Top Ten Latino Films

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American Girls: A Dominican Story	From PBS (http://www.pbs.org/pov/pov2001/myamericangirls/): In vivid verité detail, MY AMERICAN GIRLS: A DOMINICAN STORY captures the joys and struggles over a year in the lives of the Ortiz family, first generation immigrants from the Dominican Republic. Matthews' film captures the rewards — and costs — of pursuing the American dream. From hard-working parents, who imagine retiring to their rural homeland, to fast-tracking American-born daughters, caught between their parent's values and their own, the film encompasses the contradictions of contemporary immigrant life. A Latino Public Broadcasting (LPB) Co-presentation.
	From Amazon: An Academy Award nominee for Best Documentary Feature, BALSEROS is the heartrending yet triumphant account of seven Cuban refugees--and their families--who risked their lives to venture towards America's shores on homemade rafts. The Village Voice raves that BALSEROS is an "engrossing documentary" with an "extraordinary sense of recording stories as they unfold!" While Presidents Clinton and Fidel Castro argued over the closing of Cuba's coast in the chaotic summer of 1994, nearly 50,000 "balseros" (a slang term for Cuban rafters) set out toward Florida, navigating the shark-infested waters on vessels made of wood, nails, and tar. The television reporting team of Carles Bosch and Josep M. Domènech began filming this remarkable story over those landmark 15 days. Then, as most of the rafters were picked up by the U.S. Coast Guard, Bosch and Domènech continued to follow their lively cast of characters, some of whom were detained for more than a year at the Guantanamo naval base before finally being allowed onto American soil.
La Boda	From PBS (http://www.pbs.org/pov/pov2001/laboda/): iElizabeth is marrying Artemio in Nuevo Leon, Mexico, and you are cordially invited to the wedding. Meet these two young people from the U.S.-Mexican border region, whose lives are framed by the challenges of migrant life. Through Elizabeth, we see a family and community continually on the move, keeping alive their roots in Mexico even as they incorporate American-style dreams and their often harsh realities. In this absorbing film, the wedding becomes a touching evocation of migrant life, girlhood and the enduring strength of family tradition
	From Amazon: "THE CITY (LA CIUDAD), the feature film debut of writer/director David Riker, is a moving tribute to the struggles and hopes of a group of new Latin American immigrants facing the harsh realities of urban America. Reminiscent of THE GRAPES OF WRATH and THE BICYCLE THIEF in its realistic and gritty portrayal, THE CITY delves deep inside this community of newcomers, creating a powerful and incisive drama about the life which they now face in a new and unfamiliar world… A group of men hired to work in an abandoned lot are left stranded in the face of tragedy; A young man arriving from Mexico falls in love with a girl from his home village, only to lose her in the intimidating urban wilderness; A puppeteer living homeless with his daughter dreams that she’ll one day learn to read, but is unable to make his simple dream a reality; and a seamstress, desperate to send money home to help her sick daughter, is trapped working in a sweatshop, eventually rebelling against her employers.
Dying to Live	From http://www.nd.edu/~latino/dyingtolive/: "Dying to Live" is a profound look at the human face of the immigrant. It explores who these people are, why they leave their homes and what they face in their journey. Drawing on the insights of Pulitzer Prize winning photographers, theologians, Church and congressional leaders, activists, musicians and the immigrants themselves, this film exposes the places of conflict, pain and hope along the US-Mexico border. It is a reflection on the human struggle for a more dignified life and the search to find God in the midst of that struggle.
	El Norte. From Amazon: Mayan Indian peasants, tired of being thought of as nothing more than "brazos fuertes" ("strong arms", i.e., manual laborers) and organizing in an effort to improve their lot in life, are discovered by the Guatemalan army. After the army destroys their village and family, a brother and sister, teenagers who just barely escaped the massacre, decide they must flee to "El Norte" ("the North", i.e., the USA). After receiving clandestine help from friends and humorous advice from a veteran immigrant on strategies for traveling through Mexico, they make their way by truck, bus and other means to Los Angeles, where they try to make a new life as young, uneducated, and illegal immigrants.
	From Amazon: Winner of the Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, P.O.V. presents FARMINGVILLE, a provocative, complex, and emotionally charged look into the ongoing nationwide controversy surrounding a suburban community, its ever-expanding population of illegal immigrants, and the shockingly hate-based attempted murders of two Mexican day laborers. In the late 1990s, some 1,500 Mexican workers moved to the leafy, middle-class town of Farmingville, population 15,000. In some ways, it’s a familiar American story: an influx of illegal immigrants crossing the border from Mexico to do work the locals won’t; rising tensions with the Anglo population; charges and counter-charges of lawlessness and racism; protest marches, unity rallies and internet campaigns--then vicious hate crimes that tear the community apart. But this isn’t the story of a California, Texas or other Southwestern city. It’s the endlessly enthralling tale of Farmingville, New York, on Long Island. Sharply and intimately directed by Catherine Tambini and Carlos Sandoval, who moved to Farmingville after the tumultuous clash catapulted the town into national headlines, FARMINGVILLE is an astounding glimpse into an issue that continues to anger, frighten and confuse us.
	5) From www.livesforsale.com: one-hour investigative documentary exposes the painful, rarely seen human side of illegal immigration - including the growing black market trade in human beings.
Maid in America	From PBS (http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/maidinamerica/film.html): MAID IN AMERICA is an intimate, eye-opening look at the lives of las domésticas, as seen through the eyes of Eva, Telma and Judith: three Latina immigrants, each with a very different story, who work as nannies and housekeepers in Los Angeles, California. Filmmakers Anayansi Prado and Kevin Leadingham followed their subjects for several years, and their cameras caught some of the most intimate moments of these women’s lives, both on and off the job.
	Maria Full of Grace. From Amazon: Maria Alvarez (Catalina Sandino), a bright, spirited 17-year old, lives with three generations of her family in a cramped house in rural Colombia. Desperate to leave her job stripping thorns from flowers in a rose plantation, Maria accepts a lucrative offer to transport packets of heroin-which she must swallow-to the United States. The ruthless world of international drug trafficking proves to be more than Maria bargained for as she becomes ultimately entangled with both drug cartels and immigration officials. The dramatic thriller builds toward a conclusion so powerful and revealing it could only be based on a thousand true stories.
	Mojados. From Amazon: Director Tommy Davis tags along with four migrants from a small village in Mexico as they leave their families and embark on a 120 mile trek across the deserts of Texas, attempting to evade the U.S. Border Patrol. They must overcome dehydration, hypothermia and come face to face with death.
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	From Amazon: "Portrait of Artists as Latino Immigrants" is a documentary that features the stories and art of four Latinos who live throughout California. These artists are in different stages of their immigration process, through their unique stories we will find a tale that is common to every immigrant; through their art, we will be able to recognize different moments in the transition from immigrant to American.
	From Amazon: One of the most acclaimed films of 2005, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada marks the assured and worldly-wise directorial debut of veteran actor Tommy Lee Jones. While the majority of critics and Oscar®-voters heaped praise upon the "gay cowboy" breakthrough of Brokeback Mountain, Jones delivered this equally resonant, elegiac study of male friendship in a Western setting, crafting a flawless parable of borderline existence on the border of Texas and Mexico. It is there, amidst some of the most beautifully bleak landscapes in recent American film, that Jones and screenwriter Guillermo Arriga (Amores Perros, 21 Grams) set their existential quest for meaning, focusing on the honor-bound commitment of Texas ranch foreman Pete (played by Jones with a heavy heart and deep moral conviction) to return the body of illegal Mexican immigrant ranch-hand Melquiades Estrada (played in flashback scenes by Julio Cedillo) to his preferred resting place in the Mexican wilderness.
Walking the Line	From www.WalkingtheLineFilm.com: Walking the Line offers a harrowing view of the chaos, absurdity, and senseless deaths along the U.S. Mexico border through private citizens who are taking the law into their own hands.