Kent State Presents Spanish and Latin Film Series, March 1-16

During the month of March, Kent State University will present five Spanish and Latin films. The films will be shown in the Schwartz Center auditorium (room 177). All films will be in Spanish with English subtitles. The event is free and open to the public, and a group discussion led by a Kent State faculty member will follow each film.

The films featured in this event include:

Chico & Rita, Friday, March 1, at 7:30 p.m.
Oscar-winning director Fernando Treuba (The Age of Beauty) and famous artist Javier Mariscal teamed up to create this animated love story starring the music, culture and people of Cuba. When Chico, a dashing piano player, and Rita, the beautiful Havana nightclub singer, meet, sparks fly, and they fall madly in love.

The Man Next Door (El Hombre de Al Lado), Saturday, March 2, at 7:30 p.m.
In this dark comedy, Leonardo (Rafael Spregelburd) is a prestigious designer who lives with his family in a famous house designed by Le Corbusier. Life is seemingly ideal for Leonardo until one day his neighbor Victor (Daniel Aráoz), a boorish used car salesman, breaks through a common wall to make a window in order to “catch a few rays of sun.” The film explores the complex relationships between class differences, social barriers and right and wrong.

Even the Rain (También la LLuvia), Friday, March 8, at 7:30 p.m.
Filmmaker Sebastian (Gael García Bernal) and his cynical producer Costa (Luis Tosar) arrive in Cochabamba, Bolivia, to make a film about Columbus’s voyage to the New World and the subjugation of the indigenous population. Just as filming begins, the natives face a crisis when the government privatizes the water utility and prices skyrocket.

La Yuma, Friday, March 15, at 7:30 p.m.
Nicaragua’s first full-length feature in 20 years, La Yuma tells the story of a young woman who dreams of transcending her bleak life in the slums of Managua by becoming a boxer. Looking beyond the meager possibilities that seem available to her (and ignoring the advice of her gang-member friends), she finds solace and hope in her training and falls in love with a middle-class journalism student.

From the Land to Your Table (¿Qué Culpa Tiene el Tomate?), Saturday, March 16, at 7:30 p.m.
What do you get when you take seven directors from seven different countries with seven different cultures and points of view? From the Land to Your Table is the first documentary of its kind in that it shows the perspectives of seven majorly talented filmmakers and directors from all over Latin America as they capture the conditions and cultural diversity of popular produce markets in their individual countries.

The Spanish and Latin film series is made possible with support from film distribution company, Pragda, the secretary of state for culture of Spain, and Spain’s Program for Cultural Cooperation with U.S. universities.

For more information about the Spanish Film Series, contact Françoise Massardier-Kenney, director of Kent State’s Institute for Applied Linguistics, at fkenney@kent.edu or 330-672-2150.

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Media Contact:
Françoise Massardier-Kenney, fkenney@kent.edu, 330-672-2150