The Guilford Beacon

Guilford will show films in the 2006 Latin American Film Festival during the month of November. The showings are free and open to the public, and will be held in the Joseph M. Bryan Jr. Auditorium Nov. 4, 8 and 19. The festival runs Nov. 3-19 statewide.

This year's festival features over 20 newly released films, three documentary premieres, afternoon discussions on indigenous films, documentaries on social movements in Mexico and Colombia, and internationally recognized hosts.

The following films will be shown at Guilford at 7 p.m. on the dates indicated:

Nov. 4: Barrio Cuba (Cuba, 2005): introduction by Pablo Pacheco: Tells a trio of stories, all dealing with commonplace Cuban social struggles. Solás and his superior cast pay tribute to the authentic slums of the Havana suburbs, stripping away the sheen of a world previously glamorized by touristy stereotypes. Winner of the Special Jury Prize award - Festival de Nuevo Cine Latinoamericano de La Habana, 2005. Spanish with English subtitles.

Nov. 8: Warrior of Light (Brazil/Germany, 2002): A feature-length documentary on Yvonne Bezerra de Mello, award-winning artist and human-rights activist who has gained international recognition for her work with street children in Rio. The film recounts how a woman turned her back on a wealthy lifestyle, driven into action by the execution of eight street kids by military police in 1993. Portuguese with English subtitles.

Nov. 19: Soplo de Vida (Breath of Life) (Columbia, 1999): introduction by Juan Ricardo Aparicio: Ex-cop turned private eye, Fernando Solórzano gets roped into investigating the murder of unidentified hooker Flora Martínez, at a cheap Bogotá hotel. As the flashbacks unreel in classic film noir fashion, he starts to piece together her life through her relationships with a failed boxer, a blind lottery salesman, a cowardly bullfighter and a corrupt politician. Winner of 2000 Special Jury Prize at Cartagena Film Festival and 1999 nominee for the Golden Sun Award at the Biarritz International Festival of Latin American Cinema. Spanish with English subtitles.

The following movies will be shown as matinees on Nov. 19:

1 p.m.: Blossoms of Fire (USA, 2000): This documentary introduces the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Mexico, home to an indigenous Zapotec society where gender and sexual preference are a fluid concept. The women dominate the home and businesses, while the men do much of the heavy hauling and seem happy to let women rule. The matriarchy also fosters the area's progressive politics, which include standing up to the PRI and warding off the global market. English.

2:20 p.m.: Ajayu (Bolivia, 1996): Death in the Aymara culture is an experience in which the mourners, and the community, the souls participate together. Age-old rituals, mixed with Catholic symbols assimilated by the people, frame the story of Andres and his young daughter Leonora. Upon drowning in Lake Titikaka, they must find their way to Korimarca (the Aymara Heaven) with help from the members of the community to which they belonged, Bolivia. Spanish with English subtitles.

3 p.m.: Radio Chanul Pom (From the Heart of the Highlands of Chiapas) (Mexico, 2005): introduction and discussion with indigenous filmmaker Jose Alfredo Jimenez: From the heart of the Altos in the Chiapaneco province of Chenalho, this community and indigenous oriented radio station broadcasts in Tzotzil and Tzeltal. The radio is an effort to strengthen their fight for justice and defend their culture and dialect. This documentary will take us on a journey through the Chiapas Mountains with indigenous voices. Spanish, Tzeltzal, Tzotzil with English subtitles.

4 p.m.: Mexican shorts all are in Spanish, but easy to understand.
• El Árbol de la Música: A little girl sees an old man playing the violin and wants to learn how to play. The old man takes her to a field and teaches her that she doesn't need an instrument to play and appreciate music. The man shows the girl that music is all around her in nature.
• La Tarde de un Matrimonio de la Clase Media: A man and his wife are sitting in their living room. The wife is knitting; the man is reading the newspaper. When the wife wants to start a conversation, the husband tells her to shut her mouth.
• Adios Mamá: A lady sees a man in the grocery store and tells him that he looks exactly like her son. She tells him that her son is dead and asks him to call her mama. She then leaves and doesn't pay for her things. She turns and says goodbye to him, making sure that the cashier hears him call her mama. The man gets charged for the woman's things because the cashier thought she was the man's mother.
• El Sístole Diástole: A girl and her grandfather are playing a game of cards in the park. What is being played in the game is actually happening in real life to the rest of their family. At the end, the grandfather, who never speaks, speaks and the family wins the lottery.

Click here for more information

Dana Professor of English CAROLYN BEARD WHITLOW will read selections from her latest collection of poetry, Vanished, Thursday, Nov. 9, at 7 p.m. in the Founders Hall Gallery. The reading is free and open to the public and will be followed by a book-signing.

Whitlow won the Naomi Long Madgett Award (a national award for excellence in a manuscript by an African American poet) for Vanished, which was published in January 2006, and was also a finalist for the 2006 Ohio State University Press Award in poetry. Her other work includes Wild Meat, a book of poetry published in 1986, and numerous poems published in a variety of anthologies and journals including The Kenyon Review, The Massachusetts Review, Indiana Review, African American Review, Crab Orchard Review and Cold Mountain Review. Whitlow is a main line reader for Poetry GSO, has read for a number of North Carolina colleges, and has been heard on both North Carolina Public Radio-WUNC (91.5) and WFDD-FM (88.5).

She has taught at the college since 1993 and served as chair of the English Department and African American Studies concentration. She has been inducted into the North Carolina Poetry Society and the Board of Trustees of the North Carolina Writers' Network.

Whitlow holds a bachelor's degree from Wayne State University, a master's degree from Cornell University and a master's of fine arts from Brown University.

TANYA MADENYIKA '06 has joined the Office of Admission as coordinator of multicultural recruitment.

In her new role, Madenyika will serve as a liaison for international students, helping them with the application process, immigration and paper work. She will also review applications and travel abroad to recruit. In addition, she will serve as an admission counselor for North Carolina and Ohio.

Madenyika was involved in the Bonner Scholars and Quaker Leadership Scholars programs as an undergraduate. She also worked as community organizer for Students Sharing Coalition, a non-profit organization in Baltimore, Md., where she planned and implemented a service program for inner city middle school students. As part of her job, she reviewed applications for admission into the program.

A native of Zimbabwe, a country in the southern part of Africa, Madenyika majored in sociology and anthropology with a concentration in education studies.

The Physics Department will hold an observatory open house event Sunday, Nov. 12, beginning at 7:30 p.m. in the Joseph M. Bryan Jr. Auditorium.

DONALD SMITH, assistant professor of physics, will deliver a presentation on "Ripples in Time," which takes a look back at the fading embers of the Big Bang to see the infancy of the universe and gain understanding about the origin of galaxies and stars.

The presentation will be followed by a tour of the Cline Observatory and viewing through the small telescopes and the main telescope if the weather permits.

Click here for more information, or contact THOM ESPINOLA, Glaxo Wellcome Professor of Physics, at 336-316-2193 or tespinol@guilford.edu.