(Posted September 15, 2017)

Gael Garcia Bernal in an image taken from "Neruda"
Courtesy: Pragda
Gael Garcia Bernal in an image taken from "Neruda"
Courtesy: Pragda

Huntingdon, Pa. – Starting Monday, September 18, 2017, Juniata College will host a screening of five Film Festival movies in Spanish with English subtitles. Screenings will be held in Alumni Hall, Brumbaugh Academic Center, and will take place on Sept. 18, October 2, 16 and 30 as well as November 13. Each film starts at 7 p.m. and is free and open to the public.

“All films are recent releases and only one is available through Netflix,” says Henry Thurston-Griswold, a professor of Spanish who is organizing the film screenings. “We hope to get students and community members interested in Hispanic cultures. From beauty contests in Venezuela to politics in Chile, I hope that the stories these movies tell will help viewers look beyond stereotypes and provide perspective.” 

The first movie in the series is 3 Beauties (3 Bellezas), a scathing satire of Venezuela’s fixation with beauty and its relation to social status. The Empty Classroom (El aula vacía), which will screen on Oct. 2, explores the dropout crisis in Latin America, where nearly half of all young people never finish high school. 

On Oct. 16, attendees can screen The Companion (El acompañante), which narrates the unlikely friendship between a boxing champion and a conflictive HIV patient in Cuba during the late 1980s, a time when the Cuban government dispatched HIV patients to AIDS centers under military control. The Facilitator (El facilitador), a political thriller about human rights in Ecuador, will screen October 30. 

The series will conclude with a showing of Neruda on Nov. 13. Set in Chile during the Cold War, this film tells the story of impeached senator and world-renowned poet Pablo Neruda and his struggle with his nemesis, a cat-and-mouse game that empowers Neruda to reinvent himself. 

"We hope to get students and community members interested in Hispanic cultures. From beauty contests in Venezuela to politics in Chile, I hope that the stories these movies tell will help viewers look beyond stereotypes and provide perspective." -Henry Thurston-Griswold, professor of Spanish

The Spanish Film Club series is made possible with the support of Pragda, The Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports of Spain, and SPAIN arts & culture. The event is being co-sponsored by Juniata’s World Languages & Cultures and International Studies Departments, as well as the Baker Institute for Peace and Conflict Study, the Center for International Education, and the Office of the Provost. 

Contact April Feagley at feaglea@juniata.edu or (814) 641-3131 for more information.