Accompanying the exhibition De mi barrio a tu barrio in neurotitan gallery in Berlin, we present a film series including motion picture and documentaries from Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. The series will be shown from August 2 to August 18 in cooperation with Kino Central in Berlin.
JEAN GENTIL
Motion picture
Laura Amelia Guzmán, Israel Cárdenas Ramírez
Dominican Republic, Mexico, Germany 2010 - 84 min
The Haitian professor Jean Remy Genty is always on the move, looking for work. A graceful figure, he stands out in the crowd: a model Christian. On his journeys we see the changing scenario of the city, its excessive development. Although a job on a building site is a possible option for the unemployed Haitian, Jean does not feel up to it, feeling old and weak. He is looking for something more suited to the intellectual he considers himself to be. And so he spends years looking for employment worthy of himself and his education. Jean starts to give up hope; he feels the natural need to grow, to have a home, a wife. His desires and thoughts become confused. Bad feelings start to grow within him, distorting his perception of everyday life...
Laura Amelia Guzmán, Israel Cárdenas Ramírez
Dominican Republic, Mexico, Germany 2010 - 84 min
The Haitian professor Jean Remy Genty is always on the move, looking for work. A graceful figure, he stands out in the crowd: a model Christian. On his journeys we see the changing scenario of the city, its excessive development. Although a job on a building site is a possible option for the unemployed Haitian, Jean does not feel up to it, feeling old and weak. He is looking for something more suited to the intellectual he considers himself to be. And so he spends years looking for employment worthy of himself and his education. Jean starts to give up hope; he feels the natural need to grow, to have a home, a wife. His desires and thoughts become confused. Bad feelings start to grow within him, distorting his perception of everyday life...
LA ISLA...archives of a tragedy
Documentary
Uli Stelzner
Guatemala, Germany 2010 - 85 min
At the end of the 20th century, in guatemala army and police kill and abduct hundreds and thousands of people. but the unprecedented genocide in america’s modern history goes unpunished. to this day a system of terror and impunity relies on silence being kept and the lack of evidence. But in july 2005 a huge explosion in the guatemalan capital leads to the discovery of the historic archive of guatemala's national police. on the grounds of today’s police academy used to be located the island, the secret prison of notorious policia nacional squads. And here millions of documents appeared. aided by an extraordinary visual and emotional interaction, the film traces the story of a tragedy and finds prove for inconceivable atrocities. it is also a movie about a young generation of archive workers willing to free their society from the stranglehold of its own history.
Film followed by open discussion with director Uli Stelzner
Uli Stelzner
Guatemala, Germany 2010 - 85 min
At the end of the 20th century, in guatemala army and police kill and abduct hundreds and thousands of people. but the unprecedented genocide in america’s modern history goes unpunished. to this day a system of terror and impunity relies on silence being kept and the lack of evidence. But in july 2005 a huge explosion in the guatemalan capital leads to the discovery of the historic archive of guatemala's national police. on the grounds of today’s police academy used to be located the island, the secret prison of notorious policia nacional squads. And here millions of documents appeared. aided by an extraordinary visual and emotional interaction, the film traces the story of a tragedy and finds prove for inconceivable atrocities. it is also a movie about a young generation of archive workers willing to free their society from the stranglehold of its own history.
Film followed by open discussion with director Uli Stelzner
LA YUMA
Motion picture
Florence Jaugey
Nicaragua 2009 - 87 min
This is the story of Yuma a strong-willed and rebellious girl from the poor neighborhoods of Managua who dreams of being a boxer. Managua, today. Yuma wants to be a boxer. In her poor neighborhood, gangs fight for control of the street. In her home, lovelessness is the name of the game. She dreams of the ring, energy and agile feet and hands. They are also her only options. A street, a theft, a chance encounter: Yuma meets Ernesto, a journalism student from the other side of the city. Despite their differences, they fall in love, attracted to each other by their shared desire to find their own space in the world.
Florence Jaugey
Nicaragua 2009 - 87 min
This is the story of Yuma a strong-willed and rebellious girl from the poor neighborhoods of Managua who dreams of being a boxer. Managua, today. Yuma wants to be a boxer. In her poor neighborhood, gangs fight for control of the street. In her home, lovelessness is the name of the game. She dreams of the ring, energy and agile feet and hands. They are also her only options. A street, a theft, a chance encounter: Yuma meets Ernesto, a journalism student from the other side of the city. Despite their differences, they fall in love, attracted to each other by their shared desire to find their own space in the world.
MEGUNICA
Documentary
Lorenzo Fonda
Italy 2008 - 52 min
Lorenzo Fonda wanted to make a film about Bulla famed street artist, but also wanted to push his subject beyond his comfort zone. The answer? A road trip through Latin America to create new pieces in unfamiliar places. A freestyle mixture of footage of the artist at work, insightful interviews with local residents, and inventive animation, MEGUNICA is a dizzying and unique travelogue.
Lorenzo Fonda
Italy 2008 - 52 min
Lorenzo Fonda wanted to make a film about Bulla famed street artist, but also wanted to push his subject beyond his comfort zone. The answer? A road trip through Latin America to create new pieces in unfamiliar places. A freestyle mixture of footage of the artist at work, insightful interviews with local residents, and inventive animation, MEGUNICA is a dizzying and unique travelogue.
MISS BALA
(OPENING NIGHT IN GERMANY)
Motion picture
Gerardo Naranjo
Mexico 2011 - 113 min
MISS BALA tells the story of Laura, a young woman whose aspirations of becoming a beauty queen turn against her, delivering her into the hands of a gang that's terrorizing northern Mexico. Although Laura succeeds in winning the beauty queen crown, her experiences as an unwilling participant in Mexico's violent war leave her shaken and transformed.
Gerardo Naranjo
Mexico 2011 - 113 min
MISS BALA tells the story of Laura, a young woman whose aspirations of becoming a beauty queen turn against her, delivering her into the hands of a gang that's terrorizing northern Mexico. Although Laura succeeds in winning the beauty queen crown, her experiences as an unwilling participant in Mexico's violent war leave her shaken and transformed.
NADIE ES INOCENTE
Documentary
Sarah Minter
Mexico 1986 - 57 min
More than 20 years ago, an aspiring filmmaker named Sarah Minter found her way to Ciudad Nezahualcoyotl, a notorious slum outside Mexico City popularly known as 'Neza'. She befriended a group of young punks - they were teenagers, disenchanted and rejected by just about everyone - and began filming their lives. The documentary she released in 1986 about the Neza punks, "Nadie Es Inocente," became an underground classic. Filmed with a now-ancient 3/4 U-matic camera, Minter's film displayed a crumbling, polluted world populated by Mexico's legions of forgotten poor. In such an environment, a punk culture seems to emerge naturally; the boys she followed form quasi-gangs who hang out in trash dumps and abandoned buildings, attend out-of-control rock shows and defend their turf against enemies and outsiders.
Sarah Minter
Mexico 1986 - 57 min
More than 20 years ago, an aspiring filmmaker named Sarah Minter found her way to Ciudad Nezahualcoyotl, a notorious slum outside Mexico City popularly known as 'Neza'. She befriended a group of young punks - they were teenagers, disenchanted and rejected by just about everyone - and began filming their lives. The documentary she released in 1986 about the Neza punks, "Nadie Es Inocente," became an underground classic. Filmed with a now-ancient 3/4 U-matic camera, Minter's film displayed a crumbling, polluted world populated by Mexico's legions of forgotten poor. In such an environment, a punk culture seems to emerge naturally; the boys she followed form quasi-gangs who hang out in trash dumps and abandoned buildings, attend out-of-control rock shows and defend their turf against enemies and outsiders.
NADIE ES INOCENTE - 20 años después
Documentary
Sarah Minter
Mexico 2010 - 72 min
2008, Ciudad Neza and the great metropolis. The movements of Pablo El Podrido Hernández and Rafa Punk Rojas intertwine the stories of Cienfuegos, Benjamín El Costras, El Moroco, El Búho, and others who are no longer with us, all young adults between 30 and 40. They share three things: they grew up in Ciudad Neza, they belonged to the same gang (Los Mierdas Punk or The Punk Shits) and they all starred in the documentary/fiction filmed in 1986, Nadie es inocente (Nobody is Innocent), by Sarah Minter. Now, twenty years later, the director reconstructs their footprints and weaves a new visual map of the city and other geographies through these characters present, as they confront their achievements, frustrations and the nostalgia for their past and youthful dreams, contrasting them with the new youths who inhabit the same streets and those who crossed the border.
Sarah Minter
Mexico 2010 - 72 min
2008, Ciudad Neza and the great metropolis. The movements of Pablo El Podrido Hernández and Rafa Punk Rojas intertwine the stories of Cienfuegos, Benjamín El Costras, El Moroco, El Búho, and others who are no longer with us, all young adults between 30 and 40. They share three things: they grew up in Ciudad Neza, they belonged to the same gang (Los Mierdas Punk or The Punk Shits) and they all starred in the documentary/fiction filmed in 1986, Nadie es inocente (Nobody is Innocent), by Sarah Minter. Now, twenty years later, the director reconstructs their footprints and weaves a new visual map of the city and other geographies through these characters present, as they confront their achievements, frustrations and the nostalgia for their past and youthful dreams, contrasting them with the new youths who inhabit the same streets and those who crossed the border.
More information on www.kino-central.de
