Documentary (Latinx USA, 29mins)

FREE - September 14th at 3:00pm @Cinemapolis

Introduced by Prof. Enrique González-Conty (IC)

Sponsored by the Reproductive Rights Film Festival

62 DAYS is an urgent examination of a growing trend of laws that seek to control a pregnant woman's body. It tells the story of a brain-dead pregnant woman whose family was forced to keep her on life support against their will. Marlise Muñoz was 33 years old and 14 weeks pregnant with her second child when she suffered a pulmonary embolism and was pronounced brain-dead in a hospital in Texas. Marlise had been clear about her end-of-life wishes: she did not want to be on mechanical support under any circumstances. But Marlise was kept alive because of a little-known law that states "a person may not withdraw or withhold life-sustaining treatment... from a pregnant patient." The film reveals that this is not an anomaly: there are currently 32 states (and counting) with similar or identical pregnancy exclusion policies.
(Women Make Movies)

Drama (Brazil, 99mins)

FREE - September 14th at 7pm @Cinemapolis

Introduced by Prof. Pamela Sertzen (IC) and Prof. Montiniquë McEachern (SUNY Oswego)

Sponsored by the Reproductive Rights Film Festival

On the eve of a future-defining championship, promising young volleyball player Sofia, 17, is faced with an unwanted pregnancy. Seeking a termination - criminalised in Brazil - she becomes the target of a fundamentalist group determined to stop her at any cost. But neither Sofia nor those who love her are willing to surrender to the blind fervour of the swarm. Winner of the FIPRESCI Prize. (ArtMattan Films)

Documentary (Brazil, 92mins)

FREE - September 17th at 10am @Ithaca College, Job 160

Introduced by Prof. Enrique González Conty (IC)

In the vibrant city of Rio de Janeiro and its outskirts, young LGBTQ+ individuals from non-white communities are reinventing the culture of Ballroom and voguing (an underground queer subculture) in their own way, 50 years after its emergence in New York. Directed by Brazilian queer artists Juru (a researcher, playwright, and performing arts critic) and Vitã (a filmmaker and screenwriter), this performative documentary moves between a night of competition in Rio’s Ballroom scene, the daily lives of the artists and community members, and theatrical reenactments embodying historical figures. Through testimonials and dance scenes, the film explores the challenges these young people face and the powerful impact of a culture that celebrates self-expression, resilience, and solidarity. Rio is Burning! (Utopia Docs)

Documentary (El Salvador, 89mins)

FREE - September 19th at 7pm @Cinemapolis

Introduced by…

As states in the U.S. enact abortion bans, FLY SO FAR serves as a grave warning of how far government control of women’s bodies can go. This brave film from Swiss-Salvadorean filmmaker Celina Escher is set in El Salvador, a country with some of the most restrictive abortion laws in the world, including the criminalization of those who experience miscarriages and other obstetric emergencies.

The narrative centers on Teodora Vásquez, who was in the ninth month of her second pregnancy when she fainted and suffered a stillbirth. When she woke up at the hospital, she was accused of murder and was sentenced to thirty years in prison for aggravated homicide. At Ilopango Women’s Prison, she becomes the spokesperson for The Seventeen, a group of working-class women who were all incarcerated after having miscarriages. Many of these same women became pregnant after being sexually assaulted. While it exposes brutal human rights abuses, FLY SO FAR is unmistakably a story of collective resistance, activism, sisterhood, as well as the self-determination and agency of women. (Women Make Movies)

Drama (Costa Rica/Spain, 90mins)

FREE - September 20 at 5:30pm @Cornell Cinema

Introduced by…

Raised in a repressive era where sexuality was taboo, Ana, Patricia, and Mayela found their understanding of womanhood based on unspoken rules and implicit impositions. Now, their fearless voices incarnate in a single 65-year-old woman, who revisits a kaleidoscopic life of intertwined memories, secrets, and hidden desires.(Bendita Film)

Docudrama (Venezuela, 89mins)

FREE - September 25th at 6pm @Cornell Cinema

Introduced by Prof. Irina Troconis (Cornell)

Combining sharp social critique with the offbeat poetry of magical realism, La Soledad offers an engaging portrait of the effects of economic catastrophe on individuals’ lives. Director Jorge Thielen Armand’s debut feature, this film sees him return to La Soledad, a house in Venezuela once inhabited by his great-grandparents and now threatened with demolition. The house is dilapidated—antique portraits hang from crumbling walls and garden weeds force their way through the cracks—yet in the midst of Venezuela’s economic and political crisis it has become a sanctuary for those who live there. La Soledad not only offers a lyrical evocation of a decaying world but also opens up new possibilities for documentary cinema. (Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, UK)

Documentary (Brazil, 112mins)

FREE - October 2nd at 8:30pm @Cornell Cinema

Introduced by Prof. Liliana Colanzi (Cornell)

YANUNI follows the extraordinary journey of Juma Xipaia, an Indigenous chief from the Brazilian Amazon, as she rises from a remote village in Xipaya territory to the political frontlines of climate justice. A fearless defender of her people and the rainforest, Juma has survived six assassination attempts while confronting illegal gold miners, land-grabbers, and multinational corporations threatening her ancestral land. Spanning years of activism and personal sacrifice, the film captures Juma’s historic appointment as Brazil’s first Secretary of Indigenous Rights under President Lula. At her side is Hugo Loss, her husband and the head of Special Operations at IBAMA, Brazil’s environmental protection agency. As Juma fights on the political front, Hugo leads dangerous operations to dismantle illegal mining camps deep in the Amazon—often under armed threat. When Juma discovers she is pregnant, her battle takes on new urgency. Navigating impending motherhood, rising political responsibility, and Hugo’s high-risk missions, she is forced to confront the personal cost of resistance. (Malaika Pictures)

Experimental Film (Latinx USA, 19mins)

Directed by IC professor Cathy Lee Crane

FREE - October 5th at 6pm @Cinemapolis with Q&A with the director to follow

A mosaic portrait of people who live along the US/Mexico border. Each of the fourteen channels represents one of the many crossing towns from Tijuana on the left to El Paso & the Rio Grande on the right. (FLEFF)

Documentary (Dominican Republic, 76mins)

Directed by Juan A. Zapata

Sponsored by the Department of World Languages, Literatures and Cultures at Ithaca College

Free - October 8th at 6pm @Ithaca College, Textor 102

Introduced by Prof. Enrique González Conty (IC)

A documentary about a case of modern slavery in one of the largest sugar cane plantations in the world, located in the Dominican Republic and belonging to the Fanjul Family, one of the most powerful families in America.

When Maria’s husband died, she was told to either leave the sugarcane plantation or to work in the only existent job: cutting and planting cane.

She decided to work in exchange for a miserable wage and a rudimentary barrack she and her five children call home. With that, she was accepting a precarious life without electricity, drinkable water and sanitary services. This is how people are stuck in a house provided by the Company, ensuring that no other basic service neither civil rights are provided, maintaining people in a life of misery. The vast extension of a sugarcane plantation in Dominican Republic offers this deal to thousands of Haitian workers. (ArtMattan)

Documentary (Puerto Rico, 63mins)

Directed by Rosamary Berríos Hernández

FREE - October 12th at 6pm @Cinemapolis with Q&A to follow with the director

Introduced by Prof. Enrique González Conty (IC)

The documentary narrates the daily drama and the impressive devotion of devoted women to the image of Santiago Apostle. Their stories are intertwined with the emblematic elements of the celebrations in honor of the "saint" as a gesture that takes shape in the spirituality of all a town. (Cine Fest Latino Boston)