Film Studies @ Webster University Libraries

Recounts the true story of a young Catholic socialite from Buenos Aires, Camila O'Gorman, who falls in love and runs away with a young Jesuit priest, Ladislao Gutierrez, in 1847.

A sophisticated world traveler retires to a small town and is drawn to a much younger woman. But, because she is a dwarf, she has been sheltered by her overprotective mother from the realities of life.

Based on the true story of Ernesto Guevara and Alberto Granado, whose thrilling and dangerous road trip across Latin America becomes a life-changing journey of self-discovery. These travel diaries capture the essence and exuberance of the young legend, Che Guevara. In January 1952, Che set out from Buenos Aires to explore South America. He encounters an extraordinary range of people, from native Indians to copper miners, lepers and tourists.

Espinoza is a taxidermist marked with strange qualities--a photographic memory and fits of epilepsy. To escape his lonely everyday life, he spends his time lost in fantasy about the perfect heist. When a fatal hunting accident presents a golden opportunity, he takes the chance. But living in a world of real violence might bring a lethal dose of reality to Espinoza--and the beautiful young woman he's brought into his plan. Now he must decide if criminal perfection is worth the ultimate price.

Rafael is a 42-year-old divorced father and restaurant owner who is overwhelmed with life. He feels guilty that he doesn't visit his mother, who is stricken with Alzheimer's disease; he lives in his father's shadow; he doesn't spend enough time with his daughter and he can't commit to his girlfriend. When a series of unexpected events occurs, Rafael re-evaluates his life.

The story of Benjamin Ortalora and the Uruguayan civil war at the end of the nineteenth century.

Mecha is a middle-aged woman with several bored teenagers, a husband who dyes his hair, and the tedious problem of sullen servants: nothing a few drinks can't cure. Before long, the restlessness of domesticity strains both families' nerves, exposing secrets and threatening to erupt into violence.

The wife of an Argentinian businessman faces the ultimate challenge when she begins to suspect that her own daughter, adopted at birth, may have been stolen from a family of "los desaparecidos."

A writer going though an emotional crisis decides to research the work of an Argentinean photographer. Uncovering a passionate love story between her subject and a prostitute, she unearths hidden feelings of her own.

Friendship develops between enemies when a Chilean army patrol lost within the Argentine border comes upon an Argentine army patrol in the same predicament.

This film portrays life in pre-Peronist Argentina through the eyes of a British nanny who is hired to care for the three children of an aristocratic landowner. Spanning the years from 1938 to 1945, the year of Peron's presidential election, the story looks at a country that is struggling for a sense of identity and a society that treats women as the property of men.

A political difference erupts into a civil war in a small town in Argentina as Peronists clash with leftists in 1974. The film begins with slapstick-like violence that grows into deadly confrontations by the end of the film.

The dramatic story of a 15-year-old hermaphrodite whose parents moved from Buenos Aires to an isolated cabin outside of Piriápolis, Uruguay, to protect their child from prejudice.

Julia, a university student stands up Carlos at a Rio movie theater. Fifteen years later, the would-be lovers bump into each other. The story follows three different scenarios of what happened in Carlos' life in those fifteen years. Only one scenario really happened. Which is his true life?

In the State of Bahia, a Brazilian coastal region, an educated black man, Firmino, returns to his home fishing village to try and free people from mysticism, in particular the Candomblé religion, which he considers a factor of political and social oppression.

A woman and her mother find themselves stranded on the northern sandy coast of Brazil and spend almost 60 years trying to leave it. Follows three generations of the woman's family as they all try and find happiness on a lagoon surrounded by shifting dunes.

A tale of how crime affects the poor population of Rio de Janeiro. The main focus is on Cabeleira who formed a gang called the Tender Trio. He and his best friend, Bene, become crime lords over the course of a decade. When Bene is killed before he can retire, Little Ze attempts to take out his arch enemy, Sando Cenoura. But Sando begins a gang war with Little Ze. Amateur photographer Buscape, who comically learns that he's not cut out to be a hoodlum, takes pictures of the brutal crime war.

Follows the lives of Acerola and Laranjinha growing up poor in Brazil. Contains all four seasons.

The story of the rough, intertwined lives of a handful of domestics in Sao Paulo and their poignant struggle against the challenges of the huge metropolis, and the difficult balancing of work, family, and different interpersonal relationships.

A beautiful young woman marries a very erotic man who is a horrible husband. When he unexpectedly dies, she marries again, but misses the passion of her first marriage...until the ghost of her first husband comes to find her.

Darlene longs for love, family and passion. She leaves her small rural town to find the one man that can fulfill all of her desires. One child, still single and three years later, Darlene, comes back home.

Documents how former drug-trafficker Anderson Sa, and Jose Junior's Grupo Cultural AfroReggae are working to unite a Rio slum, or favela, against a violent drug industry and police oppression. The Grupo Cultural AfroReggae organization uses music as an instrument of change, to offer an alternative to the drug lords as role models for the children of the favela, and Sa is the lead vocalist for their band, AfroReggae.

An award-winning examination of the tragic series of events that followed a bus hijacking in Rio de Janeiro in 2000 that turned deadly when a SWAT team took evasive action against the drug-addled hijacker.

In Carioca Hill, a dangerous slum in Rio de Janiro, Orfeu, a charismatic and beloved samba musician, leads his school each year in the Carnaval parade, refusing to abandon the slums where he was raised. When Orfeu falls in love with Euridice, an Indian girl visiting her aunt in Carioca Hill, he arouses the jealousy of his fiery mistress, forgotten lovers and childhood friend Lucinho, the community's brooding drug lord.

A realistic dramatization of the brutal underworld inhabited by Brazil's unwanted children.

In 17th century Brazil groups of runaway black slaves escaped to mountainous jungle strongholds, where they formed self-governing communities known as quilombos. This film chronicles the most famous, the Palmares, and their legendary chieftain Ganga Zumba.

A story of the BOPE, a SWAT-like team at war with the drug lords of Rio de Janeiro. Racing against time, its hard-driving captain puts a pair of rookies through hell in an effort to shape a worthy successor and clear out a drug-infested slum before his imminent retirement.

An actor on a historical soap opera becomes convinced that he is the man he portrays on television: South American revolutionary Simon Bolívar.

An older writer, Fernando, returns to his hometown, Medellin, Colombia. There he falls in love with 16-year-old assassin, Alexis. After Alexis is killed, Fernando hunts for his killer in the Medellin slums and falls in love with Wilmar, a boy who resembles Alexis.

Maria, a poor Colombian teenager, is desperate to leave a soul-crushing job. She accepts an offer to transport packets of heroin -- which she swallows -- to the United States. The ruthless world of drug trafficking proves to be more than for which she bargained.

The leading characters live life to its fullest, propelling themselves over and over against an uncertain fate, searching for a way out of the barrio. The harsh reality of the barrio contests them, but they never lose the hope of a better future.

Ruy and Tito, two young Cubans, share a similar dream - to become music stars. Their families and the same circle of friends keep them grounded and motivated. But their lives will be transformed by an offer to record an album and perform abroad, tensions rise and relationships are changed.

Set during three periods in Cuban history, the film portrays three different Lucias, emphasizing each Lucia's role as a woman in the social milieu of the period.

The destinies of three women cross to weave a story as fragile as their lives amid communism. Their situations and protagonists move restlessly from dance to quarrel, from cries to music, from comedy to seriousness hoping that tomorrow will be a better day.

A simple day in the life of ten ordinary people of Havana. There are only images, sound, and music to express the everyday events of reality. Each of the characters represents the diversity of the social groups found in the city. The people filmed include a 79-year-old woman who sells peanuts, a hospital employee who becomes a transvestite cabaret dancer by night, a doctor who doubles as a clown after work, a railway repairman who plays the sax in an Adventist chapel, and a 10-year-old boy with

Three different people are catapulted into dramatic and unforeseen circumstances in the wake of a terrible car crash. Editing techniques juxtapose the lives of a young punk who stumbles into the sinister underground world of dog fighting, an injured supermodel's designer pooch which disappears into the apartment's floorboards, and an ex-radical turned hit man who rescues a Rotweiler with a gunshot wound.

A young couple is blocked from marrying by the demands of the young woman's cold and selfish mother. To be near his love, the young man marries her sister, and she expresses her passion for him through her cooking.

Supernatural horror film in which a 16th-century alchemist perfects an invention (the Cronos device) that gives him the key to eternal life. Centuries later, an antique dealer finds the machine and becomes obsessed with its incredible powers.

The story of Esmeralda, a nurse who is happily married to five husbands. As Esmeralda is about to marry husband number six, she is charged with bigamy. During her interrogation and detention, she reveals her spellbinding charm.

A recently ordained priest is sent to a small parish church in rural Mexico to help an aging priest. Upon arriving at his new post, he meets a beautiful young woman with a religious passion that borders on obsession. Quickly her passion for her faith becomes entangled in a growing attraction to the new priest. When the priest crosses the line that separates temptation from sin, he finds himself torn between the devine and the carnal, the righteous and the unjust.

Set in 1944 Spain, against the backdrop of the anti-Franco guerrilla warfare. A young girl goes to live with her mother and her new stepfather on a rural military outpost. Following her discovery of a labyrinth and the local group of resistance fighters, she is involved in a series of strange encounters.

The first part of the film follows El Topo, a gunfighter and his seven year old son on their journey across the desert as they come upon a massacre and hunt down the killers. The second part shows the death of El Topo, and the birth of his new son.

Pessimistic and unrelenting depiction of the futility in the lives of abandoned children in Mexico City's slums based on real cases from the files of a reformatory. The film focuses on the bond of power and duplicity between two young boys: Jaibo, a hardened murderer, and Pedro, an innocent drawn into a life of crime by the cruelty of his environment.

"A woman's search for her missing husband ignites a dangerous and unexpectedly romantic adventure. It's a wild ride through the mysterious territory of identity, as Lucia finds herself in a triangle of love and friendship with a reawakened passion for life that's different from anything she ever imagined"--Container back cover.

Set in 1909, Maria is an outcast in her small Mexican village because of her late mother's immoral behavior. Shunned and outcast, forbidden to earn a living, she lives a solitary life. Their poverty and misery are exploited by the local farm lord and a well-to-do city artist who sees in her face the perfect woman whom he wishes to paint. This leads everyone into tragedy.

After facing defeat at the hands of Cristaldi the magician, Dracula is back to seek revenge and rule the world. With the help of the Wolfman and his legion of followers, victory seems eminent. Professor Cristaldi, a descendant of the magician, is warned about Dracula's plans and calls upon Santo and Blue Demon in the hopes that they can put the infamous count and the werewolf down for good."--Container.

Over 350 young women were kidnapped, raped and murdered from the city of Juarez, Mexico. The perpetrators of these crimes have not been apprehended, even though the crimes have been occurring regularly since 1993.

Rich teenagers Tenoch and Julio meet older woman Luisa at a wedding. Trying to impress her, they tell her they are headed on a road trip to a beach called Boca del Cielo (Heaven's Mouth). Luisa asks if she can join them on their trip and soon the three are headed out of Mexico City. Luisa seduces the two young men, and they begin to argue over her. As they continue their journey, caught up in their own world, the wealthy trio all but ignore the harsh realities of poverty that surround them.

Fausta suffers from 'The Milk of Sorrow, ' an illness transmitted through mother's milk by women who've been raped during Peru's civil wars. Stricken with the fear that she's contracted the illness from her mother's breast milk, Fausta goes to extreme lengths to protect her own sexuality and safety. After her mother's sudden death, she finds herself compelled to embark on a frightening journey for re-awakening, freedom, and wholeness.

Three separate stories about love in Puerto Rico. A man accidentally reveals his brother's extra-marital affair to his sister-in-law. The next story revolves around a man whose love for a bus driver drives him to take her and the bus passengers hostage until she consents to marriage. In the final story, an elderly woman is convinced to care for her terminally-ill ex-husband to the chagrin of her present husband.

Lonely Jacobo Koller is the owner of a struggling sock company. His brother is coming to visit, and he doesn't want him to know that he isn't married, so he asks Marta to pretend that she is his wife and, surprisingly, she says yes.