Jurakán: A Film Series
part of the 2022 FotoFocus Biennial
THE GARFIELD THEATRE
Four consecutive Thursdays in October
October 6, for FotoFocus Passport holders only.
October 13 – 20 – 27, open to the public with free admission
for Passport holders and single tickets for all others,
with general admission $10 advance, $15 door.
The 2022 FotoFocus theme, World Record, considers photography’s extensive record of life on earth while exploring humankind’s impact on the natural world.
Professor Mary Leonard curates four feature films with filmmaker discussions about the impact of hurricanes and climate change in the Caribbean region.
All films are in Spanish with English subtitles.
- October 06: Landfall | Documentary, 91 min.
preceded by Las Paredes de Mi Tierra (The Walls of My Land), 5 min.
- October 13: After Maria – The Two Shores | Documentary, 66 min.
preceded by Huracán Maria, 1 min.; Linnae, 3 min.; Huracán, 1 min.
- October 20: Cuba – Living Between Hurricanes | Documentary, 70 min.
preceded by Pitigua, 2.5 min.; After the Storm, 3 min.
- October 27: Candela | Narrative Fiction, 93 min.
preceded by Sumergido (Submerged), 4.5 min.
Event and feature film details reside in the tabs below.
WHAT, WHERE, WHEN & HOW MUCH
WHAT:
“Jurakán: A Film Series”
Part of the 2022 FotoFocus Biennial, four feature films with selected shorts, on consecutive Thursdays in October. The films are not rated.
WHERE:
☀ THE GARFIELD THEATRE, 719 Race St., Cincinnati, OH 45202.
WHEN:
All screenings commence at 7:00 pm, doors open at 6:30 pm.
October 06: Landfall | Documentary, 91 min.
preceded by Las Paredes de Mi Tierra (The Walls of My Land), 5 min.
October 13: After Maria – The Two Shores | Documentary, 66 min.
preceded by Huracán Maria, 1 min.; Linnae, 3 min.; Huracán, 1 min.
October 20: Cuba – Living Between Hurricanes | Documentary, 70 min.
preceded by Pitigua, 2.5 min.; After the Storm, 3 min.
October 27: Candela | Narrative Fiction, 93 min.
preceded by Sumergido (Submerged), 4.5 min.
TICKETS:
Admission is FREE for FotoFocus Passport holders: more information.
Due to limited seating capacity, Passport users need to register in advance on the Garfield ticket page. General admission tickets for the public are $10 in advance, $15 at the door, with proceeds going to the Curator. Ticket registration is available online via the Tix Button on this page, and by phone at (859) 957-3456.
ADA ACCESS & SAFETY PROTOCOLS:
The Garfield is ADA accessible. ADA details and Covid-19 safety information can be found on the CWC Policies Page.
IN-THEATRE TERMS OF PURCHASE:
Acquisition of a ticket confirms acceptance by the recipient that the presenter/host and their staff will not be liable for any loss, damage, action, claim, cost or expenses which may arise in the consequence of attendance at this event.
Ticket holder declares that they will not attend unless in good health on the day of the event. Further, purchaser understands it is impossible to guarantee that they will not be exposed to Covid-19 and will attend at their own risk.
ABOUT THE SERIES & CURATOR
☀ Jurakán: A Film Series The Garfield Theatre
Four consecutive Thursdays, October 6 – 27, 2022
Jurakán is the name given by the Taínos, the indigenous people of the Caribbean, to the god of chaos and discord who controls the often turbulent weather that affects the region. The images and narratives that predominate about the Caribbean today tend to evoke images of the sun, but representations of wind and water are more prevalent in Taíno imagery and remain part of the imagination of the people who live in the region. The word hurricane, derived from Jurakán, refers to storms that form as they enter the Caribbean, unlike other words, like cyclone or monsoon, that describe storms with turbulent winds in other parts of the world.
This film series explores what hurricanes are: their mythological and metaphorical associations; what it is like to experience them sensorially; factual, scientific and practical information about them; as well as artistic/poetic representations of hurricanes in cultural context. It looks at how they signify and resonate in Caribbean societies in multifarious ways. The series consists of four presentations, each with a conversation, question and answer session, and reception following the film. Participants include Mary Leonard and invited guests.
☀ Series Curator: Mary Leonard
Mary Leonard is a full professor in the English Department of the University of Puerto Rico – Mayagüez Campus where she teaches courses in film, media and literature. She is also the founder and director of the university’s film program, the UPRM Film Certificate.
Mary has presented her work at conferences in many countries, published articles in peer-reviewed journals as well as in local publications in Puerto Rico, been invited to lecture and present Puerto Rican films at universities in the U.S. and in Trinidad, and been interviewed numerous times on television and radio programs.
She has organized and directed conferences on visual narration at the University of Puerto Rico (2005 & 2007), and on Caribbean film in the Dominican Republic (2020). She has also produced/coordinated and/or supported the production of numerous films made by students and graduates of the UPRM film program, and other filmmakers since 2007.
Mary is the co-founder and co-host of Caribbean Film Forum, a series of online conversations on topics related to film in the context of the Caribbean (2021 – present). She is also one of the recipients of a National Endowment of the Humanities grant for the 2022 year which will fund the establishment of an Oral History Center at UPRM with a documentary film production component.
LANDFALL (October 6)
☀ Synopsis:
While the devastation of Hurricane María attracted a great deal of media coverage, the world has paid far less attention to the storm that preceded it: a 72-billion-dollar debt crisis crippling Puerto Rico well before the winds and waters hit. Landfall examines the kinship of these two storms — one environmental, the other economic—juxtaposing competing utopian visions of recovery.
The screening of the film will be followed by a question and answer session in which the audience will be able to speak with producer Lale Namerrow via video conference.
☀ Credits:
Director: Cecilia Aldarrondo
Cecilia Aldarondo is a documentary director-producer from the Puerto Rican diaspora who works at the intersection of poetics and politics. Her feature documentarie Memories of a Penitent Heart (2016) and Landfall (2020) premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and were co-produced by the award-winning PBS series POV. Landfall ‘s many awards include the 2020 DOC NYC Film Festival Viewfinders Grand Jury Award for Best Documentary, as well as Cinema Eye and Film Independent Spirit Award nominations. Among Aldarondo’s fellowships and honors are the Guggenheim, a two-time MacDowell Colony Fellowship, the 2021 New America Fellowship, and Women at Sundance 2017. In 2019 she was named to DOC NYC’s 40 Under 40 list and is one of 2015’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film. She teaches at Williams College. Currently, Cecilia is in production on a new film for HBO.
Producer: Lale Namerrow
Lale Namerrow Pastor is a Puerto Rican activist, DJ, and facilitator who integrates political art and organizing to collaborate with social justice organizations in Puerto Rico. Born and raised in San Juan, Namerrow attended New York Film Academy in 2012 and has a BFA in Photography from the University of Puerto Rico.
AFTER MARIA: THE TWO SHORES (October 13)
☀ Synopsis:
The film explores the lives of Puerto Ricans eight months after the passing of Hurricane Maria both on the island and in Orlando, Florida, showing the circumstances that have forced some to leave their homes and others to stay, dividing families.
It captures several community self-management projects around the island such as the Las Carolinas communal kitchen in Caguas, a hydroponics farm in Lares, as well as the “Catharsis” project featuring works by artists at the Museum of the Americas.
It also includes the stories of families who emigrated to Orlando and had to split up after the hurricane: two high school students, a Camuy family, and several family businesses that now provide help from abroad, as well as the important contribution of the diaspora in the reconstruction.
The screening will be followed by a question and answer session in which the audience will be able to speak with director Sonia Fritz via video conference.
☀ Credits:
Director: Sonia Fritz
Sonia Fritz was born and raised in Mexico City, and studied film at the Autonomous University of Mexico. She moved to Puerto Rico in 1985. She has directed fiction films and documentaries from 1983 to the present. Moving between Puerto Rico, Mexico and the United States, major themes in her work are the life-experiences of women in all three countries, and migration. Her films include Myrna Baez, The Mirrors of Silence (1989) about a Puerto Rican painter, Visa for a Dream (1990) about undocumented female Dominican workers in Puerto Rico, Luisa Capetillo, Passion for Justice about a female labor organizer and anarchist in Puerto Rico (1995), A History of the Puerto Rican Community of Lorain (2001) about Puerto Ricans in Lorain, Ohio, and Mariachis with Pants (2019), about a female Latina mariachi band in New York.
CUBA: LIVING BETWEEN HURRICANES (October 20)
☀ Synopsis:
A film about the elements – hurricanes and rain, the sea and the earth. About a fishing port on the north coast of Cuba which has seen better days: Caibarién, where Hurricane Irma – one of the most powerful ever to sweep the Caribbean – made landfall on 17th September
2017.
About the effects of climate across the centuries in a Caribbean island sucked into global markets for its commodity crops – tobacco, coffee and above all, sugar. How sugar changed the landscape, through deforestation and soil exhaustion.
About the growing threat from climate change, and the move towards reforestation, ecotourism and sustainable farming.
Although the story is told against the background of the Cuban Revolution, the rule of the communist state is only the latest stage in the history of an island that has always suffered extreme weather events, of which hurricanes are only the most dramatic. As Cuba’s President, Miguel Díaz-Canel, told a meeting of Caribbean countries in Managua in 2019: “Living between hurricanes has conditioned our lives; it has modified our geographies and spurred our migrations. And it has also educated us in the need to further study the phenomena that await us and work to reverse their damage.” This film takes a step in that direction.
The screening of the film will be followed by a conversation with director Michael Chanan and Producer and Co-Writer Jean Stubbs recorded especially for this event.
☀ Credits:
Director: Michael Chanan
Michael Chanan is a documentary film maker and scholar. His most recent film is Cuba: Living Between Hurricanes (2019). He is currently working on a new book about cultural commodities and creative labour. He has a range of special interests, including Latin American cinema, documentary, the film soundtrack, and the social history of music. In 2000, he was Visiting Professor in the Literature Program at Duke University, USA, and then joined the University of the West of England where he was Professor of Cultural Studies, 2002-2007.
Producer and Co-Writer: Jean Stubbs
Professor Jean Stubbs was founding co-director of the Commodities of Empire project and a founder member of the Commodity Frontiers Initiative; Associate Fellow at the Centre for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS) (School of Advanced Study, University of London), and the Institute for the Americas (University College London); and Professor Emerita of London Metropolitan University, where she directed the Caribbean Studies Centre (2002-2009). Her work on contemporary Cuban migration explores how commodity and nation-branding have shaped the new Cuban diasporic mobilities. Her more recent interest in commodity frontiers and environmental history led her to co-produce the documentary Cuba: Living Between Hurricanes.
CANDELA (October 27)
☀ Synopsis:
The lives of three strangers -A high society girl, a lonely lieutenant and a drag queen cabaret performer- intertwine on the eve of a hurricane following the mysterious death of a young poet and drug dealer.
The screening of the film will be followed by an in person question and answer session with the director of the film, Andrés Farias Cintron, and the writer of the novel it is based on, Rey Andujar.
☀ Credits:
Director: Andrés Farias Cintron
Andrés Farias Cintron is a filmmaker and visual artist from the Dominican Republic. In 2014 he won the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Award for his video installation Honey Pot. In 2015, he was selected for the Emerging Leaders of the Americas Program (ELAP) for his research project on the representation of the Caribbean Women in Film. In 2018 he shot his first feature film Candela, which was supported by the Sundance Institute and La Fabrique des cinémas du Monde of the French Institute, and released in 2021. Candela won the Jury Prize at the Biarritz International Festival of Latin American Film and Best Film at the La Silla Awards in the Dominican Republic. The film is currently being shown in festivals. He is co-founder of Caribe Pop: https://www.caribepop.com.
Writer: Rey Andujar
Rey Andújar (Santo Domingo, 1977) is the author of several novels and short stories, including The Triangle Man and Candela, recently adapted to film by director Andrés Farías Cintrón. His novel Los gestos inútiles received the VI Alba Prize for Latin American and Caribbean Narrative, during the Havana Book Fair in 2015. Andújar writes for film, theater, and academia. He holds a Ph.D. in Caribbean Philosophy and Literature from the Center for Advanced Studies of the Caribbean. He is a professor of Spanish and Latin American Culture at Governors State University in Chicago. He is co-founder of Caribe Pop: https://www.caribepop.com.
DRINKS & DINING
For CWC patrons, B&B offers a 15% discount on your order, excluding alcohol; menu is on the website. Reservations are strongly recommended, especially if you are dining between a CWC double feature. You should present your online confirmation or ticket from the event, and let your server know if there are time constraints. The discount is valid only for the date of ticket.
HOURS: MON-TUE, closed; WED-THS, 4-10 pm; FRI-SAT, 4-12 am; SUN, 4-10 pm. The kitchen closes one hour before the restaurant, every night. Hours and menu subject to change – check the website before booking. RESERVATIONS REQUESTED: 513-954-8974 or thebutcherbarrel.com.