Screen/Society--NC Latin American Film Festival--Documentary Program--SAF short works + "El Velador" (Mexico, 2011, 72 min)

Saturday, November 12, 2011 - 1:30pm to 3:45pm
Screen/Society--NC Latin American Film Festival--Documentary Program--SAF short works + "El Velador" (Mexico, 2011, 72 min)

Documentary Film Screening/Presentation/Discussion:

Part One--Documentary Works by Student Action with Farmworkers
(45 minute program, including Q&A)

Part Two--Feature Film:
El Velador (Night Watchman)
(Natalia Almada, 2011, 72 min, Mexico/USA, English and Spanish with English subtitles, Color, DVD)
Natalia Almada’s hypnotic and unsettling documentary uses stately, atmospheric cinematography to illuminate a dark corner of Mexican culture, the rapidly expanding El Jardin Cemetery in Culiacan. From dusk to dawn El Velador accompanies Martin, the guardian angel who watches over the bodies of the country's drug lords - casualties of Mexico’s bloodiest conflict since the revolution - in their well-manicured mausoleums. The nation's heart of darkness, this locale is a place at once untouched and defined by violence, a condition Almada conveys through wordless views of the life that continues on amidst the dead.

-- Discussion to follow!

Cost: Free and open to the public

Sponsors: The Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, the Duke-UNC Consortium for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, the Duke University Center for International Studies, and the Program in the Arts of the Moving Image (AMI)

White 107 (White Lecture Hall)