Editor's Note:
With support from the US/Mexican Fund for Culture, the Latin American Video Archives (LAVA) and the Instituto Mexicano de Cinematografia (IMCINE) have released a selection of feature films which have never before been available for sale in the United States. These titles can be purchased on-line at our website (www.latinamericanvideo.org), or by email (info@lavavideo.org) with an intitutional purchase order number, or fax a purchase order to 212-243-2007.

Feature Films

Bride to Be, A   Get Details
Guita Schyfter
feature   115 minutes   1992
With English subtitles
This film narrates the adventures, sufferings, love affairs, and difficulties of two young Mexican Jewish girls in the early 60's. One of the girls is of Sephardic origin, and has been brought up in a conservative familiy. The other is of Central European descent, and with strong traditions which clash with her friend's. The encounter of these young girls, their different ways of facing the world, and the contrast between the Jewish and Mexican cultures, lead to a refelction on social plurality, the integration of cultural minorities with the country's majorities.


Angel of Fire   Get Details and Purchasing Info
Dana Rotberg
Feature   90 minutes   1991
With English subtitles
A film with mysterious circus atmospheres and underworlds, which narrates the life of Alma, an adolescent trapeze artist and fire-breathers whose days go by in a miserable Mexico City circus, which at night becomes a brothel. Alma, in love with her father, Renato -an old and sick clown- is bearing the fruit of their incest. Alma decides to have the baby, and therefore abandons the circus. She wanders through other wonderworlds until she reaches the tragic denouncement, when the main character sacrifices herself in a desperate attempt at purification through suicide, setting fire to herself and to what once used to be her world, the circus.
Purchase Price: $ 49.95


Tale of Love and Histeria   Get Details
Alfonso Cuaron
feature   94 minutes   1990
With English subtitles
"Solo con tu pareja" is an entertaining and intelligent comedy which tackles the issue of AIDS. In this film, Tomas Tomas (the male protagonist) has a problem: he loves all women, and all women love him. Standing on a cornice four stories above ground, he faces a new problem: he falls in love for the first time. Yet his mishaps do not conclude there. Tomas Tomas, who lives in times of DC-10s, microwaves and AIDS, is a contemporary Don Juan, with only one obstacle: he refuses to use a condom.


Married Life   Get Details and Purchasing Info
Luis Carlos Carrera
Feature   95 minutes   1992
No English subtitles
"La vida conyugal" is the story of a couple that gets married with the idea of "living together until death do them part". However, as years go by, the couple faces the common problems of marriage. Jacqueline, the wife, decides to solve these problems by recurring to an unorthodox method: killing her husband. Narrated in an ironical tone, the film tackles the story of the unique couple, and of Jacqueline's attempts to reach her goal.
Purchase Price: $ 49.95


Benjamin's Woman   Get Details
Carlos Carrera
feature   90 minutes   1990
With English subtitles
"La mujer de Benjamin" narrates the story of Natividad, a 17 year-old girl bored with her home and her town, who dreams of traveling around the world - maybe with a handsome truck driver. Also narrated is the life of Benjamin, a 50-year-old man, who lives under the guardianship of his sister and is considered to be the town's fool. He falls in love with Natividad and incited by his friends, decides to steal her.


Wooden Town   Get Details
Juan Antonio de la Riva
feature   98 minutes   1989
With English subtitles
The description of life in a timber producing town, San Miguel de las Cruces, Durango, as seen by two of the male protagonists during their visit. Throughout the film, we become witnesses of the hard days of labor. The film pays homage to the way of life, which threatens to disappear; the dreams and disillusions; love and deception of its residents.


Goitia, A God for Himself   Get Details
Diego Lopez
Feature   112 minutes   1989
With English subtitles
When Goitia, a Mexican painter of our century, sensed death approaching, he asked God to allow him to paint one last picture. This way, he created an account of his life.

Soon To Be Subtitled By LAVA

Dying in the Golf   Get Details
Alejandro Pelayo
Feature   95 minutes   1989
No English subtitles
Morir en el Golfo, based on a novel by Hector Aguilar, is a story about politics, corruption and revenge in rural Mexico.


Wandering Lives   Get Details and Purchasing Info
Juan Antonio de la Riva
Feature   95 minutes   1984
With English subtitles
In "Vidas errantes" Francisco and his young assistant, Guillermo, dedicate themselves to an unusual task. They travel through towns in the mountains, exhibiting films. With the profits he obtains from the film projections, Francisco decides to build a movie theater in the outskirts of one of the towns. Meanwhile, Guillermo abducts a young girl named Josefina, and takes her to work with them. As the construction of the movie theater is almost completed, the building catches fire due to the negligence from the security guard, a mentally retarded individual that had joined the group. Francisco and Guillermo, the strolling movie projectors, have to start over again.
Purchase Price: $ 49.95


Mariana, Mariana   Get Details and Purchasing Info
Alberto Isaac
Feature   82 minutes   1986
No English subtitles
Based on the story by Jose Emilio Pacheco. At his father's burial, Carlos runs into Rosales, an old schoolmate. Carlos begins to recall certain events from his childhood, when he fell in love with Mariana, the mother of his friend Jimmy, and the lover of a politician. Carlos had run away from school to declare his love to her, but when his parents found him, they sent him to another school as punishment. Carlos later learned that Mariana was abandoned by her lover and committed suicide.
Purchase Price: $ 49.95


Beneath the Shrapnel   Get Details
Felipe Cazals
feature   102 minutes   1982
No English subtitles
In "Bajo la Metralla" a guerrilla commando tries to abduct a politician attempt during which several police officers and one guerrilla are killed. By coincidence, the guerrilla recognizes an old friend, whom he kidnaps to prevent him from denouncing the group. This encounter and other circumstances lead the plot to ponder around the diverging political conceptions of the characters, blending action, intrigue and the reality of an epoch.


Difficult Days   Get Details
Alejandro Pelayo
fiction   85 minutes   1987
No English subtitles
"Dias Dificiles" is a story where political and social interests mix, with the kidnapping of a family member of the most powerful industrial group in an imaginary city in Northern Mexico.

Other Featured Titles

• Discounts on LAVA's Spring Titles (May 2004)
  
• The Latin American Cities Collection (May 2004)
  
• Asian Diaspora (April 2004)
  
• New Release (April 2004)
  
• Jewish Studies (April 2004)
  
• Classic Latin American Cinema (March 2004)
  
• Women's Studies (February 2004)
  
• Satire and Symbolism (February 2004)
  
• New Releases (January 2004)
  
• Discounts on LAVA's Fall Titles (December 2003)
  
• The Vision of Manuel Antin (November 2003)
  
• Now Available on DVD (November 2003)
  
• New Documentaries (October 2003)
  
• Recent Chilean Cinema (October 2003)
  
• The Work of Daniel Burman (September 2003)
  
• Fernando Birri's 'Los inundados' (September 2003)
  
• The Overthrow of Allende (September 2003)
  
• The Sixth Section (August 2003)
  
• Fall Tour: Dispatches from Rebel Mexico (August 2003)
  
• New Documentary (May 2003)
  
• A Tribute to Fernando Birri (May 2003)
  
• Documentaries on the Arts (May 2003)
  
• Documentaries on Music (May 2003)
  
• Crisis in Argentina (April 2003)
  
• Video in the Villages (April 2003)
  
• New Releases (March 2003)
  
• New Feature Films (March 2003)
  
• The Work of Rafael Rebollar (February 2003)
  
• Mexican Documentaries (February 2003)
  
• Landscapes of Memory (February 2003)
  
• New Documentaries-January 2003 (January 2003)
  
• New Films from Colombia (November 2002)
  
• New Chilean Documentaries (October 2002)
  
• New Mexican Documentaries (October 2002)
  
• Contemporary Cuba (October 2002)
  
• New Feature Films from Argentina (September 2002)
  
• The Pinochet Case (September 2002)
  
• Revisiting Central America (May 2002)
  
• Globalization and its Discontents (April 2002)
  
• New Documentaries (April 2002)
  
• Indigenous Video from Brazil (February 2002)
  
• Documentaries from LAVA (February 2002)
  
• New Feature Films from LAVA (November 2001)
  
• New Documentaries from LAVA (October 2001)
  
• Work from Colombia and Ecuador (October 2001)
  
• New Releases from LAVA, Fall 2001 (September 2001)
  
• New Releases (May 2001)
  
• Work from Peru (April 2001)
  
• New Releases from Brazil (March 2001)
  
• THE LATIN AMERICAN VIDEO ARCHIVES (February 2001)
  
• Cuba's Independent Video Movement (November 2000)
  
• This Month's Featured Artist (November 2000)
  
• New Tiles at LAVA October, 2000 (October 2000)
  
• Featured Titles at LAVA, Fall 2000 (September 2000)
  
• New Release of Mexican Feature Films (September 2000)
  
• New Titles at LAVA - April 2000 (April 2000)
  
• New Titles at LAVA (March 2000)
  
• New Titles At LAVA (February 2000)
  
• Puerto Rico (November 1999)
  
• Exclusive Release (November 1999)
  
• Two New Titles Directed Betty Kaplan (October 1999)
  
• Eva Peron Has Arrived (October 1999)
  
• LAVA's Featured Titles for September (September 1999)
  
• Latin American Civilization (September 1999)
  
• For Teachers By Teachers (January 1999)
  
• Brazilian Indigenous Community Video (November 1998)
  
• Welcome Back (September 1998)
  
• What's New (May 1998)
  
• Films Based on Books (February 1998)
  
• MoMA Presents Thorn of the Mountain (January 1998)
  
• CUBAN FEATURE FILMS AND DOCUMENTARIES (November 1997)
  
• VIDEO BY AND ABOUT INDIGENOUS PEOPLES (October 1997)