Mini Conference 2018: Streaming Videos

Description: Rodolfo Enrique Cabral (La Plata, Buenos Aires, 1937 - Guatemala, 2011), was a singer-songwriter, poet, writer and Argentine philosopher. He was characterized by his compositions of trova and his monologues with personal anecdotes, parables, social criticism to promote self-realization, the awakening of consciousness, and spiritual reflection. In 1970, he recorded No soy de aquí, no soy de allá (I am not from here nor am from there). During the last Argentine dictatorship (1976-1983), he was already considered a singer-songwriter of protest, forcing him to leave Argentina in 1976. He settled in Mexico, where he continued to compose and make presentations.

Description: Musicians Anibal and Charley, from the group Santa Revuelta, compose songs that are social commentaries and descriptions of the plight of the poor in Argentina. In the Plaza de Mayo, people were gassed and killed for protesting outside Parliament.

Abstract/Summary: A portrait of a brutal military dictatorship made during a three month visit to Chile in 1985 by David Bradbury. The footage reveals a country torn with civil strife and political unrest; military intimidation of the population; indiscriminate arrests: murder torture and disappearances were facts of Chilean life. Bradbury’s film traces the 12 years from 1973 to 1985 of General Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship whose forces seized power in a bloody, US-backed coup that left Marxist president Salvador Allende dead and with him any hopes of democracy remaining in Chile. Under General Pinochet’s rule 50,000 Chileans have been detained, and many are missing, believed dead.

Abstract/Summary: General Pinochet's violent military coup ended a long tradition of democracy in Chile. For the Santiago shanty town of La Victoria this has meant years of brutal repression, husbands slaughtered, and women taking the lead in organising the community. This is the story of one such brave woman, her fears for the future and her struggle to survive and bring up her son.

Abstract/Summary: This beautifully crafted, poignant, and timely documentary explores the power of art to heal the trauma of torture. The film follows exiled Chilean musician Quique Cruz from the San Francisco Bay Area to Chile and back as he creates a multimedia installation and musical suite in an effort to heal the emotional wounds inflicted on him by the state-sponsored torture of the Pinochet regime.Utilizing an innovative and compelling blend of documentary, performance, and interview sequences, Archeology of Memory accompanies Cruz as he visits former concentration camp sites and ruins and talks to his mother for the first time in 30 years about his Disappearance and incarceration. To give added depth to his story, he seeks out and receives testimony from other artists who were tortured in Chile. In these intimate conversations writer Nubia Becker, poet Anita Moreira, and painter Guillermo Nuñez relate their cruel experiences as political prisoners and show how their art has helped each to transcend their trauma.The film's musical score is an intricate element of its emotional resonance with viewers. The narrative follows the development of Cruz's musical suite as he remembers his Disappearance, torture, and exile. His memories span the years from Salvador Allende's Chile through the dark era following the U.S.-backed coup led by General Augusto Pinochet and right up to the present. The story climaxes at the infamous former Villa Grimaldi torture site in 2006, with the dedication by current Chilean President Michelle Bachelet of a theater where Cruz performs his suite for an audience of thousands at the place where he was once incarcerated and tortured.

Description: Journey into the world of Argentina's most famous musical artist in Mercedes Sosa: The Voice of Latin America. Over a career that spanned 50 years, Sosa sold millions of records, performed thousands of concerts all over the world, and left behind an incredible legacy as an artist who went beyond the borders of music to become one of the most influential – and loved – personalities of the 20th century. This intimate documentary reveals Sosa's early life and her rise to worldwide stardom, and explores the impact she had on the musical -- and political -- heritage of Latin America... and the world.

Abstract/Summary: Cecilia Aranada returned to Chile years after her family had escaped the bloody Pinochet regime. Her own mother had been held and tortured in the Estadio Nacional, the infamous stadium from which many never emerged. She was shocked that in Chile today, many did not know of the horrors of the Pinochet regime. Instead, they attribute today's prosperity to progress under the dictator. Interviewing Chileans who escaped at that time, including one of Allende's guards, she records the powerful memories of those who were torn from their families, beaten, raped and subjected to electric shock. With deep emotion, they speak of the friends and relatives they lost. They recall the promise of the Allende regime, the first Marxist democracy in Latin America, where there seemed to be new opportunities for peasants and workers. On September 11, 1973 Allende was killed in a military coup and the reign of terror began. A generation has grown up in Chile with no knowledge of this history. But voices from exile provide irrefutable testimony.

Abstract/Summary: On September 11, 1973 General Pinochet leads a military coup d'etat against democratically elected President Salvador Allende. Allende decides to barricade himself with a few loyal friends and his guards in LA MONEDA, the presidential Palace of Santiago. He refuses to negotiate with the military, and addresses the Chilean people one last time over the national radio. When the air force starts bombing the Palace, he tells his supporters to surrender, and refusing this choice for himself, commits suicide. This remarkable and moving documentary exposes the most impressive footage about the events, some of which have never been seen before, and includes interviews with the friends and guards who were present in LA MONEDA on that fatal September 11th day.

Abstract/Summary: Memories of a Dreamer is a first person account of the hardship suffered by a political prisoner from Chile's 1973 cruel dictatorship. Felix Mora recounts shocking details of the torture he endured, his escape from the dictatorship and the challenges he has faced as an exile in Italy and Canada. The question is has Felix allowed torture and exile to shatter his dreams of obtaining justice and being able to return to Chile? Or has he used that suffering as a force to accomplish that dream? Archival footage, dramatization and personal narratives bring to light an emotionally jolting and inspirational film, where the faces of terror and courage are apparent not only in the subject's words, but also in the way the audience will associate his memories with what they see. The film challenges the assumption that refugees can't participate in their homeland's struggles from abroad and still build successful lives in their new adopted countries. The film is also a testament to the lives of many exiled Chileans who never gave up

Description: When Spain’s army mutinied against the Second Republic in 1936, it marked the beginning of a bitter civil war that lasted three years and cost one million Spanish lives. In this program, respected authorities elaborate on the writings and personalities of those who captured this devastating period in poetry and prose. Dramatic readings include excerpts from Rafael Alberti’s “Romancero General de la Guerra,” Antonio Machado’s “Muerte de un Niño Herido,” José María Pemán’s “De Ellos Es el Mundo” and “Poema de la Bestia y el Angel,” and Miguel Hernández’ Viento del Pueblo.

Description: Joan Manuel Serrat is a Spanish musician, singer, songwriter, performer, actor, writer, and poet who was born in Barcelona in 1943. He is one of the most prominent figures of modern song in Spanish and Catalan, receiving the Latin Grammy and Person of the Year in 2014.