Austin Vida

You are here: Home / Archives for Estefania de Leon

Estefania de Leon

Cine Las Americas screens ‘Sangue do Meu Sangue’ as part of their Signature Series at the Alamo Drafthouse

By

Cine Las Americas is a non-profit, multicultural organization, best known for their annual film festival, but also the host of film screenings year-round. They have screened over 1,200 Latino and Indigenous films and have partnered with local schools to form educational media programs that serve the minority youth. The mission of Cine Las Americas is to promote cross-cultural understanding and growth by educating, entertaining and challenging diverse audiences through film and media arts.

This week as part of their Signature Series at the Alamo Drafthouse, Cine Las Americas will be screening Sangue do Meu Sangue. A Portuguese film by João Canijoa, Sangue do Meu Sangue is about a family of four, Márcia with her two children and her sister, who have to face life and their destiny together as a family. Márcia has been trying to protect her family of the poverty cycle in which the family has lived, but when Claudia, Márcia’s daughter and a nursing student, reveals that she is in love with a married man and Joca, Marcia’s teenage son, has to face the tough realities of the street because of his naïve decision to throw himself in to the drug trafficking world of their neighborhood, the family has to confront what lies ahead. The film explores how the family has to learn to understand the actions of its members and their individual lives.

The Portuguese drama, which is Portugal’s nomination for the 2013 Academy Awards, will be screening at the Alamo Drafthouse Village located on 2700 West Anderson Lane on November 25 at 4 p.m. Tickets cost $8 for members and $10 for the general public. The film lasts 133 minutes and is in Portuguese with English subtitles. For more information visit their website or call 512-476-1320.

Mexic-Arte screens ’2012: The Beginning’ followed by Q & A with Dr. Edwin Barnhart

By

2012: The Beginning screens Nov. 15 at Mexic-Arte Museum followed by a Q & A with Dr. Edwin Barnhart. Mexic-Arte is a non-profit, multidisciplinary, and multicultural museum that presents traditional and contemporary Mexican, Latino, and Latin American art and culture. Founded in 1983, the museum began by educating and promoting traditional and contemporary Mexican and Latino art by providing cultural programs in Austin.

Mexic-Arte will be hosting a documentary screening of 2012: The Beginning. The film was directed by Shannon King Buset. It talks about December 21, 2012 and how the date was identified by the Mayan approximately 1,400 years about and has been the spark to recent debate and controversy. The screening of the documentary film will be followed by a Q & A session with Dr. Edwin Barnhart who is a renowned Maya archaeologist. He is the director of the Maya Exploration Center, and a widely recognized authority on ancient Maya astronomy, mathematics, as well as calendar systems.

The screening, followed by the Q & A session, will take place on November 15 at Mexic-Arte Museum, located at 419 Congress Avenue from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Admission into the screening is free for members and $5 for non-members. For more information visit their website, or call them at 512-480-9373.

Watch the trailer for 2012: The Beginning below.

Cine Las America presents ‘Las 13 Rosas’ at St. Edward’s University

By

Cine Las Americas is a non-profit, multi-cultural organization whose mission is to promote cross-cultural understanding and growth by educating, entertaining and challenging diverse audiences through film and media arts. They are mostly known for their annual film festival, but have also screened more than 1,200 Latino and Indigenous films and have partnered with local schools to form educational media programs that serve the minority youth.

Their next screening is Las 13 Rosas. Directed by Emilio Martinez Lazaro, Las 13 Rosas is a true story about a group of women, including some minors, who unite in the newly installed galleries of a detention center, under the totalitarian regime of General Francisco Franco and the Nationalist party at the end of the Spanish Civil War. All of the women are accused of crimes against the regime, and share their last days of life with hope and convictions for their ideals before facing a summary trial, even when General Franco has promised that the only ones prosecuted will be the ones with blood on their hands.

Cine Las Americas, in collaboration with the Emma S. Barrientos MACC and St. Edward’s University in their series “Transiciones en el Cine Español (Transitions in Spanish Cinema),” will be screening Las 13 Rosas on Thursday, November 8, at St. Edward’s University located at 3001 S. Congress Ave. at the Jones Auditorium. Admission to the screening of the 2007 drama will be free and the will start at 7 p.m.

Cine Las Americas present ‘Pa negre’ as part of Transitions in Spanish Cinema series

By

Cine Las Americas is a non-profit, multi-cultural organization whose mission is to mission of Cine Las Americas is to promote cross-cultural understanding and growth by educating, entertaining and challenging diverse audiences through film and media arts. They have screened more than 1,200 Latino and Indigenous films and have partnered with local schools to form educational media programs to serve the minority youth.

Their next screening is Pa negre, a film by Agustí Villaronga. It is about the war-ravaged Catalan in the early 1940s when 11-year-old Andreu witnesses the final moments of a dying man and boy inside a crushed wagon he stumbles upon. His father becomes suspect of having a part this tragedy and the boy is sent to live with relatives as his father goes into hiding. There, Andreu creates a fantasy life while still having to confront the world of adult deception during a civil war. The film is aimed to study the emotions and feeling in traumatic situations.

This free screening of Pa negre presented as part of their film series “Transitions in Spanish Cinema: Spain from the 1930s to the Present.” To learn more about the series click here. The 2010 drama from Spain lasts 108 minutes and is based on a novel by Emili Teixidor. It is in Spanish with English subtitles. The screening will take place November 1 at 7 p.m. at the Jones Auditorium at St. Edward’s University located on 3001 S. Congress Avenue.

Cine Las Americas with Paramount Theatre presents pub run & screening of ‘Juan de los muertos’

By

Cine Las Americas is a non-profit, multicultural organization based out of Austin. Their mission is to promote cross-cultural understanding and growth by educating, entertaining and challenging diverse audiences through film and media arts and have done so by screening more than 1,200 Latino and Indigenous films as well as partnering with local schools to create form educational media programs to serve the minority youth.

For an unconventional film screening, Cine Las Americas, in collaboration with Paramount Theatre, will be hosting a screening of Juan de los muertos which will include a pub run and the film screening. Juan de los muertos was written and directed by Alejandro Brugués and blends together a Looney Tunes cartoon with a lot of zombie bloodshed. It stars Alexis Diaz as Juan, who is a conman who uses a zombie outbreak in Cuba to create a business by becoming a professional zombie killer. Juan de los muertos is the first horror film from Cuba.

The screening will take place on Monday, October 29 along with a pub run. The pub run starts at The Paramount theatre at 6 p.m. and will be a one mile run to the eastside location of Takoba for a pint of complimentary, locally-brewed beer from Twisted X Brewing Co. From there, there will be a run back to the Paramount for more beer.

The screening of Juan de los muertos will start at 7:30 p.m. The 2011 comedic horror film lasts around 100 minutes. Tickets cost $15 and include film and event admission, complimentary locally-brewed beer, and one small popcorn. General movie admission is $10. Film fan movie admission with card at the box office is $6. The event will benefit Cine Las Americas and the Paramount theatre. To purchase tickets visit the Paramount Theatre website by clicking here.

Cine Las Americas presents screening of ‘El árbol de fresas’

By

Cine Las Americas is a non-profit, multi-cultural organization based in Austin mostly known for their annual film festival, but also hosting year-round screenings for the community. The mission of Cine Las Americas is to promote cross-cultural understanding and growth by educating, entertaining and challenging diverse audiences through film and media arts. Cine Las Americas has screened over 1,200 Latino and indigenous films as well as partnered with local schools to form educational media programs that serve the minority youth.

One of their upcoming screenings is El árbol de fresas, a documentary film by Simone Rapisarda Casanova and is considered a mesmerizing cinematic poem that explores the boundaries among anthropology, documentary and reverie. It takes place in Juan Antonio, Cuba, a remote fishing village before it was destroyed by a hurricane. It follows the filmmaker as he forms relationships with the villagers and portrays a unique portrait of the culture. The film won the Jury Award for Best Documentary Feature at the Cine Las Americas International Film festival this year.

El árbol de fresas will be screening on Sunday, October 28 at 4 p.m. at the Alamo Drafthouse Village located at 2700 West Anderson Lane. The film is in Spanish with English subtitles and lasts around 71 minutes. Tickets are $10 each or $8 dollars for members. You can get more information about purchasing tickets by calling (512) 476-1320 or purchase advance tickets online here. At the film’s conclusion, there will be a Q&A session with director Simone Rapisarda Casanova.

Texas Book Festival’s Reading Rock Stars comes to Del Valle’s Baty Elementary

By

Children at Texas Book Festival 2010 watch an author presentation. / courtesy photo

The Texas Book Festival’s Reading Rock Stars is a dynamic program in which selected authors from across the country are invited to share their literary works with students in economically disadvantaged schools. This year Reading Rock Stars will include Cunningham, Dawson, Galindo, Ortega, Rodriguez and Baty elementary schools. The aim is to promote literacy, and celebrate authors and their contributions to the culture of literacy, ideas and imagination.

There will be two separate bilingual children’s author presentations by Duncan Tonatiuh and James Luna, followed by distribution of their books. An interactive game show event called “Class Acts,” where kids compete to win their favorite author the coveted title in the Class Acts Challenge, will be hosted by Baty Elementary School’s Reading Rock Stars on Friday, Oct. 26.

“We chose Baty Elementary as this year’s new school because it’s a really big school where RRS could make a really big difference,” said Amy Roberts, chair of Reading Rock Stars. “To be chosen, a school must be classified as Title 1. All of Del Valle ISD’s schools are Title 1, which makes them especially deserving.”

This year, children’s book authors Jon Scieszka (Guys Read: The Sports Pages), Adam Rex (Cold Cereal), Tim Green (Unstoppable), Duncan Tonatiuh (Diego Rivera: His World and Ours) and James Luna (Runaway Piggy/El Cochinito Fugitivo) will be featured at the event. Class Acts will be featuring Scieszka, Green and Rex.

“All three Class Acts authors have written books geared towards young reluctant male readers,” said Roberts.” It’s generally not very hard to get young girls to want to read, but it’s more challenging to get the boys interested.”

The event will last from 8:15 to 10:30 a.m on Friday, Oct. 26. For more information on the Texas Book Festival and their Reading Rock Stars, program visit texasbookfestival.org.

Cine Las Americas presents screening of ‘¡Ay, Carmela!’

By

promo photo provided by Cine Las Americas

Cine Las Americas is a multi-cultural, non-profit organization based in Austin. It is mostly known for its annual film festival, but have year-round film screenings as well. It has screened more than 1,200 Latino and indigenous films and videos and has partnered with local schools to create educational media programs that serve the minority youth in the city. Their mission is to promote cross-cultural understanding and growth by educating, entertaining and challenging diverse audiences through film and media arts.

Their latest screening in collaboration with The Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Culture Center (MACC) and St. Edward’s University, ¡Ay, Carmela!, is a 1990 film by Carlos Saura. It is about a couple of vaudeville artists who perform for the Republican troops, but are captured and imprisoned by the Nationalist army of Francisco Franco along with a group of Polish fighters. They are summoned by Lt. Ripamonte, an Italian theatre director who joined Mussolini’s fascist government and was sent to Spain to fight with the Nationalists troops. Under Ripamonte’s direction, the performers remodel Teatro Goya to present their spectacle and entertain Nationalist troops. The artists realize that they have to decided if they are going to compromise their political and artistic ideals in order to save their lives when the Polish prisoners are brought in to witness the show before their execution.

The free film screening, based on the play by José Sanchis Sinisterra and starring Carmen Maura, Andres Pajares, Gabino Diego, and Maurizio de Razza. ¡Ay, Carmela! is presented as part of the current series “Transitions in Spanish Cinema: Spain from the 1930’s to the present.” The film will be screened on Wednesday, October 24 at 7 p.m. at the MACC located at 600 River Street. The drama/comedy is in Spanish and Catalan with English subtitles. The film lasts around 102 minutes. Visit the official event page on Facebook here.