CLACS Media Collection
Suggested media for “Essential Topics in Latin American History for Teaching World History” http://www4.uwm.edu/clacs/media/index.cfm
Colonial Era
Aguirre: The Wrath of God
1972, 84 min
In mid-16th century South America, after completely annihilating the illustrious Incan empire, Gonzalo
Pizarro leads his army of conquistadors over the Andes in search of the fabled City of Gold, El Dorado. As
Pizarro's soldiers battle starvation, Indians, the forces of nature and each other, Don Lope de Aguirre
(Klaus Kinski) is consumed with visions of total domination and leads his army on a doomed quest.
Black in Latin America
2011, 240 min
Latin America and the Caribbean have the largest concentration of people with African ancestry outside
Africa, up to 70 percent of the population in some countries. The region imported over ten times as many slaves as the United States, and kept them in bondage far longer. On this series of journeys, Henry
Louis Gates celebrates the massive influence of millions of people of African descent on the history and culture of Latin America and the Caribbean, and considers why and how their contribution is often forgotten or ignored.
The Buried Mirror
1994, 300 min
Written and narrated by Carlos Fuentes, The Buried Mirror consists of five one-hour programs on the historical roots of contemporary Hispanic history and culture. The series presents the origin of modern
Latin America from the arrival of the Spanish conquerors to the present.
Cabeza de Vaca
1993, 108 min
In 1528, a Spanish expedition founders off the coast of Florida. One survivor, Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de
Vaca, crosses the continent encountering different indigenous cultures.
Commodities: White Gold
1986, 26 min
Tells of the rise of sugar and slavery, first in Brazil and later in the Caribbean. Sugar, and its dependence upon the importation of slave labor, were crucial elements in shaping Latin American history.
Erendira Ikikunari
2007, 107 min
The legend tells of a brave young Indian woman who took up arms against the Spanish conquistadors during their 16th-century invasion of Latin America. Though about to marry, Erendira stands up to the social conventions of her people, the Purepecha, so that she may fight the invading Spanish. She steals a
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horse from the Spanish, learns to ride it, and then uses her skill against her conquerors, becoming a potent icon of strength and rebellion for indigenous Mexican cultures.
How Tasty was my Little Frenchman
1973, 80 min
This delicious black comedy, set in the jungles of Brazil, tells the story of a French adventurer who tries in vain to be accepted by a tribe of cannibals who has captured him. The Frenchman strives to learn the ways of the tribe, hoping to figure out how to avoid his prescribed fate of being the main course of a ceremonial tribal dinner.
I, the Worst of All
1990, 105 min
This is the story of the brilliant and beautiful poet Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz in 17th century Mexico. In order to pursue her love of writing, Juana enters the convent and gains international renown.
The Middle Passage
2003, 76 min
It was the route between Africa and the New World bringing slaves to exchange for sugar and tobacco.
Now the story is told by an African slave whose spirit haunts the ocean route. Sold into slavery by the
King of Dahomey, he is shackled and transported on a journey shared with some six hundred souls. A journey barely half would survive.
The Other Conquest
1998, 105 min
Mexico 1521--The Spanish army of Hernán Cortés has swept through the New World, forcing their religious beliefs on the Aztec people. They would conquer their land, but not their souls.
When Worlds Collide: The Untold story of the Americas after Columbus
PBS
2010, 87 minutes
A highly imaginative exploration of one of the most intriguing epochs in human history: the earthshaking period when the “Old World” first encountered the “New World.”
Nation-Building and the World Economy
Banana Company
1982, 15 min
Combining interviews and archival footage, this film tours Nicaragua's banana plantations. Scenes of workers set to a poem by Ernesto Cardenal give the film an unexpected impact.
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Coffee: Sack Full of Power
1999, 52 min
This documentary takes a broad view of the influence and importance of coffee through the ages. It also explains the difference between the Brazilian and Costa Rican system of production and why the
Brazilian system has led to such poverty.
Egalité for All
2009, 60 min
It was the only successful slave insurrection in history. It grasped the full meaning of French revolutionary ideas and used them to create the world's first black republic. It elevated a former slave,
Toussaint L’ouverture, to such fame that admirers ranked him on par with George Washington. It was the Haitian Revolution, a movement of admirable aspirations and appalling destruction.
FItzcarraldo
18982, 157 min
Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald, known as Fitzcarraldo to the native Peruvians, is an avid opera lover and rubber baron who dreams of building an opera house in the Peruvian jungle. He enlists the aid of the native Peruvians to drag his ship over a mountain to the desired area.
Panama Canal: Gateway to the American Century
PBS
2011, 90 minutes http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/trailer/panama-trailer/
(online with additional features) http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/panama/player/
On August 15 th , 1914, the Panama Canal opened, connecting the world’s two largest oceans and signaling Americas’s emergence as a global superpower. Along the way, Central America witnessed the brazen overthrow of a sovereign government, a revolutionary public health campaign, the backbreaking removal of hundreds of millions of tons of earth, and construction on an unprecedented scale.
Cold War Era
Battle of Chile + Obstinate Memory
2009, 320 min
On September 11, 1973, President Allende's democratically-elected Chilean government was overthrown in a bloody coup. Patricio Guzmán and five colleagues had been filming the political developments in Chile throughout the nine months leading up to that day. The bombing of the
Presidential Palace, during which Allende died, would now become the ending for Guzmán's seminal documentary, The Battle of Chile. Long banned in Chile after the coup, only in 1997 could Guzmán return to show The Battle of Chile for the first time. Chile: Obstinate Memory is the extraordinary moving record of that homecoming.
Clandestine Childhood
2012, 110 min
After years of exile, young Juan and his family come back to Argentina under fake identities. Juan's parents and his Uncle Beto are members of the Montaneros Organization, which is fighting against the
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military junta. Because of their political activities they are tracked down relentlessly, and the threat of capture and even death is imminent. However, Juan's daily life is also full of warmth and humor and he quickly integrates into his new environment. His friends at school know him as Ernesto, a name he must not forget, since his family's survival is at stake.
Cuban Missile Crisis: Three Men Go to War
PBS
2012, 60 minutes http://video.pbs.org/program/three-men-go-war/
On October 22, 1962, President John F. Kennedy informed the world that the Soviet Union was building secret missile bases on the island of Cuba, 90 miles off the shores of Florida. The events of the next thirteen days brought the world closer to nuclear disaster than it had ever been before or since.
Machuca
2004, 115 min
Machuca explores Chile's bloody 1973 coup through the astonishingly intimate coming-of-age story of a pair of 12 year-old boys. From opposite extremes of society, Gonzalo and Pedro from an unlikely friendship as politics rip their world apart.
Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo
1985, 64 min
This Academy award-nominated documentary about the Argentinian mothers’ movement to demand to know the fate of 30,000 disappeared sons and daughters remains as extraordinarily powerful as when it was first released. As well as giving an understanding of Argentinian history in the 70s and 80s, Las
Madres shows the empowerment of women in a society where women are expected to be silent.
Romero
1989, 105 min
Romero is a compelling look at the life of Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador, who made the ultimate sacrifice in a passionate stand against social injustice and oppression in his country. This film chronicles the transformation of Romero from an apolitical, complacent priest to a committed leader of the Salvadoran people.
Silence of Neto
1994, 106 min
The film tells the very human story of a young boy's coming of age in Guatemala in the 1950's, a period marked by political upheaval, CIA meddling, and Cold War paranoia.
The Year My Parents Went on Vacation
2006, 105 min
When 12-year-old Mauro is left to fend for himself when his parents go "on vacation" during the military regime in 1970s Brazil, a classic coming-of-age story unfolds.
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