CONTACT: Clara Mae Marcotte
361-593-4143 or cmarcott@tamuk.edu
SPANISH LANGUAGE FILM FESTIVAL
ENCOURAGES STUDENT APPRECIATION
KINGSVILLE (September 8, 1999) -- Texas A&M University-Kingsville's Cinemateca Hispánica, a student literary club, and the Hispanic Heritage Committee will showcase several films during Hispanic Heritage Celebration 1999 to encourage students to share in an appreciation of the Hispanic culture.
This fall the Spanish Language Film Festival will feature four films. The first film, Guantanamera by the maestro of Cuban cinema Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, is a road movie, a farce, a satire, and picaresque black comedy about life in Cuba. In the movie, the stories of two groups are intertwined -- members of a funeral procession and some truck drivers making the journey on the road to Havana. The film stars Aleas's widow and leading lady, Mirtha Ibarra, as ex-economics professor Georgina, who, with her husband bureaucrat Adolfo (Carlos Cruz), tests a new funeral system with the body of Aunt Yoyita, an elderly singing star who returned to Cuba to visit an old flame and dropped dead in his arms. It will be aired Tuesday Sept. 21. in room 100 of the Biology Earth Sciences building at 7 p.m.
The second film, Dream of Light (Quince Tree of the Sun), is a Spanish film by Victor Erice. In this movie Erice achieves a direct look into how the artist Antonio López García creates. It will be shown Tuesday Sept. 28. in room 100 of the Biology Earth Sciences building at 7 p.m.
Funny Dirty War, an Argentinian film by Hector Olivera, will be shown Wednesday Oct. 6. The story, a parable of events in Peronist Argentina, is a comedy about rightist Peronists who plot to oust the leftist mayor of the town. The mayor refuses to budge and a "funny dirty little war" ensues. The film will be shown in Sam Fore Hall room 112 at 6 p.m.
The last film of the semester is Buccaneer Soul, a Brazilian film directed by Carlos Riechenbach, one of Brazil's Cinema Novo's guiding spirits It will be shown Wednesday Oct. 13. The film looks at Brazilian love through literature, cinema and music in the story of two friends living through the chaotic 1960s. The film will be shown in Sam Fore Hall room 112 at 6 p.m.
All four films have English subtitles. No admission is charged and the public is welcome.
The Cinemateca Hispánica literary club was formed in the spring of 1997 and is open to all Texas A&M-Kingsville students. Before each movie, professors present commentary to guide students in their viewing.
In addition to the films, the club sponsors an essay contest for the first two films in which viewers write on some aspect of the movie watched. Prizes are awarded for winning essays.
Faculty sponsor for the group is Dr. Guillermo Valencia, associate professor in the language/literature department. For more information on the film series call 361-593-2377.
-TAMUK-