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SOCCIS Latin American Studies Films and Videos

The SOCCIS Latin American Studies Film and Video Collection is located at the UCLA Instructional Media Center. The collection includes 16 mm, and U-matic formats. Titles were selected by the Latin American Committee, of the SOCCIS member institutions. SOCCIS members are entitled to rent-free use of the collection, with a minimal service charge. For more information on borrowing privileges contact: telephone (310) 825-0755, email: EIMLCPT@MVS.OAC.UCLA.EDU or write to UCLA Instructional Media Library, 46 Powell Library, Los Angeles, CA 90024. 

Andean Women.
Prod. American Universities Field Staff, Inc., 1975. 16mm, 17 min. SOCCIS Collection
Observes a gathering of Aymara women in Bolivia, who express agreement with the dominant Hispanic ideal that women should be subservient to men, and should be assigned tasks appropriate to their limited strength and intelligence. Shows the paradox in Aymara culture which recognizes women's vital contributions to survival tasks, yet views them as helpers in a male dominated world. In Spanish and Aymara with English subtitles. 

Araucanians of Ruca Choroy.
Dir. Jorge Preloran. Prod. Phoenix Films, 1974. 16mm, 50 min. SOCCIS Collection
Presents the Araucanian Indian tribe of Ruca Choroy, Argentina, living on an Indian reservation in a small valley high in the southern Andes. Tells of their ancestors' flight from the Spaniards into this harsh terrain. Explores the modern day life of shepherding, baking, sowing, weaving, and burying the dead, as well as the poverty of the region. Narrated by an Araucanian, with English voice-overs. 

The Ax Fight.
Dir. Timothy Asch. Prod. Documentary Educational Resources, 1974. 16mm, 30 min. SOCCIS Collection
Part of a study of the Yanomamo Indians of Brazil and Venezuela. Documents a fight between two groups in a Yanomamo village. The incident is shown three times to illustrate points such as social behavior and kinship structure of each group. 

Barravento: The Turning Wind.
Dir. Glauber Rochas. Prod. New Yorker Films, 1962. 16mm, 76 min. SOCCIS Collection
A poetic study of Brazilian mysticism among fishermen from the shores of Bahia, documenting the shattered peace caused by the arrival of Fermino, a native who had left the town for the big city. In Portuguese, with English subtitles. 

Brazil: The Vanishing Negro.
Prod. National Educational Television, 1965. 16 mm, 30 min. SOCCIS Collection
Studies Brazil's past and present for an explanation and appraisal of the experience of 30 million blacks in Brazil. Shows Afro-Brazilian religious ceremonies, and discusses racial democracy and the effect of intermixing. Narrated by Ossie Davis. 

The Brazilian Connection: The Struggle for Democracy. 
Videocassette. Prod. Cinema Guild, 1982. U-matic, 55 min. SOCCIS Collection
Brazil, South America's wealthiest nation, is the victim of an international recession which has crippled its ability to repay loans. At the same time, the government is instituting democratic reforms after eighteen years of a military dictatorship. Examines problems, observing that the new government's success depends on the country's economic success. 

The Children Know.
Prod. American Universities Field Staff, Inc., 1975. 16 mm, 33 min. SOCCIS Collection
Shows the effects of the division in the Bolivian Andes between mestizos (people of partially-Spanish descent) and campesinos (those of pure Indian stock). Emphasizes the educational and medical problems of the campesinos, particularly children, caused by exploitation and poverty. In Spanish and Aymara with English subtitles. 

Chuquiago.
Dir Antonio Eguino. Prod. New Yorker Films, 1977. 16 mm, 87 min. SOCCIS Collection.
One of the most acclaimed movies made in Bolivia and a major contribution to the populist oriented New Wave in Latin American cinema. Tells four separate but interlocking stories that span the social strata in the sky-high capital city of La Paz, each centering on a different character: an Indian boy, an Americanized teenager, a social climbing bureaucrat and an upper-class college coed with leftist sympathies. In Spanish and Aymara, with English subtitles. 

Discovering the Moche.
Prod. University of California Extension Center for Media and Independent Learning, 1978. 16 mm, 26 min. SOCCIS Collection
An introduction to the art and culture of the Moche, who flourished between 100 B.C. and 700 A.D. on Peru's northern coastal plain. Shows how the study of Moche art, in conjunction with archaeological evidence, ethnographical analogy to present-day Peruvian Indian, and careful reading of early Spanish accounts can be used to reconstruct the ancient culture and interpret it in its own terms. Shows how Moche art served as a means of communication in Moche life. 

Eduardo the Healer.
Dir. Richard Cowan. Prod. Pennsylvania State University Audio-Visual Services, 1978. 16 mm, 55 min. SOCCIS Collection
A portrait of Eduardo Calderon, a Peruvian fisherman, sculptor and shaman, who uses hallucinogenic drugs to practice his healing arts. Shows him with his family and friends, talking about his training as a curandero, and in conversation with his first teacher, a woman who sells herbal remedies and hallucinogenic cactus. 

El Salvador: Another Vietnam?
Dir. Glenn Silber. Prod. First Run/Icarus Films, 1981. 16 mm, 53 min. SOCCIS Collection
Examines the civil war in El Salvador in light of the Reagan Administration's decision to draw the line against what it considers to be communist interference in Central America. Offers an overview of U.S. military and economic intervention in the region, with extensive background to the current political crisis. Includes scenes with both government and guerrilla forces, and discusses U.S. aid to the junta in power, posing the question, "Is this the beginning of a new Vietnam-type war?" 

A Father Washes His Children.
Dir. Timothy Asch. Prod. Documentary Educational Resources, 1974. 16 mm, 15 min. SOCCIS Collection
Part of a study of the Yanomamo Indians of Brazil and Venezuela. Dedeheiwa, a shaman headman of his village, takes nine of his children and grandchildren to the river where he washes them with care. Reveals the warmth and gentleness typical of many Yanomamo interactions. 

Flavio.
Dir. Gordon Parks. Prod. Films Incorporated., 1964. 16 mm, 12 min. SOCCIS Collection
Using photographs by Gordon Parks, describes the plight of an impoverished family in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, as viewed through the eyes of twelve-year-old Flavio. 

For the First Time.
Prod. Cuban Film Institute, 1964. 16 mm, 12 min. SOCCIS Collection
A mobile film unit travels to a village deep in the Cuban mountains to screen Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times to the people of the area. Captures the wonderment and delight in the faces of adults and children alike as they see a film for the first time. In Spanish, with English subtitles. 

From the Ashes: Nicaragua Today.
Dir. Helena Solberg-Lad. Prod. Cinema Guild, 1982. 16 mm, 60 min. SOCCIS Collection
Traces the historic roots of the Nicaraguan national liberation movement, featuring events of the 1979 revolution which overthrew the Somoza dictatorship. Chronicles U.S. relations with Nicaragua, from previous military interventions to the antagonism of the Reagan administration. Focuses on one family to provide a personalized perspective of Nicaragua's past, present and future. 

Interview with Armando Gota, Theater Director of Venezuela. 
Videocassette. Prod. University of California, Los Angeles, 1979. U-matic. 60 min. SOCCIS Collection
Armando Gota discusses the current state of live theater in Venezuela in an interview taped at UCLA. In Spanish, no subtitles. 

Interview with Professor Orlando Rodríguez.
Videocassette. Prod. University of California, Los Angeles, 1979. U-matic. 60 min. SOCCIS Collection
Professor Orlando Rodríguez discusses the arts in Latin America in an interview taped at UCLA. In Spanish, no subtitles. 

The Jackal of Naheultoro.
Dir. Miguel Littin. Prod. New Yorker Films, 1969. 16 mm, 89 min. SOCCIS Collection
A harrowing re-creation of Chile's most notorious crime, the murder of a peasant woman and her five children by her common-law husband. While awaiting execution, he is taught to read and write, and he is educated in history and religion. Director Miguel Littin comments on a system which rehabilitates a man only to execute him. In Spanish, with English subtitles. 

The Life and Death of Frida Kahlo.
Dir. Karen and David Crommie. Prod. Karen and David Crommie, 1976. 16 mm, 35 min. SOCCIS Collection
Until recently known primarily as the wife of famed muralist Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo emerged as one of Mexico's pioneer surrealist painters. Remembrances of friends, colleagues, old photos, and her art, offer insights into her tragic life. 

The Lost World of the Maya.
Prod. British Broadcasting Corporation. 1974. 16 mm, 36 min. SOCCIS Collection
Follows Eric Thompson, an authority on Mayan civilization, on a pilgrimage through Central America. Visits the ancientMayan cities of Tikal, Palenque, Yaxchiln, Quirigua, Chichn Itz, and Tulum, and recreates what Mayan life might have been like. Concludes with theories about the fall of Mayan civilization. 

Magical Death.
Dir. Timothy Asch. Prod. Documentary Educational Resources, 1974. 16 mm, 29 min. SOCCIS Collection
Part of a study of the Yanomamo Indian of Brazil and Venezuela. Follows a two-day ritual of drug taking and humanistic aggression in a Yanomamo village. Demonstrates the role of the shaman in a kinship dominated society, underscoring the role of spiritual coercion and spirit manipulation in the culture. 

A Man Called Bee: Studying the Yanomamo.
Dir. Timothy Asch. Prod. Documentary Educational Resources, 1974. 16 mm, 40 min. SOCCIS Collection
Part of a study of the Yanomamo Indians of Brazil and Venezuela. An unusual ethnographic film in which the anthropologist appears as a subject in his role as fieldworker and researcher. His subjects, the Yanomamo, give him the name "Bee," and during the filming share with him aspects of Yanomamo culture and beliefs. English subtitles. 

Memories of the Cangaco.
Dir. Gil Soares. Prod. New Yorker Films, 1971. 16 mm, 26 min. SOCCIS Collection
The story of the rebel-bandits of Brazil's northeastern backlands is told through old newsreels, photographs and interviews with cangacieros and police. Includes rare footage of the legendary Lampiao, the most famous of all cangacieros. In Portuguese, with English subtitles. 

The Other Francisco.
Dir. Cuban Film Institute. Prod. New Yorker Films, 1976. 16 mm, 97 min. SOCCIS Collection
A drama of slavery and 19th-century abolitionist movement in Cuba, based on Francisco, a famous Cuban anti-slavery novel. A vital, impassioned exploration of the roots of black rebellion in Cuba. 

Rebellion in Patagonia.
Dir. Fernando Ayala and Hector Olivera., 1974. 16 mm, 107 min. SOCCIS Collection
Dramatization based on actual historical events involving the military suppression of a series of strikes by rural workers in an Argentine province during the early 1920s. Pits the leaders of the worker's movement, inspired by utopian dreams of a just and humane social order, against the initially sympathetic, but ultimately ruthless, military commander who realizes too late that he is merely the tool of powerful landowners. 

Reminicensas da guerra.
Videocassette. Prod. United States International Communications Agency Unit., 1982. U-matic. 29 min. SOCCIS Collection
Recalls Brazil's contribution to the Allied effort in World War II. Brazilian and U.S. military leaders of the period remember campaigns in Italy, and the resulting heavy loss of life. Uses extensive period footage. In Portuguese, no subtitles. 

The Spirit Possession of Alejandro Mamani.
Prod. American Universities Field Staff, Inc., 1974. 16 mm, 27 min. SOCCIS Collection
A Bolivian farmer nears the end of his life believing himself possessed by evil spirits. He tries several cures with no success, and in his anguish, speaks of suicide. As he makes his will, his family quarrels over the division of his property. A postcript reveals that Mamani leapt to his death from a cliff shortly after the completion of the film. In Spanish and Aymara, with English subtitles. 

The Tree of Life.
Dir. Bruce Lane. Prod. Flower Films, 1978. 16 mm, 20 min. SOCCIS Collection
Documents the volador ritual as performed by the Totonac Indians of Huehuela, Pueblo, Mexico, bringing to life the mythic dimensions of ritual communalceremony. The Voladores (Flyers) ritual is perhaps the oldest surviving dance in the Western Hemisphere, dating back to 500 A.D. Accompanied by flute and drum music with narration taken from 15th century Nahuatl poetry. 

The Turtle People.
Prod. B and C Films, 1973. 16 mm, 27 min. SOCCIS Collection
Ethnographic study of the Mosquito Indians of Eastern Nicaragua, showing how the world demand for turtle meat, their basic food source, has disrupted their traditional economy and ecology. Instructive case study in cultural ecology, acculturation and development. 

World of a Primitive Painter: José Antonio Velásquez of Honduras. 
Prod. Organization of American States, 1972. 16 mm, 20 min. SOCCIS Collection
Studies the art of renowned Honduran primitive painter, J. A. Velsquez. Shows him at work in the village of San Antonio and in Tegucigalpa, and compares the landscapes and his techniques. Narrated by Shirley Temple Black. 

Zerda's Children.
Dir. Jorge Preloran. Prod. Phoenix Films, 1978. 16 mm, 50 min. SOCCIS Collection
Shows Sixto Zerda's struggle to live and raise his ten children in the Pampas of Argentina. An illiterate peasant, Zerda sees his situation clearly and never hesitates to speak his mind. He hopes that his children will attain a better life through education at the public school. Introduction by Henry Fonda. Partly Spanish with English voice-over.