Videos on Latin America

Americas. South Burlington, VT: Annenberg/CPB Collection, 1993. 10 videocassettes (57 min. each)

Ancient Maya. Wynnewood, PA: Schlessinger Media, 2004. 1 videodisc (23 min.)

Archaeologist Arizona Smith and a young detective-in-training explore the Mayan civilization of Central America and Mexico.

Black Orpheus. Criterion Collection, 1999. 1 videodisc (107 min.)

An update of the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice featuring an all-black cast and a story set in the frenetic energy of Carnival in Rio de Janeiro. (Brazil)

The Buried Mirror: Reflections on Spain and the New World. Public Media Video, 1991. 6 Videocassettes (59 min. each)

Carlos Fuentes looks for his forebears in the mix of people that created Latin America: Spanish, Arab, Jewish, Indian, and African. He asks what is unique in their culture that is cause for celebration in the 500th anniversary year of Columbus. His quest takes him from the quayside at Vera Cruz back to Spain.

Central Station. Sony Pictures, 1999. 1 videodisc (106 min.)

Set in Rio de Janeiro, tells the story of the journey of a former school teacher, who writes letters for illiterate people, and a young boy, whose mother has just died, in search for the father he never knew. (Brazil)

Cobra Verde. Troy, MI: Anchor Bay Entertainment, 2000. 1 videodisc (110 min.)

Francisco Manoel da Silva, 19th century, gun-toting Brazilian bandit known as the Cobra Verde, is hired by the owner of a sugar plantation to keep his slaves in check; instead, the Cobra causes unrest. In revenge, the owner sends the Cobra on a dangerous mission to sail to the West coast of Africa and reopen the slave trade. There the Cobra wages war with a local tribal king. (Brazil)

Inca: Secrets of the Ancestors. Alexandria, VA: Time-Life Video and Television, 1995. 1 videocassette (48 min.) Part of Time Life’s Lost Civilizations Video Series.

Introducing Latin America. Huntsville, TX: Educational Video Network, Inc., 1995.  1 videocassette (28 min.)

Provides introductory information about various cultural influences on the people of Latin America. Provides basic history of the European colonization of Latin America and explains the current linguistic, racial, and cultural makeup of Latin Americans.

The Last Supper. New York: New Yorker Video, 1977. 1 videocassette (110 min.)

Set in Havana at the end of the 18th century, a guilt-ridden count invites twelve of his plantation slaves to a "last supper" during which he attempts to teach them what he sees as the crucial elements of Christianity, namely, submissive obedience to their master and joy in suffering. (Cuba)

Lost Kingdoms of the Maya. National Geographic Video, 1993. 1 videocassette (60 min.)     
This film shows how newly discovered hieroglyphics and other discoveries offer clues to the lives of these ancient people.

Maya: Lords of the Jungle. Alexandria, VA: PBS Home Video, 1988. 1 videocassette (58 min.)

Visits ancient sites on the Yucatan Peninsula where findings have forced a reappraisal of the past of the Mayans. Researchers display and interpret their findings.

Maya: The Blood of Kings. Alexandria, VA: Time-Life Video and Television, 1995. 1 videocassette (48 min.)

Mexico: the Rise and Fall of the Aztecs. Burbank, CA: Warner Home Video, 1995. 1 videocassette (49 min.)

Part of the 500 Nations series: The second of eight programs exploring the history and culture of North America. The Indians of Central Mexico and dramatic eyewitness accounts of the Aztec-Spanish war highlight this volume. (Mexico)

The Mission. Burbank, CA: Warner Home Video, 2003, c1986. 2 videodiscs (125 min.)

A powerful epic about a man of the sword and a man of the cloth who unite to shield a South American Indian tribe from brutal subjugation by 18th-century colonial empires.

The Official Story. Koch Lerner Films, 2004. 1 videodisc (117 min.)

Tells the story of the political awakening of Alicia Marnet de Ibáñez a high school history professor and a well-to-do housewife in Buenos Aires, circa 1983, after the fall of the "junta militar" that had taken over the government in 1976. (Argentina)

Quilombo. New York: New Yorker Video, 1991. 1 videocassette (121 min.)

In 17th century Brazil, groups of runaway black slaves escaped to mountainous jungle strongholds, where they formed self-governing communities known as quilombos. (Brazil)

Sin Embargo – Never the Less. Watertown, MA: Documentary Educational Resources, 2003.

1 videodisc (49 min.)

Shot entirely in Cuba, this documentary film is a look at the indomitable and resilient spirit of the island's inhabitants after the Cuban revolution in 1959 and the U.S. embargo that followed it.

(Cuba)

Uprooted: Refugees of the Global Economy. Oakland, CA: National Network for Immigrant and Refugees Rights, 2001. 1 videocassette (28 min.)

Describes how the global economy has forced people to leave their home countries, focusing on three stories of immigrants from the Philippines, Bolivia, and Haiti. (Cuba)

U.S.-Mexican War, 1846-1848. Alexandria, VA: PBS Home Video, 1998. 4 videocassettes (1 hour each)

This critically acclaimed documentary series explores the events surrounding the conflict between two neighboring nations struggling for land, power, and identity. (Mexico)