HISPANIC FILM FESTIVAL Fall 2007

1110 Trimpe Hall – Multicultural Center
November 13-15

Tuesday, November 13, 4:00 p.m.
The Spanish Earth (1937), 52 minutes

It has become one of the major films on the Spanish Civil war and one of the most important films in Ivens’s career. Like in many other films, Ivens finds a balance between the daily lives of people and their struggle to survive. The strong photography, mainly by John Ferno, combined with the powerful editing by Helen van Dongen and the commentary of Ernest Hemingway, make the film a masterpiece of documentary film making.

Tuesday, November 13, 6;00 p.m.
La lengua de las mariposas (1999), 99 minutes
Spanish with English subtitles
La lengua de las mariposas (Butterfly) mourns the Spain destroyed by civil conflict by remembering it through the enchanted eyes of a small boy. Moncho is just old enough to begin attending public school. Moncho is blissfully unaware of the tense, political undercurrent that runs beneath his family and his country. He is content to while away his days in the idyllic countryside of Galicia, in northern Spain. There he divides his time between following his older brother’s exploits in a local big band and chasing butterflies with his compassionate schoolteacher and mentor Don Gregorio.


Wednesday, November 14, 6:00 p.m.
Soldados de Salamina (2003), 119 minutes
Spanish with English subtitles
When professor and writer Lola Sánchez is assigned to write a column in the newspaper about the Spanish Civil war, she researches and finds for the first time about the shooting of Rafael Sánchez Mazas. Lola has lost her passion for writing, and she becomes intrigued about Rafael, who was a writer and journalist that returned to Spain from the Italy of Mussolini and was very active in the Spanish fascist party Falange Española.