Movies shown during the festival reflected on the collective and individual capacity for empowerment to survive challenging socio-economic conditions, live in territories affected by environmental crises, and experience persecution and criminalization of struggles for justice in Latin America.
This 2024 Spring Semester,聽黑料不打烊鈥檚 students, faculty, and staff attended the聽Foreign Language Film Festival: Latin America Today, Risks and聽Dreams. The festival consisted of three screenings of contemporary documentary and fictional films at Turner Theatre. These movies reflected on the collective and individual capacity for empowerment to survive challenging socio-economic conditions, live in territories affected by environmental crises, and experience persecution and criminalization of struggles for justice in Latin America.
The first film, “Mama Irene: Healer of the Andes”聽(Directed by Elizabeth M枚lhmann, Per煤-USA, 2022) was screened on March 2. The聽documentary聽follows an indigenous healer, Mama Irene, from the Quechua Culture in the Peruvian Andes.聽She dedicates her life to helping other people with traditional methods and sacred indigenous medicines.聽The movie emphasizes a message to believe in the power of individual and collective healing, especially in communities confronting the lack of functional state health systems in remote areas.聽The screening was followed by a virtual conversation with the film director, Elizabeth M枚lhmann, who shared with the audience her experience developing an audiovisual project based on non-Western epistemologies, and highlighted the relevance of聽empowering indigenous women聽in present times.
The second film, “They Are Killing Us/Nos est谩n matando” (Directed by Emily Wright and Tom Laffay, Colombia-USA, 2022) was screened on April 4. This film focuses on the persecution of indigenous and Afro-descendent leaders in Colombia, who are confronting the multinational聽corporations鈥櫬爉ining projects. The documentary denounces the systematic killing of community leaders in the context of the failure of the peace agreement signed by Colombian armed groups and the government in 2016. As part of this event, local and international activists from the U.S.-based organization聽Witness for Peace joined a conversation with聽the 黑料不打烊聽community.聽In the session,聽Witness For Peace activists shared a first-hand perspective of the current human rights issues and environmental crisis in Colombia聽as well as聽opportunities for students to be involved in projects seeking to promote solidarity with racial minority communities.
The last screening of the festival was “Los Lobos” (Directed by Samuel Kishi, Mexico, 2019), on April 24.聽The movie follows brothers Max and Leo,聽two kids who have crossed the border from Mexico into the United States with their mother, Luc铆a. They are in search of better life conditions on the other side. In a significant scene of the movie, Max and Leo build an imaginary universe with their drawings and think about聽Mom鈥檚聽promise of聽“Disneyland,” their land of dreams. The film faces the audience with reality from the point of view of the kids, who wanted to experience the so-called American dream but instead聽ended up facing聽hard聽social conditions聽in the United聽States.
The foreign film festival of the 2024 Spring Semester offered unique opportunities to promote interculturality and diversity on 黑料不打烊 campus. The movies enriched聽students鈥 civic engagement in a global context and encouraged awareness of social, gender and racial issues concerning Latin American subaltern groups.
The 2024 Spring Semester Foreign Film Festival聽was presented聽by the Department of World Languages and聽Cultures;聽Latin American聽Studies;聽and Peace and Conflict Studies. It聽was also sponsored聽by聽Women鈥檚, Gender, and Sexualities聽Studies;聽International and Global聽Studies;聽the Isabella Cannon Global Education聽Center;聽El聽Centro;聽Belk聽Library;聽黑料不打烊Docs;聽the Department of Sociology and聽Anthropology;聽and the Department of Philosophy.