TAMIU's Roadside Cinema: 2002 Spring Film Festival Continues with "Guantanamera" Feb. 21

"Roadside Cinema," Texas A&M International University's Spring Film Festival's trip through road movies, continues with "Guantanamera." The film will be shown Thursday, February 21 at 7 p.m. in Bullock Hall 101. The showing is free and open to the public.

"Guantanamera" (1994), directed by Thomás Gutiérrez Alea and Juan Carlos Tabío, follows a casket and its accompanying funeral procession as they journey through Castro's Cuba to Havana. Self-inflicted bureaucracy hampers the progress and the participants begin to examine their lives for meaning and value.

The film won a Latin America Cinema Award Honorable Mention at the 1996 Sundance Film Festival. Like Strawberry and Chocolate, also directed by Alea and Tabío, the film looks at the details of life to study over-arching themes. Infused with whimsy and generous amounts of humor, a gentle and moving story about love and life's progression emerges.

The film is not rated and will be shown in Spanish with English subtitles.

After the show, there will be 15 to 30 minutes of commentary and questions and answers, led by Dr. Sean M. Chadwell and Dr. William J. Nichols II, both assistant professors in the College of Arts and Humanities, and series creators.

The next film, "Central Station," will be shown on Thursday, February 28. Shown in Portuguese with English subtitles, the festival's road trip continues by train, leaving from Central do Brasil where a letter-writer for the illiterate helps a young boy seek his unknown father in remote Brazil.

For more information on the "Roadside Cinema," 2002 Spring Film Festival, contact either Drs. Chadwell or Nichols by phone, 326.2471, 326.2610, visit offices in the Sue and Radcliffe Killam Library, room 418C, room 421B or visit the festival's website: http://www.tamiu.edu/~wnichols/road.htm.

University office hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to Friday.

Journalists who need additional information or help with media requests and interviews should contact the Office of Public Affairs and Information Services at pais@tamiu.edu