Berkeley: Four-Day Film Festival about Nicaragua for Historic Memory and a Better World!

Press release and complete festival schedule
For immediate release after 6/26/06
Contacts: Nina Serrano 510 763-8204, Daniel del Solar 510 209-3022
Viva Sandino: Four-Day Film Festival about Nicaragua for Historic Memory and a Better World!

They say the revolution will not be televised...but it already has been! Twenty-seven years ago years ago in Nicaragua on July 19, 1979, the Sandinista Revolution triumphed over the 40 year dictatorship of the Somoza family. The result was a ten-year burst of unleashed creative energy to build a new society in Nicaragua. This revolutionary process inspired filmmakers from Hollywood, Europe, Latin America, and the alternative USA, who captured it on film, making the Nicaraguan revolutionary project the first and most scrutinized revolution in world history.
The Viva Sandino Four - Day Film Festival will be held from Tuesday, July 18 through Friday July 21, 2006. Everyone is invited to see these important films made about the Nicaraguan revolution in the 1980’s and 90’s. All screenings begin at 7 PM at the La Pena Cultural Center, located at 3105 Shattuck Avenue in Berkeley. Tickets are available at the door: $7/$5 for seniors and students. The San Francisco Bay Area Festival co sponsors are: Marin Interfaith Task Force on the Americas (http://www.mitfamericas.org), ANCI (Asociación Nicaragüense de Cinematografía) and Nicca (Nicaragua Center for Community Action).
The Nicaraguan revolution and its ten-year Sandinista Party government with its mixed economy is the legacy for many of the new political developments sweeping Latin America today. The world solidarity movements, including the U.S. non-intervention movement, brought both material aid and media spotlight to these events. The San Francisco Bay Area was one of the focal points of action. It spawned a lively support community and was the pre-Revolutionary Sandinista, headquarters for it’s clandestine newspaper Barricada, distributed world-wide.
After holding Nicaragua’s first two democratic elections, the Sandinista’s lost 1990 election. This fatal election took place during the "Contra War." The US Congressional hearings revealed the illegal channeling of arms and money to support the counter- revolutionary military forces (the "Contra") which also included the flow of cocaine into disadvantaged US communities. The US-backed Contra War discouraged and hampered the Sandinista’s revolutionary efforts, reflected in the loss of state power. Since 1990 the Sandinistas, have remained the strongest and most consistent political opposition in the country, though they are no longer as unified.
For more Viva Sandino: Four-Day Film Festival details:: http://www.lapena.org The complete schedule follows:
Viva Sandino Four-Day Film Festival Schedule

Opening night:
Tuesday: July 18, 2006, 7pm (Running time; 3 hrs :15 mins)


The World Is Watching: Peter Raymont, director/Canada, 1987, 59 min. Documentary
A critical examination of the role of media covering Nicaragua. Filmmaker, journalist and writer Peter Raymont is the producer and director of over 100 documentary films during a distinguished 30-year career. He is the recipient of 35 international awards including the Canadian Genie for "Best Documentary" for The World Is Watching. His follow-up film "The World Stopped Watching" is played on Wed., July 19th.

Latino, Haskell Wexler, writer/director/USA,1985, 90 mins Drama, Set in the context of the Sandinista government in Nicaragua and their battle with the U.S. backed Contra rebels. Eddie Guerrero (Robert Beltran) is a Vietnam vet sent to help U.S. Special Forces train Contra rebels. Eddie falls for a local girl, Marlena (Annette Cardona). However, when her father is killed by the Contras things change.
Haskell Wexler has earned five Academy Award nominations and two Oscars for Best Cinematography. He was the fourth cinematographer to receive a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame. Wexler, a long time activist also writes, directs, and produces his own independent films.

Victoria De Un Pueblo En Armas / Victory of an Armed People ) Several INCINE directors/ Nicaragua , 1979, 45 mins, Documentary, Spanish only.
This historic film made immediately after the revolutionary triumph, is almost a primary historic document. It covers memorable events during the fight against the Somoza dictatorship: including the assault against the home of Chema Castillo, the assassination of Dr. Pedro Joaquin Chamorro, the commando attack against the National Palace , the unification of the National Front leaders, Managua during the struggle, the liberation of Estili, and the victorious entrance of the guerrillas into Managua on the 20th of July, 1979, This is a primary source historic document.


Night 2 ( 27th anniversary )
Wednesday: July 19, 2006, 7pm (running time:3 hrs-13 min)

Pictures From A Revolution: Susan Meiselas, Alfred Guzzetti, Richard P. Rogers, directors/USA, 1991, 92 minute Documentary.
Meiselas a world –recognized photodocumentarian returns to Nicaragua, with co-directors Richard P. Rogers and Alfred Guzzetti to create a deeply moving account of individuals who brought about a true people's revolution, whom she’d photographed a decade earlier. They were now living out their lives after the lost Sandinista election. Meiselas tracks down the guerrillas, Somocistas and bystanders -- pictured in her earlier photographs. They share their feelings about how their lives have changed, for the better and for worse while recalling the circumstances captured a decade earlier by Meiselas' camera. The result is a frank inquiry into the contradictions inherent in recording history and the power of the image as a tool for political persuasion.


After the Earthquake/ Después del Terremoto: Lourdes Portillo and Nina Serrano, directors/USA, 1979, 28 minute Drama, Bi-lingual (Eng/Span)
The story is set in San Francisco California's barrio among Central American immigrants and exiles. A young woman, Irene, faces adjustment and survival working as a house cleaner. Her former boyfriend, Julio, suddenly reappears in her life. Julio is now an exiled, recently released, political prisoner. Irene must confront the cultural changes in her life to redefine their relationship. Winner of the International Short Film Festival, Krakov, Poland and aired on 27 PBS stations.

Peace Boat:, Deedee Halleck producer/ USA, 1989, 29 minute Documentary.
A boat carrying medicines, newsprint, and four Nobel Prize winners, arrives in Nicaragua at a key moment of Reagan’s Contra war, just after the mines placed by the CIA in Nicaragua’s principal port, Corinto had been removed. Features interviews with Nobel Prize Winners, George Wald, Pedro Esquivel, and others.

Rock Down Central America: director Greg Landau /USA, 1989, 28 minute Documentary.
Features Soul Vibrations, a reggae band from the city of Bluefields on
Nicaragua's Atlantic coast, an area colonized by the British, and where
Creole English is still spoken. ''Rock Down Central America,'' traces the culture of the coast through the eyes of these musicians as they explore their musical heritage. Winner of Coral prize for best music, Latin American Film Festival, Havana, Aired on television in Holland, Canada, Spain, Sweden and Denmark (1989).

Rompiendo la Oscuridad/Overcoming Darkness Directors María José Álvarez y Alberto Legal of INCINE /Nicargaua, 1980, 13 minute Documenary.
This short film shows the outstanding Nicaraguan literacy campaign in 1980 including the closing celebration. The film is a primary source historic document.

Night 3
Thursday, July 20, 2006, 7 pm (Time:3 hrs :27 mins)

Carla’s Song: Ken Loach, director/England, 1996, 127 minute Drama. This feature length 90’s love story is set against a political background. A trip on a Glasgow bus ends up in Nicaragua in the midst of the Contra War. George, a Welsh bus driver and Carla, a Nicaraguan, maintain a love affair in the midst of a society at war.

The World Stopped Watching: Perter Raymont, director/Canada, 2003, 80 minute Documentary.
Filmed in Nicaragua as a sequel to the "The World Is Watching" (1987). Fifteen years later, filmmakers Peter Raymont and Harold Crooks return to Nicaragua with two American journalists who were in the original film, and a Canadian journalist from La Presse, to discover what became of the first revolution to be conducted in the glare of the world media. They question the role and responsibility of journalists and their employers who first put Nicaraguans under the microscope, and then rushed off to the next hot spot.

Night 4: Closing Night
Friday July 21, 2006, 7pm (Time:3 hrs: 24 mins)

Destination Nicaragua: 1986, Barabara Trent, director/ USA, 1986, 58 minute Documentary.
Actress Tyne Daly narrates this documentary which follows a group of American activists visiting Nicaragua in the 1980's. The visitors are witnesses as civil war rages between the Sandanista government forces and the Contras, who fought with the financial support of the United States. Arlo Gutrie provides the musical soundtrack. Barbara Trent is an award-winning filmmaker.

Walker: Alex Cox, director/ USA, 1987, 90 minute Drama.
"Walker" tells the story of the an earlier US invasion of Nicaragua when US pro-slavery adventurer, William Walker attempts to annex Nicaragua as a slave state to the United States. A brilliant interpretation of the "controversial" Walker, Actor Ed Harris shines in this wonderful, insightful, film written by award winning Rudy Wurlitzer.

La Insurrección Cultural, The Cultural Uprising Jorge Denti, Director/Nicaragua, 1980, 56 minute Documentary in Spanish Only
This film documents the historic effort by Nicaraguan youth to overcome rural illiteracy in the early days of the Nicaraguan Sandinista plan for self-improvement. This is another primary source historic document.

More details http://www.lapena.org

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