Theatre & Dance

Language: Mandarin Chinese
Summary: This is a documentary that chronicles artist and activist Ai Weiwei as he prepares for a series of exhibitions and gets into an increasing number of clashes with the Chinese government. Follows Ai "from the close of the 2008 Beijing Olympics (for which he helped design the acclaimed 'Bird's Nest' stadium) to his arrest and 81-day detention in 2011" (container).

Language: Italian
Summary: An American naval officer falls in love with a Japanese geisha girl known as Butterfly and marries her, with no intention of ever taking her home to America.

Language: Russian
Summary: King Lear of Britain, in his declining years, decides to abdicate the throne and divide the country between his three daughters, but not equally, but according to the degree of love the daughters have for their father. The eldest daughters - Goneril and Regan - hypocritically flatter the king in order to get a larger share of the kingdom, while Cordelia, Lear's youngest daughter, refuses to flatter, saying that her love is higher than this. An angry father disowns his youngest daughter and divides the kingdom between his eldest and middle daughters, unleashing a conspiracy of greed and cruelty and causing tragic consequences for everyone.

Language: Japanese
Summary: In 16th century Japan, an aging ruler attempts to divide his kingdom among his three sons. They turn against each other and betray their father, triggering events that ultimately shatter the kingdom, destroy the family, and drive their father insane. Based on Shakespeare's King Lear.

A wealthy industrialist is found murdered in his home while his family gathers for the holiday season. The house is isolated and the phone lines have been found to be cut. Eight people are his potential murderers. Each is a suspect and each has a motive. Only one is guilty.

A small-time criminal kills a police officer, setting in motion a tragic series of events for both himself and his American girlfriend.Tells the story of Michel, a handsome young criminal, who is on the run after stealing a car and killing a policeman. He hides out in the Paris apartment of his American girlfriend and together they dodge the police, make love and steal cars to finance a trip to Italy. As the police net tightens, Michel becomes more desperate and his girlfriend commits the ultimate act of betrayal.

Based on the director's life, this film chronicles Malle's experiences during the German occupation of France in World War II. Julien (Malle) is 12 years old, and the smartest boy in his class at boarding school when a new student appears. The two form a friendship even though Julien senses that there is something different about his new friend.

"Philippe Abrams is a post office manager in the South of France. He is married to Julie, a difficult woman who makes his life miserable. To please her, he tries to cheat his way into a job transfer to the French Riviera. Busted, he is instead sent to Bergues, France's northernmost city."

"Cyrano, a master swordsman and poet, feels he cannot woo his beloved Roxane due to an unfortunate physical flaw: his grotesquely large nose. Resigning himself to helping another suitor, the dashing yet tongue-tied Christian, Cyrano uses his mastery of words to win Roxane for him. But when Roxane finds that she has fallen for Christian's mind - and not for his beauty - which of her two suitors will finally possess her heart?"--Container

Explores the preeminent theorist of the twentieth century anti-colonial movements, a man whom Jean-Paul Sartre recognized as the figure "through whose voice the Third World finds and speaks for itself." Issac Julien, the celebrated black British director of such provocative films as looking for Langston and Young Soul Rebels, integrates the facts of Fanon's brief but eventful life with his long and tortuous inner journey, restoring Fanon to his rightful place at the center of contemporary discussions around post-colonial identity.

"Zouina is a woman who is torn from her home in Algeria. With her 3 children and her mother-in-law, she rejoins her husband in a foreign, unaccommodating land." --IMDb

The tale of a 1943 WW II French Algerian Unit facing discrimination by its European counterparts due to prejudice and ignorance. The French armed forces are preparing to land troops in Europe to win back their homeland from the Axis Powers, but they cannot accomplish their task without recruiting men from their African colonies. The Africans themselves start their long journey full of hope and anticipation, but as they get closer to their goal they realize that their enemy is not necessarily the Germans.

Two films on one disc. Jean de Florette: A man inherits a farm from his mother, but his powerful neighbor plots to steal it from him. Manon of the Spring: 10 years after his death, Jean's daughter finds out about their neighbor's treachery, and determines to take revenge.

"The story of a young girl orphaned by war and the farm boy she joins in a fantastical world of macabre play" -- Container.

Loosely based on true episodes, this film tells the story of German, French, and Scottish soldiers in the bloody trenches of World War I and the miraculous Christmas Eve truce they unexpectedly forge. Follows a French lieutenant, a Scottish priest, and a German tenor and his beloved Danish soprano as music and the spirit of Christmas create bonds between enemies.

Dramatizes the harrowing events of 1957, a key year in Algeria's struggle for independence from France. Recreates the tumultuous Algerian uprising against the occupying French in the 1950s. As violence escalates on both sides, the French torture prisoners for information and the Algerians resort to terrorism in their quest for independence. Children shoot soldiers at point-blank range, people plant bombs in cafés. The French win the battle, but ultimately lose the war as the Algerian people demonstrate that they will no longer be suppressed.

An enchanting countryside comedy about the marital woes of a sweetly deluded baker that snowball into a scandal that engulfs the entire town.

In this classic tale of adventure, duty and honor conflict in a German prisoner-of-war camp when an aristocratic French officer becomes friends with the commandant while cooperating with his comrades in a daring escape.

St. Marie-La-Mauderne is a tiny fishing village. For eight years the locals have stood in line for weekly welfare checks, remembering the good old days when the catch was good. A small company wants to build a factory on the island, but only if a full-time doctor lives in St. Marie. The situation seems hopeless until a young doctor in Montreal has an unfortunate incident with a traffic cop and finds himself on a boat to the faraway village. In order to convince Dr. Lewis to stay, the town resorts to just a bit of seductive subterfuge.

A small fishing village must procure a local doctor to secure a lucrative business contract. When unlikely candidate and big city doctor Paul Lewis lands in their lap for a trial residence, the townsfolk rally together to charm him into staying. As the doctor's time in the village winds to a close, acting mayor Murray French has no choice but to pull out all the stops and begin The Grand Seduction.

Three young, unemployed Frenchmen living in the ghettos surrounding Paris get embroiled in a violent conflict with the local police.

A young Senegalese woman moves to France to work for a wealthy white couple and finds that life in their small apartment becomes a prison, both figuratively and literally, into a complexly layered critique of the lingering colonialist mindset of a supposedly postcolonial world.

A comedy drama set on the eve of World War II. It contrasts the affairs of the French aristocracy and the working class at a weekend house party. Masters and their servants are involved in an immoral erotic charade that builds to a shattering climax.

Chronicling the trial of Joan of Arc in the days leading up to her execution, Danish master Carl Theodor Dreyer depicts her torment with startling immediacy, employing an array of techniques, including expressionistic lighting, interconnected sets, and painfully intimate close-ups, to immerse viewers in her subjective experience.

Paris, 1942. Lucas Steiner is a Jew who feels compelled to leave the country in order to survive the German occupation during WWII. His wife Marion is an actress and a member of the Resistance who goes on to direct the theater for him. She tries to keep the theater alive by rehearsing a new play. She hires Bernard Granger for the leading role. The troupe believes that the show must go on no matter the circumstances. But Lucas never left the country, he is actually hiding in the basement.

Down a foggy, desolate road to the port city of Le Havre travels Jean, an army deserter looking for another chance to make good in life. Fate, however, has a different plan for him, as both acts of revenge and kindness render him front-page news.

"In a squalid South American oil town, four desperate men sign on for a suicide mission to drive trucks loaded with nitroglycerin over a treacherous mountain route. As they ferry their explosive cargo to a faraway oil fire, each bump and jolt tests their courage, their friendship, and their nerves"--Container.

Paris, 1960. Jean-Louis lives a bourgeois existence with his neurotic socialite wife Suzanne while their children are away at boarding school. The couple's world is turned upside down when they hire Maria, a Spanish maid who introduces Jean-Louis to an alternative reality a few stories up on the sixth floor. He befriends a group of sassy Spanish maids, and they teach him there's more to life than stocks and bonds, and their influence on the house ultimately transforms everyone's life.

Fourteen-year-old Antoine Doinet lives in a cramped apartment with his mother and stepfather, neglected by them and unlucky at school. Living an intense imaginative life of his own he gets into trouble and is finally committed to reform school from which he escapes and runs towards the sea, which he has never seen.

Tati portrays the endearingly eccentric character, Hulot, whose presence at a very proper French seaside resort provokes one outrageous catastrophe after another.

Dramatizes the life of Congolese revolutionary, Patrice Lumumba, who lead his country to independence from Belgium in 1960. He served for less than a year as the first elected prime minister, until he was brutally assassinated.

"A devout Catholic man's rigid principles are challenged during a one-night stay with Maud, a divorced woman with an outsize personality." --IMDb

Molière is a down-and-out actor and playwright who is up to his ears in debt. The wealthy Jourdain offers to cover that debt so that Molière's theatrical talents might help Jourdain win the heart of a certain widowed marquise. Disguised as a priest, Molière becomes a guest in Jourdain's palace on the subtext of teaching Jourdain the craft of the stage, all this to the annoyance of Jourdain's wife, Elmire. But, soon after, the confrontation between Elmire and Molière turns seductive. Jourdain enlists the aid of a well-connected and scheming acquaintance to help him pursue the widowed marquise.

A pair of beautiful French cousins spending the end of their summer on the Atlantic coast of France, and it isn't long before three eligible men attempt to entice them both into romance.

"Based on an exchange of dreams between Salvador Dali and acclaimed director Luis Buñuel, this tale of unfulfilled desire opens innocently with the words 'Once upon a time.' What follows is one of the most shocking and celebrated sequences in film history--a razor slashing a woman's eye in extreme close-up-- Intended to provoke rather than please ..., Un chien andalou is a triumph of art and a hysterically dark joy ride whose power to confront the viewer is undiminished"--Container.

A 17-year-old Kurdish refugee, Bilal, has struggled his way through Europe in an attempt to reunite with his girlfriend, who has emigrated to England. When he is stopped in France, he decides to swim the English Channel to complete his journey. While training at a local swimming pool he meets Simon, a middle-aged swim instructor, who agrees to help Bilal, in order to regain the affection of his wife.

Based partially on the life of General Maximino Avila Camacho, brother of the Mexican president Manuel Avila Camacho. He was governor of Puebla from 1937 to 1941 and served as secretary of public works in his brother's Cabinet. He was infamous for being ruthless, arrogant and violent with his political enemies.

"A middle-aged French couple moves to a local village, seeking closeness with nature where their presence inflames two locals to the point of outright hostility and shocking violence"--IMDb.

On his first day on the job, prison officer Juan Olivier is knocked unconscious in a freak accident and his co-workers carry him to an empty cell. When he awakens, Juan discovers that he has been abandoned in the middle of a riot in a high-security cellblock, home to the prison's most dangerous criminals. If they discover he's a guard, he's dead meat. To survive, Juan must pose as a prisoner and conspire with the riot's vicious leader, Malamadre.

An Aymara Indian coca leaf grower named Evo Morales travels through the Andes and Amazon in jeans and sneakers, leading a historic bid to become Bolivia's first indigenous president in 2006. The filmmakers capture the intimate moments and Morales' rise to power.

Despite his family's generations-old ban on music, Miguel dreams of becoming an accomplished musician like his idol, Ernesto de la Cruz. Desperate to prove his talent, Miguel finds himself in the stunning and colorful Land of the Dead following a mysterious chain of events. Along the way, he meets charming trickster Hector, and together, they set off on an extraordinary journey to unlock the real story behind Miguel's family history.

"Academy Award Winner Javier Bardem stars as Blanco, proprietor of Básculas Blanco, a Spanish company producing industrial scales in a provincial Spanish town, which awaits the imminent visit from a committee that will decide if they merit a local Business Excellence award: everything has to be perfect when the time comes. Working against the clock, Blanco pulls out all the stops to address and resolve issues with his employees, crossing every imaginable line in the process." --Container.

No longer a family, and trying to survive in a war torn South American country, a young brother and sister, fuelled by dreams, head to "the north" in search of freedom, happiness and a free life in America.

A twelve-year-old Spanish-American girl from New York travels with her mother to Spain.

In the small town of Santa Eulalia in Spain, the single men host a party to meet singles originally from other towns and countries, who arrive on a bus. In this comic situation, the singles of differing backgrounds mingle, hoping to find love.

Lucia returns to her hometown that is changed by a wave of immigration. While fighting the community's racism towards the new illegal workers, she falls in love with Curro, a man who shares her cause. The couple is forced to confront the town's racism and tensions soon come to a head.

In this romantic comedy, Yoyita, a world-famous diva, returns to her home town of Guantanamo for an elegant reception and a surprise reunion with her once beloved, Candido. Overjoyed with the rekindled memories of her first love, Yoyita's elated heart fizzles while in Candido's embrace. Joining Yoyita's funeral procession back to Havana are her sexy niece Gina, a former professor blacklisted for political nonconformity, and her husband Adolfo, a tasteless government official in charge of the funeral proceedings. As the cortege wends westward across Cuba, its path keeps crossing that of Mariano, a gallant truck driver who once had a crush on Gina and whose recurring presence crystallizes her doubts about her marriage.

"This fact-based film examines the life of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (Assumpta Serna), a Roman Catholic nun from Mexico City who, in the midst of the Spanish Inquisition, established herself as an important New World philosopher, poet, playwright and early feminist. When Sor Juana comes under the scrutiny of a vicious archbishop (Lautaro Murúa) for her unconventional ways, she must appeal to a powerful political connection -- the Viceroy's scholarly wife."--IMDB

Roberto once had a promising career in advertising. Now out of work because of the economic downturn, he struggles to keep his family afloat and their dire situation a secret from his adoring wife Luisa. After yet another dead end interview, Roberto's chances for a promising future seem slim, until a freak accident places him at the center of a wild media storm. Realizing his opportunity, Roberto hires a brazen agent to help him leverage his newfound fame into fortune.

A young man returns to the family homestead after having been away for a few years. A drama of crime and horror ensues.

An Argentine teacher lives in blissful ignorance of the evils perpetrated by her country's government. Over time, she begins to suspect that her adopted daughter may have been the child of a murdered political prisoner. When she attempts to unearth the truth, her investigation reveals levels of political corruption so abhorrent that the illusions of her past life are irrevocably shattered.

Moncho begins school at eight years of age. Don Gregorio, his teacher, becomes his tutor and teaches him the beauty of life, but this understanding will be tested when civil war begins.

Mexico, 1521. The Spanish army of Hernando Cortés has swept through the New World forcing their religious beliefs on the brave Aztec people. A skillful Aztec scribe, who survived the Massacre of the Temple in 1520, spends years trying to preserve the rites and customs of his people. The Spanish army would conquer their land, but not the soul of the Aztec people.

Based on a 1962 novel, the film offers a vision of recent Spanish history through the eyes of a woman, beginning in the year 1928 with a major celebration in the Gracia barrio of Barcelona, and ending in the post-war period. Natalia, nicknamed "Dove" (Colometa), lives through an incredibly difficult time in Spanish history and is transformed in her sense of self-identity.

Latino Americans chronicles the rich and varied history and experiences of Latinos, who have for the past 500-plus years helped shape what is today the United States. It is a story of people, politics, and culture, intersecting with much that is central to the history of the United States while also going to places where standard U.S. histories do not tend to tread.

An elderly physician who trains young people to provide health care to the poor people of an agricultural country finds out that many of his former students are being killed by guerillas. He travels to a mountainous area of the country to find out why these men with guns are killing anyone they want.

Based partially on the life of General Maximino Avila Camacho, brother of the Mexican president Manuel Avila Camacho. He was governor of Puebla from 1937 to 1941 and served as secretary of public works in his brother's Cabinet. He was infamous for being ruthless, arrogant and violent with his political enemies.

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 she bargained for.

Blends rare archival footage of the events and personalities of the Mexican revolution of 1910-1917 with contemporary documentary scenes to present a comprehensive sociohistorical analysis of Mexico. The film discusses the economic problems Mexico has had to deal with as a result of the government's failure to live up to the promises of the revolution.

Filmed over the course of ten days, this follows four men into the world of illegal border-crossing from Mexico to the United States. Guapo, Oso, Tigre, Viejo take the 120 mile cross-desert journey that has been traveled innumerable times by nameless immigrants who - like these four from Michoacan, Mexico - all had a simple dream for a better life. Fighting dehydration and exhaustion while evading the U.S. Border Patrol through sub-zero temperature darkness of night, filled with barbed wire, brutal storms and the ever-present confrontation with death, they endure unimaginable hardship that is the reality for tens of thousands of illegals who have made this similar journey.

In this documentary, a private investigator in Chile hires an older gentleman to work as a mole at a retirement home where a client of his suspects the caretakers of elder abuse.

An inspector hunts down Nobel Prize-winning Chilean poet, Pablo Neruda, who becomes a fugitive in his home country in the late 1940s for joining the Communist Party.

Based on the true story of a marketing campaign that sparked a revolution. In 1988, Chilean military dictator Augusto Pinochet, facing international pressure, calls for a referendum on his presidency. Opposition leaders of the NO vote persuade a brash young advertising executive, René Saavedra (Gael García Bernal), to spearhead their campaign. With scant resources and constant scrutiny by the despot’s watchmen, Saavedra and his team devise an audacious plan to win the election and free their country from oppression.

A fun story for all ages set in New York. Laugh watching Balbuena, good-natured immigrant from the Dominican Republic, discover that the American Dream is a funny nightmare.

Blue-ray Disc. Following a bloody civil war, young Ofelia enters a world of unimaginable cruelty when she moves in with her new stepfather, a tyrannical military officer. Armed with only her imagination, Ofelia discovers a mysterious labyrinth and meets a faun who sets her on a path to saving herself and her ailing mother. But soon, the lines between fantasy and reality begin to blur, and before Ofelia can turn back, she finds herself at the center of a ferocious battle between Good and Evil.

A nine-year-old boy's preening obsession with straightening his hair elicits a tidal wave of homophobic panic in his hard-working mother.

Test your Spanish language level with the audio recordings and printable PDF Spanish language tests on these CDs.

"In Mexico City's upscale Colonia Roma district, a quiet but swift change is on its way. Pivoting around Dr Antonio's middle-bourgeoisie family, the lives of two women--the devoted live-in maid and housekeeper of Mixteco heritage, Cleo, and her academic employer, Sofía--become inextricably intertwined, as a seemingly ordinary business trip to Quebec paves the way for a bitter heartbreak. Over a span of one long year--from the quadrennial 1970s World Cup to the blood-drenched Corpus Christi Massacre--the unforeseen and sometimes unbearable complications of love; a new life amid death, and an almost stubborn will to find good in evil, pepper Sofía and Cleo's daily routines. And before irrevocable transformations and startling revelations, life always finds a way."--IMDb.

Idealistic filmmaker Sebastian and his cynical producer Costa arrive in Bolivia to make a revisionist film about Christopher Columbus' conquest of the Americas. But as filming commences, the local citizens begin to riot in protest against a multi-national corporation that is taking control of their water supply. With the film shoot in jeopardy, both men find their convictions shaken.

Pilar leaves her abusive husband, Antonio, during the middle of winter in Toledo, Spain. She and her son, Juan, go to live with her sister Ana. While supportive, Ana doesn't fully understand Pilar's situation. Pilar's mother, Aurora refuses to acknowledge the problem. Antonio is desperate to win back Pilar. He sends her constant presents and even attends therapy sessions in order to work through his anger. Meanwhile, Pilar gets a job at an art museum and tries to restart her life.

Josu, a young member of a terrorist organization, has suffered an almost complete memory loss after being wounded in a fight with the police. Francesca, a young psychologist, helps Josu recover his memory. As a feeling of mutual affection grows between her and her patient, it becomes unclear whether Josu really wants to recover his memory or would rather forget who he actually is.

In war torn 1980's El Salvador, Chava, an eleven-year-old boy, suddenly becomes the 'man of the house' in a time when the government's army is forcibly recruiting children for civil war. As his single mother fights to protect her children, their village becomes both playground and battlefield. This is about life, love, the hope of peace, and the ennobling power of the human spirit. Based on the true story of screenwriter Oscar Torres's embattled childhood.