The 18th annual Chicago Latino Film Festival, presented by the International Latino Cultural Center of Chicago, runs Friday, April 5, through Thursday, April 18. Film and video screenings will be at the Biograph, 2433 N. Lincoln; DePaul Univ. Alliance for Latino Empowerment, 2320 N. Kenmore, room 154; Dominican Univ., 7900 W. Division, River Forest; Facets Cinematheque, 1517 W. Fullerton; Metzli Video Cinema, 1440 W. 18th St.; Northwestern Univ. Thorne Auditorium, 750 N. Lake Shore Dr.; Richard J. Daley College, 7500 S. Pulaski; the Three Penny; and Univ. of Illinois at Chicago, Lecture Center B2, 750 S. Halsted. Tickets for most programs are $9; for students, senior citizens, and disabled persons, $8; and for members of ILCC and the Illinois Arts Alliance, $7. Festival passes, good for ten screenings not including special events, are $70, $60 for ILCC members. For more information call 312-409-1757. Films marked with an * are highly recommended.
FRIDAY, APRIL 5
Adios East Los
Three high school dropouts from the Los Angeles barrio, eager to escape their humdrum lives, steal a luxury boat and sail to Catalina Island in this 1999 video by William Douglas Lansford. Their long idyll (they plan to head onward to Tahiti and plant watermelons) is pleasant enough, but their modest misfortunes (unemployment, menial work) fail to make their escape fantasies compelling or elicit sympathy for their crime. Lansford’s direction is academic and uninspired, and the kids’ wooden attempts at street talk yield to predictable “us against the world” sentiments. 96 min. (FC) On the same program, Pan y libertad, a nine-minute short by Yvette Pita. (Metzli Video Cinema, 6:30)
The Flamenco Singer
In the 1860s a man hires an aging flamenco singer to entertain at his son’s engagement party, only to watch his son fall in love with her. Josefina Molina directed this 1993 Spanish feature, in Spanish with subtitles. 113 min. (Biograph, 7:00)
Zorba the Greek
Michael Cacoyannis’s 1964 remake of Auntie Mame, played in Greek drag with Anthony Quinn as a peasant packed with Life Force and Alan Bates as the dried-up British intellectual who learns how to dance and drink ouzo. It’s false art of the most deplorable kind, but it has a few fresh moments amid its fuzzy pretensions. Mikis Theodorakis’s buzzy score is still a Muzak favorite. With Irene Papas and Lila Kedrova. 142 min. (DK) (Biograph, 7:00)
Costa Rica Up Close
Three shorts from Costa Rica: Hilda Hidalgo’s Stardust (44 min.) and La pasion de nuestra senora (17 min.), and a film Hidalgo directed with Felipe Cordero, Bajo el limpido azul de tu cielo (37 min.), all made in 2001. (Facets Cinematheque, 7:00)
The Escape
A group of convicts escape from a Buenos Aires prison in 1928 and try to adjust to their newfound freedom as they elude sadistic cops and settle old scores. Director Eduardo Mignogna cuts from one jailbird to another, tying each one’s role in the escape to the character trait that landed him in prison and his strategy for coping with the outside world. Continuity is provided by the voice-over of one escapee who poses as the nephew of an elderly grocer whose wife the men have accidentally killed, but the frequent narrative leaps prove too distracting; this 2001 Argentinean drama tries to illuminate a complex social canvas but ultimately becomes a crazy quilt of con games and corruption. With Norma Aleandro (The Official Story); in Spanish with subtitles. 115 min. (TS) Tickets for this opening-night screening are $20, $15 for ILCC members. (Northwestern Univ. Thorne Auditorium, 8:00)
A Successful Man
A political drama from Cuba (1986) about two middle-class brothers, one obsessed with success, the other with revolution. Humberto Solas directed; in Spanish with subtitles. 116 min. (Biograph, 8:00)
* Pachito Rex: It’s Not Over Until It’s Over
The title character of this Mexican political fantasy (2001) is a pop balladeer turned president (Jorge Zarate) who’s supposedly assassinated during a reelection campaign. The film zigzags through time, focusing on various characters who may have plotted to kill him or who tried to expose the conspiracy, but along the way Rex is also revealed as a corrupt, capricious egomaniac–sort of a cross between Elvis Presley and Charles Foster Kane. In fact, Alberto Anaya’s deep-focus, sepia-toned cinematography and Antonio Pla’s lavishly expressionistic set design deliberately recall the Welles film. Director Fabian Hoffman can’t quite straighten out the jumbled narrative, an allegory about the fascist tendencies of Mexico’s ruling elite, but this is still a feast for the eye. In Spanish with subtitles. 86 min. (TS) (Biograph, 9:00)
Adios East Los
See listing this date above. (Facets Cinematheque, 9:00)
Truhanes
In return for protection, a small-time thief in a Spanish jail promises to stick with a career criminal after they get out. Miguel Hermoso directed this 1983 feature, in Spanish with subtitles. 98 min. (Three Penny, 9:00)
Requiem for a Heavyweight
A classic of liberal humanist filmmaking (1962), and almost completely worthless. Anthony Quinn is the fighter gone to seed, slogging his way through his final matches. Rod Serling’s script (based on his television play) has a cool, computerized perfection; it pumps out all the right dramatic equations, and ends as something polished, elegant, and airless. With Jackie Gleason and Mickey Rooney, directed by Ralph Nelson (Lilies of the Field). 100 min. (DK) (Biograph, 9:30)
Adios East Los
See listing this date above. (Metzli Video Cinema, 9:30)
SATURDAY, APRIL 6
Costa Rica Up Close
See listing for Friday, April 5. (Facets Cinematheque, 2:00)
* Missing Young Woman
“I came . . . to track down ghosts,” says Lourdes Portillo at the outset of this video, less a documentary than an affecting elegy. In the last decade more than 200 young women have been raped and murdered in the Mexican border town of Ciudad Juarez, with many also showing similar signs of mutilation. Portillo interviews several women who managed to escape and connects the terrible loss of life with the effects of globalization: the numerous maquiladoras attract women who leave their hometowns for a rootless and vulnerable existence. Among the suspects are drug traffickers, a local gang, a group of bus drivers, and the police, but the killings remain unsolved. 76 min. (FC) On the same program, Descensor (2000), an Ecuadoran short by Mauricio Samaniego. (Facets Cinematheque, 4:00)
Student Segment
Five shorts: Jose Rubio’s My Life (2001), Martina Watkins’s Domestic Violence (2001), Samuel Espinosa’s I Am (2001), Liliana Calderon and Gerardo Mancilla’s Gay Rights Movement (2001), and Mind the Gap, made by four uncredited teenagers from the UK and the U.S. (Facets Cinematheque, 5:00)
12 Hours
Several stories intertwine over a period that stretches from dusk to dawn in this 2000 Puerto Rican feature, and director Raul Marchand Sanchez, to his credit, doesn’t try to make them dovetail at the conclusion. Among the characters out for a night on the town are a trio of female coworkers, each bearing a hard-luck story but determined to have a roaring good time, and the daughter of one of them, a teenage girl who decides this is the night she should lose her virginity. As in many films with multiple story lines, the structure often seems forced, with some characters functioning as plot devices, and Sanchez subverts his best intentions with editorializing and maudlin dialogue. All things considered, this is a mess, but there’s something appealing in its gritty look at San Juan nightlife. In Spanish with subtitles. 89 min. (Joshua Katzman) On the same program, You Owe Me One (2001, 12 min.), a Mexican short by Carlos Cuaron. (Biograph, 6:00)
Around Flamenco
Two one-hour films from Spain, Paco Milan’s Teruo, a Samurai Flamenco and Around Flamenco in the Streets of New York, both made in 2000. 120 min. (Facets Cinematheque, 6:00)
Personal Testimonies
Two films: Heather Courtney’s documentary about immigrant day laborers, The Workers (2001, 48 min.), and Felix Zurita de Higes’s El chogui (2001, 57 min.), a Nicaraguan-Canadian-Swiss-Spanish production. (Metzli Video Cinema, 6:30)
New Blood
A bandit is summoned by witches to lead his clan in this 2000 Venezuelan feature, a loose adaptation of Macbeth. Directed by Leonardo Henriquez; in Spanish with subtitles. 90 min. On the same program, The Delirium (2001, 5 min.), a Bolivian short by Jose Sanchez-H. (Biograph, 7:00)
* Savages
Carlos Molinero directed and cowrote this harrowing 2001 drama about brutal skinheads in a Spanish town and the cops and relatives trying to deal with their rage and xenophobia. Marisa Paredes plays a neurotic middle-aged nurse caring for a drug-addicted niece and two gangbanger nephews; unbeknownst to Paredes, her new boyfriend (Imanol Arias) is a cop who suspects the boys of having viciously beaten an African drug trafficker. Molinero contrasts the nurse’s materially comfortable if despairing life with the kids’ chaotic world, filmed in natural light with jerky handheld cameras, and though the story’s coincidences and parallels may seem too neat, its stark realism encompasses a range of equivocal morals and motives. In Spanish with subtitles. 98 min. (TS) (Biograph, 7:00)
Private Lives
After two decades in Europe, a woman returns to Buenos Aires to be with her dying father and is soon paying a younger couple to let her listen while they have sex. Fito Paez directed this 2001 feature, in Spanish with subtitles. 97 min. (Biograph, 8:00)
Adios East Los
See listing for Friday, April 5. (Facets Cinematheque, 8:15)
The Bastard Brother of God
Benito Rabal’s 1986 drama examines the effects of the Spanish civil war and Franco’s rule on a young boy. In Spanish with subtitles. 106 min. (Three Penny, 9:00)
Loco Fever
Two con men promise to buy a fishing village’s entire catch of scallops in this 2000 Chilean film by Andres Wood. In Spanish with subtitles. 90 min. (Biograph, 9:00)
* Posthumous Memoirs
Adapted from Machado de Assis’s classic Brazilian novel, this humorous romp begins in 1869 with the recently deceased Bras Cubas declaring that death has delivered him from any notions of subjective self-delusion and allowed him to recall his pleasant if inconsequential life with absolute candor. This conceit allows him to undermine the story whenever it begins to get too serious; in one hilarious scene the narrator stands in the foreground feigning embarrassment while his younger self rollicks in bed with his paramour. Born into a wealthy family on the eve of Brazil’s independence from Portugal, he squanders every opportunity afforded him by birth, but his new hindsight permits him to shrug it all off. Director Andre Klotzel keeps up an appropriately brisk pace, and this 2000 feature never falters en route to its insouciant conclusion. In Portuguese with subtitles. 102 min. (Joshua Katzman) On the same program, Push It (1999, 8 min.), an Ecuadoran short by Diego Araujo. (Biograph, 9:00)
Lucia
Humberto Solas directed this 1968 historical romance about three Cuban women from different decades. In Spanish with subtitles. 155 min. (Facets Cinematheque, 9:30)
Personal Testimonies
See listing this date above. (Metzli Video Cinema, 9:30)
Broken Hearts
A writer documents the clash of material values and poverty in a housing complex in Mexico City. Rafael Montero directed this 2001 feature, in Spanish with subtitles. 120 min. (Biograph, 10:00)
Fugitives
A young woman and her boyfriend rob an office, then flee with her niece to southern Spain, where he abandons them both. Miguel Hermoso directed this 2000 feature, in Spanish with subtitles. 98 min. (Biograph, 11:00)
Latitude Zero
A pregnant woman (Debora Duboc), abandoned by a colonel of the Sao Paulo military police, lives a near feral existence at a desolate bar adjoining a deserted gold mine. When a former cohort of the colonel’s shows up (Claudio Jaborandy), she rages at him but eventually warms to his company and allows herself to be taken in by his ambitious plans. Adapted from a play by Fernando Bonassi, this 2000 Brazilian drama oozes atmosphere, and Jacob Solitrenick’s cinematography locates a certain majesty in the rough subindustrial landscape. But director Toni Venturi fails to transcend the stagebound material: the leads generate a good deal of sexual tension and pathos, but the plot mechanics begin to weigh heavily as the drama approaches its climax. In Portuguese with subtitles. 85 min. (Joshua Katzman) On the same program, Gray (2001, 11 min.), a Venezuelan short by Ignacio Crespo. (Biograph, 11:00)
SUNDAY, APRIL 7
One Passage, Two Continents
Two films: Robert Krieg and Monika Nolte’s Chilean-German documentary White Gold (2001, 60 min.), about the connection between Hamburg and the salt flats of Chile, and Diego Garcia-Moreno’s Colombian-French film The Castanets of Notre Dame (2001, 51 min.), about a dancer and castanet player. (Facets Cinematheque, 2:00)
The Flamenco Singer
See listing for Friday, April 5. (Biograph, 4:00)
La strada
Early mush (1954) from the master, Federico Fellini. The story–about a circus strong man (Anthony Quinn) and the doe-eyed waif who loves him–is an allegory, so you can leave as soon as you figure it out. It won’t take very long. Costarring Giulietta Masina and Richard Basehart. In Italian with subtitles. 107 min. (DK) (Biograph, 4:00)
Student Segment
See listing for Saturday, April 6. (Facets Cinematheque, 4:00)
Bogota 2016
A Colombian sci-fi triptych about the effects of modern technology, directed by Pablo Mora, Ricardo Guerra, Jaime Sanchez, and Alessandro Basile (2001, 87 min.). On the same program, Carolina Vila-Ramirez’s 14-minute Roam (2001). (Facets Cinematheque, 4:30)
The Resting Place
During a sojourn in the Argentinean countryside a young go-getter fascinated with the colonial era and his timid pal stop off in a sleepy provincial town to get their car fixed and wind up taking over a dilapidated luxury hotel whose eccentric owner has died mysteriously. The clash of cultures in this 2001 feature offers ample opportunity for satire, but directors Rodrigo Moreno, Ulises Rosell, and Andres Tambornino get lost in a meandering plot that involves a local bigwig trying to keep the hotel’s past a secret. Though picturesque and fitfully funny, the film never finds the right tone–not surprising given its trio of directors. In Spanish with subtitles. 93 min. (TS) (Biograph, 5:00)
12 Hours
See listing for Saturday, April 6. (Univ. of Illinois at Chicago, Lecture Center B2, 5:00)
Personal Testimonies
See listing for Saturday, April 6. (Metzli Video Cinema, 5:30)
* Missing Young Woman
See listing for Saturday, April 6. (Facets Cinematheque, 6:00)
* Manito
See Critic’s Choice. (Biograph, 6:30)
* Pachito Rex: It’s Not Over Until It’s Over
See listing for Friday, April 5. (Biograph, 6:30)
Visionaries
The residents of a town in Spain’s Basque region turn to a woman who has visions after a group of children claims to have seen the Virgin. Manuel Gutierrez Aragon directed this 2000 feature, in Spanish with subtitles. 114 min. (Biograph, 6:45)
Adios East Los
See listing for Friday, April 5. (Metzli Video Cinema, 8:00)
Asi canataba Carlos Gardel
A series of shorts featuring singer Carlos Gardel, including Anoranzas, El carretero, Enfunda la mandolina, Lanchero, and Mano a mano. 70 min. On the same program, The Take (2000, 30 min.), an Argentinean short by Sebastian Wainstein. (Facets Cinematheque, 8:30)
El bien esquivo
A historical drama set in 17th-century Peru, about the son of an Indian princess who must prove his father was a Spanish soldier. Augusto Tamayo directed this 2001 Peruvian feature, which will be shown in Spanish without subtitles. 130 min. (Biograph, 9:00)
Israel in Exile
This debut feature by Chicago actor, writer, and director Juan Ramirez is visceral, passionate, and relentlessly nonlinear–much like Latino Chicago Theater, the company he ran during the 1980s and early ’90s. Based in Wicker Park, LCT mixed the urban grit of Nelson Algren with the surrealism of Octavio Paz and Federico Garcia Lorca and the magic realism of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. This story of a down-and-out boxer haunted by various apparitions is powered by the same mix of stark realism and otherworldliness. Unfortunately Ramirez overdoes the surrealistic element, turning a fairly straightforward story of a man’s search for redemption into a jumble of archetypes, religious images, and half-baked arty notions (scars that magically heal, characters who appear and disappear in a flash, hallucinations within hallucinations). Cinematographer David Russell makes even the mundane streets of Pilsen look gorgeous, but after a while the long, moody shots of urban landscape begin to seem like padding. 90 min. (Jack Helbig) (Biograph, 9:00)
Where the Poets Die First
This lightweight, plodding Brazilian romantic comedy tries to take us into the mind of a writer, but the mediocre script, broad acting, and sloppy filmmaking make it fairly painful. After the enormous success of his first novel, a self-absorbed author breaks up with his girlfriend of 12 years, and the two explore single life while he struggles to produce his second book. Faced with writer’s block and looming deadlines, he turns the breakup into a piece of Kafkaesque literature with himself as “the Poet,” endlessly persecuted on a battlefield and in a courtroom for his devotion to love. Directors Werner and Willy Schumann play around with arty camera angles and awkward jump cuts, but their story is driven by plot devices as hackneyed as a lover crawling out a window to escape a jealous husband. In Portuguese with subtitles. 90 min. (Hank Sartin) (Three Penny, 9:00)
MONDAY, APRIL 8
Arregui, the News of the Day
Maria Victoria Menis’s 2001 Argentinean feature opens with the search for a fugitive, Leopoldo Arregui (Enrique Pinti), chronicled in grainy video by vacuous television reporters, then relates in flashback what led the ordinary if grumpy middle-aged bureaucrat into such a mess. Everything in his life is broken: his television, the elevator in his building, his marriage, his grown children’s lives, and the supreme court of Argentina, where he’s been a clerk for 35 years. The revelation that he might have contracted AIDS during casual sex with a coworker plunges him into despair and then spurs him to violence. The predictable and heavy-handed script is partly a satire of TV news, partly a commentary on the country’s rampant governmental corruption and ossified middle class; it makes some good points, but only when Arregui is visited by a parable-telling, hora-dancing rabbi does the film spark briefly to life. In Spanish with subtitles. 110 min. (Jennifer Vanasco) (Biograph, 6:30)
Amor brujo
Richard Islas’s 2001 video incorporates 70s horror films to “make the audience question their religious beliefs.” 25 min. (Facets Cinematheque, 7:00)
Broken Hearts
See listing for Saturday, April 6. (Biograph, 7:00)
Latitude Zero
See listing for Saturday, April 6. (Biograph, 7:00)
Netto Loses His Soul
A Brazilian costume epic (2001) about General Antonio de Souza Netto, a republican and abolitionist who fought in two protracted revolutions during the mid-19th century. Recovering from a battle wound during the Paraguayan War, Netto recounts six episodes from his life; they explore the political issues of the time–slavery, antimonarchism, border disputes–but the central figure, woodenly played by Werner Schunemann, never emerges as a personality. In fact, the only segments of dramatic interest are those without him, like one in which black ex-soldiers express their disillusionment with the cause. Brazil may have gone on to victory, but the film fights a losing battle with the forces of tedium. Tabajara Ruas adapted his own historical novel, assisted by four other writers, and directed with Beto Souza. In Portuguese and Spanish with subtitles. 102 min. (TS) (Biograph, 9:00)
Around Flamenco
See listing for Saturday, April 6. (Facets Cinematheque, 9:00)
Private Lives
See listing for Saturday, April 6. (Three Penny, 9:00)
New Blood
See listing for Saturday, April 6. (Biograph, 9:15)
Antigua My Life
A pregnant woman in a violent marriage faces prison after killing her husband in this 2001 Argentinean-Spanish production directed by Hector Oliviera, in Spanish with subtitles. 110 min. (Biograph, 9:30)
TUESDAY, APRIL 9
Memories
Randy Vasquez’s Testimony: The Maria Guardado Story (2001, 63 min.), a U.S.-El Salvador film about a woman tortured by death squads who was given political asylum in the U.S. in 1983, and Luciano Capelli and Andrea Ruggeri’s Something Remains: Nicaragua 22 Years Later (2001, 51 min.). (University of Illinois at Chicago, Lecture Center B2, 11:00 am)
Israel in Exile
See listing for Sunday, April 7. (DePaul Univ. Alliance for Latino Empowerment, 6:00)
* Posthumous Memoirs
See listing for Saturday, April 6. (Biograph, 6:15)
Loco Fever
See listing for Saturday, April 6. (Biograph, 6:45)
Around Flamenco
See listing for Saturday, April 6. (Dominican Univ., 7:00)
Bogota 2016
See listing for Sunday, April 7. (Facets Cinematheque, 7:00)
Fugitives
See listing for Saturday, April 6. (Biograph, 8:50)
The Bastard Brother of God
See listing for Saturday, April 6. (Three Penny, 9:00)
The Barrio Murders
For seven years a serial killer has been preying on residents of East Los Angeles, and a female homicide detective, initially barred from investigating because the victims were gangbangers, teams up with a private detective who was her lover when she was 17 but then went to prison. She’s torn between the LAPD and the cop-hating barrio where she grew up, but aside from that conflict and a chilling conclusion, director Jojo Henrickson delivers a pretty routine crime thriller (2001). 92 min. (FC) On the same program, Trailer 2 (2000, 5 min.), an Ecuadoran short by Tito Molina. (Facets Cinematheque, 9:00)
* Manito
See Critic’s Choice. (Biograph, 9:15)
12 Hours
See listing for Saturday, April 6. (Biograph, 9:30)
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10
Israel in Exile
See listing for Sunday, April 7. (Univ. of Illinois at Chicago, Lecture Center B2, noon)
El bien esquivo
See listing for Sunday, April 7. (Biograph, 6:00)
School
Hannah Weyer directed this 2001 documentary about a teenager in a family of migrant workers who’s trying to keep up with her schoolwork during her freshman year in high school. 76 min. On the same program, It’s All About Me (2000, 18 min.), a film by Ben-Hur Uribe. (DePaul Univ. Alliance for Latino Empowerment, 6:00)
Where the Poets Die First
See listing for Sunday, April 7. (Biograph, 6:30)
The Resting Place
See listing for Sunday, April 7. (Biograph, 7:00)
Asi canataba Carlos Gardel
See listing for Sunday, April 7. (Facets Cinematheque, 7:00)
Without a Trace
A young mother (Tiare Scanda) on the run from her drug-running husband strikes up a friendship with an art dealer (Aitana Sanchez-Gijon) fleeing a border cop in this Mexican rewrite of Thelma & Louise. Director Maria Novaro approximates the grungy look and grotesque hyperbole of the Coen brothers’ early films, adding bouncy and sardonic folk tunes as commentary. Some of the predicaments in this 2001 feature seem contrived, but it’s warmed by a genuine camaraderie between the women, whose frustrations with men ultimately boil over into murder. In Spanish with subtitles. 105 min. (TS) Screening as part of the festival’s Mexican night; tickets are $20, $15 for ILCC members. (Northwestern Univ. Thorne Auditorium, 8:00)
Possible Loves
Brazilian cinema generally cleaves into the sexy (Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands) and the socially responsible (Pixote), with the occasional hybrid (Bye Bye Brazil). This 2001 feature by Sandra Werneck falls squarely into the first category: after Carlos (Murilo Benicio) is stood up by a beautiful woman, the narrative leaps 15 years into the future, showing three different outcomes to his life. In the first he’s a married attorney, bored with his secure life; in the second he’s left his wife and child for a male soccer pal; and in the third he’s a swinging single who still lives with his domineering mother. Apparently only one of these scenarios actually transpires, and screenwriter Paulo Halm and Werneck, much to their credit, never really specify which. Unfortunately most of the characters are either uninteresting or underdeveloped, reducing the whole thing to an academic exercise. In Portuguese with subtitles. 93 min. (Joshua Katzman) On the same program, The Table Is Set (2001, 12 min.), a Mexican short by Kenya Marquez. (Biograph, 9:00)
* A Cuban Legend
A refreshingly unconventional 2001 documentary on Cuban mural painter Salvador Gonzalez. A practitioner of the Yoruba religion who says his art is energized by astral forces, Gonzalez produces colorful and symbolically charged paintings. Director Bette Wanderman shows him at work in Cuba and Philadelphia, but instead of relying on dry and reductive narration, she uses handheld-camera movement to intermingle his art with the African-derived music and dance he brings to his Havana neighborhood. A wide-angle lens renders dancers and paintings with an aggressive physicality, and the tone is spontaneous and celebratory: while a woman explains her religion, a man beats out an engaging rhythm against his chair with his hands. In Spanish with subtitles. 79 min. (FC) On the same program, two five-minute shorts from Ecuador: Daniel Andrade’s Tuyo hasta la muerte (2000) and Pablo Jose Mogrovejo’s Test (2000). (Facets Cinematheque, 9:00)
Truhanes
See listing for Friday, April 5. (Three Penny, 9:00)
Saturday
An Argentinean drama (2001) about six jaded people in Buenos Aires trying to change their lives. Juan Villegas directed; in Spanish with subtitles. 72 min. On the same program, Dos mas (2001, 19 min.), a Spanish short by Elias Leon Siminiani. (Biograph, 9:15)
Visionaries
See listing for Sunday, April 7. (Biograph, 9:30)
THURSDAY, APRIL 11
One Dollar, the Price of Life
A one-hour Spanish film about gangs in Panama fighting over drugs and weapons, directed by Hector Herrera. On the same program, Video de familia (2001, 47 min.), Humberto Padron’s Cuban film about a family learning that one son is gay. (Univ. of Illinois at Chicago, Lecture Center B2, 11:00 am)
The Princess and the Barrio Boy
A teenager who doesn’t want her father to remarry tries to pressure him by dating a guy from East LA in Tony Plana’s 2001 feature. 97 min. (Richard J. Daley College, 12:30)
One Dollar, the Price of Life
See listing this date above. (DePaul Univ. Alliance for Latino Empowerment, 6:00)
Netto Loses His Soul
See listing for Monday, April 8. (Biograph, 6:30)
Antigua My Life
See listing for Monday, April 8. (Biograph, 7:00)
Broken Silence
A Spanish film (2001) about a young woman and man involved with the maquis, embroiled in a guerrilla war against Franco’s regime during World War II. Directed and written by Montxo Armendariz. 110 min. Tickets are $25, $20 for members of ILCC and Instituto Cervantes. (Biograph, 7:00)
The Barrio Murders
See listing for Tuesday, April 9. (Facets Cinematheque, 7:00)
The Faces of the Moon
Guita Schyfter directed this 2001 Mexican feature, an ensemble piece about five women from different nations judging a women’s film festival. In Spanish with subtitles. 112 min. (Dominican Univ., 7:00)
Personal Testimonies
See listing for Saturday, April 6. (Richard J. Daley College, 7:30)
Arregui, the News of the Day
See listing for Monday, April 8. (Biograph, 9:00)
* A Cuban Legend
See listing for Wednesday, April 10. (Facets Cinematheque, 9:00)
Ten Days Without Love
The shadow of Pedro Almodovar hangs over this loopy 2001 Spanish comedy by Miguel Albaladejo, about a hospital psychiatrist (Sergi Lopez) who’s deserted by his unfaithful wife and then finds himself in the uncomfortable position of lodging his mother-in-law (Maria Jose Alfonso). The two begin to bond as the particulars of the wife’s betrayal come to light, and while trying to recover his wallet from a drug-addicted patient, the doctor unexpectedly strikes up a promising relationship with another woman. Albaladejo deftly juggles the multiple subplots and credibly finds love in the most unlikely encounters; he lacks an original voice, but his obvious fondness for the quirky characters makes this an enjoyable diversion. In Spanish with subtitles. 107 min. (Joshua Katzman) (Three Penny, 9:00)
Caiman’s Dream
A Spanish thief, reunited with his father and uncle in Guadalajara, gets involved in the uncle’s ill-planned bank robbery in this 2001 Mexican-Spanish production. Beto Gomez directed; in Spanish with subtitles. 102 min. (Biograph, 9:30)
Israel in Exile
See listing for Sunday, April 7. (Biograph, 9:30)