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Editor's Note:
The Latin American Video Archives' internet distribution service (http://www.lavavideo.org) has more than 7,000 Latin American related titles listed. A number of teachers of Latin American Civilization classes have asked us to recommend tiles they could use in their classes. Below is a partial listing of titles from our web site. To find more titles search subject = civilization, history, culture, indigenous peoples, ancient, slavery, colonial, religion. These titles can be purchased online, or by email (info@lavavideo.org) with an intitutional purchase order number or fax a purchase order to 212-243-2007.
Simon Bolivar: The Great Liberator Get Details and Purchasing Info
Documentary 58 minutes
With English subtitles
Here is a portrait of Simón Bolívar---aristocratic revolutionary, victor in battle, and loser to those who considered the revolution their personal mandate---and of the landscapes and forces that shaped the Latin America of his day and ours. This superb documentary details how and why Spain lost her colonies, and the historic trends and national heroes responsible for the outcome.
Purchase Price: $ 125.00
Americas Before The Europeans, The Get Details and Purchasing Info
Documentary 26 minutes 1985
With English subtitles
Years 300 - 1500. The Maya, Aztec & Inca civilizations that existed in Central and South America built remarkable cities and places of worship and paved road& Their intellectual achievements were equally impressive. But none of these great Empires survived the Spanish Conquistadors. Part 16 of "THE WORLD. A TELEVISION HISTORY"
Purchase Price: $ 149.00
Ancient Americans: The Mayas and Aztecs Get Details and Purchasing Info
Documentary 30 minutes
With English subtitles
This fascinating video examines the emergence of human culture in Central and South America and illuminates the advanced state of both these civilizations. Students will learn of the mysterious Olmec culture and witness the remnants of the brilliant Mayan society. The program also explores the war-filled history of the Aztec Empire.
Purchase Price: $ 150.00
Civilizations of Mexico, The Get Details and Purchasing Info
Documentary 13 minutes
With English subtitles
The archaeological sites at Monte Albán, Palenque, Uxmal, and Chichén Itzá speak of the great pre-Columbian civilizations: the Mayan solar calendar, mathematical system, and fabulous cities; and the Aztec Tenochtitlán, founded in 1325 and with almost a million inhabitants when Cortés "discovered" it.
Purchase Price: $ 105.00
Great Civilizations of South & Central America, The Get Details and Purchasing Info
Documentary 22 minutes
With English subtitles
An in depth study of the ancient civilizations that thrived in the Americas thousands of years before European settlers arrived.
Purchase Price: $ 79.95
Aztecs, The Get Details and Purchasing Info
Documentary 129 minutes
With English subtitles
Aztec myth prophesied that a great city would one day stand on the site where an eagle, perched on a cactus with a serpent in its mouth, was found. Today, Mexico City stands on this mythical site. Although the Aztec Empire fell on April 28, 1521, when Hernando Cortés and his army defeated Montezuma, traces of the thousand-year- old pre-Columbian empire still survive and influence world culture. This program explores Aztec culture and history, from the role of human sacrifice in the Aztec religion to their agricultural advances. Commentary by scholars, maps, and contemporary accounts provide an overview of the events that both shaped and destroyed an empire
Purchase Price: $ 150.00
Popol Vuh: The Creation Myth of Maya Get Details and Purchasing Info
Patricia Amlin
animation 60 minutes 1989
With English subtitles
This much-honored animated film employs authentic imagery from ancient Maya ceramics to create a riveting depiction of the Popol Vuh, the Maya creation myth and the foundation of most Native American religious, philosophical, and ethical beliefs. The film introduces the Maya and relates the entire tale, beginning with the creation of the world and concluding with the victory of the Hero Twins over the evil lords of the Underworld. There are logical stopping places at quarter-hour intervals to facilitate viewing by younger students. Teacher's guide co-authored by filmmaker Patricia Amlin and Prof. James A. Fox, Stanford University.
Purchase Price: $ 295.00
Five Suns: A Sacred History of Mexico Get Details and Purchasing Info
Patricia Amlin
Documentary 59 minutes 1996
With English subtitles
This new "artistic and intellectual triumph" is by Patricia Amlin, the extraordinary animator who created our widely honored and best-selling film, Popol Vuh: The Creation Myth of the Maya. Just as Popol Vuh took authentic images from ancient Maya ceramics and turned them into a riveting retelling of the Maya creation myth, so The Five Suns employs authentic pre-Columbian Aztec iconography to depict the most important creation myths and sacred stories of the Aztecs and other Nahuatl-speaking peoples of ancient central Mexico. All imagery derives from the colorful and brilliant art style of late post-Classic Mexico (A.D. 1250-1521), as taken from the body of pre-Conquest codices known collectively as the Borgia Group. These ancient screenfold books are filled with detailed and vivid scenes of native calendrics, rituals, mythical events, and cosmology. The Five Suns tells how Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca create heaven and earth, journey to the underworld to create humans and find sustenance for them, and finally create the sun and the moon. Like all creation stories, this one provides mythic answers to life's most perplexing questions and offers an ethical vision of how we should live. The Five Suns is essential viewing in a wide variety of classes and at many educational levels. Funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Purchase Price: $ 295.00
Americas Before The Europeans, The Get Details and Purchasing Info
Documentary 26 minutes 1985
With English subtitles
Years 300 - 1500. The Maya, Aztec & Inca civilizations that existed in Central and South America built remarkable cities and places of worship and paved road& Their intellectual achievements were equally impressive. But none of these great Empires survived the Spanish Conquistadors. Part 16 of "THE WORLD. A TELEVISION HISTORY"
Purchase Price: $ 149.00
Quilombo Get Details and Purchasing Info
Carlos Diegues
feature 114 minutes 1984
With English subtitles
Based on true events and places, this film
chronicles the growth and eventual physical
destruction of Palmares, one of the largest and
most successful quilombos (runaway slave
settlement during the late seventeenth century).
Palmares was able to withstand repeated attacks
by the Dutch and Portuguese until 1694, when it
fell to a large Portuguese military force. Yet
despite its physical destruction, a Palmares
resistance persisted into the late eighteenth
century. The film forcefully conveys the theme
that the spirit of resistance and African pride
bound up in the history of Palmares has never
died.
Purchase Price: $ 59.95
Last Supper Get Details and Purchasing Info
Tomas Gutierrez Alea
feature 120 minutes 1976
With English subtitles
The horror, brutality and religious hypocrisy of the slave system are brilliantly brought to life in this account of an incident that allegedly took place on a Cuban sugar estate in the mid-1790s during Easter Holy Week. A plantation owner invites twelve slaves to dine with him in imitation of Christ's last supper with his disciples. During the supper, he becomes increasingly drunk, expounds upon Christianity to the slaves and promises that the next day, Good Friday, there shall be no work on the estate. The next morning, the slaves hold the plantation owner to his word.
Purchase Price: $ 59.95
Sugar Cane Alley Get Details and Purchasing Info
Euzhan Palcy
feature 107 minutes 1984
With English subtitles
Set in Martinique in 1931, the film paints a portrait of life under French colonial rule, filtered through the coming-of-age story of a bright, black boy who learns to reconcile the value of his shantytown roots with the educational opportunities that beckon him to the big city.
Purchase Price: $ 59.95
Buried Mirror II/Conflict of the Gods Get Details and Purchasing Info
Christopher Ralling/Carlos Fuentes
Documentary 58 minutes 1991
With English subtitles
The film challenges colonial assumptions of superiority and demonstrates that Indian gods coexist with Catholic doctrine in modern Mexico and Latin America. Providing a chronological account beginning with Cortez's conquest of Mexico, the film propels the viewer into this world from the point of view of the indigenous peoples.
Purchase Price: $ 59.99
Chicana Get Details and Purchasing Info
Sylvia Morales
Documentary 23 minutes 1979
With English subtitles
Overview of social and political contributions of Mexican women from pre-Columbian time to the present (1979). It covers women's role in Aztec society and their participation in the 1810 struggle for Mexican independence, their involvement in US labor strikes in 1872, their contributions to the 1910 Mexican Revolution and their participation in contemporary civil rights causes. Using murals, engravings and historical footage, Chicana shows how women, despite their poverty, have become an active and vocal part of the political and work life in both Mexico and the United States.
Purchase Price: $ 250.00
Galeano: Memory, Myth, God, Message Get Details and Purchasing Info
Ataulfo Tobar
Documentary 24 minutes 1990
No English subtitles
Eduardo Galeano gives a beautiful lecture about the reinterpretation of Latin American history. He reflects on the five hundred years since Columbus, offering his perspectives on memories and history, myth and reality, and God. Galeano criticizes the official history, the machos, ricos, blancos and militares of the European conquering culture. He touches on themes of racism, sexism, and homophobia. Bringing out the hidden history of the indigenous people and Africans in Latin America, Galeano emphasizes the value of pre-Columbian civilizations, and the beauty of African practices in America. He makes the point that what must be commemorated in 1992 is the resistance of the oppressed. Intercut with Galeano's speech are images from Latin America to help provide context.
Purchase Price: $ 79.95
We Are Kuna Get Details and Purchasing Info
Jose (Che Che) Martinez
Documentary 27 minutes 1997
With English subtitles
This documentary presents the history of the Kuna Indians and their struggle for autonomy. At a yearly celebration of their independence day, residents reenact the battles that won them their freedom. Present day village life is shown and their fight against the multinational corporations that are destroying their lands is documented.
Purchase Price: $ 140.00
Bolivia: Heart of America Get Details and Purchasing Info
Francisco Ormachea
Documentary 43 minutes 1996
With English subtitles
2 minute segments about various aspects of Bolivian culture.
Purchase Price: $ 79.95
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Lucia Get Details
Humberto Solas
Feature 160 minutes 1968
No English subtitles
Lucia is an anthology film, three separate stories related by the common theme of women in revolution. It tells the stories of three Lucias, one in 1895, when the Cubans fought for independence from the Spaniards (a situation that resolved with U.S. intervention and purchase of Cuba from Spain); in 1933, when Cuban popular resistance against the dictator Geraldo Machado resulted in failure; and 196[0] in the aftermath of the victory of the revolution led by Fidel Castro. They are women from three different classes; the first is upper class, the second is from the middle class, the third is working class. They have three different ranges of potential action, and responses. Each story is hung on a love drama. In the first, the woman has an affair with a Spanish soldier, in which she must betray her own family. In the second, a young woman abandons her family and class to go underground with her soon to be slain husband; in the third, ayoung wife learns how to read and write and work in collective agriculture, in spite of a traditionally macho husband who triesto keep her in the house.The events of each life portrayed focus around issues of politics, feminism and gender battles. Solas, the director, explains, that he made women the protagonists because `women are traditionally the number one victims in all social confrontations. The woman's role always lays bare the contradictions of a period and makes them explicit.'... Lucia was extremely well received in Cuba, won many international awards, and is now an international classic.'(Aufderheide)
Poison People, The Get Details and Purchasing Info
Julio Azcarate
Documentary 28 minutes 1991
With English subtitles
This beautiful film describes what happened to the Zuruaha tribe of the Brazilian Amazon when colonizers moved into their ancestral lands and forced them to abandon many of their cultural traditions. Viewers are introduced to the Zuruaha's beliefs in the spirit world and its integration with plants, animals, and humans. When the Zuruaha tribe encountered Portuguese conquistadors in the early 1500s, they suffered a number of attacks in which all of their tribal leaders and medicine men were killed. Malaria, small pox, and other diseases brought by the Europeans decimated the tribe. The survivors retreated deep into the Amazon and had no contact with the developed world for centuries. In 1978, the destruction of the rainforest, resulting from the construction of the Transamazonia Highway, forced the Zuruaha out of hiding. Since then, the people have been relocated to a small preserve, and the remaining 128 villagers have become known as the poison people. Rather than witness the slow death of their tribe, the "bravest" commit suicide with the poison they manufacture for their hunting arrows.
Purchase Price: $ 99.95
Cuban Struggle Against the Demons Get Details
Tomas Gutierrez Alea
feature 130 minutes 1970
No English subtitles
The story reconstructs a historical episode in 17th century Cuba. It concerns the foundations of a city and the struggle between conservative and progressive forces in the region. A priest says that commerce with pirates will bring evil spirits and he wants the population to rid the land of them.
Jerico Get Details and Purchasing Info
Luis Alberto Lamata
feature 85 minutes 1991
With English subtitles
"Jerico" is the fictional account of Friar Santiago, a Dominican monk,who is sent by the Church at the beginning of the sixteenth century to participate in one of the expeditions to the Amazon. The expedition breaks up and Santiago is captured by an indigenous Caribe tribe with whom he remains until the tribe is wiped out by Spanish colonialists. Depicted with an ethnographic authority, this is the story of a man who wanted to transform a world and instead found himself transformed by that world. The film is also a metaphor for the priest's spiritual journey. Through his diary notations, viewers witness his mental examinations of the nature of good and evil, and the existence of God.
Purchase Price: $ 99.95
Continent Crucified-Brazil, A Get Details and Purchasing Info
Documentary 30 minutes
With English subtitles
Until recently the Cathlioc Church has been the
single most influential institution on the
continent. This film looks at the Cathlioc Church
from its arrival with the conquistadors to its
present position of conflict with the government
in power. Also discussed is the strong presence
of African religions and how they are integrated
in the Cathlioc Church.
Purchase Price: $ 295.00
Nganga Kiyangala, Congo Religion in Cuba Get Details and Purchasing Info
Tato Quinones and Luis Soto
Documentary 33 minutes 1991
With English subtitles
This film describes the history, rites, and practices of Nganga, the Bantu-based belief system of the slaves brought to Cuba from the Congo region of Africa, and attempts to distinguish it from the better-known Yoruba-based Santería. The film focuses on the actions performed by a palero (priest), during his morning prayer. Includes a long interview with Miguel Barnet, author of Biography of a Runaway Slave.
Purchase Price: $ 79.95
Cecilia Get Details
Humberto Solas
feature 147 minutes 1981
With English subtitles
This classic film, based on the novel by Cirilio Villaverde, is set in nineteenth-century Cuba. The story of Cecilia, a mulatta, and her relationship with a white manprovides an intimate and stark portrayal of colonial Cuba.
1868-1968 Get Details and Purchasing Info
Bernabe Hernandez, Hernan Henriquez, Tulio Raggi
Documentary 30 minutes 1970
No English subtitles
A collage of images depicting the history of Cuba during this one-hundred-year period.
Purchase Price: $ 49.95
Long Live the Republic Get Details
Pastor Vega
Documentary 100 minutes 1972
No English subtitles
The history of Cuba told through a collage of photos and other archival materials.
Conquest of Mexico, The Get Details and Purchasing Info
Documentary 35 minutes
With English subtitles
This program provides a portrait of Cortez and his worldùthe real world and the imaginary one painted by theologians, mystics, imaginative travelers, poets, and liars; of the New World as seen by a small number of Spaniards; and of the civilizations of Mesoamerica before they were "discovered" --- the world of the Mayas and Aztecs, the nature of Aztec religion and politics. It describes the Battle of Mexico and explains how and why Montezuma lostùand why, today still, the descendants of the Aztecs speak Nahuatl.
Purchase Price: $ 179.00
Cabeza de Vaca /Nuestro Cine Get Details
Alejandro Pelayo
Documentary 27 minutes
No English subtitles
Behind the scenes look at the making of Nichollas Echevarria's film of the same name.
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