This week in Cinema Tropical, December 10 – 17
This week there is a screening of Jorge Sanjinés‘ award-winning Bolivian gem The Secret Nation. The film, which won the Golden Seashell for Best Film at the 1989 San Sebastián International Film Festival, plays this Friday at the Bard Graduate Center.
Now playing at the IFC Center is Chilean filmmaker Sebastián Silva‘s critical race drama Tyrel—a searing portrait of race in America told from the perspective of one, young black man on a trip to the Catskills with a group of strangers.
Alfonso Cuarón‘s universally acclaimed Roma
continues its successful theatrical release at select theaters. Named the best film year by numerous publications and critics organizations, the Mexican director calls this his “most essential film” and is one of the must-watch movies of the year. Find it in select theaters near you!
Finally, a kind reminder that our 18th Anniversary Fundraising Campaign is still going on, please consider making a donation so we can continue with our mission of promoting Latin American cinema in the U.S. Click here to donate.
AWAKENING OF THE BEAST
‘FILM SCREENINGS’
Tuesday, December 11, 10pm
Spectacle Theater
(O despertar da besta – O ritual dos sádicos, José Mojica Marins, Brazil, 1969, 92 min. In Port-uguese with English subtitles)
The third installment in the Coffin Joe Trilogy follows Coffin Joe’s sadistic experiments on four drug addicts who volunteer to take LSD. The experiments are intended to prove that drug use is related to sexual depravity. Director José Mojica Marins once again plays Coffin Joe, who sits with a panel of psychiatrists on a television show, using videos of the addicts as proof of the connection between drugs and lewd sexual behavior.
RICH KIDS
‘NEW FILMMAKERS’
Wednesday, December 12, 9pm
Anthology Film Archives
(Laura Somers, USA, 2018, 97 min. In Spanish and English with English subtitles)
A group of troubled teens from a low-income community break into “Los Ricos,” the local mansion with a border fence, and spend the day pretending to be rich in order to forget their difficult lives.
THE SECRET NATION
‘ACTS OF FAITH’
Friday, December 14, 6:30pm
Bard Graduate Center
(La nación clandestina, Jorge Sanjinés and the Ukamau Group, 1989, Bolivia, 128 min. In Spanish and Aymara with English subtitles)
Set against the turbulent backdrop of a military coup, this groundbreaking feature film—among the first ever shot in the indigenous languages of Bolivia—follows Sebastian Maisman (Reynaldo Yujra), who returns to his former Aymara village after life in the city but ultimately disgraces his community. As a rite of expiation, he journeys to his homeland once more and enacts the ancient Jacha Tata Danzanti, a ceremony in which the performer dances himself to death as a sacrificial offering.