American Studies, History, and Film Studies.

Kicking off the film festival, Elena Cueto-Asin, Associate Professor and Chair of Romance Languages, presents an epic about the life of a Spanish playwright, novelist, and poet:

LOPE
Though lesser known than his contemporary Miguel de Cervantes, Felix Arturo Lope de Vega y Carpio was a prolific Spanish playwright, novelist, and poet who dominated the theater scene during Spain's Baroque period.

This romantic epic has a stellar cast of renowned Spanish actors including Pedro Almodovar favorite Leonor Watling, Luis Tosar, Antonio de la Torre, Pilar Lopez de Ayala, and Sonia Braga. And Alberto Amman brings tremendous passion to the role of Lope, the incorrigible but endearing Casanova.

This multi-award winning film brings to life the amorous adventurer who was constantly derailed by his passion for women as he struggled to establish himself as a playwright.

(Andrucha Waddington, 106 minutes, Drama/Biopic, 2010, Spanish with English subtitles)

Sponsored by a grant from the Spanish Film Club, the Blythe Bickel Edwards fund, Latin American Studies Program, Bowdoin Film Society, Department of Romance Languages, Latin American Student Organization, Film Studies Program, Department of English, and Department of Music.

The Spanish Film Club series was made possible with the support of Pragda, the Secretary of State for Culture of Spain, and its Program for Cultural Cooperation with United States' Universities.

Join us for the Latin American and Spanish Film Festival, celebrate the culture and the language, and expand your understanding of world cinema!

The film festival continues on the second night with a film-within-a-film about Columbus, the subjugation of  Bolivian indigenous people, and a modern-day water crisis that threatens them. Presented by Elizabeth Shesko, Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in History and Latin American Studies.

TAMBIEN LA LLUVIA (EVEN THE RAIN)
Filmmaker Sebastian (Gael Garca Bernal) and his cynical producer Costa (Luis Tosar) arrive in Cochabamba, Bolivia to make a film about Columbus's voyage to the New World and the subjugation of the indigenous population. Just as filming begins, the natives face a crisis when the government privatizes the water company and prices skyrocket. Daily protests erupt and the local man cast as a rebellious sixteenth century Taino chief becomes a leader in the protests.

This film-within-a-film intercuts footage from Sebastian's film with recordings of actual demonstrations that occurred during the "Water Wars" in 2000, when the Bolivian government privatized the water company. Anchored in the philosophies of historian Howard Zinn, as well as the stories of 16th century priests Fathers Bartolome de las Casas and Antonio Montesinos, EVEN THE RAIN blurs the lines between past and present, fiction and reality.

The script by long-time Ken Loach collaborator Paul Laverty and stellar performances from Luis Tosar, Gael Garca Bernal, Carlos Adurivi and Karra Elejalde propelled EVEN THE RAIN to become Spain's submission for the 2011 Academy Awards.

(Iciar Bollain, 104 minutes, Drama, 2010, Spanish with English subtitles)

Sponsored by a grant from the Spanish Film Club, the Blythe Bickel Edwards fund, Latin American Studies Program, Bowdoin Film Society, Department of Romance Languages, Latin American Student Organization, Film Studies Program, Department of English, and Department of Music.

The Spanish Film Club series was made possible with the support of Pragda, the Secretary of State for Culture of Spain, and its Program for Cultural Cooperation with United States' Universities.

Join us for the Latin American and Spanish Film Festival, celebrate the culture and the language, and expand your understanding of world cinema!

On the third night of the film festival, Krista VanVleet, Associate Professor of Anthropology, and Director of the Latin American Studies Program, shows us a film that explores love, masculinity, and sexuality within the context of Peruvian tradition:

CONTRACORRIENTE (UNDERTOW)
Beloved and handsome fisherman Miguel lives with his pregnant wife, Mariela, in Cabo Blanco, a small fishing village in Northern Peru. What no one knows is that Miguel is also having a passionate affair with Santiago, a painter ostracized from the community for his agnostic views and open homosexuality.

When Santiago drowns accidentally in the ocean's strong undertow, he's unable to pass peacefully to the other side so he returns after his death to ask Miguel to look for his body and bury it according to the rituals of the town. Miguel must choose between sentencing Santiago to eternal torment or honor his request and, in turn, reveal their relationship to Mariela and the entire village.

UNDERTOW examines the complicated intersection of love, masculinity, sexuality, and tradition and has received an outpouring of critical acclaim and numerous awards.

(Javier Fuentes-Leon, 100 minutes, Drama, 2009, Spanish with English subtitles)

Sponsored by a grant from the Spanish Film Club, the Blythe Bickel Edwards fund, Latin American Studies Program, Bowdoin Film Society, Department of Romance Languages, Latin American Student Organization, Film Studies Program, Department of English, and Department of Music.

The Spanish Film Club series was made possible with the support of Pragda, the Secretary of State for Culture of Spain, and its Program for Cultural Cooperation with United States' Universities.

Join us for the Latin American and Spanish Film Festival, celebrate the culture and the language, and expand your understanding of world cinema!

For the fourth night of the film festival, Michael Birenbaum Quintero, Assistant Professor of Music, presents an animated love story and introduces us to the music, culture, and people of Cuba:

CHICO Y RITA
Oscar-winning director Fernando Trueba and Barcelona designer and artist Javier Mariscal have teamed up to make CHICO AND RITA, an animated love story starring the music, culture, and people of Cuba.

When dashing piano player Chico meets beautiful Havana nightclub singer Rita, sparks fly and they fall madly in love. Their romance unfolds as they perform on the glamorous stages of 1940s-1950s Havana, New York City, Las Vegas, Hollywood, and Paris. Accompanying them is an amazing soundtrack featuring the music of jazz legends Thelonious Monk, Cole Porter, Dizzy Gillespie and Freddy Cole (brother of Nat King Cole), performed by a range of contemporary musicians, including Idania Valds, Carlos Sarduy Horacio Hernndez, Rolando Luna, Germn Velazco, Jorge Reyes, and Chano Pozo.

CHICO AND RITA pays tribute to a vibrant and colorful time in the history of Cuba and jazz.

(Fernando Trueba, Javier Mariscal & Tono Errando, 94 minutes, Animation, 2010, Spanish and English with English subtitles)

Sponsored by a grant from the Spanish Film Club, the Blythe Bickel Edwards fund, Latin American Studies Program, Bowdoin Film Society, Department of Romance Languages, Latin American Student Organization, Film Studies Program, Department of English, and Department of Music.

The Spanish Film Club series was made possible with the support of Pragda, the Secretary of State for Culture of Spain, and its Program for Cultural Cooperation with United States' Universities.

Central Asian countries have had mixed success negotiating the borders of Islam andstate sovereignty. In some cases this negotiation assumes immediate form, as in the delicate dialogue between secular government officials and Islamic elites. In other cases this negotiation involves not real borders but imagined identities: should the state remain secular or embrace religion; should local Islam be defended against or opened to practices from outside the region? And in still other cases this negotiation centers on hard currency and, specifically, the influence Islamic financial institutions should have in economic and human development. McGlinchey's presentation explores evolving state practices toward imams, identities and international financial institutions as Central Asian countries attempt to solidify sovereignty two decades after the Soviet collapse. Eric McGlinchey is an Associate Professor of Politics and Government at George Mason University. He is the author of Chaos, Violence, Dynasty: Politics and Islam in Central Asia (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2011). McGlinchey's areas of research include comparativepolitics, Central Asian regime change, political Islam, and the effects of Information Communication Technology (ICT) on state and society. His most recent article, "Central Asia Grows Wobbly," appears in the October 2012 issue of Current History. McGlinchey received his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 2003.