Featuring the best of border cinema, the Trans-Border Institute’s annual Border Film Week will showcase documentary and fiction films offering attendees a broad vision of border culture.
Monday, March 24
6:00 PM
In Land of Cowboys / En Tierra de Vaqueros
Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice Theatre
Oliver Rendón, Director / 32 min.
View Trailer
Some wear Stetson hats, jeans, and plaid or long-sleeved shirts. Although they fit the image of the macho cowboy, the rugged appearance of these gays and lesbians of Sonora, Mexico does not tell the whole story of their lives. Intolerant, conservative Catholic values and traditional family bonds provide a complicated and changing dynamic. RSVP
6:40 p.m.
Die Standing Up / Morir de Pie
Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice Theatre
Jacaranda Correa, Director / 90 min.
View Trailer
This is the inspiring story of Irina Layewska, a tireless fighter in the war for personal freedoms, who continues to work for progressive causes from her wheelchair despite a severe disability. But it’s also the love story of Irina and her partner Nelida, whom she married as a man. Irina was born into a male body; she grew up idolizing Che Guevara and spent much of her young life fighting in the Cuban solidarity movement. When her condition suddenly threatened her eyesight she became aware of an internal, emotional imbalance, and a need to explore her feminine side, and in the end made the choice to become a woman. RSVP
7:45 p.m.
Panel Discussion and Q&A
• Oliver Rendón, Director
• Dr. Ev Meade, Trans-Border Institute’s Director
Tuesday, March 25
5:00 p.m.
I Want to See / Quiero Ver
Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice Theatre
Adele Horne, Director / 6 min
On the 13th of each month, hundreds of people gather at a site in the Mojave Desert to see visions of the Virgin Mary appear in the sun. They point Polaroid, cell phone, and video cameras at the sun, and compare interpretations of the resulting images. This film documents the creative energy of this populist spiritual event. Vision Award, Ann Arbor Film Festival. RSVP
Skin Destination
Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice Theatre
Adriana Trujillo, Director / 10 mins.
View Trailer
Skin Destination proposes a reflection to the state of emergency that Mexico lives from the perspective of the body as an agent. Using found footage film in Skin Destination elapses in a cross-border manner (as well as in the city of Tijuana) different formats, narrative strategies and staging. RSVP
Dress Rehearsal for Utopia / Ensayo Final Para Utopía
Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice Theatre
Andrés Duque, Director / 75 min
View Trailer
Experimental documentary maker Andrés Duque visits Mozambique looking for old footage that had been made there. But strange premonitions make him sad. When it becomes apparent that his old father is seriously ill, he returns to his homeland of Venezuela straight away.The film he had been working on grows into a personal collage in which he gives his feelings a place alongside the politically tinted images he found in Mozambique – or filmed himself. In this way, Dress Rehearsal for Utopia turns into a diary cum experimental travelogue cum political statement. After an intimate start and a cultural trip to Mozambique, Duque returns home, where he has to face the fact that he can’t change anything about the finiteness of life. The musical soundtrack is sometimes interrupted for scenes by a gentle rustling noise that links the different images, their origins and significance together. RSVP
6:30 pm
Panel Discussion and Q&A
• Adriana Trujillo, Director
• Adele Horne, Director
Wednesday, March 26
4:00 p.m.
Keep Your Eyes On Guatemala / Tengan Puestos los Ojos en Guatemala
Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice Theatre
Gabriela Martínez, Director / 54 min.
View Trailer
This film tells the story of Guatemala’s National Police Historical Archive (Archivo Histórico de la Policia Nacional or AHPN) intertwined with narratives of past human rights abuses, and the dramatic effects they had on specific individuals and the nation as a whole. In addition, it highlights present-day efforts to preserve collective memories and bring justice and reconciliation to the country. RSVP
5:00 p.m.
Panel Discussion and Q&A
• Gabriela Martínez, Film Director
• Dr. Julia Medina, Department of Languages and Literatures, College of Arts and Sciences, USD.
• Dr. Douglas Carranza, Program Director of Central American Studies Program, California State University Northridge.
• Dr. Antonieta Mercado, Communication Studies Department, College of Arts and Sciences, USD.
• Dr. Kevin Guerrieri, Department of Languages and Literatures, College of Arts and Sciences, USD.
Co-sponsored by the University of San Diego Enhanced Student-Faculty Information Fund, the Department of Languages and Literatures, the International Studies Center and the Latin American Studies Program.
6:00 p.m.
Coronation / Coronación
Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice Theatre
Ana Andrade, Bryan Chillian, Jesus Guerra, Directors / 7:51 min.
Memin, an inhabitant of the river channel “El Bordo” in Tijuana, Baja California recounts and exposes migrants concerns about violations by the authorities. On 24 November 2013, there was an attempt of a massive illegal border crossing, the real experience was captured on tape. The footage of the crossing is joint together with a game of chess, as Memin describes the complex context of migration and marginalization. RSVP
6:15 p.m.
La Camioneta: The Journey of One American School Bus / La Camioneta: El Viaje de un Autobús Americano
Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice Theatre
Mark Kendall, Director / 72 min.
View Trailer
Every day dozens of retired school buses, migrate from the US to Guatemala where they transport people to work every day. In Guatemala since 2006 nearly 1,000 drivers have been killed for not paying extortion demanded by local gangs. THE TRUCK follows a bus in its transformative journey: a journey between North and South, between life and death. RSVP
7:00 p.m.
Panel Discussion and Q&A
• Ana Andrade, Bryan Chillian, and Jesus Guerra, Film Directors
Thursday, March 27
5:00 p.m.
Out of Focus / Fuera de Foco
Warren Auditorium, Mother Rosalie Hill Hall
Adrián Arce and Antonio Zirión, Directors / 36 min.
By anthropologist and film maker collaborators Adrián Arce and Antonio Zirión. The film documents the lives of young detainees, serving sentences for serious offenses in Mexico City’s notorious San Fernando juvenile prison. The documentary was the result of film and photography workshops which took place in the prison, led by film makers and attended by young inmates aged 15 to 19. RSVP
5:40 p.m.
I’m Just Like You / Me Parezco Tanto a Ti
Warren Auditorium, Mother Rosalie Hill Hall
Luna Marán, Director / 23 min.
Three grandmothers and three youngsters in the North mountains of Oaxaca, tell us which were and what their deepest aspirations. “I’m Just Like You” portrays the passage of three generations of women through dreams and opportunities of the past, present and future. RSVP
6:05 p.m.
Holy Death: White Girl, Pretty Girl / Santísima Muerte: Niña Blanca, Niña Bonita
Warren Auditorium, Mother Rosalie Hill Hall
Pavel Valenzuela, Director and Dr. Manuel Valenzuela, Producer / 63 min.
Documentary that approaches the practices of mysticism from popular cult of Santa Muerte (Holy Death), which by the fervor of his devotees has become conspicuous presence on both sides of the border area, and center of the country. RSVP
7:00 p.m.
Panel Discussion and Q&A
• Dr. Manuel Valenzuela, Director, Producer and Professor, Department of Cultural Studies, Colegio de la Frontera Norte.
• Dr. Alberto López Pulido, Professor and Chair of the Department of Ethnic Studies, College of Arts and Sciences, University of San Diego.
Friday, March 28
5:00 p.m.
Traces
Warren Auditorium, Mother Rosalie Hill Hall
Fiamma Montezemolo, Director / 20 mins.
In this video essay contemplative images, confessions, theoretical reflections and an enigmatic subject of electronic music are fused to form a meditation on border life between the US and Mexico. Based on years of ethnographic work in Tijuana and ascetic 24-hour schedule, artist and anthropologist refracts his own experience in the region to try to carve out a living and textured portrait of the wall separating Tijuana and San Diego. These are images of a rusty wall, topography rebel surveillance structures decaying, furtive moments of undocumented migrants crossing dystopic landscapes. RSVP
Humedales Artificiales: Three Transnational Wetlands
Warren Auditorium, Mother Rosalie Hill Hall
Cynthia Hooper, Director / 5 min
This observational documentary examines three anthropogenic wetlands in the delta of the Colorado River in Baja California. These artificially created Mexican sites (sometimes accidentally) have been deeply impacted by the activities and policies of the United States. A wetland is facing an immediate threat of destruction due to the activities of the United States, while another requires complex bilateral agreements between the two countries in order to be preserved. The third wetland which holds the waste water of the city of Mexicali, Baja California, enjoys a reasonably secure future. All these habitats manufactured circumspection and humility inspired by his precarious fragility and awe and respect for their great resilience. RSVP
5:25 p.m.
Purgatory / Purgatorio
Warren Auditorium, Mother Rosalie Hill Hall
Rodrigo Reyes, Director / 80 min
View Trailer
With striking imagery, director Rodrigo Reyes re-imagines the Mexico/U.S. border as a mythical place comparable to Dante’s purgatory. Leaving politics aside, he takes a fresh look at the brutal beauty of the border and the people caught in its spell. RSVP
6:45 p.m.
Panel Discussion and Q&A
• Rodrigo Reyes, Director
• Cynthia Hooper, Director
• Dr.Olivia Ruiz, Department of Cultural Studies, El Colegio de la Frontera Norte and University of San Diego’s Lecturer.
• Dr. Ev Meade, Trans-Border Institute’s Director
Border Film Week is produced in partnership with POLEN and Non.Format.
KIPJ, Suite #238
5998 Acalá Park
San Diego, CA. 92110
P: (619) 260-7919
POINT LOMA & OB DEMS 