A retrospective of 11 documentary films from Mexico, Argentina, and Brazil will take place most Thursday evenings throughout the spring semester at New York University’s King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center, located at 53 Washington Square South. The screenings are free and open to the public; all take place at 7:15 p.m. and have English subtitles. For further information call 212.998.3650 or log on to www.nyu.edu/kjc.
Curated by Tania Blanich, director of The Program for Media Artists, these documentaries have been funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, and the Ford Foundation.
A schedule of screenings follows.
Jan. 27 Recuerdos (Mexico, 2003) — an exploration of the life of a Lithuanian Jew who fought for justice and fled persecution over four decades.
Feb. 3 Bonanza (Argentina, 2001) — the daily life of a family living on the city’s edge.
Feb. 10 La Línea Paterna (Mexico, 1995) — filmmakers Maryse Sistach and José Buil trace the Buil family’s 20th-century saga from Spain to Mexico.
Feb. 17 Orozco (Mexico, 2002) — one year in the life of the renowned Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco.
Feb. 24 La Televisión y yo: notas en una libreta (Argentina, 2002) — a film essay about television and memory that intertwines the filmmaker’s first recollections of TV and the earliest moments of TV in Argentina.
Mar. 3 Terra do Mar (Brazil, 1997) — the people who live in the bays, islands, and swamps of Brazil’s southern coast narrate this documentary about the disappearance of a traditional way of life.
Mar. 10 Double Feature: Papá Iván (Argentina, 2000) — filmmaker Maria-Ines Roqué returns to Argentina from exile in Mexico to search for information about her father, who was killed in Argentina’s “Dirty War.”
El Día Que Me Quieras (Argentina (1997) — an investigation of death and the power of photography.
Mar. 24 Del olvido al no me acuerdo (Mexico, 1997) — a documentary on the life of the Mexican author (and the filmmaker’s father) Juan Rulfo, but also a visual essay on the construction of narrative and memory themselves.
Apr. 7 Nos que aqui estamos, por vos esperamos (Brazil, 1997) — an encapsulation of the essence of the 20th century through a mosaic of old film clips, television images, and photographs.
Apr. 14 El bote (Argentina, 2003) — ten years after the mental hospital in the Río Negro province was shut down, former patients, nurses, and psychiatrists reunite to reflect on the nature of madness.
Apr. 21 Relatos desde el encierro (Mexico, 2004) — a documentary about a group of women incarcerated in the Puente Grande Feminine Readjustment Center in Jalisco, Mexico.