Upcoming activities

The documentary is the result of a project that took place in Karnataka, India. It presents the lives of women, part of a social and religious group, the Devadasis, servants to the Goddess Yellama. The story of the Devadasis goes back to the 6th century; time when their duties commenced within the ritual officiated exclusively by women who worshipped the gods. They rehearsed dance, music and poetry and created a semi-matriarchal system, which allowed them to attend to their obligations. Nowadays, after having been expelled from the temples, they survive through religious prostitution, an illegal practice in Karnataka since 1982.Within this context, it is important to highlight the effort of several social organizations working to protect this group of women, ensuring that they receive healthcare and preventive care, and protecting their children from sexual trafficking. 

(Text from the IC New York)

E • CO presents photographic projects, made by twenty Latin American and Europeans photographic collectives, whose works have been commissioned by the Ministry of Culture of Spain, under the Spanish Presidency of the European Union and within the celebrations of bicentenary of many Latin countries’ independence.

Each collective has received the proposal to raise a visual essay, that reflected its concerns around one of the most important topics of our day: the environment. Faced with such a wide initial approach, the first challenge was conceptualize the proposal, and try to define an issue that every day becomes more important in our society. The complexity of this subject has been expressed since the initial call, since each country has different definitions of what "Environment" means.

One of the project’s key points is trying not to influence the themes presented and their representation – therefore, the results presented here reflect the interests and concerns that each group wanted to highlight.

Formal image post-production as well as editing, are a reflection of each group’s works. It provides a virtual tour that gives the viewer several reading possibilities – on one hand, the one referring to the problems reflected and, on the other, the one reflecting the forms of organization of each collective.

Even though photographic collectives are not a new phenomenon, in recent years they have become particularly relevant. In a situation of mass saturation images and the the same communication channels, professional photographers are forced to seek new forms of representation and alternative circuits to make their production visible. The groups provide a platform that reacts to a hostile situation and, on the other side, they are the reflection of a society, in which it is necessary to join efforts to achieve good results.

The Opening exhibit will be held March 1st, 2012, at 6PM.
Location: Pete V. Dominici Education Center, NHCC.
Gallery hours: Monday to Friday from 9AM to 5 PM. Saturday from 9 PM to noon.
Free admission.

Documentary that depicts the reality endured by women of African descent, living in the peninsula of Itapagipe in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil. Filmed in 2007, the documentary was made possible because of the involvement and participation of more than fifty women and families who opened the door to their homes and lives to share with the world. They are women who struggle every day to build a new reality, a new social model. They head solidarity economy initiatives self-managed through different social organizations.
(From the IC New York).

In Freedom Park, a squatter settlement near the platinum mines in SA, a network of former sex workers create Tapologo. They learn to be Home Based Carers for their community, transforming degradation into solidarity and squalor into hope. Catholic Bishop Kevin Dowling participates in Tapologo and raises doubts on the official doctrine of the Catholic Church regarding AIDS and sexuality in the African context.
(Text from IMDb)

Princess of Africa introduces the audience to two different princesses and their dreams. Marem is a 14-year-old girl from Senegal who studies dance and dreams of performing in Europe when she is older. Sonia is a professional dancer from Spain who is fascinated by African culture and creativity, and desires to experience an African lifestyle. The two women are by connected in Pap Ndiaye, a master griot (musician) who splits his time between Senegal and Europe. Marem is his daughter, and Sonia has just married Pap in Spain. Both women will find their dreams in the course of the film but each at a price. When Sonia arrives in Africa, she finds the vibrant colors and rhythms that have inspired her performances are intact, but she is faced with the realization that she is not the only wife of Pap Ndiaye. In fact, she is his third wife and she must come to terms with her expectations of marriage in an African society. Marem sees the other side of the coin. Her vision of Europe is utopian and the actual visit is a surprising revelation for her. A celebrated portrait of African life, Princess of Africa is a beautiful documentary that is full of love between people and ideas while sharing an intoxicating vision of the way music and dance are woven into the cultural aesthetic.

(Text from Seattle International Film Festival).

This program shows four centuries of Mexican history, starting with the arrival of the Spaniard “conquistadores” to the fall of dictator Porfirio Díaz in 1911.  It is a long, complex period in the process of giving birth to the Mexican nationality – the cultural and racial mixing, the insertion of Western values through learning the Spanish language and Catholic religion, three centuries of Spanish colonialism, the restructuring political process of independent Mexico as well as the Porfirian system that provided peace and progress at the expense of justice and freedom.  All along these four hundred years, Mexicans searched in earnest for their identity, through the cultural and artistic creativity of a whole nation

Directed by Federico Weingartshofer and Julián Pablo and narrated by Mario Ivan Martínez.

In an unnamed Latin American country that closely resembles Mexico, the government fights a rural insurgency with torture, assault, rape, and murder. Soldiers descend on a town, cutting off the rebels from their cache of ammunition hidden in a field. A family of grandfather, son, and grandson are among the rebels in the hills. The grandfather, with his violin over his shoulder, tries to pass the checkpoint, ostensibly to tend his corn crop. The commanding officer lets him pass but insists on a daily music lesson. Can the old man ferry out the ammunition in his violin case under the soldiers' nose?

 

The Mexican revolutionary movement became the first social revolution of the 20th Century and bred along a significant cultural phenomenon that created high quality works in different artistic disciplines.  Muralism represented by Orozco, Rivera and Siqueiros, the later painting of Tamayo and Toledo; the Golden Age of Mexican cinema, the musical productions of Chávez, Moncayo and Revueltas; the revolutionary literature and writings by Alfonso Reyes and Octavio Paz, who in 1990 won the Literature Nobel Prize.  These are just some examples of the nationalist and universal rooting of the Mexican Spirit.

Written by Carlos Monsiváis, directed by Emilio Cantón and narrated by Mario Ivan Martínez

One of the world's greatest guitarists, Paco de Lucía is a living legend of flamenco music. Considered by many to be the most innovative and influential flamenco artist of the last 40 years, he has had a revolutionary impact on the art form, infusing it with new life and bringing it worldwide attention.

At Popejoy Hall, in the Fine Arts Building on the UNM Campus.

On February 2nd at 7pm in the Bank of America Theatre, Director Manuel Nieto will open the film series Cinema in Progress with the presentation of The Dog Pound, a movie shown in Miami Encuentros Projects 2004, a festival held in conjunction with the Miami International Film Festival. After the movie, there will be a Q&A with Director Manuel Nieto.

Manuel Nieto: A Graduate in Media Studies from the Catholic University of Uruguay in 1995, Manuel Nieto has worked in television commercial production and as assistant director on the feature length film 25 Watts (2001) by Rebella and Stoll. His directorial debut was the 35mm short film Nico & Parker (2000) which he co-directed with Diego Fernandez. This short won the Caccho Pallero Award at the 2001 Huesca Film Festival, in Spain, and has been shown at festivals such as Bilbao (Spain), Rotterdam (Netherlands), and Sao Paulo (Brazil).

The Dog Pound - David, has just failed his university examinations and has one year to re-write them. Ruben, his father, a pragmatic and successful businessman, has been paying for David's education, the pursuit of which he considers a waste of time. Ruben wants David to work and make himself useful and he strikes a deal with him: David can stay and study for his exams at Ruben's house in La Perrera, a coastal resort town, while he builds a house for himself. And so, a year-long adventure starts for David, an urban intellectual, in the isolated La Perrera and among its off-season residents who include nearly as many dogs as men, where the only women are either pregnant or prostitutes, and where no one wants to work and things are done out of friendship more than anything else.